Hi all, my first post asks a question about how to implement polymorphism in a game sketch that I am working on that moment. Its a very rough sketch atm, so any other help that you would like to offer is also appreciated.

Basically, I am reading the tutorials and stumbled on to inheritance and subclasses etc. A concept that I find facinating yet a head scratcher at the same time.

To be brief (my code will follow): I am trying to implement a subclass (balls2), this will inherit everything about the class B but the balls will move faster and be different sizes and appear at different rates.

Now - I saw that you can make an array, but instead of populating the array with just one object you can put lots of things in it.

I want to say that if the frameRate%aTimePeriod put ball1 in array, if the frameRate%anotherTimePeriod then put ball2 in array. This will make the game a bit more fun (hopefully).

What I want to know, is what code should I use to do this and more importantly why? Thanks in advance people!

B[] myB = new B[999];
Obstacles[] obsT = new Obstacles[999];
int enemyNum;
int ballCount=0;
int obstCount=0;
int ballZCount=0;
int time=0;
int lives;
int timerCount = frameCount/25;
float pos1 = 350;
float obstXX;
float obstYY;

void setup() {
 size (400,400);
 smooth();
 PFont font;
 frameRate(25);
 font=loadFont("Calibri-24.vlw");
 textFont(font);
 lives=1;
}

void draw(){
 background(0);
 println (obstCount);
 if(lives==1){
 drawPlayer(pos1,70.0);
 drawBalls();
 drawObst();
 time++;
 if(time%100==0){ballHELLO();}
 if(time%100==0){obstHELLO();}
 }
 
 else{
 end();
 if(mousePressed)
 {begin();}
 
 }
}

void begin(){
 lives=1;
 ballCount=0;
 obstCount=0;
}


void drawPlayer(float y, float q)
{
 float Ypos = y;
 float siZe = q;
 fill(255,255,255);
 rectMode(CENTER);
 rect(mouseX,Ypos,siZe,10);
}

void ballHELLO()
{
   myB[ballCount] = new B(random(0,400),random(0,200),20,random(1.5,1.8),random(1.5,1.8));
   ballCount++;
}

void obstHELLO()
{
   obsT[obstCount] = new Obstacles(random(0,width),random(0,100));
   obstCount++;
}



void drawBalls() //pretty sure its here where i need to implement the polymorphism
{
 for(int i=0;i< ballCount;i++)
 {  
     myB[i].display();
     myB[i].gravity(mouseX,pos1);
 }

}

void drawObst()
{
 for(int j=0;j< obstCount;j++)
 {  
     obsT[j].show();
 }

}


void timer()
{
 fill(255);
 text(frameRate/25,random(0,400),random(0,400));

}

void end()
{
 text("you lasted: "+timerCount,200,200);
 text("seconds, well done!",200,250);
 
}

class B {
 //Hopefully a superclass
 float globalX;
 float globalY;
 float diameter;
 float speedX;
 float speedY;
 float speedFactor;

 B (float global_X, float global_Y, float diamtr, float speed_X, float speed_Y) {
   globalX = global_X;
   globalY = global_Y;
   diameter = diamtr;
   speedX = speed_X;
   speedY = speed_Y;
   speedFactor = speedY*speedY;

 }

 void gravity (float u, float v){

   globalX = globalX + (speedX * speedFactor);
   globalY = globalY + (speedY * speedFactor);

   if((globalX > width)||(globalX < 0))
   {
     speedX = speedX* -1;
   }
   
   if((globalY < 0)||(dist(u,v,globalX,globalY) <= 20))
   {
     speedY = speedY* -1;
   }

   constrain (globalX, 0, width);
   constrain (globalY, 0, height);
   
   lose();

 }


 void display(){
   ellipseMode (CENTER);
   ellipse (globalX,globalY,diameter,diameter);
   fill (255,255,255);

 }

 void lose()
 {
   if(globalY>height)
   {
     lives-=1;
     
   }
}

}

class balls2 extends B {
 
 balls2() {
   super(6,5,4,3,2); //some dummy numbers this will change
 }
 
}

class Obstacles {
 
 float ObstX;
 float ObstY;
 
Obstacles(float h, float d){
           ObstX = h;
           ObstY = d;
}
 
  void show(){

    beginShape();
    fill(255);
    vertex(ObstX,ObstY);
    vertex(ObstX,ObstY+10);
    vertex(ObstX+10,ObstY+10);
    vertex(ObstX+10,ObstY);
    vertex(ObstX,ObstY);
    endShape();
}

}


Again apologies if my code is very rough.