Help with my Virtual Pet Program

[Graeme]

Okay, so i'm in the process of making a virtual pet game.
So far i have process which have the health being decreased and stamina etc.etc...
but I have the process's forked, and they run throughout the program at any given time.
and in those process's i have it so after it displayed the new health or stamina, the background is re-copied.
what i want to do is have it so..if i am say in a game within the virtual pet, i want it so the process will terminate until i go back to the main menu
any help would be awesome thanks

[Delos]

Simple answer: Don't use processes. They will make your life needlessly difficult, as you've already discovered. Instead, use the tried-test-and-true approach of procedures in a single loop:

pseudo:

create pet proc reduce_pet_life (byAmount : int)    pet.life -= byAmount end proc reduce_pet_stamina (byAmount : int)    pet.stamina -= byAmount end loop    if checking_time has passed       reduce_pet_life       reduce_pet_stamina    end    if main_menu requested       go to main_menu    end end

Now, since you're in a central loop, you can control things appropriately and thus measure out how long it will be before the pet's attributes change. Also, since all input/output is controlled in one place, you can always exit that loop when needed and run other things. For instance, you could have your main loop as a nested loop, the outside loop housing the main menu...

pseudo:

loop    main_menu    loop       if help_requested then          run_help       else if start_game_requested then          exit       end    end    % When out of main_menu selection loop, so start Main Loop    loop       if checking_time has passed       % ...       if main_menu requested then          exit       end    end    % When Main Loop exited, back into main_menu loop end

Give that a spin and see how it goes. Check out the [Turing Tutorials] for info on Procedures and Functions. Make sure you're good with those before you attempt this. It will make your life a lot easier.

[Graeme]

Okay...well the reason I used processses was because my main menu is in a procedure, and you cant call another procedure inside a procedure...Here i will show you what I have..


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

code:

process health_time     locate (14, 13)     put health     var health_decrease_time := 0     loop         if Time.Elapsed - health_decrease_time >= 60000 then             health_decrease_time := Time.Elapsed             health -= 25             locate (14, 13)             put health            Pic.ScreenLoad ("maintitle.bmp", 0, 0, picMerge)         end if     end loop end health_time process stamina_time  locate (12, 13)     put stamina     var stamina_decrease_time := 0     loop         if Time.Elapsed - stamina_decrease_time >= 30000 then             stamina_decrease_time := Time.Elapsed             stamina -= 10             locate (12, 13)             put stamina              Pic.ScreenLoad ("maintitle.bmp", 0, 0, picMerge)         end if     end loop end stamina_time body proc main     %MAIN MENU     cls     locate (10, 3)         put "Bank   ", "$"  % Displays Current Bank Balance     locate (10, 13)     put cash     locate (14, 3)     % put " Health ", health, "%"     put "Health ,"         locate (12,3)     put "Stamina:  ", "%"%"     fork health_time     fork death     fork cash_bonus     fork cash_decrease     fork stamina_time     var button1 : int := GUI.CreateButton (200, 10, 0, "Buy Food", hello)     var button2 : int := GUI.CreateButton (200, 45, 0, "Go To Sleep", hi)     var button3 : int := GUI.CreateButton (200, 75, 0, "Play A Game", game)     var button4 : int := GUI.CreateButton (200, 105, 0, "SELF DESTRUCT MY PET", murder)     var button5 : int := GUI.CreateButton (200, 140, 0, "Play Guess A Number!", game2)      var button6 :int := GUI.CreateButton (200, 350, 0, "About Virtual Pet", about)     Pic.ScreenLoad ("maintitle.bmp", 0, 0, picXor) end main main

Thanks again for your help

[codemage]

You can't define a procedure in another procedure.

You can most certainly call a procedure from another procedure though.

[NikG]

Please use the code /code tag when posting source code.
Also, next please post the entire source code... there were 12+ errors with what you posted.

Anyways, as codemage said, you can definitely CALL another proc from a proc. You'll have to modify your code though. The health_time and stamine_time procs should not have loops. You should only have one main body loop (the other procs could simply be to check the elapsed tiem and decrease health/stamina).

[Graeme]

Yeah thanks for the help, yeah i didn't post my full code, thats why their were so many errors, i can only posted the 2 process and one procedure...
thanks again

[ZeroPaladn]

you could do what i do, just set a boolean (true or false) and an if statment at the beginning of each procedure, for example...

code:

var staminacheck : boolean := ture proc decrease_stamina_pet     if staminacheck = true then     % put code here     end if end decrease_stamina_pet

hope it helps, even though it seems your problem was allready solved.

[TokenHerbz]

i try not to use un nessesary variables, it can make you program more probablemfull...

[ZeroPaladn]

i prefer to use those "unessasary" variables to just turn on and off procedures, it very simple, and easy to toggle them as well. Id rather have something simple (but unessasary to some people) then something overly complicated, yet they do the same thing.

[TokenHerbz]

ZeroPaladan, make a RPG to which you have people telling you specific things according to which quest your on, if you where to use booleans (which i did ) you end up with alot of vraiables, and i don't think they where completly needed, they made my matters confusing, etc: and i always hadda double check the variables was the correct one.

[[Gandalf]]

What's with everyone hating booleans recently? They are great if you are using them correctly. For example:

code:

if whiteToMove then     whiteToMove := not whiteToMove %now we know it's black's turn to move end if

Keep in mind that things like:

code:

put 7 > 6 & 5 - 1 =  9

and

code:

if wizard.name = "Gonforf" then     wizard.killSelf end if

also involve boolean values in some way.

[ZeroPaladn]

thanks for the backup [Gandalf]. I will admit that in an RPG those variables make up alot of clutter...

code:

var battlecheck : boolean := false var itemcheck : boolean := false var titlescreencheck : boolean := true % ect...

...not.

code:

var battlecheck, itemcheck, titlescreencheck : boolean := false titlescreencheck := true

[Martin]

ZeroPaladn wrote:

thanks for the backup [Gandalf]. I will admit that in an RPG those variables make up alot of clutter...

code:

var battlecheck : boolean := false var itemcheck : boolean := false var titlescreencheck : boolean := true % ect...

...not.

code:

var battlecheck, itemcheck, titlescreencheck : boolean := false titlescreencheck := true

Top one's way easier to read, especially when you want to scan through and find something. Also, the switching the value of titlescreencheck like that is a really bad idea, especially when just a line above you defined it as false, since if the reader only looks until they find where titlescreencheck is set, they'll think it's false.

As for the process bit, keep in mind that you only need to have the value of stamina when you actually need it (to either draw it or use it in a calculation). If you're constantly just calculating and recalculating it, you can optimize your program to make it way more efficient. What I mean by that is that you are decreasing stamina, you can do so using a function of time.

code:

function stamina (start_time : int) : int     return Time.Now - start_time end

[ZeroPaladn]

[quote="TokenHerbz"]ZeroPaladan, make a RPG to which you have people telling you specific things according to which quest your on,...quote]

The fact that you can turn booleans to turn on/off the quests, and jsut incorporate the code into your exisiting game is alot easier. Also makes adding quests much easier too.

[TokenHerbz]

perhaps, but when your dealing with 60+ boolean's, i just think there's an easier way... my save/load procs are nuts :S