Question

I’m making a top down tile based game (think old Pokemon and Zelda games on GameBoy). I’m having problems with the character moving smoothly. I think the problem is the delay between finishing an action and starting a new one.

Here’s what the code looks like:

-(BOOL) ccTouchBegan:(UITouch *)touch withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
CGPoint touchCoor = [self coordinateForTouch:touch];

// If the character was touched, open their dialogue
if (CGPointEqualToPoint(touchCoor, ebplayer.coordinate)) {
    [[CCDirector sharedDirector] replaceScene:
     [CCTransitionMoveInR transitionWithDuration:1.0 scene:[HelloWorldLayer scene]]];
}
else // otherwise, move the character
{
    activeTouch = [self directionForPoint:[touch locationInView:[touch view]]];
    [self movePlayer:nil inDirection:activeTouch];
}

return YES;

}

// given in screen dimension points
// is the base movement function for all movements
– (void)movePlayer:(NSString*)pid toPosition:(CGPoint)position{
CGPoint playerCoordinate = [self coordinateForPositionPoint:position];

// if we're not already moving, and we can move, then move
if(!isAnimating && [self coordinateIsOnMap:playerCoordinate] && [self isPassable:playerCoordinate]){
    id doneAction = [CCCallFuncN actionWithTarget:self selector:@selector(finishedAnimating)];
    id moveAction = [CCMoveTo actionWithDuration:WALK_DURATION position:position];
    id animAction = [CCAnimate actionWithAnimation: [ebplayer animateDirection:activeTouch withDuration:WALK_DURATION]];
    id walkAndMove = [CCSpawn actionOne:moveAction two:animAction];
    id action = [CCSequence actions: walkAndMove, doneAction, nil];
    isAnimating = YES;
    [player runAction:action];

    ebplayer.coordinate = playerCoordinate;
    [self setViewpointCenter:position Animated:YES];
}

// if it's not passable, just run the animation
if(!isAnimating){
    id doneAction = [CCCallFuncN actionWithTarget:self selector:@selector(finishedAnimating)];
    id animAction = [CCAnimate actionWithAnimation: [ebplayer animateDirection:activeTouch withDuration:WALK_DURATION]];
    id action = [CCSequence actions: animAction, doneAction, nil];
    isAnimating = YES;
    [player runAction: action];
}

}

Then when that action is finished, try and start it up again:

• (void)finishedAnimating{
  isAnimating = NO;
  [self movePlayer:nil inDirection:activeTouch];
  }

Answer 1

You will always end up with a 1-frame delay when sequencing multiple CCMove* actions.

What happens is the following:

• frame 0-100: move action runs, sprite is moving
• frame 101: move action ended, CCCallFunc runs
• frame 102: new move action begins

This one-frame delay is one of the main problems of sequencing move actions, and the reason why I wouldn’t recommend using move actions for gameplay purposes.

The alternative is to move objects manually in a scheduled update method by modifying their position. You can use the CCMove* action code as basis.