Tag: Code Snippets

Clockwork TD Devlog #5: Terrain Bonuses

This is the fifth post in an ongoing series about the development of my thesis project, Clockwork TD.

Terrain bonuses, ala Rogue Tower, were something I decided I wanted early on in order to add to the randomness of each playthrough. Tiles are simply assigned a random TileBonus from 0-3 at creation, then moved up and color lerped in order to match, while the CursorState uses this Bonus value to generate the floating text on hover:

Bonus = Random.Range(0, 4);
transform.localScale = Vector3.one + Vector3.up * (Bonus * .5f + 1f);
var color = Color.Lerp(renderer.material.color, Color.white, Bonus / 5f);
renderer.material.color = color;

Stats in the game use the SeawispHunter.Roleplay.Attributes package, which provides an amazing framework for working with all sorts of RPG stats. The Tower Bonus is assigned at time of tower placement; this pattern is used for all Upgradeable stats throughout the game, allowing trickle-down from the Tower Setup to the individual tower level.

// add 1% to each stat for each level of tile bonus
TileBonus = new ModifiableValue<int>(0);
var rangeMod = TileBonus.Select(x => 1f + x / 100f);
AttackRange.modifiers.Add(Modifier.Times(rangeMod));
AttackSpeed.modifiers.Add(Modifier.Times(rangeMod));
AttackPower.modifiers.Add(Modifier.Times(rangeMod));

I had used Kryzarel’s CharacterStat framework in previous RPG stat projects, but found the SeawispHunter package at the start of this project. It’s really powerful and flexible, and highly recommended! Next time around, we’ll take a look at generating / showing the next enemy wave.

2023-07-18T16:57:05-04:00July 18th, 2023|Categories: Devlog, General|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

Clockwork TD Devlog #3: CursorState FSM

This is the third post in an ongoing series about the development of my thesis project, Clockwork TD.

Rather than define separate game states Building, Moving, Selling, etc., I chose to create a separate FSM for the cursor state. Like the game states, each of the cursor states is strongly defined as a ScriptableObject:

[Header("Game States")]
public MainMenuState StateMainMenu;
public GameStartState StateGameStart;
public PlayerPreparationState StatePlayerPreparation;
public EnemyAttackState StateEnemyAttack;
public GameOverState StateGameOver;

[Header("Cursor States")] 
public CursorDefault CursorStateDefault;
public CursorBuilding CursorStateBuilding;
public CursorSelling CursorStateSelling;
public CursorMoving CursorStateMoving;
public CursorUpgrading CursorStateUpgrading;

This makes it easy to add new game & cursor states and also to access them from anywhere in the project.

The base CursorState includes abstract & virtual methods to override, depending on the desired behavior of the current state:

public abstract void TileClicked(Tile tile);
public abstract void TileEntered(Tile tile);
public abstract void TileExited(Tile tile);
public abstract void BuildableClicked(Buildable buildable);
public abstract void BuildableEntered(Buildable buildable);
public abstract void BuildableExited(Buildable buildable);

protected void Enter()
{
	if(gameData.CurrentCursor) gameData.CurrentCursor.Exit();
	
	gameData.CurrentCursor =  this;

	if (debug) Debug.Log(this + "::Enter() (" + gameData.CurrentCursor + ")");
	OnEnter();
	Entered?.Invoke();
}

protected virtual void OnEnter(){ }

private void Exit()
{
	if (debug) Debug.Log(this + "::Exit() (" + gameData.CurrentCursor + ")");
	OnExit();
	Exited?.Invoke();
}

protected virtual void OnExit(){ }

protected virtual void Cancel()
{
	gameData.CursorStateDefault.Enter();
}

As in the GameStates, CursorStates have Entered and Exited events that can be subscribed to, as well as OnEnter() and OnExit() methods for inheriting CursorStates to override. Buildable and Tile both implement the “IPointerClickHandler, IPointerEnterHandler, IPointerExitHandler” interfaces, calling back to the current CursorState during those mouse events. This allows the code for say, Building to be fairly straightforward (incomplete code but you can get the gist — oh I just got why github named it that):

public void SetNewBuildable(BuildableSetup newTower)
{
	currentBuildable = newTower;
	ShowInfoPanel(newTower);
	
	if (gameData.CurrentCursor != this) Enter();
}

protected override void OnEnter()
{
	base.OnEnter();
	
	InputManager.EscapePressed += Cancel;
	InputManager.RightClickPressed += Cancel;
}

protected override void OnExit()
{
	base.OnExit();
	
	HideGhostTower();
	HideBonusText();
	HideRangefinder();
	HideInfoPanel();
	currentBuildable = null;
	
	InputManager.EscapePressed -= Cancel;
	InputManager.RightClickPressed -= Cancel;
}

public override void TileClicked(Tile tile)
{
	if (currentBuildable.Cost > currentBuildable.Currency.Value) return;
	
	var buildCommand = new BuildCommand(currentBuildable, tile);
	gameData.CommandManage.AddCommand(buildCommand);

	HideGhostTower();
	HideBonusText();
	HideRangefinder();
	
	if(!InputManager.ShiftHeld) Cancel();
}

public override void TileEntered(Tile tile)
{
	
	ShowGhostTower(currentBuildable, tile);
	ShowBonusText(tile);
	ShowRangefinder(tile, currentBuildable.AttackRange.value * (1 + (tile.Bonus / 100f)));
}

public override void TileExited(Tile tile)
{
	HideGhostTower();
	HideBonusText();
	HideRangefinder();
}

public override void BuildableClicked(Buildable buildable) { }
public override void BuildableEntered(Buildable buildable) { }
public override void BuildableExited(Buildable buildable) { }

Here’s the initial results for the various states:

The Undo queue is a fairly simple Command Stack, with everything routing through a ScriptableObject CommandManager (for Managers that don’t require pertick functionality, I tend to take the extra step to make them ScriptableObjects). Here’s that class, along with the MoveCommand:

public class CommandManager : ScriptableObject
{
    public event Action QueueChanged; 
    public int Count => commandsBuffer.Count;
    private Stack<ICommand> commandsBuffer = new();

    public void AddCommand(ICommand command)
    {
        command.Execute();
        commandsBuffer.Push(command);
        QueueChanged?.Invoke();
    }
    
    // undoes the last command
    public void UndoCommand()
    {
        if(commandsBuffer.Count == 0) return;
        commandsBuffer.Pop().Undo();
        QueueChanged?.Invoke();
    }

    // undoes all the commands in reverse order
    public void UndoAllCommands()
    {
        if(commandsBuffer.Count == 0) return;
        while (commandsBuffer.Count > 0)
        {
            commandsBuffer.Pop().Undo();
        }
        QueueChanged?.Invoke();
    }

    // executes each tower's cleanup command and clears the stack to finalize the commands
    // (only used to cleanup after sell commands right now)
    public void FinalizeCommands()
    {
        while (commandsBuffer.Count > 0)
        {
            commandsBuffer.Pop().Commit();
        }
        ClearCommands();
    }

    public void ClearCommands()
    {
        commandsBuffer.Clear();
        QueueChanged?.Invoke();
    }

}
public interface ICommand
{
    void Execute();
    void Undo();
    void Commit();
}
public class MoveCommand : ICommand
{
    private readonly Buildable commandObject;
    private readonly Tile originalTile;
    private readonly Tile newTile;
    
    public MoveCommand(Buildable buildable, Tile original, Tile target)
    {
        commandObject = buildable;
        originalTile = original;
        newTile = target;
    }

    // move the Buildable, cleanup the Tile statuses
    public void Execute()
    {
        originalTile.MarkBuilt(false);
        commandObject.transform.position = newTile.GetTopOfTile();
        commandObject.HomeTile = newTile;
        commandObject.TileBonus.initial.value = newTile.Bonus;
        newTile.MarkBuilt(true);
    }

    // move the Buildable back, revert the Tile statuses
    public void Undo()
    {
        originalTile.MarkBuilt(true);
        commandObject.transform.position = originalTile.GetTopOfTile();
        commandObject.HomeTile = originalTile;
        commandObject.TileBonus.initial.value = originalTile.Bonus;
        newTile.MarkBuilt(false);
    }

    // no cleanup necessary
    public void Commit() {}
}

Stay tuned for the next installment, which will probably cover some UI elements.

2023-07-14T19:43:46-04:00July 11th, 2023|Categories: Devlog, General|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment

Updated Lightweight ScriptableObject Events in Unity

Since my original post on Lightweight ScriptableObject Events, I’ve made some minor variations to the version of code I’ve been using in production. I replaced the Lists with standard Event subscriptions (I like the way the += and -= syntax looks better than RegisterListener() and UnregisterListener(), plus it sticks out better so you know it’s an event subscription:

View this gist on GitHub

and updated sampled script:

View this gist on GitHub

Try it out and see which solutions works best for your project!

2023-06-03T19:22:34-04:00June 3rd, 2023|Categories: General|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

Lightweight ScriptableObject Events in Unity

There’s loads of sources on this topic, even on Unity’s own Learn page! My goal with this code was to create a lightweight version that I can drop into any project if I need a quick event system.  Most of the code examples I’ve found online have been based around wiring up events using the Inspector, or having a one-to-one relationship between each Event and its Listener(s).  The system below replaces the GameListenerEvent middleman class from the Unity Learn example with the standard Action type, letting you assign your delegate for each Event Listener in your code. 

The code below creates base classes for Action, Action<T1>, and Action<T1,T2> delegates, similar to the UnityAction versions (which you could probably replace Action with, if you want to remove your dependence on the System library).  You can go ahead and add T3 and beyond if you find the need for them.

Use the standard OnEnable() => eventObject.RegisterListener(delegate); and OnDisable() => eventObject.UnregisterListener(delegate); syntax to register your Listeners.

This code was adapted from the code in the discussion located here.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public abstract class BaseGameEvent : ScriptableObject
{
#if UNITY_EDITOR
[TextArea] public string developerDescription = "";
#endif
private readonly List<Action> listeners = new ();
public void Raise()
{
for (var i = listeners.Count 1; i >= 0; i)
{
listeners[i].Invoke();
}
}
public void RegisterListener(Action listener)
{
if (!listeners.Contains(listener)) { listeners.Add(listener); }
}
public void UnregisterListener(Action listener)
{
if (listeners.Contains(listener)) { listeners.Remove(listener); }
}
}
public abstract class BaseGameEvent<T1> : BaseGameEvent
{
private readonly List<Action<T1>> listeners = new ();
public void Raise(T1 t1)
{
for (var i = listeners.Count 1; i >= 0; i)
{
listeners[i].Invoke(t1);
}
}
public void RegisterListener(Action<T1> listener)
{
if (!listeners.Contains(listener)) { listeners.Add(listener); }
}
public void UnregisterListener(Action<T1> listener)
{
if (listeners.Contains(listener)) { listeners.Remove(listener); }
}
}
public abstract class BaseGameEvent<T1,T2> : BaseGameEvent
{
private readonly List<Action<T1,T2>> listeners = new ();
public void Raise(T1 t1, T2 t2)
{
for (var i = listeners.Count 1; i >= 0; i)
{
listeners[i].Invoke(t1, t2);
}
}
public void RegisterListener(Action<T1,T2> listener)
{
if (!listeners.Contains(listener)) { listeners.Add(listener); }
}
public void UnregisterListener(Action<T1,T2> listener)
{
if (listeners.Contains(listener)) { listeners.Remove(listener); }
}
}
/* USE:
*************
[CreateAssetMenu()]
public class GameEvent : BaseGameEvent {}
public class IntGameEvent : BaseGameEvent<int> {}
public class IntStringGameEvent : BaseGameEvent<int,string> {}
**************
*/
///
/// examples of the three components required to utilize the system:
///
// the Scriptable Object Event definition
[CreateAssetMenu]
public class CoinGameEvent : BaseGameEvent<int>
{}
// the MonoBehaviour on each Coin to collect
public class Coin : MonoBehaviour
{
// the Scriptable Object Event we created via the Create Asset menu
[SerializeField] private CoinGameEvent coinEvent;
// raise our coin event whenever the user picks up a coin
void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D other)
{
coinEvent.Raise(1);
Destroy(gameobject);
}
}
// this can also be a ScriptableObject since they still have OnEnable() and OnDisable() methods
public class CoinManager : MonoBehaviour
{
int coins;
// register to Listen for the Coin Event
void OnEnable() => coinEvent.RegisterListener(AddCoins);
void OnDisable() => coinEvent.UnregisterListener(AddCoins);
// add the number of coins in the Event to our total
void AddCoins(int value) => coins += value;
}
2022-10-08T04:26:24-04:00October 7th, 2022|Categories: General|Tags: , , , |1 Comment

Projectile Arcing in Unity with Animation Curves

I recently had to figure out how to move a projectile in an Arc for a project I’m working on and found that a Google search was harder than expected, so I’m writing this up in that hopes that it might help someone else! For starters, take a look at this post on how to do it in 2D, as well as some explanation on the math behind it. For our purposes, we’re going to let Unity handle calculating the arc by simply using an Animation Curve. (Kind of hilariously, I spent part of the past weekend learning Animation Curves in Unity, only to have it be the subject of my next Maya class come Monday morning. Hindsight!)

This is the code I’m using, which is hyper-specific to my project, but we can break it down in principle. (I’ll cover ScriptableObject TypeObjects in a later post, but that’s what’s going on here; Projectile is a MonoBehaviour and the class below is a ScriptableObject)

  • Line 7: CurrentTime += Time.deltaTime in Update(). Duration is how long the projectile should take from firing to reach its target. linearT calculates the ratio from 0 to 1 of how close to done we are, given a desired Duration.
  • Line 9: PositionXZ() is an extension function I wrote that returns a Vector3 with its Y value set to 0. This function handles moving the projectile towards the target on the X and Z axes, using Lerp and linearT to interpolate smoothly.
  • Line 11: does the same thing but only for the Y axis. This ensures that we end up at the correct height for the target, in case the start and end Y positions are different.
  • Line 13: uses the same 0 to 1 value in linearT to evaluate the animation curve and return a height offset value. This is multiplied by curveMaxHeight to determine the effective height at the top of the parabola.
  • Line 15: adds the Lerped Y to the Offset Y to get the new effective Y. (If we’re Lerping from 0y to 0y, baseY will be 0y throughout, so the arc offset will determine the Y value alone.)
View this gist on GitHub

And here’s the animation curve stored in the curveHeight field:

You’ll want to manually clamp the points on the X axis at 0 and 1 to a value of 0. This ensures that at the start and end, no height is added to the projectile. Add a key point at 0.55 and set its value to .95. Set the Start and End tangents to linear; you want the projectile to shoot up towards the peak and come down towards the target quickly. In the middle, you can keep the point at Auto; grab the tangent handle and turn it clockwise so that the right hand side of the parabola is as close to a 45 degree angle as you can get it, which should push the peak to touching 1 on the Y axis.

This system works beautifully, because the offset for the mortar in the Animation Curve matches what you expect it to look like in the game, which I find makes it easier to wrap your head around how it works. You can play around with the tangents if you want to extend that hang at the top, but this works pretty well as is.

Looks pretty good, and no tricky math required… it should also be adaptable for other projectiles like rockets or arrows if you flatten out the Animation Curve. Try it out!

Edit 2022/08/20: I randomly stumbled across https://blog.terresquall.com/2019/11/coding-projectiles-for-your-tower-defense-game-part-2/ and thought it was a great explanation of the same concept; so for further reading, check it out.

2022-10-08T04:26:59-04:00July 21st, 2022|Categories: General|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Withings-Sync Python/Powershell Script w/ Discord Webhook Notifications

I recently deployed https://github.com/jaroslawhartman/withings-sync to sync my Withings scale to my Garmin account. Here’s a quick Powershell script I whipped up that runs via Scheduled Tasks on Windows and uses a Discord Webhook to notify you of its progress:

# function adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/posts/42995301/revisions
Function Execute-Command ($commandTitle, $commandPath, $commandArguments)
{
Try {
$pinfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$pinfo.FileName = $commandPath
$pinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$pinfo.UseShellExecute = $false
$pinfo.Arguments = $commandArguments
$p = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$p.StartInfo = $pinfo
$p.Start() | Out-Null
[pscustomobject]@{
commandTitle = $commandTitle
stdout = $p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
}
$p.WaitForExit()
}
Catch {
exit
}
}
# call this with garmin username & password to sync from withings
function withings-sync( $username, $password )
{
# setup vars
$hoursToPause = 2
$fromDate = Get-Date
$loop = $true
$countOfTries = 0
$maxTries = 10
$user = $username
$pwd = $password
$wsPath = "C:\python38\scripts\withings-sync.exe"
# discord setup
$discordBot = "Withings -> Garmin Sync"
$hookUrl = "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/xxxx"
$content = "{0:HH:mm:ss}: Garmin upload beginning for $user." -f ( (Get-Date) )
$section = New-DiscordSection Title "Info" Description $content Color LightGrey
# send discord update on start
Write-Host $content
Send-DiscordMessage webHookUrl $hookUrl Sections $section AvatarName $discordBot
do
{
# only retry $maxTries times
if($countOfTries -lt $maxTries)
{
# create args, then try withings-sync upload and capture output
$args = ("–garmin-username ${user} –garmin-password ${pwd} –fromdate {0:yyyy-MM-dd}" -f $fromDate).ToString()
$process = ExecuteCommand commandTitle "Withings->Garmin Sync" commandPath $wsPath commandArguments $args
$outputText = $process.stdout
Write-Host $outputText
# if upload worked, break loops
if( $outputText.Contains("Fit file uploaded to Garmin Connect") )
{
$content = "{0:HH:mm:ss}: Garmin upload successful for $user." -f ( (Get-Date) )
$section = New-DiscordSection Title "Info" Description $content Color Green
$loop = $false
}
# if no measurements, wait and try again later
elseif( $outputText.Contains("No measurements to upload for date or period specified") )
{
$content = "{0:HH:mm:ss}: No Withings measurements found for $user; sleeping $hoursToPause hour(s) and trying again." -f ( (Get-Date) )
$section = New-DiscordSection Title "Alert" Description $content Color Yellow
}
# if withings refresh failed
elseif( $outputText.Contains("withings – ERROR") )
{
$content = "{0:HH:mm:ss}: Withings refresh failed for $user; sleeping $hoursToPause hour(s) and trying again." -f ( (Get-Date) )
$section = New-DiscordSection Title "Alert" Description $content Color Red
}
# if garmin upload failed
else
{
$content = "{0:HH:mm:ss}: Garmin upload failed for $user; sleeping $hoursToPause hour(s) and trying again." -f ( (Get-Date) )
$section = New-DiscordSection Title "Alert" Description $content Color Red
}
# send discord update
Write-Host $content
Send-DiscordMessage webHookUrl $hookUrl Sections $section AvatarName $discordBot
# pause for $countOfTries hour(s) and try again
$countOfTries = $countOfTries + 1
if($loop) { Start-Sleep ( $hoursToPause * 60 * 60 ) }
}
# after #maxTries failures, send discord update and exit the loop
else
{
$content = "{0:HH:mm:ss}: Garmin upload failed $maxTries times, aborting." -f ( (Get-Date) )
$section = New-DiscordSection Title "Alert" Description $content Color Red
Write-Host $content
Send-DiscordMessage webHookUrl $hookUrl Sections $section AvatarName $discordBot
$loop = $false
}
}
while ($loop -eq $true)
}

Install the PSDiscord powershell module. Set $hookUrl with your Discord Webhook URL. Setup your path to the Python withings-sync executable in the $wsPath variable, then call the withings-sync function from Powershell after initializing your Withings token with withings-sync manually, as per the github instructions (pass your Garmin credentials as the $username and $password parameters). The script will auto-retry up to $maxTries times every $hoursToPause.

Edited 2021-09-21: removed some code from the Execute-Command function that could cause a deadlock when Garmin spits out its 403 error and changed the order of the if/else statements slightly. Cheers!

2022-10-08T04:26:43-04:00August 13th, 2021|Categories: General|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

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