[RESOLVED] Harpoon Based Game Help Needed

Hey guys, I'm currently working on a project which involves a harpoon being shot, to retrieve objects, pull them back up, and repeat.
An example of the game I'm making is Gold Miner found on many game websites.

I've gotten my swinging motion down pretty well I believe, and had some good progress going, but have found my shooting to be quite faulty. I need the harpoon to shoot directly from whatever angle it is at when shot and travel in a straight path until it makes contact with an object or the bottom.

I simplified my game down to the bare minimum code, and would greatly appreciate input to correct my shooting actions.

Thanks :)

Moved From The Vb6 Codebank (which is for sharing code rather than asking questions :) )

Well one problem is you are using too many timers. Even one is bad enough. Multiple timers are bad cause one timer has to complete before the next one can fire. For games, even the professional ones, everyone uses whats called a managed game loop:

vb Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceCounter Lib "kernel32" (lpPerformanceCount As Currency) As Long
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceFrequency Lib "kernel32" (lpFrequency As Currency) As Long
 
Private Ticks_Per_Second As Currency
Private Start_Time As Currency
Private Milliseconds As Long
Private Last_Time As Long
 
Private Get_Frames_Per_Second As Long
Private Frame_Count As Long
 
Private Running As Boolean
 
Public Function Hi_Res_Timer_Initialize() As Boolean
 
    If QueryPerformanceFrequency(Ticks_Per_Second) = 0 Then
        Hi_Res_Timer_Initialize = False
    Else
        QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
        Hi_Res_Timer_Initialize = True
    End If
 
End Function
 
Public Function Get_Elapsed_Time() As Single
    
    Dim Last_Time As Currency
    Dim Current_Time As Currency
    
    QueryPerformanceCounter Current_Time
    Get_Elapsed_Time = (Current_Time - Last_Time) / Ticks_Per_Second
    QueryPerformanceCounter Last_Time
    
End Function
 
Private Sub Lock_Framerate(Target_FPS As Long)
 
    Static Last_Time As Currency
    Dim Current_Time As Currency
    Dim FPS As Single
    
    Do
        QueryPerformanceCounter Current_Time
        FPS = Ticks_Per_Second / (Current_Time - Last_Time)
    Loop While (FPS > Target_FPS)
    
    QueryPerformanceCounter Last_Time
 
End Sub
 
Private Function Get_FPS() As String
 
    Frame_Count = Frame_Count + 1
        
    If Get_Elapsed_Time - Milliseconds >= 1 Then
        Get_Frames_Per_Second = Frame_Count
        Frame_Count = 0
        Milliseconds = Get_Elapsed_Time
    End If
    
    Get_FPS = "FPS: " & Get_Frames_Per_Second
 
End Function
 
Private Sub Shutdown()
 
    Running = False
    Unload Me
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Main()
    
    With Me
        .Show
        .ScaleMode = 3
        .AutoRedraw = True
        .BackColor = RGB(0, 0, 0)
    End With
 
    Running = True
    Hi_Res_Timer_Initialize
    Milliseconds = Get_Elapsed_Time
    Game_Loop
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Game_Loop()
 
    Do While Running = True
 
        '//Timer Code Goes Here
 
        Me.Caption = Get_FPS
        Lock_Framerate 60
        DoEvents
    Loop
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    
    Main
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
 
    If KeyCode = vbKeyEscape Then
        Shutdown
    End If
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
 
    Shutdown
 
End Sub

All of your timer based code should be located within your Game_Loop:

Code:

---


Private Sub Game_Loop()

    Do While Running = True
 
        '//Timer Code Goes Here

        Me.Caption = Get_FPS
        Lock_Framerate 60
        DoEvents
    Loop

End Sub

---

Once thats done, you need to make some boolean flags. Like for your harpoon you can make a flag called Fire. Dim Fire As Boolean up in your General Declarations. In your game loop:

Code:

---

If Fire = True Then

//firing code here

End if

---

Once the harpoon is done retrieving, have Fire = False so you can fire again.