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Shapes

Shapes are fundamental to the game engine, used in rendering sprites, determining collisions, and more. All shapes implement the IShape interface, which provides some useful functions:

IShape

Transform(transform: Transform): IShape;
FarthestPointInDirection(direction: Vector): Vector;
PointInside(point: Vector): boolean;
  • Transform takes a transform and applies it to shape; translating, rotating and scaling a shape.
  • FarthestPointInDirection returns the point that is farthest in the direction provided. Used in the GJK algorithm for collision detection.
  • PointInside determines if a point provided is within the shape or not.

Polygon

The Polygon is a series of arbitrary points that make up a shape. It can be declared by passing an array of points to the constructor.

For example:

const triangle = new Polygon([
    Vector.New(-1, -1),
    Vector.New(1, -1),
    Vector.New(0, 1)
]);

The Polygon allows itself to be 'wrapped', meaning that the first and last points are the same. This is useful as it allows these Polygons to be used in rendering, which often require pairs of lines to render.

To wrap a Polygon:

const triangle = new Polygon([
    Vector.New(-1, -1),
    Vector.New(1, -1),
    Vector.New(0, 1)
], true);

Helpers

There are some static helper methods to make Polygon creation easier:

Ellipse

The Ellipse is an elliptical representation of a shape, for example an oval or a circle. It is represented by a center position, dimensions, and a rotation.

For example:

const oval = new Ellipse(Vector.New(4, 2), Math.PI / 4, Vector.New(2, 2));

AABB

The AABB shape is an Axis-Aligned Bounding Box, this is a rectangle that has no rotation; it is aligned with the X and Y axis.

The AABB is defined by a centre and width and height dimensions, it can be used for faster collision detection as it is a more simple shape, requiring less calculations than a fully defined polygon.

For example:

const square = new AABB(Vector.New(2,2));
const squareAroundPoint = new AABB(Vector.New(2,2), Vector.New(5,3));
const rectangle = new AABB(Vector.New(2,4));