Rusher 2 – State Machine

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This tutorial introduces the StateMachine system in Rusher 2.

States and State Machines

In Rusher 2, the StateMachine class is used as a component class, where its subclass StateSystem is a state machine system that can be added to a game engine. No matter you’re using a state machine component or a state machine system, the State class can be extended and used in both cases.

The Command class defines the following methods (not all are listed):

public function onSet():void;
public function getEnterCommand():Command;
public function getExitCommand():Command;
public function update(dt:Number):void;
protected final function goto(state:State):void;

The onSet() method is invoked when the state is set as the current state of the state machine.

The getEnterCommand() should return a command which will be executed when the state machine is about to enter this state. The onSet() method is invoked after the enter command is completed.

The getExitCommand() should return a command to be executed when the state machine is leaving this state, when the StateMachine.setState() method or the State.goto() method is called. After the exit command is completed, the state machine will start executing the enter command of the new state.

The update() method is invoked in each game loop. You can make use of this method to query the game state and determine whether you want to enter a new state by invoking the goto() method.

Note that due to the use of commands, theCommandManager system must be added to the engine prior to any state machine system.

State Machine Example

Again, we’re going to base our example on the previous Keybaord example.

Instead of using the KeyboardController component to control the circle on the screen, we’re going to use the StateMachine component.

So in the EntityCreator system, we swap the line below:

circle.addComponent(new KeyboardController());

with this:

circle.addComponent(new StateMachine(new CenterState()));

The StateMachine constructor takes one optional argument, which is the initial state object.

Here’s what the CenterState class looks like. Basically the enter command tweens the circle position to the center of the screen, and the update() method queries the Keyboard system and enter to other four states accordingly.


public class CenterState extends State
{
    [Inject]
    public var position:Position;
    
    [Inject]
    public var keyboard:Keyboard;
    
    override public function getEnterCommand():Command 
    {
        return new TweenNanoTo
        (
            position, 
            0.2, 
            {
                x: 400, 
                y: 300
            }
        );
    }
    
    override public function update(dt:Number):void 
    {
        if (keyboard.isDown(Key.UP))
        {
            goto(new UpState());
        }
        else if (keyboard.isDown(Key.DOWN))
        {
            goto(new DownState());
        }
        else if (keyboard.isDown(Key.LEFT))
        {
            goto(new LeftState());
        }
        else if (keyboard.isDown(Key.RIGHT))
        {
            goto(new RightState());
        }
    }
}

The four other states all look similar, so I’ll just show the UpState here. Note it only queries the down key, since the other three directions would not be a valid input for this state.


public class UpState extends State
{
    [Inject]
    public var position:Position;
    
    [Inject]
    public var keyboard:Keyboard;
    
    public function UpState() 
    {
        
    }
    
    override public function getEnterCommand():Command 
    {
        return new TweenNanoTo
        (
            position, 
            0.2, 
            {
                x: 400, 
                y: 200
            }
        );
    }
    
    override public function update(dt:Number):void 
    {
        if (keyboard.isDown(Key.DOWN))
        {
            goto(new CenterState());
        }
    }
}

All set. If you run the example, you can see a circle in the center of the screen that can be moved along a cross with the keyboard.

About Allen Chou

Physics / Graphics / Procedural Animation / Visuals
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