Okay, most of you have played an RTS before. You click and drag and you form a little box on the screen to select a unit or a group of units. It's called lassoing units. Now I have figured out how to lasso units by dragging the mouse fine, it took about a day because it was somewhat complicated, but now it works perfectly, I can select units by dragging the mouse to lasso them. But there is one small detail remaining

I can't seem to figure out how I would go about drawing the box on the screen. I know this would prolly be easier if I'd upgrade to A6 and used draw_line or whatever that function is, but I don't know if I have the money. What I have done is create an onscreen entity that, when I drag, its scale_x and scale_y is modified. The problem with this is, 1, when I drag, the thickness of the lines distort, much like scaling a hollow cube in WED, and 2, I can't seem to get it so that one corner starts at the initial mouse click (mouseCoord1) and the diagnal corner at the final mouse release (mouseCoord2). The following code is my attempt at creating this box.

Code:

---

entity lassoBox
{
	type = <lasso.bmp>;
	layer = 2;
	view = camera;
	x = 100;
	y = 0;
	z = 0;
	flags = visible;
}

function deselect() //deselects units and lassoes units
{
	var recorded;
	if(!key_ctrl)	//if ctrl is not pressed
	{
		unselect = 1;	//set unselect flag to unselect everything
		wait(1);	//wait a frame
		unselect = 0;	//re-enable selection
	}
	while(mouse_left)	//while mouseLeft is pressed
	{
		if(recorded != 1)	//if first position if mouse is not recorded
		{
			mouse_trace();
			vec_set(mouseCoord1,target);
			recorded = 1;
		}
		mouse_trace();
		vec_set(mouseCoord2,target);
		mouseCoord3.x = mouseCoord1.x;	//find the next corner (don't need the fourth)
		mouseCoord3.y = mouseCoord2.y;
		mouseCoord3.z = 0;
		lassoBox.scale_x = -vec_dist(mouseCoord2,mouseCoord3) / 100;
		lassoBox.scale_y = -vec_dist(mouseCoord1,mouseCoord3) / 100;
		wait(1);
	}
	mouse_trace();
	vec_set(mouseCoord2,target);
	lasso = 1;
	wait(1);
	lasso = 0;
	recorded = 0;
	return;	//exit function
}

  

---

The entity, by the way is a 30x30 bitmap of a white square.

This function draws a 3d line in the world, not on the screen, so you might be able to use it.


////////////////

function greenline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 0.1;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 0;
my.green = 255;
my.blue = 0;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function blueline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 0.1;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 0;
my.green = 0;
my.blue = 255;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function redline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 4;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 255;
my.green = 0;
my.blue = 0;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function yellowline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 0.1;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 255;
my.green = 255;
my.blue = 0;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function blackline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 14;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 9;
my.green = 9;
my.blue = 9;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function whiteline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 0.1;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 255;
my.green = 255;
my.blue = 255;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function orangeline_effect()
{
my.lifespan = 14;
my.streak = on;
my.red = 255;
my.green = 125;
my.blue = 0;
my.size = 4;
my.function = NULL;
}

function drawline_fun(&start,&end,color)//g1,b2,r3,y4,b5,w6,7o
{
vec_diff(temp,end,start);
if(color == 1){effect_local(greenline_effect,1,start,temp);}
if(color == 2){effect_local(blueline_effect,1,start,temp);}
if(color == 3){effect_local(redline_effect,1,start,temp);}
if(color == 4){effect_local(yellowline_effect,1,start,temp);}
if(color == 5){effect_local(blackline_effect,1,start,temp);}
if(color == 6){effect_local(whiteline_effect,1,start,temp);}
if(color == 7){effect_local(orangeline_effect,1,start,temp);}
}


Note: The effects for the different colors have different stats. I.E. I use the orange line for something that is only called once, so the line stays long enough to see. Based on how far from the screen, you might want to change the size (thickness) of the lines.

Also, I am not sure this will work with A5, but assuming you have particles, it should be work-able.

Send me an email about your rts project, I love to talk about rts projects with gamestudio. I have worked on making one for years. My current project is more of an rtt, like the total war stuff, but I played "Rise of Legends" and my rts gander is up so to speak. So very good.

thegamedesigner.

brilliant idea, problem is, I only have extra, so I can't have streak and the highest edition I'm willing to go to is commercial. If I could get it to look right, it would be fine though.

And if you want information about my game, I've been running a blog to journal the developement at codebreakpoint.blogspot.com (you may need to go to the archives to find the initial post that explains the game) and I have information about it at my site

Search for C&C tutorial by Realspawn (may be in the acknex resources).

Uses pixel_to_bmap. Thats it then. I'm upgrading ASAP.

*EDIT* Just bought it.