SFML-Topdown-Player-Character

A player character controller class for use with SFML. 2D, top down, includes built in animation and movement features, and a choice between 4-directional animation and 8-directional animation.

All the user needs to have are the following:

A character sprite sheet, and your C++ IDE configured to work with SFML.

The class will animate and move the player based on user input for you.

#Here is how the class works:

1. Create an object of type Character. Pass the sprite sheet directory, the sprite width in pixels, sprite height in pixels, then the amount of frames per animation (each walking animation should have the same amount of frames), and a bool value representing whether you are using 8 directional animation(true) or 4 directional animation(false)

Character objName ("spriteSheetDirectory.png", int spriteWidth, int spriteHeight, int numFrames, bool isEightDirectional);

2. From an SFML window, call the charMove function. This starts a perpetual loop that animates and moves the character based on user input. Default keys are the arrow keys. Here is a real world example:

objName.charMove();

3)From an SMFL window, draw the sprite.

w.draw(objName.getSpriteObj());

#Here is a real world example:

	while (w.isOpen()) {//begin game loop
		sf::Event event;

		while (w.pollEvent(event)) {//processing events
			if (event.type == sf::Event::Closed) { w.close(); }//close windows if exit is clicked
		}

		w.clear();//clearing before drawing new frame

		/*DRAWING IS TO BE DONE BETWEEN CLEAR AND DISPLAY*/
		objName.charMove();
		w.draw(objName.getSpriteObj());

		w.display();//end current frame, display its contents on the screen
	}

#Important Notes: This class depends on an enum to function correctly. It takes rectangular chunks out of the defined image and animates them. Therefore, it is very important that your sprite sheet is formatted exactly so that each "frame" fits into the exact same sized square or rectangular dimensions.

Furthermore, the rows must be lined up as such:

Row 1 - Walking down animation

Row 2 - Walking left animation

Row 3 - Walking up animation

Row 4 - Walking right animation


If you are using eight directional animation:

Row 5 - Walking down and left animation

Row 6 - Walking down and right animation

Row 7 - Walking up and left animation

Row 8 - Walking up and right animation

You can use as many rows as you would like, however the class uses the first 4 in all cases to animate movement. Rows 5-8 are required and used only if you want to animate 8 directional movement. 4 directional animation will work even if you have 8 rows. In that case it will simply ignore the rest of the rows after row 4.

#Basic collision detection is also available! This feature is still undergoing work, however, it is available for use, and should provide satisfactory collision detection for top down 2D games.

To use collision detection:

1)Use the WorldObject class to create inanimate in-game objects. You can also inherit from this if you wish to customize your game object further!

WorldObject block("spriteDirectory.png",int xSize, int ySize, int xPos, int yPos);

2)Draw it (make sure you do this in an SMFL window loop)!

window.draw(block);

This will actually output the object you created earlier on the screen, at whatever coordinates you specified!

3)Pass it to your player character for collision checking! (This is also done in the SFML window loop)

playerCharacter.checkCollision(block);