Making a sprite face the mouse

[fridays18]

I want to make one sprite (this is for a top down game) that has a clear front and back, I then want the front of the sprite to always be facing the mouse pointer. Basically the sprite rotating to the mouse, does anyone know how I would go about this?

[Bigfoot71]

Basically you need to get the angle between the position of the image and the mouse, you can do it with the function `math.atan2(dy,dx)` where dx and dy are the difference between the position of the mouse and image, here is an example:

Code: Select all

local lg = love.graphics

local GW, GH = lg.getDimensions()

local image = lg.newImage("spaceship.png")
local image_w, image_h = image:getDimensions()

local x, y = GW/2, GH/2
local ox, oy = image_w/2, image_h/2
local angle = 0

function love.update(dt)

    local mx, my = love.mouse.getPosition()

 -- angle = math.atan2(my-y, mx-x)+math.pi/2    -- get angle + 90° in radian
    angle = -math.atan2(mx-x, my-y)+math.pi     -- get -angle + 180° in radian


end

function love.draw()
    lg.draw(image,x,y,angle,1,1,ox,oy)
end

But what do you mean by:

that has a clear front and back

[fridays18]

Basically you need to get the angle between the position of the image and the mouse, you can do it with the function `math.atan2(dy,dx)` where dx and dy are the difference between the position of the mouse and image, here is an example:

Code: Select all

local lg = love.graphics

local GW, GH = lg.getDimensions()

local image = lg.newImage("spaceship.png")
local image_w, image_h = image:getDimensions()

local x, y = GW/2, GH/2
local ox, oy = image_w/2, image_h/2
local angle = 0

function love.update(dt)

    local mx, my = love.mouse.getPosition()

 -- angle = math.atan2(my-y, mx-x)+math.pi/2    -- get angle + 90° in radian
    angle = -math.atan2(mx-x, my-y)+math.pi     -- get -angle + 180° in radian


end

function love.draw()
    lg.draw(image,x,y,angle,1,1,ox,oy)
end

But what do you mean by:

that has a clear front and back

Appreciate the help this should work great! I meant front and back like the sprite clearly has a back and front rather than being kinda ambiguous.

[MrFariator]

Clearly signaling which way the sprite is facing is more of a visual design dilemma, than anything löve specific. The usual go-to for perfectly top-down games (like Hotline Miami) tends to be that the character's arms clearly point one way or the other, particularly if they're holding a weapon of some sort. The alternative is to have the character's head lean forward in the direction they're facing, as seen in game like GTA2. Basically take an element of your character's design, and put some emphasis on it for clarity.

If in doubt, or you fear that player's might get confused in the heat of the moment, you could even add a toggle setting in the options that adds an arrow or triangle to signify character's facing direction.

[fridays18]

Clearly signaling which way the sprite is facing is more of a visual design dilemma, than anything löve specific. The usual go-to for perfectly top-down games (like Hotline Miami) tends to be that the character's arms clearly point one way or the other, particularly if they're holding a weapon of some sort. The alternative is to have the character's head lean forward in the direction they're facing, as seen in game like GTA2. Basically take an element of your character's design, and put some emphasis on it for clarity.

If in doubt, or you fear that player's might get confused in the heat of the moment, you could even add a toggle setting in the options that adds an arrow or triangle to signify character's facing direction.

Didnt even consider adding a arrow but that would add to the experience 10 fold, thanks for the hint!