Need help improving a sliding mechanic in my 2d game

Help Programming
1

Godot Version

4.2.2

Question

I’m trying to add sliding to my game. So far, I have kind of added it, you can slide on flat surfaces, but that’s about it. Right now, I’m trying to figure out how I could change my code so that I slide faster on slopes, but I’m struggling to figure it out. I also have a problem where my player moves backward by about a pixel every second. Here is my movement code. Any help would be great.

var direction = Input.get_axis("ui_left", "ui_right")

if (direction and sliding == false):
	velocity.x = direction * SPEED
elif !Input.get_axis("ui_left", "ui_right") and sliding == false:
	velocity.x = move_toward(velocity.x, 0, SPEED)
else:
	if velocity.x >= 0 and direction >= 0:
		`velocity.x -= 380 * delta`
	elif velocity.x <= 0 and direction <= 0:
		velocity.x += 380 * delta
	else:
		velocity.x = 0

move_and_slide()

if Input.is_action_pressed("slide") and velocity.x != 0:
	scale.y = 0.5
	sliding = true
elif Input.is_action_pressed("slide") and velocity.x == 0:
	scale.y = 0.5
2

(sorry for the mess im still new to GDS) (all of the code is under _physics_process )

3

What do you mean by ‘backward’? What are the backticks for in the

if velocity.x >= 0 and direction >= 0:
		`velocity.x -= 380 * delta`

block?
Further in the script, you have <= in the elif section. These shouldn’t matter, as if the velocity.x and the direction were equal to zero, it would be caught in the if, so they can just be <. In the if, you shouldn’t need to check for velocity.x relative to 0, as you can use

var x = velocity.x / abs(velocity.x)
if x
#you don't need to check direction, as it will be greater than, equal to, or less than 0,
#all of which lead to this line of code:
	velocity.x += 380 * delta

to create a multiplier and simplify some code. I personally have had issues with slopes in general. I haven’t tested this code, so it might not work.

P.S. I love your name

4

I’m having a bit of a hard time understanding what you responded with, if you could clarify where the second block of code should go that would help a lot, I have also found a problem where you can’t move at all after sliding and releasing the “slide” button, I think the problem is the sliding variable isn’t switching back to false after it becomes true but from what I understand it should, the problem would be in this block, but I’m really not sure what the problem is.

	if !Input.is_action_pressed("slide"):
		scale.y = 1
		sliding == false
	elif Input.is_action_pressed("slide") and velocity.x != 0:
		scale.y = 0.5
		sliding = true
	elif Input.is_action_pressed("slide") and velocity.x == 0:
		scale.y = 0.5
		sliding == false

also, im a fan of your name aswell

5

The problem with the slide button releasing is not quite what you think it is. On line 3,

	if !Input.is_action_pressed("slide"):
		scale.y = 1
#the line after this one
		sliding == false

and in the second elif, you say

sliding == false

The problem with this is that having both equals signs is a compare function, not an assignee. To check whether something is equal to something else, == is used, to set a variable, = is used.

Instead of your first post, this MIGHT work:

var direction = Input.get_axis("ui_left", "ui_right")


if (direction and sliding == false):
	velocity.x = direction * SPEED
elif not direction and sliding == false:
	velocity.x = move_toward(velocity.x, 0, SPEED)
else:
	#sliding == true?

	#a number from -1 to 1 based on the current velocity
	var x = velocity.x / abs(velocity.x)

	if direction - x == 0:
		#the reason direction - x works, is because you currently check if your direction and velocity
		#are going in the same direction, and 1 - 1 == 0 and -1 - -1 == 0

		#the * x is to flip left or right based on current velocity
		velocity.x += 380 * delta * x
	else:
		velocity.x = 0

move_and_slide()

if Input.is_action_pressed("slide") and velocity.x != 0:
	scale.y = 0.5
	sliding = true
elif Input.is_action_pressed("slide") and velocity.x == 0:
	scale.y = 0.5

again, this MIGHT work

Enjoy! :grinning:

6

i had no idea that == meant compare, i just thought it was a weird thing for if statements because why not.

sadly your version of my code does not work how i’d like it to so i think ill be sticking with what i wrote. i also know how it works more than i know yours so it will be easier for me to modify in the future.

also, i think i have an idea on how to get sliding to work on slopes: i use an area 2d under the player to get the angle of the slope, then multiply the rotation_degress and make it a minimum velocity. if you have any different suggestions on how to do this that would be great, but for now, thanks for all your help.

7

Keep your code, as it sounds like the better idea. For slopes, you probably don’t need an area2D, as the characterBody2D has a built-in get_floor_normal() function and a get_wall_normal() function, which will return the vector2 of the vector perpendicular to the floor/wall. Check this out for more info.

8

awesome, thanks

1 Like