Question

How do I generate objects on a map, without them occupying the same space or overlapping on a HTML5 Canvas?

X coordinate is randomly generated, to an extent. I thought checking inside the array to see if it’s there already, and the next 20 values after that (to account for the width), with no luck.

var nrOfPlatforms = 14,
platforms = [],
platformWidth = 20,
platformHeight = 20;
var generatePlatforms = function(){
  var positiony = 0, type;
  for (var i = 0; i < nrOfPlatforms; i++) {
    type = ~~(Math.random()*5);
    if (type == 0) type = 1;
    else type = 0;
    var positionx = (Math.random() * 4000) + 500 - (points/100);
    var duplicatetest = 21;
    for (var d = 0; d < duplicatetest; d++) {
      var duplicate = $(jQuery.inArray((positionx + d), platforms));
      if (duplicate > 0) {
        var duplicateconfirmed = true;
      }
    }
    if (duplicateconfirmed) {
      var positionx = positionx + 20;
    }
    var duplicateconfirmed = false;
    platforms[i] = new Platform(positionx,positiony,type);
  }
}();

I originally made a cheat fix by having them generate in an area roughly 4000 big, decreasing the odds, but I want to increase the difficulty as the game progresses, by making them appear more together, to make it harder. But then they overlap.

In crude picture form, I want this

....[]....[].....[]..[]..[][]...

not this

......[]...[[]]...[[]]....[]....

I hope that makes sense.

For reference, here is the code before the array check and difficulty, just the cheap distance hack.

var nrOfPlatforms = 14,
platforms = [],
platformWidth = 20,
platformHeight = 20;
var generatePlatforms = function(){
  var position = 0, type;
  for (var i = 0; i < nrOfPlatforms; i++) {
    type = ~~(Math.random()*5);
    if (type == 0) type = 1;
    else type = 0;
    platforms[i] = new Platform((Math.random() * 4000) + 500,position,type);
  }
}();

EDIT 1

after some debugging, duplicate is returning as [object Object] instead of the index number, not sure why though

EDIT 2

the problem is the objects are in the array platforms, and x is in the array object, so how can I search inside again ? , that’s why it was failing before.
Thanks to firebug and console.log(platforms);

platforms = [Object { image=img,  x=1128,  y=260,  more...}, Object { image=img,  x=1640,  y=260,  more...} etc

Answer 1

You could implement a while loop that tries to insert an object and silently fails if it collides. Then add a counter and exit the while loop after a desired number of successful objects have been placed. If the objects are close together this loop might run longer so you might also want to give it a maximum life span. Or you could implement a ‘is it even possible to place z objects on a map of x and y’ to prevent it from running forever.

Here is an example of this (demo):

//Fill an array with 20x20 points at random locations without overlap
var platforms = [],
    platformSize = 20,
    platformWidth = 200,
    platformHeight = 200;

function generatePlatforms(k) {
  var placed = 0,
      maxAttempts = k*10;
  while(placed < k && maxAttempts > 0) {
    var x = Math.floor(Math.random()*platformWidth),
        y = Math.floor(Math.random()*platformHeight),
        available = true;
    for(var point in platforms) {
      if(Math.abs(point.x-x) < platformSize && Math.abs(point.y-y) < platformSize) {
        available = false;
        break;
      }
    }
    if(available) {
      platforms.push({
        x: x,
        y: y
      });
      placed += 1;
    }
    maxAttempts -= 1;
  }
}

generatePlatforms(14);
console.log(platforms);