State System

[TheMeq]

Hi All, How do you guys put together your state system.

The way Love is at the moment, it's as if it expects your entire program in once script. I've tried stateswitcher, which doesn't work the way I expected it to, and I'm now looking at HUMP, which looks extremely complicated to just switch over to another state. Maybe i'm missing something.

Also, what is the point of love.load when all my variables can be loaded outside of love.load as well?

[TheMeq]

Another thing, why does Love work the way it does? Why put all the update and draw methods in there own functions? Why not just have a loop with both of them in?

[MadByte]

...and I'm now looking at HUMP, which looks extremely complicated to just switch over to another state. Maybe i'm missing something.

Actually it's pretty simple:

Code: Select all

-- main.lua
Gamestate = require("hump.Gamestate")
Game = require("Game")
function love.load()
  Gamestate.switch(Game)
  Gamestate.registerEvents()
end

Thats all you need to load a state and each callback (update, draw, keypressed, etc) get registered automatically.
The code in your State should look like this:

Code: Select all

local Game = {}

function Game:init() -- gets called the first time you load this state
end

function Game:enter() -- gets called everytime you switch to this state
end

function Game:leave() -- gets called when you switch to another state
end

function Game:update(dt)
end

function Game:draw()
end

return Game

Thats it.

Also, what is the point of love.load when all my variables can be loaded outside of love.load as well?

It's possible to pass command line arguements from outside of the application to love.load. That might be a reason.

[TheMeq]

How should the files be laid out in relation to my main.lua?

Would I create a game.lua and put those function in that file?

Thanks

[TheMeq]

Ok, I think I got it, but it's throwing up an error.

hump/gamestate.lua:40: attempt to index local 'to' (a boolean value)

[ivan]

Another thing, why does Love work the way it does? Why put all the update and draw methods in there own functions? Why not just have a loop with both of them in?

Because you can't always draw on the screen whenever you want.
Like for example, if vsync is involved.
Also, no reason to draw on the screen more frequently than 1/60 of a second as your eyes won't even notice it.

[TheMeq]

Another thing, why does Love work the way it does? Why put all the update and draw methods in there own functions? Why not just have a loop with both of them in?

Because you can't always draw on the screen whenever you want.
Like for example, if vsync is involved.
Also, no reason to draw on the screen more frequently than 1/60 of a second as your eyes won't even notice it.

Thanks for clarifying ivan ^_^

[TheMeq]

Figured it out, forgot to return at the end.

[bobbyjones]

Man be careful with double posting. The admins are old(jk) and not used to the newer forms of communication where double posting is acceptable.

[TheMeq]

Sorry >_<