Matt,
Sounds like you've the right idea here. The main thing I could add
would be that a good approach would be to create 25 objects (one for
each of your flash-thingies), then put the 25 object references into
a list. The only question would be where would you keep the list of
object references. There seem to be two logical choices: keep the
list in a global, or keep the list in a single behavior attached to
the sprite where you have your flash member. If you use a global
then you can send messages by using the name of the global, if you
use a behavior, then you can send a message to it by using
sendSprite. The basic idea would be to have a flashthingy parent
script that has all the data and algorithms for a single flashthingy.
Then, have a "manager" object (this is either the global or a
behavior attached to the sprite) that maintains the list of
flashthingies:
pListOfFlashThingies
on beginSprite me (or on new me)
pListOfFlashThingies = []
repeat with i = 1 to 25
aFlashThingieObjectReference = new(script "FlashThingies", <any params>)
append(pListOfFlashThingies, aFlashThingieObjectReference)
end repeat
...
end
Now, I don'r really understand what your path finder code does, but
if you have the above, then you can send a message to a specific
flashThingy object (number "i") by doing this:
thisObjectReference = pListOfFlashThingies[i] -- pull out the
proper object reference
SomeHandlerName.thisObjectReference(any optional parameters)
Hope this helps,
Irv
PS: If you do the above (or something like it), you will need some
"cleanup" routine that allows the pListOfFlashThingies to be emptied.
Otherwise, the FlashThingie objects will never go away.
At 4:19 PM -0500 2/16/02, Matthew DeSimone wrote:
>For some reason in 5 years of director development, I've never worked
>seriously with Parent/Child scripting. Now I'm dumped into the middle
>of it, and desperately need some help here.
>
>I have a flash movie which has 25 moving objects on the screen, as well
>as a number of obstacles. These objects react to a mouse click in flash
>to set their new destination. However, due to the amount of processing
>needed to find the shortest available route, I want to offload the
>pathfinding scripts to director.
>
>Now, in order to find the shortest route possible, I need to keep track
>of several arrays specific to each flash "sprite". I believe the
>easiest way to do this is to make a new child instance each time my
>pathfinding handler is called. However, I have nothing to "attach"
>these children to.
>
>I guess my main question is, is it possible to have abstract children
>off a parent script, where the children exist simply as invocations of a
>script, and not invocations of a script which are attached to a specific
>director sprite?
>
>I know that may seem convulted, so if anything needs clarification, let
>me know.
>
--
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