keysmoothingcontinuous

Smooth continuous movement


I made a little game with pygame and allthough it looks fine to me, there's one thing I would like to improve: I want the little white square to keep moving when a key is pressed an stops moving when the key is not pressed anymore.

How can I have continious movement when arrow key (DOWN, UP, LEFT orRIGHT) is pressed ?

This is my Code so far:

import pygame

pygame.init()

# Setup
width,height = 500,500
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((width,height))

# Colors
WHITE = (255,255,255)
LGREY = (100,100,100)
DGREY = (50,50,50)

# Variables
x = y = 50

# Functions
def draw_box():
    global x,y
    if x > 425:
        x = 50
    if x <50:
        x = 425    
    if y > 425:
        y = 50
    if y < 50:
        y = 425    
    pygame.draw.rect(screen,WHITE,pygame.Rect(x+1,y+1,24,24),2)

def draw_grid():
    for i in range (1,16):
        pygame.draw.line(screen,DGREY,(50+i*25,50),(50+i*25,450),1)
        pygame.draw.line(screen,DGREY,(50,50+i*25),(450,50+i*25),1)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen,WHITE,pygame.Rect(50,50,25*16,25*16),1)

def main():
    global x, y
    
    running = True
    clock = pygame.time.Clock()

    while running:

        for event in pygame.event.get():

            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                running = False
            if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                if event.key == pygame.K_DOWN:
                   y += 25
                if event.key == pygame.K_UP:
                    y -= 25
                if event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT:
                    x += 25
                if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT:  
                    x -= 25
            if event.type == pygame.KEYUP:
                if event.key in (pygame.K_DOWN, pygame.K_UP):
                    y +=  0
                elif event.key in (pygame.K_LEFT, pygame.K_RIGHT):
                    x +=  0                
          
            screen.fill(LGREY)
            draw_grid()
            draw_box()
    
        pygame.display.update()
        clock.tick(50)
    pygame.quit()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Solution

  • It is because the x and y values ONLY get modified at the point when a key is pressed down, so you would have to keep pressing the keys.

    You would need a way to save the state in a change_x and change_y variable, for example, and slow down the tick rate.

    In the example code below, I added these two new variables and slowed down the game. Now when a key is pressed, the state changes for change x or y, and an update function applies the update to the x and y positions.

    import pygame
    
    pygame.init()
    
    # Setup
    width,height = 500,500
    screen = pygame.display.set_mode((width,height))
    
    # Colors
    WHITE = (255,255,255)
    LGREY = (100,100,100)
    DGREY = (50,50,50)
    
    # Variables
    x = y = 50
    change_x = 0
    change_y = 0
    
    
    # Functions
    def draw_box():
        global x,y
        if x > 425:
            x = 50
        if x <50:
            x = 425    
        if y > 425:
            y = 50
        if y < 50:
            y = 425    
        pygame.draw.rect(screen,WHITE,pygame.Rect(x+1,y+1,24,24),2)
    
    def draw_grid():
        for i in range (1,16):
            pygame.draw.line(screen,DGREY,(50+i*25,50),(50+i*25,450),1)
            pygame.draw.line(screen,DGREY,(50,50+i*25),(450,50+i*25),1)
        pygame.draw.rect(screen,WHITE,pygame.Rect(50,50,25*16,25*16),1)
    
    def update_pos():
        global x, y, change_x, change_y
        x += change_x
        y += change_y
    
    def main():
        global x, y, change_x, change_y
        
        running = True
        clock = pygame.time.Clock()
    
        while running:
            # event processing stage
            for event in pygame.event.get():
    
                if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                    running = False
                if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                    if event.key == pygame.K_DOWN:
                       change_y = 25
                    if event.key == pygame.K_UP:
                        change_y = -25
                    if event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT:
                        change_x = 25
                    if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT:  
                        change_x =- 25
                if event.type == pygame.KEYUP:
                    if event.key in (pygame.K_DOWN, pygame.K_UP):
                        change_y =  0
                    elif event.key in (pygame.K_LEFT, pygame.K_RIGHT):
                        change_x =  0
            # update stage
            update_pos()
            
            # draw stage
            screen.fill(LGREY)
            draw_grid()
            draw_box()
        
            pygame.display.update()
            clock.tick(15)
        pygame.quit()
    
    if __name__ == '__main__':
        main()
    

    if possible it would be preferable to avoid global variables. I found the following site very helpful when I was learning pygame, and here is an example of code from that site:

    """
    Sample Python/Pygame Programs
    Simpson College Computer Science
    http://programarcadegames.com/
    http://simpson.edu/computer-science/
    """
     
    import pygame
     
    # Define some colors
    BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
    WHITE = (255, 255, 255)
    GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
    RED = (255, 0, 0)
     
     
    def draw_stick_figure(screen, x, y):
        # Head
        pygame.draw.ellipse(screen, BLACK, [1 + x, y, 10, 10], 0)
     
        # Legs
        pygame.draw.line(screen, BLACK, [5 + x, 17 + y], [10 + x, 27 + y], 2)
        pygame.draw.line(screen, BLACK, [5 + x, 17 + y], [x, 27 + y], 2)
     
        # Body
        pygame.draw.line(screen, RED, [5 + x, 17 + y], [5 + x, 7 + y], 2)
     
        # Arms
        pygame.draw.line(screen, RED, [5 + x, 7 + y], [9 + x, 17 + y], 2)
        pygame.draw.line(screen, RED, [5 + x, 7 + y], [1 + x, 17 + y], 2)
     
    # Setup
    pygame.init()
     
    # Set the width and height of the screen [width,height]
    size = [700, 500]
    screen = pygame.display.set_mode(size)
     
    pygame.display.set_caption("My Game")
     
    # Loop until the user clicks the close button.
    done = False
     
    # Used to manage how fast the screen updates
    clock = pygame.time.Clock()
     
    # Hide the mouse cursor
    pygame.mouse.set_visible(0)
     
    # Speed in pixels per frame
    x_speed = 0
    y_speed = 0
     
    # Current position
    x_coord = 10
    y_coord = 10
     
    # -------- Main Program Loop -----------
    while not done:
        # --- Event Processing
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                done = True
                # User pressed down on a key
     
            elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                # Figure out if it was an arrow key. If so
                # adjust speed.
                if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT:
                    x_speed = -3
                elif event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT:
                    x_speed = 3
                elif event.key == pygame.K_UP:
                    y_speed = -3
                elif event.key == pygame.K_DOWN:
                    y_speed = 3
     
            # User let up on a key
            elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP:
                # If it is an arrow key, reset vector back to zero
                if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT or event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT:
                    x_speed = 0
                elif event.key == pygame.K_UP or event.key == pygame.K_DOWN:
                    y_speed = 0
     
        # --- Game Logic
     
        # Move the object according to the speed vector.
        x_coord = x_coord + x_speed
        y_coord = y_coord + y_speed
     
        # --- Drawing Code
     
        # First, clear the screen to WHITE. Don't put other drawing commands
        # above this, or they will be erased with this command.
        screen.fill(WHITE)
     
        draw_stick_figure(screen, x_coord, y_coord)
     
     
        # Go ahead and update the screen with what we've drawn.
        pygame.display.flip()
     
        # Limit frames per second
        clock.tick(60)
     
    # Close the window and quit.
    pygame.quit()