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Removing element from ArrayList Java Processing Boid example

Got this BOID application going in Processing with some steering algorithms.
The boids are stored
in two separate ArrayLists for each colour.
The red boid (predator) has a
pursue function:
class Creature {
int prey = 1;
PVector pursue(ArrayList boids) {
PVector steer = new PVector();
if (prey < boids.size()) {
Creature boid = (Creature) boids.get(prey);
steer = PVector.sub(boid.location, location);
steer.mult(maxpursue);
}
return steer;
}
This function gets the red boids to stand on top of the targeted white boid.
The problem is getting this white boid to disappear when all the red boids are on top of it. (Like shown in the image above)
I can add a new boid or predator with the following, but i cannot remove?:
void mousePressed() {
if (mouseButton == LEFT){
Creature predator = new Creature(mouseX, mouseY, 2);
planet.boids.add(predator);
} else if (mouseButton == RIGHT) {
Creature boid = new Creature(mouseX, mouseY, 1);
planet.boids.add(boid);
planet.boids.remove(boid); // This line does not work?
}
}

The code you posted doesn't make a ton of sense. You want to remove an existing Boid, so why on earth are you creating a new one and then immediately removing it?
You haven't posted an MCVE, so I can only answer in a general sense, but here's what you need to do:
Step 1: Refactor your code so that it makes more sense. Comment every single line if you have to, just to be sure you know exactly what the code is doing. But you shouldn't be doing things like adding a new Boid and then removing it in the very next line. Break your problem down into smaller steps, and make sure each step works perfectly by itself before trying to mix it with other funtionality.
Step 2: Create a function that takes a single white Boid and the List of red Boids, and returns true if that white Boid should be removed. Test this function by itself using hard-coded values in a standalone example sketch.
Step 3: Iterate over your white Boids and call the function you created in step 2 for each one. If the function returns true, then remove that white Boid. You might want to use an Iterator for this step.
If you get stuck on one of those steps, then post an MCVE along with a specific question, and we'll go from there. It's hard to answer general "how do I do this" type questions, but it's much easier to answer specific "I tried X, expected Y, but got Z instead" type questions- especially if we have an MCVE we can actually run on our own machines instead of some disconnected snippets.

LibGDX — How to detect if 3d object was clicked on?

I'm trying to make a simple bit of code that will detect whether a model was clicked on. So far the best method I've seen is to create some sort of rectangle around the mesh and detect with Gdx.input.justTouched() to get the x,y coordinates, and then check if the rectangle contains the coordinates returned by justTouched().
I have no idea if there's a better way to do this, some kind of mesh onClick listener or something that LibGDX has in place that I'm unaware of (I've been scouring Google and the javadocs but I can't seem to find anything). I don't really need to deal with the z-axis coordinate, at least I don't think so. I only have the one PerspectiveCamera and it's not going to be moving around that much (not sure if this matters?)
Anyways, in my render() method I have:
if (Gdx.input.justTouched()) {
//this returns the correct values relative to the screen size
Vector2 pos = new Vector2(Gdx.input.getX(), Gdx.input.getY());
//I'm not sure how to get the correct rectangle to see what the
//width and height are for the model relative to the screen?
Rectangle modelBounds = new Rectangle(<<not sure what to put here>>);
if (modelBounds.contains(pos.x, pos.y) {
System.out.println("Model is being touched at: " + pos.x + ", " + pos.y);
}
}
I'm really not sure if this is the correct way to do this. I can get the position of the model with:
modelInstance.getNode("Node1").globalTransform.getTranslation(new Vector3());
but I'm not sure how to get the width and height as a rectangle relative to the screen size, if it's even possible.
I'm also unsure if this would cause massive lag, as I'm going to have about 7 nodes total that I need to detect if they're clicked on or not.
Is there a better way to do this? If not, is there a way to get the model width & height relative to the screensize (or camera, maybe)?
EDIT: Read about using Bounding Boxes, seems like what I need. Not quite sure how to implement it properly, however. I've changed my code to such:
public ModelInstance modelInstance;
public BoundingBox modelBounds;
#Override
public void create() {
...
//omitted irrelevant bits of code
modelInstance = new ModelInstance(heatExchangerModel);
modelBounds = modelInstance.calculateBoundingBox(new BoundingBox());
}
#Override
public void render() {
...
if (Gdx.input.justTouched()) {
Vector3 pos = new Vector3(Gdx.input.getX(), Gdx.input.getY(), 0);
System.out.println(pos);
if (modelBounds.contains(pos)) {
System.out.println("Touching the model");
}
}
}
I'm not really sure what the output of BoundingBox is supposed to be, or how the numbers it gives me correlates to the position in a 2d space. Hmm..
EDIT2: Think I'm getting closer.. Read about Rays and the .getPickRay method for my PerspectiveCamera. .getPickRay seems to return completely unusable numbers though, like really tiny numbers. I think I need to do something like:
if (Gdx.input.justTouched()) {
Vector3 intersection = new Vector3();
Ray pickRay = perspectiveCamera.getPickRay(Gdx.input.getX(), Gdx.input.getY());
Intersector.intersectRayBounds(pickRay, modelBounds, intersection);
}
and then intersection should give me the point where they overlap. It appears to be not working, however, giving me really small numbers like (4.8066642E-5, 2.9180354E-5, 1.0) .. hmmm..

Box2D stopping a dynamic body from moving after collision

I am trying to re-create Pong using LibGDX and Box2D. I have 2 problems, if I fix one it creates another.
My paddles are currently set to Kinematic and are controlled using the up/down keys via a controller class. This works just fine and I can happily play back and forth.
Problem being, my walls are static bodies and my paddles just travel right through them.
Now I can fix this by simple changing the paddle body to a dynamic one, this stops the paddles from going through the walls but then when my ball strikes off a paddle, it goes flying off the X axis and off the screen.
I have tried adding an update method in my controller class as follows:
public void update(float delta){
paddleBodyPosY = paddleBody.getPosition().x;
paddleBodyPosY = paddleBody.getPosition().y;
System.out.println(paddleBodyPosY);
}
The console reports the paddle position being updated every frame, from top to bottom of screen.
So I went back to my GameScreen class and tried all sorts of code in the Render() method like so:
if(playerOnePaddle.paddleBodyPosY < 0){
playerOnePaddle.paddleBody.getPosition().y = 0;
System.out.println("resetting paddle");
}
I have tried LOADS of variations, I can easily break movement by calling paddleBody.setLinearVelocity(0,0) but then it gets stuck like this and it's not movable anymore. Obviously the problem must lie with the fact that I can't set a position using a getter lol.
Any ideas? If you need more snippets ask, I didn't want to overload the question with 100 lines of code you don't need to see :S.
The paddle creation method:
public void createPaddle(World world, float x, float y){
//Define a body for the paddle
BodyDef paddleBodyDef = new BodyDef();
paddleBodyDef.type = BodyType.KinematicBody;
paddleBodyDef.position.set(x, y);
//Define a shape for the paddle
PolygonShape paddleShape = new PolygonShape();
paddleShape.setAsBox(paddleWidth, paddleHeight);
//Define a fixture for the paddle
FixtureDef paddleFixtureDef = new FixtureDef();
paddleFixtureDef.shape = paddleShape;
paddleFixtureDef.density = 0;
//Ensures ball bounces off paddle
//Consistently without losing velocity
paddleFixtureDef.restitution = 1.005f;
//Create the paddles
paddleBody = world.createBody(paddleBodyDef);
paddleFixture = paddleBody.createFixture(paddleFixtureDef);
paddleShape.dispose();
}

Heh, so what I did was.
Set my paddles to dynamic, then set there mass to a stupidly high number so that the a ball would not move them on the x axis, well not enough for the human eye to see at least.
Seems like a cheap fix, if anyone has anything better...that would be great lol

Slick2d, How can i draw a string on screen for a few seconds?

I've been trying to figure this out, all I want to do is be able to draw a string for longer than just a frame, but when I call it in the method I want it to flash up then disappear immediately, any advice would be appreciated :) I'm using something like this:
g.drawString("You got a Key!", 100, 100);
I'm doing this in a method which is called after an Item is picked up
public void addItemFound(Graphics g){
ip.mainInventory[ip.getFirstEmptyStack()] = getItemStackFound();
System.out.println(this.getItemFound() + " added");
g.drawString("You Got a Key!", 100, 100);
}
That's the full method if you were interested :) Thanks!Also apologies for the dumb question, i'm a newbie to this :P

I believe that the best way to do this project would be to draw the scene at regular intervals e.g. 10 milliseconds using a Thread.sleep(). This way, you can simply add a variable to show the message for, say, 100 loops (1 second) like this:
private LinkedList<String> drawStringList= new LinkedList<>();
private LinkedList<Integer> drawStringTimeout= new LinkedList<>();
private LinkedList<Integer[]> drawStringPos= new LinkedList<>();
public void addText(String stringToWrite, int posX, int posY, int timeOut) {
drawStringList.add(stringToWrite);
int[] pos = new int[2];
pos[0] = posX;
pos[1] = posY;
drawStringPos.add(pos);
drawStringTimeout.add(timeOut);
}
private void mainLoop() {
...items to be drawn here...
for(int i=0;i<drawStringList.size();i++){
g.drawString(drawStringList.get(i),drawStringPos.get(i)[0],drawStringPos.get(i)[1]);
drawStringTimeout.set(i,drawStringTimeout.get(i)-1);
if(drawStringTimeout.get(i)<=0) {
drawStringList.remove(i);
drawStringTimeout.remove(i);
drawStringPos.remove(i);
}
}
try { Thread.sleep(10); } catch (Exception e) {}
}
In this code, you must add the string you want to draw to drawStringList, add the number of loops you want it to stay for to drawStringTimeout and add the position you would like to draw it in to drawStringPos as an array (you could use a point if you wanted to). I have made a method to do this.

I don't know what Dan300 is trying to tell you to do but that's way, way, way over complicated. Slick2D works on gamestates:
http://slick.ninjacave.com/javadoc/org/newdawn/slick/state/GameState.html
The gamestate has a method called render(). The render() is called every single cycle of the loop to update your screen with drawing information. If you want to draw the text on the screen for a longer time you should be drawing the text somewhere within the stack space of this render() function.
What is happening now is you have a function with one specific purpose that only exists every so briefly: add an item to the player. The game comes across this statement and when adding an item within that 1 cycle the text will be drawn. But the next cycle when the player isn't picking up an item it won't come by that drawString statement and you won't have your string on your screen longer than 1 game cycle.

Android Missile sprite

I am trying to make a onTouchEvent to create a missile that will launch from my character sprite and forward.
I have this working using
if (missdraw = true){
canvas.drawBitmap(missile,missilex,missileY,null);
missilex = missilex + 14;
missdraw = false;
}
in my onDraw method, but the problem is it will only create one at a time.
I tried to create a class to deal with this, but this just causes an error and crashes when i try to fire.
here is what i use for the class: (this is in the ondraw in my gameview)
for (Batcher missile : missiles ){
missile.onDraw(canvas);
}
this is in the class
public Batcher(List<Batcher> temps, ScreenActivity newView, float x,
float y, Bitmap missile){
this.x = 1;
this.y = 2;
this.missile = missile;
}
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
canvas.drawBitmap(missile, x,y, null);
}
I would appreciate any help, but also if you could explain how it would work, instead of just code, as im quite new to programming, and really need to understand what im doing and why im doing it, rather than just copying peoples code because it works.
Cheers Phil.

Your concepts are pretty good, actually. There are a few things I don't quite understand about the code samples you posted up, I'll try to translate into what I'd do and you can tell me if I'm doing it wrong :)
in your game class you need (and it looks like you have) a list of Missiles:
LinkedList<Batcher> missiles;
In your onTouch(), however a missile is created -
missiles.add(new Batcher(missilex, missiley, missile));
you now have a collection of missiles. Note that I didn't include the list in the constructor of your batcher, because an object should never need to know that it's a part of a collection. All it needs to know is how to draw itself and where. Since I assume that all of your missiles will be added to or removed from the screen frequently, while only having a few on screen at a time, I've used a LinkedList, which is fast for adding and removing, but slow for accessing a specific missile. If you needed to access specific items in the collection and the collection didn't change very much, you would use an ArrayList instead. on to onDraw - as you have it the missile draws itself, which is fine, but I prefer to let the View do the drawing, with the missile telling it where it should be drawn -
for (Batcher missile : missiles ){
missile.setX(missile.getX() + 14); // to make it move
if (missile.getX() > canvas.gedWidth()) { //check if it's left the screen
missiles.remove(missile); // Remove it
}
else { //perform drawing
canvas.drawBitmap(missile.getBitmap(), missile.getX(), missile.getY(), null);
}
}
Hopefully that'll do it for you, but feel free to let me know if there's anything you'd like me to explain more!