I'm trying to make a star field for my game, but am having some problems.

What I want to do is use a function:



That will update the stars' positions. viewX and viewY are given the player's position like this: (player.X-500, player.Y-500). The viewport is 1000*1000, so the player is centered that way.

So, given that I know the positions of the viewport and the stars, I need to figure out how to get those stars to constrain themselves to an area with X = between 0 and 1000 and Y = between 0 and 1000.

I was thinking that I could take a star's position and subtract the viewport space from that to get its "background-space" (between 0 and 1000) position. Then, with this position, I could do a check to see if the star was between 0 and 1000. If it were, I could then set the star to show up in the opposite end of the screen. If it's still in the "safe area" of the viewport, then draw it at its location minus the viewport space.

Of course, it works *nothing* like it should when I implement the function. No matter how I tweak it, it gives really, really bizarre results. I'm not even going to bother posting the function I have now as it's completely broken and useless (like me).

Please offer your advice.

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Basically you want the stars constrained between

viewx <= starx < viewx+1000
viewy <= stary < viewy+1000

?

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Thanks Jasmine! My problem was that I was thinking too much about it, and making it more complicated than it needed to be. Using the code you posted above, I was able to work things out.

"Only the human mind can take a humble mound of sod and raise it to the magnitude of a mountain range."

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

When I did my asteroids game, I had a parallax starfield, so that the distant faint stars would drift slower, and only the nearest would drift at the speed of the player's ship.

The way to add this is to give stars a Z depth too, randomly between 0 to 1

• 0 corresponds with the nearby stars which are drifting at the speed of the player's ship,
• 1 corresponds with the farthest stars, where parallax makes them drift slower, which if you use the formula below will drift at half speed.

Stellar_Drift_Speed = Ship_Speed / (1+Z)

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Nice. I'll keep that in mind as I continue working.

By the way, I noticed that I'm having a slight issue with my ship's movement. I have a maxSpeed variable that's a number. I check the ship's speed based on that, but the catch is that when my ship is moving at an angle that isn't divisible by 45 degrees, the movement "squares off". I can be pointed at, say, 60 degrees, but then as my ship picks up speed, it starts to go more toward a 45-degree angle.

Any suggestions for capping the ship's speed while keeping the movement angle correct?

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Hmm... Are you capping the x and y velocities separately?

ie,
ship_speed.x is capped at maxspeed
ship_speed.y is capped at maxspeed

??

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Currently, yes.

if this.x > maxSpeed : this.x = maxSpeed;

etc. But maxSpeed is one variable, applied to both x and y.

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Then that's the problem.

If your ship is moving quickly, then both x and y speeds will be capped to maxspeed, and your ship will be moving with velocity (maxspeed, maxspeed), which is at 45 degrees.

What you need to do is cap the total speed, not the component speeds. Something like this...



Introducing a sudden cap on the speed can be felt like a bounce, as though the ship has hit something. You'll have to try it and see how it feels.

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Thanks again, Jasmine! It's working well. I haven't noticed any bouncing movements, but that may be because I have the ship accelerate up to speed, and the max speed really isn't *that* high.

Woot!

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."