Proper structure of program for modeling different behaviours of insect?

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whitehotl..

Proper structure of program for modeling different behaviours of insect?

in General Discussion • Other • 8 months ago

I'm working on an algorithmic animation of an insect moving around the screen. I've got a class for the insect, and a variety of methods which set different behaviours for the insect, such as whether it's moving, what direction it's moving in, which way it's pointing its head, etc. I also have a draw() method in my insect class, and use it to draw the insect based on how the behaviour methods have set the insect's parameters.

My question is: Where should I be calling the insect's behaviour methods from? I've tried setting it up in a few different ways, and I seem to run into problems no matter what I do.
I thought at first that my method calls should be inside of the main draw() method for the sketch, but this makes certain things difficult (or maybe I just setting them up the wrong way). I then tried making a run() method in the insect class and calling it at the end of my setup() method. I found that this was also difficult to work with.

What would be the standard way to set up this sort of thing?

Replies(4)

tfguy44

Re: Proper structure of program for modeling different behaviours of insect?

8 months ago

It can vary, but one of the best ways I've seen it done is to separate behavior completely from drawing.
That way you can tweek the behavior and the drawing of the object easily and individually.

Example:

class Buggy {
int x;
int y;
color c;
Buggy() { // Define something simple.
x = int( random(width) );
y = int( random(height) );
c = color( random(255), random(255), random(255) );
}
void draw() {
simulate();
render();
}
void simulate() { // Move the thing just one step.
x+=int(random(-2, 2));
y+=int(random(-2, 2));
}
void render() { // Just draws the thing, based on member data only.
fill( c );
noStroke();
rect( x, y, 10, 10 );
}
}
Buggy aBug;
void setup() {
size(220, 220);
aBug = new Buggy();
}
void draw() {
background(0);
aBug.draw(); // Does a simulation step first, then renders it.
}

dr.mo

Re: Proper structure of program for modeling different behaviours of insect?

8 months ago

yeah, like the example shown, you want to call both a draw and an update function from the main draw(). if you put anything in setup() it will only be executed once during startup.

if you need to have behaviour that responds to events, you can also add functions to your class to do that. for example, you can add a function to your class that gets called only when the mouse is clicked, and put that in mousePressed()

using this structure you should be able to do everything needed.

quarks

Re: Proper structure of program for modeling different behaviours of insect?

8 months ago

In setup you could register the "pre" method with

registerMethod("pre", this);

then add the method to your main sketch (same as draw)

public void pre(){
// update insects state based on its behaviour, user input etc.
}

Just like the draw method the pre method will be executed once every frame. This gives a good seperation of the behaviour and rendering.

This is for Processing 2.0

BTW I agree with the others that the Insect class should have seperate update and render methods. The update would be called from pre and the render from draw

whitehotl..

Re: Proper structure of program for modeling different behaviours of insect?

8 months ago

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. Breaking the insect's draw method into separate simulate() and render() methods looks like a nice clean way of doing things. I wish I had asked this question sooner...
I'll give this paradigm a try.

Thanks!

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