Erase Box: the tutorial

February 25, 2009 by Emanuele Feronato
Filed Under Actionscript 3, Box2D, Flash, Users contributions • 6 Comments 

Some days ago I blogged about Erase Box, a Box2D game made with my tutorials, now it’s time to publish Rodrigo’s tutorial.

« On a game I was making, I needed a way to detect if a body was leaving the screen.

That can be done by checking the x and y positions of it, but I also wanted to explore Box2D features.

That was actually good, because I found another way to do that, and it can be of great help on other projects.

Sensors are bodies that won’t directly interact with others.

They won’t make a moving box stop when they hit, i.e.

That being said, they are still useful.

Box2D will keep track of it’s “contacts” just as if it were a normal body, so they can be used as exactly what their name means, a sensor.

Also, Box2D allows you to “attach” some information to a body, so that it can be distinguished from others.

Let’s see an example:

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package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.*;
	import Box2D.Common.Math.*;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.Contacts.*;
	public class demo extends Sprite {
		public var the_world:b2World;
		var time_count:Timer=new Timer(1000);
		var i:int = 0;
		public function demo() {
			var environment:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			environment.lowerBound.Set(-5.0, -5.0);
			environment.upperBound.Set(30.0, 30.0);
			var gravity:b2Vec2=new b2Vec2(0.0,10.0);
			the_world=new b2World(environment,gravity,true);
			var debug_draw:b2DebugDraw = new b2DebugDraw();
			var debug_sprite:Sprite = new Sprite();
			addChild(debug_sprite);
			debug_draw.m_sprite=debug_sprite;
			debug_draw.m_drawScale=30;
			debug_draw.m_fillAlpha=0.5;
			debug_draw.m_lineThickness=1;
			debug_draw.m_drawFlags=b2DebugDraw.e_shapeBit;
			the_world.SetDebugDraw(debug_draw);
			var final_body:b2Body;
			var final_body2:b2Body;
			var the_body:b2BodyDef;
			var the_box:b2PolygonDef;
			the_body = new b2BodyDef();
			the_body.position.Set(8.5, 13);
			the_box = new b2PolygonDef();
			the_box.SetAsBox(8.5, 0.5);
			the_box.friction=0.3;
			the_box.density=0;
			the_box.isSensor = true;
			the_body.userData = "eraseSensor";
			final_body=the_world.CreateBody(the_body);
			final_body.CreateShape(the_box);
			the_body.position.Set(8.5, 8);
			the_body.userData = "detSensor";
			final_body2=the_world.CreateBody(the_body);
			final_body2.CreateShape(the_box);
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, on_enter_frame);
			time_count.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, on_time);
			time_count.start();
 
		}
		public function on_time(e:Event) {
			var final_body:b2Body;
			var the_body:b2BodyDef;
			var the_box:b2PolygonDef;
			the_body = new b2BodyDef();
			the_body.position.Set(Math.random()*10+2, 0);
			the_box = new b2PolygonDef();
			the_box.SetAsBox(Math.random()+0.1,Math.random()+0.1);
			the_box.friction=0.3;
			the_box.density=1;
			the_body.userData = i;
			final_body=the_world.CreateBody(the_body);
			final_body.CreateShape(the_box);
			final_body.SetMassFromShapes();
			i++;
		}
		public function on_enter_frame(e:Event) {
			the_world.Step(1/30, 10);
 
			// Setting up a sensor-contact listener
			if (the_world.m_contactList) {
 
			var contact:b2Contact = the_world.m_contactList;			
 
			if ( contact.GetShape1().GetBody().GetUserData() == "detSensor" ) {
						trace(contact.GetShape2().GetBody().GetUserData());
					}
 
 
			if ( contact.GetShape1().GetBody().GetUserData() == "eraseSensor" ) {
						var body2 = contact.GetShape2().GetBody();
						the_world.DestroyBody(body2);
					}
			}
 
			//if ( contact.GetShape2().GetBody().GetUserData() == "eraseSensor" )
					//{
						//var body3 = contact.GetShape1().GetBody();
						//the_world.DestroyBody(body3);
					//}
		}
	}
}

This is a modified version of Emanuele’s script: Box2D: tutorial for the absolute beginners

So I will only comment the changes:

Line 14: Creating a variable to keep track of the number of boxes created.

Line 40: Defining the_box as a sensor.

Lines 41 and 45: Setting up the userData for both sensors, so Box2D will be able to distinguish between them and other bodies.

Line 63: Setting the randomly generated box userData to the variable “i” (that keeps track of the number of boxes created).

Line 67: Increasing “i”

Lines 73 to 86: Setting up the contact listener:

73: Checking if m_contactList is not null.

75: Defining variable contact.

77 and 82: m_conctactList will also check for contact between boxes. This will make sure that it will only execute the lines below on the bodies that we want.

78: Tracing the box userdata (“i” at the time it was created)

83 and 84: Defining body2 as the second object in contact and then destroying it. It is also possible to add “&& contact.GetShape2().GetBody().GetUserData() == 5” to the if function, so it will only execute on the fifth body, i.e.

It is also possible to create non-0-density boxes as sensors, and attach them to bodies, but this is for another tutorial :) »

This is the result:

Download the source code.

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6 Responses to “Erase Box: the tutorial”

  1. ThomasTan on February 26th, 2009 6:37 am

    Cool! I never thought of that! I thought i would just check if the corner furthest away from the side would touch the side… Great one!

  2. ThomasTan on February 26th, 2009 10:01 am

    seems like Emanuele NEVER CHECKS HIS MAIL…

  3. X-Tender on February 26th, 2009 10:57 am

    Is it maybe possible to add an listener for the sensors instead checking it with the onenter frame and IF stuff? :)

  4. ThomasTan on February 26th, 2009 3:51 pm

    No way… He really does not check his mail…

  5. fans on February 26th, 2009 5:18 pm

    hi,could you show me a example about
    man Walking animation?thank you

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  1. Understanding how Box2D manages boundaries : Emanuele Feronato on May 18th, 2009 9:18 pm

    [...] in this case this means the object is outside the screen. Yuou can read more about this method at Erase Box: the tutorial post. Very cool solution, but not what I am going to [...]

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