Movement Values
Introduction
This page covers all control values in available on a platformer entity. It also provides ways to implement common functionality such as ice physics and under-water levels.
Modifying Control Values
If you created your game using the wizard, then the Player entity already has a set of default values. If you manually created your Player entity, the it should also have a set of default control variables.
These values serve as a starting point for platformers - they can be tuned to provide a custom feel to platformer entities. The platformer control values can be viewed and edited by selecting the Player entity and clicking on the Entity Input Movement tab.
Max Speed
This is the maximum speed (maximum absolute horizontal velocity) that the character can move through input. Note that if using Immediate horizontal movement, then this is a hard value - not other forces can modify the character movement. For more information, see the next section. Increasing this value makes the character move more quickly , but doing so can make the game more difficult to control if the value is too large.
Immediate and Speed Up/Down
This value controls whether the character reaches maximum velocity immediately, or if it takes time for the character to speed up and slow down to the maximum velocity and back to standing still. Using Immediate increases the responsiveness of your game, and allows players to move very accurately. Examples of immediate-movement games include Mega Man and Castlevania.
The Speed Up/Down option results in the platformer entity accelerating to max speed and back down to a standstill over time, instead of immediately. This option creates more natural movement and requires more planning on the player's part (such as building up speed before a big jump). Examples of speed up/down movement include the Super Mario Bros. series and the Donkey Kong Country series.
Speed Up Time
The Speed Up Time value controls how many seconds are required for the platformer entity to reach max speed. This value is only available if using Speed Up/Down horizontal movement.
Increasing this value makes the character makes the platformer entity feel sluggish. Decreasing this value makes the platformer entity feel more responsive. A value of 0 is identical to using Immediate horizontal movement. A larger speed up time can also be used for different terrains and environments. For example, a larger value can make the ground feel more slippery (if the character is walking on ice). A larger value can also make the character seem more heavy, or can be used to simulate under-water movement. A larger Speed Up Time can be used for air movement so that control is less precise when in the air.
Slow Down Time
The Slow Down Time value controls how many seconds it takes for the platformer entity to decelerate from full-speed to a standstill. A larger value can make the ground seem more slippery, especially when paired with a larger Speed Up Time. Usually Slow Down Time should not be larger than Speed Up Time. If the two values are similar, then this makes the ground feel slippery. The following table shows common combinations of Speed Up Time and Slow Down Time. The values High, Medium, and Low do not have fixed meaning, but a typical setup may include these values:
Low .15 seconds
Medium .4 seconds
High .8 seconds
Of course you should modify values to achieve the desired movement for your specific game.
| Speed Up Time | Slow Down Time | |
|---|---|---|
Standard Ground Movement | Low or Medium | Low |
Ice Ground Movement | High | High |
Underwater Ground Movement | High | Medium |
Air Movement | Medium | Medium |
Heavy Character Ground Movement | High | Low |
Jump Speed
This value controls the velocity of the platformer entity at the moment when jumping off the ground, or when initiating a double-jump. Larger values allow the character to jump higher. This value is typically larger than Max Speed, but the exact value often requires multiple iterations to get the right feel.
A platformer entity's jump height is also impacted by Gravity, so both Jump Speed and Gravity may need to be modified together. A low jump speed can be used for double-jumps, or for swimming when under water. A large jump speed can be used for characters who can jump higher. The Jump Speed value on Air movement can control whether the character can perform a double jump. By default this value is 0 which means that the character cannot double-jump. Setting a value greater than 0 means a character can double jump. This topic will be covered in more detail in the following tutorial.
Hold to Jump Higher
If Hold to Jump Higher is checked, then the player will be able to hold the jump button to cause the platformer character to jump higher. This allows players to perform shorter hops when desired, and longer jumps to clear large obstacles. The larger this value, the longer the player can hold the button to jump higher.
Implementation Details
Variable-height jumping can be implemented a number of different ways. The platformer entity implements variable height jumping by turning off gravity while the player is holding the button down. This approach has the following characteristics:
Jumps feel responsive and immediate - the platformer entity does not delay jumping while the player is holding the button down. Instead, jump height is determined by not applying acceleration immediately.
Jump motion may not appear totally fluid, especially in high-gravity games.
The following image shows two jump arcs. The first is the movement of the character when the button is held, the second is without:
Although it may be difficult to see, the entity moves in a straight line on the first part of the first jump, rather than moving in an arc. This is the result of gravity being turned off while the button is held. If we color the first part red, the linear movement is a little easier to see:
Max Jump Hold Time
The Max Jump Hold Time value sets the maximum amount of time that the player can hold the jump button to extend the platformer entity's jump. A large value gives the player the option to hold the button to jump higher. A small value results in the max and min jump heights not differing by much. A very large value may result in the player appearing to "float" while jumping, so keep this in mind when setting large values (such as over 1 second). A large Max Jump Hold Time may be used with a small Max Jump Speed to create swimming controls.
Can Fall Through Clouds
This value controls whether the platformer entity can press the down arrow + jump to fall down through cloud collision. If this value is false, then cloud collisions can only be jumped up through, but the player cannot fall down through them.
Cloud Platform Thickness
This is the distance to fall when pressing down + jump on a cloud platform before testing cloud collision again. When falling through cloud collision, collision against clouds is temporarily disabled until the user has fallen far enough. Once that has happened, cloud collision is re-enabled. This value should be roughly the thickness of cloud collision objects plus the height of the player collision. For example, if the tile height is 16 and the player's collision height is 32, then the Cloud Platform Thickness value should be set to 48. If a TileShapeCollection's UpdateShapesForCloudCollision method is called, then only half of the shape will be used for collision, so only half of the tile height needs to be considered when determining the Cloud Platform Thickness.
Gravity
Gravity controls how fast a character accelerates downward when falling. This value is assigned to the PositionedObject.YAcceleration property. Increasing this value makes the entity fall more quickly, while a smaller value makes the entity fall slower, or seem to float.
Max Falling Speed
Max Falling Speed sets a limit to the platformer entity's y velocity. A smaller max falling speed results in the entity falling more slowly, even if Gravity is large. A smaller max falling speed can be used to slow a player's fall down with special abilities such as the raccoon tail in Super Mario Bros 3.
A smaller Max Falling Speed and low Gravity can be used to implement water physics such as the water levels in Donkey Kong Country.
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