Swingpant's Game Lab

I’ve been building a few apps recently and have found that a linear response over a range of numbers has been a poor solution. I needed to be able to apply different response curves to user interface components (knobs, sliders, touchpads) as well as on screen display objects, characters, etc.

I needed a good name for the class, but instead came up with the pretty poor moniker ‘RangedNumbers’. I’ll change it when I come up with a better one.

So the idea is, a ‘ranged number’ is instantiated, initialised for the required range then a simple call with a value in that range will result with a percentage that can be applied to the intended recipient accordingly. I realised that an inverted curve would be handy too, so have added that functionality.

I have included exponential and powered curves as well as linear.

So to use the ranged number system:

//Instantiate and Initialise
var ranged_num:RangedNumber=new RangedNumber(min,max)
//Where min is the minumum number in the range and max is the maximum

//In use:
trace ( ranged_num.calculatedRangeNumber(value, curve_type, inverted) )
//Where:
// value is the value within the range to be calculated
// curve_type is the type of response curve.
// Curve types: RangedNumber.LINEAR, RangedNumber.EXPONENTIAL, RangedNumber.POWERED
// inverted is a boolean flag. True if the inverted response is required

I have put together two demos to show the RangedNumber class in action:

Firstly using a Slider component. Grab the slider and watch how the markers are represented on all the displayed response curves.

A demonstration of how to implement non-linear response curves

Now here is the same demo but this time using a TouchPad. Click on the touchpad to engage. In this demo horizontal movement controls the standard curves and vertical the inverted.

How to implement non-linear response curves with a touchpad

The source for these demos and the Ranged Number class can be found here: Ranged Number ZIP