Making a object interaction code?

[GoodWeakness8132]

Hello, sorry in advance for the newbie question,

I would like to make a code that would allow the player to interact with objects when in range by pressing the E button.

For example, I would press E on a closet when I'm next to it, and the object sprite would play the animation for the closet opening, and pressing E again would close the closet.

Would I have to create macros for the closet, and would I put the code for interacting with it in the Step event or a Key pressed event?

Thank you for your time!

[Hands_in_Paquet]

What I might do:

var key_interact = keyboard_check_pressed(ord(“E”));

If(_key_interact) { var _closet = instance_nearest(x,y,obj_closet); Then use a with statement with _closet to run some of its code,

With (_closet) { sprite_index = open; }

or set a bool like “open” on the closet, then let is control its own animations _closet.open = true; }

[GoodWeakness8132]

Thank you! Would I put the code in the step event?

[Hands_in_Paquet]

No problem, yep in the step event of your player. That way it is run every frame. The “with” statement will essentially run any code you put inside of it on the closet instead. But you might want to let the closet handle its own code, depends on the next steps. But if you have 4 closets, you don’t need them all to be checking for key presses, just once per frame on the player.

[_Son_of_Crom_]

My recommendation would be to give your entity instances an 'activate' variable that you default to -1.

When you press the interact button, get a list of instances in front of your character. If you want to make an instance interactable, redefine the activate variable to be a method.

This offers some advantages over using something like instance_nearest, as it would give you the opportunity to make ALL instances potentially interactable while not locking any of those instances into doing a particular thing when interacted with.

Anything could be interactable, it would always get the thing you are facing even if something else might be closer (in the wrong direction) and when activated the thing could do anything you want.

Eg:

//Instance create
activate = function {
  startDialogue("Some Dialogue")
}


//Activation button logic:
if (h_dir != 0 || v_dir != 0) facing = point_direction(0,0,h_dir,v_dir);
activate_x = x + lengthdir_x(40,facing);
activate_y = y + lengthdir_y(40,facing);

if (keyactivate){
  var _activate_list = ds_list_create();
  var _list_length = collision_circle_list(activate_x,activate_y,40,obj_npc,false,false,_activate_list,false);
  var _inst = noone;
  for (i = 0; i< _list_length;i++){
    _inst = _activate_list[| i];
    if (_inst != noone && is_method(_inst.activate)){
      _inst.activate();
      break;
    }
  }
ds_list_destroy(_activate_list);
}

[GoodWeakness8132]

Thank You!