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iOS ObjectiveC Parallax Effect Scrolling UIKit

HowTo: Extend endless horizontal scrolling with a vertical parallax effects

Welcome to Part 7 of my blog series about game development: Scrolling with parallax effects

Today I’ll extend the parallax effect from part 5 of my posts with vertical scrolling. This should increase the illusion of depth. To control the movement I’ll use the motion sensors as described in part 6.

Steps to achieve this behavior:

  • Scale the width and the height of the background image and implement horizontal and vertical movement of the background image:

 

 

  • Scale the height of the background tiles which are used for endless scrolling and implement vertical movement for the background tiles:

 

BackgroundBushiPad@2x
 
BackgroundTree@2x~ipad
 
 
 
 
  • Some tricks to get a better effect:
    • Use different scale factors for the backgrounds. Farer away means bigger scale factor
    • Move backgrounds with different speed. The background which is farest away should be the fastest.
    • Move the background image in another direction as the tile backgrounds images
    • Physically this is not correct, but enough to create a good illusion. Otherwise  the player is distracted to much by the movements

Here’s a video which shows the effect:

 

 

 
 
Now let’s integrate this into the MyFirstGame project:
 

The code changes should be straight forward: (If you haven’t completed part 6 you can download the project from GitHub: v0.5.1)

Changes in “ParallaxHandlerNode.h”:

-(void)addBackgroundLayer:(NSArray*)tiles DirectionY:(int)directionY StepSize:(float)stepSize ScaleFactorX:(float)scaleFactorX ScaleFactorY:(float)scaleFactorY;

Complete “ParallaxHandlerNode.m”:

The main changes are done in:
  • addBackgroundLayer“: Extend the method signature to get the scaling and movement informations. Scale the images.
  • scroll“: Implement the additional parallax effects
 
#import “ParallaxHandlerNode.h”
 
#define cFactorForAngleToGetSpeedX 6
#define cFactorForAngleToGetSpeedY 1.5
 
@implementation ParallaxHandlerNode
 
CGSize _containerSize;
NSMutableArray* _directions;
NSMutableArray* _stepsizes;
 
-(id)initWithSize:(CGSize)size {
    _containerSize=size;
    // Initialize the Arrays to store the direction and stepsize information
    _directions = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    _stepsizes = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
 
    return [self init];
}
 
// Add a background layer.
-(void)addBackgroundLayer:(NSArray*)tiles DirectionY:(int)directionY StepSize:(float)stepSize ScaleFactorX:(float)scaleFactorX ScaleFactorY:(float)scaleFactorY{
 
    [_directions addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:directionY]];
    [_stepsizes addObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:stepSize]];
 
    // Create static background
    if ([tiles count]==1 ) {
        SKSpriteNode *background=[SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed🙁NSString*)[tiles objectAtIndex:0]];
        // Scale size to enable parallax effect
        background.size=CGSizeMake(background.size.width*scaleFactorX, background.size.height*scaleFactorY);
        background.position=CGPointMake(_containerSize.width/2, _containerSize.height/2);
        [self addChild:background];
    } else {
        // Create a background for infinite scrolling
 
        // Create a SKNode a root element
        SKNode *background=[[SKNode alloc]init];
        [self addChild:background];
 
        // Create and add tiles to the node
        for (int i=0; i<[tiles count]; i++) {
            NSString *item = [tiles objectAtIndex:i];
            SKSpriteNode *tile;
            if (![item isEqualToString: @””]) {
                // Add an emtpy screen
                tile=[SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed:item];
                // Scale size to enable parallax effect
                tile.size=CGSizeMake(tile.size.width, tile.size.height * scaleFactorY);
                tile.position=CGPointMake(_containerSize.width/2+(i*_containerSize.width), (_containerSize.width-tile.size.width)/2);
            } else {
                tile=[[SKSpriteNode alloc] init];
                // Scale size to enable parallax effect
                tile.size=CGSizeMake(_containerSize.width, _containerSize.height * scaleFactorY);
                tile.position=CGPointMake(_containerSize.width/2+(i*_containerSize.width), _containerSize.height/2);
            }
            [background addChild:tile];
        }
        // position background at the second screen
        background.position=CGPointMake(-_containerSize.width, _containerSize.height/2);
    }
}
 
// Infinite scrolling:
// – Scroll the backgrounds and switch back if the end or the start screen is reached
// – Speed depends on layer to simulate deepth
-(void)scroll:(float)speed {
 
    GLKVector3 vMotionVector = [MotionManagerSingleton getMotionVectorWithLowPass];
    float dMotionFactorX=vMotionVector.x*cFactorForAngleToGetSpeedX;
    float dMotionFactorY=vMotionVector.y*cFactorForAngleToGetSpeedY;
 
    CGPoint parallaxPos;
 
    for (int i=0; i<self.children.count;i++) {
        SKNode *node = [self.children objectAtIndex:i];
        SKSpriteNode *spriteNode;
        parallaxPos=node.position;
 
        // If more than one screen => Scrolling with tiles
        if (node.children.count>0) {
            spriteNode = (SKSpriteNode*)[node.children objectAtIndex:0];
            parallaxPos.x+=speed*(i+1)*dMotionFactorX; //Changed
 
            if (dMotionFactorX>0) {
                if (parallaxPos.x>=0) {
                    // switch between first and last screen
                    parallaxPos.x=-_containerSize.width*(node.children.count-1);
                }
            } else if (dMotionFactorX<0) {
                if (parallaxPos.x<-_containerSize.width*(node.children.count-1)) {
                    // switch between last and first screen
                    parallaxPos.x=0;
                }
            }
        } else {
            spriteNode = (SKSpriteNode*)node;
            float dDiff=(spriteNode.size.width_containerSize.width)/2;
            parallaxPos.x+=speed*(i+1)*dMotionFactorX;
            if (dMotionFactorX>0) {
                if (parallaxPos.x>=_containerSize.width/2+dDiff) {
                    parallaxPos.x=_containerSize.width/2+dDiff;
                }
            } else if (dMotionFactorX<0) {
                if (parallaxPos.x<_containerSize.width/2-dDiff) {
                    parallaxPos.x=_containerSize.width/2-dDiff;
                }
            }
        }
 
        // Vertical scrolling
        float dDiffY=(spriteNode.size.height_containerSize.height)/2; // pixels above and below to scroll
        float dStepSize=[[_stepsizes objectAtIndex:i] floatValue]; // Scrolling speed depends on level
        int iDirection=[[_directions objectAtIndex:i] intValue]; // Scroll backgroundimage in another direction to enhance parallax effect
 
        parallaxPos.y+=speed*dStepSize*dMotionFactorY*iDirection; // Calculate new position
 
        // Check if bounds are reached
        if (dMotionFactorY*iDirection>0) {
            if (parallaxPos.y>=_containerSize.height/2+dDiffY) {
                parallaxPos.y=_containerSize.height/2+dDiffY;
            }
        } else {
            if (parallaxPos.y<_containerSize.height/2-dDiffY) {
                parallaxPos.y=_containerSize.height/2-dDiffY;
            }
        }
 
        // Set the new position
        node.position = parallaxPos;
    }
}
 
@end

Changes in “GameScene.m”:

// Add the background elements for parallax scrolling
-(void)addBackgrounds {
 
    // Array contains the name of the background tiles. “” for adding an empty screen
    NSArray  *nameBackground = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @”Background”, nil];
    NSArray  *nameBush = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@”BackgroundBushLeft”, @”BackgroundBushRight”, @””, @”BackgroundBushLeft”, nil];
    NSArray  *nameTree = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@”BackgroundTreeLeft”, @”BackgroundTreeRight”, @”BackgroundTreeLeft” ,nil];
    NSArray  *nameGrass = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@””, @”BackgroundGrassCenter”, @””, nil];
 
    // Root node which contains the tree of backgrounds/background tiles
    background = [[ParallaxHandlerNode alloc] initWithSize:self.size];
    [self addChild:background];
 
 
    // Move background which is farest away fastest => Physically not correct, but enough to realize illusion of depths. Otherwise the player is distracted to much by the movements
    [background addBackgroundLayer:nameBackground DirectionY:-1 StepSize:0.9 ScaleFactorX:1.2 ScaleFactorY:1.09];
    [background addBackgroundLayer:nameBush DirectionY:1 StepSize:0.7 ScaleFactorX:1.0 ScaleFactorY:1.07];
    [background addBackgroundLayer:nameTree DirectionY:1 StepSize:0.5 ScaleFactorX:1.0 ScaleFactorY:1.05];
    [background addBackgroundLayer:nameGrass DirectionY:1 StepSize:0.3 ScaleFactorX:1.0 ScaleFactorY:1.03];
 
}
 

You can play around with the values to find the optimal solution for your needs

As always you can download the complete project from GitHub: v0.6.1
 
That’s all for today. In my next post I’ll use a Delegate Pattern to add a HUD (Head Up Display) to my game.
 
Cheers,
Stefan