attaching objects

[dub]

I'm trying to attach arms to my (platform)character, but I have no clue how to go about it. I have the two active objects but I don't know how to group them.

I need the arms to move with body.

I have the arms (with weapons in them) and the body seperate so I can change weapons.

[DavidN]

It's as simple as:

Always -> Set position of "arms" to (x, y) from "body".

This will make the arms always follow the body around. Depending on the build you're using and how you're doing the actual movement of your character, there may be a small amount of lag between the objects...

[rhoymand]

I've used that method to attach two objects before, but it does have lag when the parent object moves too fast like DavidN said. is there any way to avoid this? can fastloops once again save the day?

[DavidN]

This is because the standard movements are handled after the event list - so objects that have their position set to others will still be a little behind by the time the screen updates. I think that this was fixed in build 243, but I haven't tested it too extensively.

If you're using a movement that's handled entirely by events, just put the "Set position" event further down the event list than any action that moves the first object.

[dub]

Thanks for the answers.

It worked, though it does however lag a little, plus when I walk into walls the arms carry on a few pixels further than the body.
Another issue I have, is that the arms are jittering??? Looks like they are moving by one pixel very quickly. Very strange... I even removed their animation and they still judder.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[TDA]

the "jitter" might be the way your animation(s) are set up... Do the arms move (swap) with the body? You might want to set anim frame to the torso's frame... (and same anim...stopped, moving, etc... and dir as well...)
You may see less lag if you play with things like instead of

"Always", try "Is Torso Visible?" --- set arm position...

I made a game once with cars, an dthe body was made of 9 pieces, they would lag using "always", but won't if I used something else, like "is car frame's Flag "on"?"

[Joshtek]

To get rid of jitter you could make all of the linked visible objects actually set their position to an invisible object.

[Nick]

The lag occurs due to you setting the "set position" event BEFORE the "move character event. Therefor the position it is set to is the position before the character moves.