1. int playerx = 400;
   int playery = 300;
   
   void mousePressed() {
   float xforce =mouseX-playerx?      //these two need to be converted to between -0.5 & 0.5
   float yforce =mouseY-playerY?
   
   bullets.add(new Bullet(playerx, playery, xforce*gunSpeed, yforce*gunSpeed));
   }
   
   class Bullet {
     Body b;
   
     Bullet(int x_, int y_, float xF_, float yF_) {
     b = new FBody();
     b.setPosition(x_, y_);
     b.applyForce(xF_, yF);
     world.add(b);
     }
   }
   

So I am working on a 2d sidescroller. I am using jbox2d for physics and I am trying to write better code for shooting weapons. What I have is the gun origin (x:400, y:300) just for example, and I can get the mouse positions(say its x:700, y:200). So I minus the gun position from mouse which leaves me with (x:300, y:-100). Now this is where I am confused. I need to convert those both into floats between (-0.5 & 0.5) and the total of adding the floats together must equal 1 since I multiply them both by a variable called gunspeed when I actually shoot.


The code is just off the top of my head since I am not at home, but it is very simple. The FBody reference is just the physics engine Fisica I am calling and is just there for clarifying my problem. I may be altogether doing this the wrong way. What my issue was before was that if my mouse was close to the body the bullet would not have strength to move and if it was at an edge it would zoom past. I need it to be a consistant amount of power added to the bullet. This has been stumping me for over a week, I think I could solve it with trig but not sure of the route? Thanks