Make an item glow when the player is walking

[Stephdidou]

Hi,

I'm making a game (point & click) and I'm trying to make the usable item glow when the player is walking.

It’s quite simple but I don’t why I fail..I must miss something.

I have already the code as my usable item is glowing when I'm putting it on an other usable item...

So I've got a Engine class (where I'm trying to put the code that make the item glow when the player is walking.

And a DraggedItem Class (This class allows the user to drag inventory items over the stage).

In my DraggedItem class I've got this function :

private function itemGlow(isGlowing:Boolean):void{
                              if (isGlowing){
                                        var glow:GlowFilter = new GlowFilter();
                                        glow.color = 0xFFFF00;
                                        glow.alpha = .75;
                                        glow.blurX = 10;
                                        glow.blurY = 10;
                                        glow.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.MEDIUM;
                                        draggedItem.filters = [glow];
                              } else {
                                        draggedItem.filters = null;
                              }
                    }

So, in my Engine class I'd like to use this function when my player is walking.

I tought I could put something like this :

back = new Background(stage, thisBack);
back.currentBack.ground.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, shineItems, false, 0, true);
private function shineItems(e:MouseEvent):void{
                                        trace(shineItems);
                              var thisClip = usableItems
                              if (playerControl){
                                        stage.dispatchEvent(new Event("playerMoving"));
 draggedItem.itemGlow;
                                        }
                              }

But it's not it.

I've must import the function in the wrong way...

So I've try to add in the Engine Class (and change "draggedItem.itemGlow;" by "itemGlow;")

private function itemGlow(isGlowing:Boolean):void{
                              if (isGlowing){
                                        var glow:GlowFilter = new GlowFilter();
                                        var thisClip = usableItems
                                        glow.color = 0xFFFF00;
                                        glow.alpha = .75;
                                        glow.blurX = 10;
                                        glow.blurY = 10;
                                        glow.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.MEDIUM;
                                        thisClip.filters = [glow];
                              } else {
                                        thisClip.filters = null;
                              }
                    }

But it's not working either....

Any idea ?

[Stephdidou]

I've changed "draggedItem.itemGlow"  by "draggedItem.itemGlow(true);".

And marked the function itemGlow (in the draggedItem class) as PUBLIC.

But now I've got this error :

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference. at com.laserdragonuniversity.alpaca::Engine/shineItems()

It seems that draggedItem.itemGlow(true); is the problem..

[moccamaximum]

it probably has sth. to do with how you adrees an instance of your dragged item class.

if you instantiate your DraggedItem class

with

var draggedItem:DraggedItem = new DraggedItem();

and IsGlowing is a property of this MovieClip

the public fucntion inside the DraggedItem.as should be written like this:

                              if (isGlowing){
                                        var glow:GlowFilter = new GlowFilter();
                                        glow.color = 0xFFFF00;
                                        glow.alpha = .75;
                                        glow.blurX = 10;
                                        glow.blurY = 10;
                                        glow.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.MEDIUM;


                                        this.filters = [glow];
                              } else {
                                        this.filters = [];
                              }

in this case the keyWord "this" refers to any instance of the class you are creating,

while "draggedItem" (your soultion) would refer to a MovieClip called "draggedItem" inside your "draggedItem" instance, which is probably not what you intended.

[Stephdidou]

It doesn't work. new DraggedItem(); needs 2 arguments.

Is it simpler to rewrite a new function only for glowing the usable item ?

Like that :

if I write a new function directly in the Engine Class.

private function shineItems(e:MouseEvent):void{ 
trace(shineItems); 
var thisClip = usableItems 
if (playerControl){ 
stage.dispatchEvent(new Event("playerMoving")); 
itemShine(true); 
}
public function itemShine(isShining:Boolean):void{ 
if (isShining){ 
var glow:GlowFilter = new GlowFilter(); 
glow.color = 0xFFFF00; 
glow.alpha = .75; 
glow.blurX = 10; 
glow.blurY = 10; 
glow.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.MEDIUM; 
usableItems.filters = [glow]; 
} else { 
usableItems.filters = null; 
} 
}

doesn't seem to work. but I'll look into it (no errors, but nothing is happening..). But the trace tells me that the function is geting called

[moccamaximum]

Is it simpler to rewrite a new function only for glowing the usable item ?

It doesn`t make much sense to use multiple classes, if you end up cross referencing them.

The Engine shouldn`t care about how your draaggableItem reacts to user input.

new DraggedItem(); needs 2 arguments.

show the contructor of your DraggableItem class