cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   dababwi
   Member

   Hello,

   I am fresh new to Cocos2d/iphone programming. I was wondering if the following was possible with cocos2d framework.

   Create custom 2d map (view from sky, looking down) with roads and a vehicle that the user controls with the finger. If the vehicle goes off the road, game over.

   Pretty simple concept. Its not exactly the game that I will be making, but the fundamental is very close. No collision control necessary.

   Basically need an efficient way to create AND manage the roads for each level (hoping to have 50 different levels).

   IS this possible on cocos2d ??

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   sunsu
   Member

   Almost any 2d game you can think of is possible with Cocos2d-iPhone!

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   Steve Oldmeadow
   Administrator

   I agree with sunsu. Any 2d game that is possible on an iPhone will benefit from using cocos2d. However, it sounds like you think cocos2d is a bit higher level than it is. There is nothing like a level editor or a level format, you have to roll those yourself. The closest thing you will get is TileMapAtlas and a tile map editor.

   So, cocos2d will help you a lot with your game but you are still going to have to solve the problem of creating and managing the road/level data.

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   dababwi
   Member

   So I should probably look into TileMapAtlas?
   Is there a good demo in one of the files ?? I couldn't find a TileMapAtlasTest

   EDIT : I looked at the AtlasTest, and it used the levelmap.tga
   When I opened the file, the file was an extremely small image of the map. Does the tileMapAtlas split up an image into tiles (i.e. levelmap.tga) and each tile has a value or something ?? like tile[0,0] is the bottom left tile, etc.....

   Also, I am not familiar with the .tga file as well.....

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   Steve Oldmeadow
   Administrator

   There is lots of information about tile maps in the old Google forum. For example:

   http://groups.google.com/group/cocos2d-iphone-discuss/browse_frm/thread/916132ba4512100f/8e00b1f9228d18ea?lnk=gst&q=kwigbo#8e00b1f9228d18ea

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   dababwi
   Member

   Thanks for the response.

   Is 2.5D (psuedo-3D) possible with cocos2d by any chance ??
   Something like,

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lincity-ng.png

   ?

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   patrickC
   Member

   Those are isometric tiles.
   They're not entirely supported by cocos2d but it can be done.
   Haven't done it personally, though.
   Searching around the old forum should help you I think.
   Good luck!

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   dababwi
   Member

   Also,
   is there a limit to the size of the tilemap ??
   I imagine I will have a long tilemap that will scroll up every fixed millisecond (much similar to any 3-d racing game, but for me, in 2d).

   Also, im guessing it would be easy to do something like a value of 0 or 1 for each tile and
   if the user steps on a tile that has a value of 0, the game ends.... ??

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   patrickC
   Member

   If you're planning on having a very big tilemap then you'd probably need to split it into many parts, and then only show the ones that are visible at a given moment.

   For collision, you could query the tilemap if you retain it, and then check what value the tile is.
   Not very straightforward, wouldn't really allow for collisions on curves surfaces.
   I'd rather go for collision detection with chipmunk shapes, but then again it depends on how complex you want the "track" to be.
   And you would need to draw the tracks somehow, perhaps with a custom level editor.
   Good luck! :)

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    dababwi
    Member

    I would imagine the track being a very standard highway road-type....
    No obstacles.

    Just imagine you are driving through a curvy bridge, alone...... forever...
    So that when the driver goes off the bridge, the game ends.

    Would I still need to use Chipmunk ?? I thought Chipmunk was a physics engine

    Posted 2 years ago #
11. 

    donahue.dylan
    Member

    @steve Oldmeadow:

    i followed your link to the old google forum and downloaded that tile map editor, but i am having trouble trying to figure out how to use it. if anyone has used it or knows how to use it. could you tell me how to use it.

    Posted 2 years ago #
12. 

    fisher024
    Member

    I am also a newbie to iPhone and cocos2d. I am a little confused about TileMapAtlas. Is it create just a texture or really a grid? Maybe this is a stupid question, but I hope someone can help me out...

    Posted 2 years ago #
13. 

    bsharp42
    Member

    Not a stupid question. I am interested in this as well.....
    If someone could provide a nice explanation on how tilemap works, it would be awesome...

    I tried googling, but didn't get much info

    Posted 2 years ago #
14. 

    sunsu
    Member

    Basically a TileMap is a grid that has pieces of an image (tiles) assigned to grid locations. The tiles have codes associated with them that you can check in your game to detect what type of tile it is (for collisions as an example). You can also change the tile in a specific grid location to a new one of a different type.

    hth

    Posted 2 years ago #
15. 

    bsharp42
    Member

    So when you say "each tile has codes", does that mean each tile can have certain values associated with it ??

    If I make my tiles to have an int value somewhere between 0 and 9, I can check in my game program to see whether a specific tile at a specific grid[x,y] has a specfic value (between 0 and 9)??

    If I want to do something to tiles that have a value of, lets say 4, I can do something like

    if (tile at grid[x,y] has int value of 4)
    {
    do something
    }

    ???

    Posted 2 years ago #
16. 

    fisher024
    Member

    I looked up the code in cocos2d, there is a piece of sample code for iterate over all the tiles in AtlasTest.m

    Posted 2 years ago #
17. 

    patrickC
    Member

    bsharp42 that's correct.
    specifically, the tilemap will hold a value between 0 and 255 in each channel (r,g,b) for each pixel.
    Each pixel corresponds to a "grid position".
    Currently, cocos2d only uses the "red" channel to know which tile to place in each grid position.
    When you export the .tga of the map itself, it's just a series of pixels with rgb values.
    Cocos2d will then parse the .tga, find out which "red" value is for each pixel (corresponding to the same grid position), and place the tile.
    You can then also use it to do checks, you could do collision checks but it's not the best solution, in my opinion.
    In the future, the green and blue channels should be implemented too, which could be used to trigger events and other stuff.
    I started off using TileMaps and was planning on doing collision checks on the tiles, I then had to ditch the idea because it wouldn't allow for precise detection.
    Hope that helps somewhat!

    Posted 2 years ago #
18. 

    dababwi
    Member

    What do you mean by it wouldn't allow for precise detection ?

    Right now for my game, all I need is

    each tile to have either a value of 0 or 1.
    The vehicle will start on a tile that has a value of 0, and while the user controls the vehicle, if it ends up on a tile that has a value of 1, end game.

    I don't need any collision/physics stuff for this.

    I was gonna use tilemap for it, but was wondering what you mean by "it wouldn't allow for precise detection". Wouldn't tilemap be sufficient for my game mechanic ?

    Posted 2 years ago #
19. 

    pabloruiz55
    Member

    You still need some collision detection, maybe not by using chipmunk, but if you have a 10 x 10 grid of 50px tiles and your car is 30px sized you would have to check if the rect it generates is colliding with a tile (in this case it will always be colliding with at least one) and then foreach tile it is colliding check if that tile has a value of 1 and act accordingly.

    It starts to get more complicate if your car can be rotated for example.

    As i said before i haven't used tilemapatlas, but maybe patrickC means that for example if you want to have a rock that doesn't occupy the whole tile it turns difficult to define a collision portion for it.

    Posted 2 years ago #
20. 

    fisher024
    Member

    Since it is more complicate or not allow for precise detection, is there any other way to draw the map and make the detection? I am also trying to make a grid and control each block by using tilemap.

    Posted 2 years ago #
21. 

    pabloruiz55
    Member

    well you could have an xml or json file where you store for each level the coordinates of the collision rectangles for example.

    Posted 2 years ago #
22. 

    fisher024
    Member

    thanks for your help, pabloruiz55, I will try it as you said.

    Posted 2 years ago #

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