Running two loops at the same time ? moving and traveling using loops - c++

Question

I am a first year Computer Engineer so I am a little bit amatuer in coding C++, anyway I am creating a game where there are two spaceships shooting each other. I currently succeeded making the first spaceship move by using a while loop and the GetASyncKeyState function. but now I am making the bullets travel. I used for loop, and I did succeed in making the bullet travel upward. But there's a problem, I can't move the spaceship until the for loop stop or the bullet reach the top of the console window (I am using console btw). is there a way to both run the for loop and while at the same time ? or to run two different function at the same time since GameMovement() is for the movement of spaceship and BulletTravel() is for the bullet. and I am calling BulletTravel() from GameMovement().
void GameMovements()
{
bool FirstInitialization = true;
int Player1XCoordinate = 55, Player2XCoordinate = 55;
int Player1YCoordinateU = 28, Player1YCoordinateD = 29;
while (true)
{
BulletPattern(Player1XCoordinate);
if (FirstInitialization == true)
{
GameBorderAndStatus();
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateU);
cout << " ^ \n";
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateD);
cout << "^==|==^ \n";
FirstInitialization = false;
}
//MOVEMENTS FOR PLAYER 1
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_LEFT) && Player1XCoordinate != 16)
{
system("cls");
GameBorderAndStatus();
Sleep(10);
Player1XCoordinate -= 3;
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateU);
cout << " ^ \n";
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateD);
cout << "^==|==^ \n";
}
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_RIGHT) && Player1XCoordinate != 94)
{
system("cls");
GameBorderAndStatus();
Player1XCoordinate += 3;
Sleep(10);
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateU);
cout << " ^ \n";
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateD);
cout << "^==|==^ \n";
}
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_UP) && Player1YCoordinateU != 24)
{
system("cls");
GameBorderAndStatus();
Player1YCoordinateU -= 2;
Player1YCoordinateD -= 2;
Sleep(10);
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateU);
cout << " ^ \n";
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateD);
cout << "^==|==^ \n";
}
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_DOWN) && Player1YCoordinateU != 28)
{
system("cls");
GameBorderAndStatus();
Player1YCoordinateU += 2;
Player1YCoordinateD += 2;
Sleep(10);
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateU);
cout << " ^ \n";
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinateD);
cout << "^==|==^ \n";
}
}
}
void GameBorderAndStatus()
{
//Draw game border
for (int i = 0; i < 31; i++)
{
SetCoordinate(15, i);
cout << "|";
SetCoordinate(104, i);
cout << "|";
}
}
void BulletPattern(int Player1MuzzleLocation)
{
for (int i = 25; i != 3; i--)
{
Sleep(100);
SetCoordinate(Player1MuzzleLocation + 3, i);
}
}
void SetCoordinate(int CoordinateX, int CoordinateY)
{
COORD Coordinate;
Coordinate.X = CoordinateX;
Coordinate.Y = CoordinateY;
SetConsoleCursorPosition(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), Coordinate);
}

Answer 1

Rather than using two different functions and moving one object within each, you might find better results keeping track of where each object should be, and using one function to draw both.
It's a little hard to tell what's going on in your code since some functions and variable declarations are missing (I don't see you ever actually drawing a bullet, for example - might be a bug in your BulletPattern?), but something like this might do the trick:
void GameMovements()
{
while (true)
{
//MOVEMENTS FOR PLAYER 1
if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_LEFT) && Player1XCoordinate != GAMEBOARD_LEFT)
{
Player1XCoordinate -= 3;
}
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_RIGHT) && Player1XCoordinate != GAMEBOARD_RIGHT)
{
Player1XCoordinate += 3;
}
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_UP) && Player1YCoordinate != SPACESHIP_TOP)
{
Player1YCoordinate -= 2;
}
else if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_DOWN) && Player1YCoordinate != SPACESHIP_BOTTOM)
{
Player1YCoordinate += 2;
}
Sleep(10);
UpdateBulletPosition();
DrawObjects();
}
}
void UpdateBulletPosition()
{
//if the bullet hits the top of the screen, remove it
if (bulletYCoordinate == GAMEBOARD_TOP)
{
bulletXCoordinate = 0;
bulletYCoordinate = 0;
}
//I assume you're automatically generating bullets whenever possible; you'll have to adjust this conditional if that's not the case
//no bullet? generate one
if (bulletXCoordinate == 0)
{
bulletXCoordinate = Player1XCoordinate + 3;
bulletYCoordinate = 25;
}
else
{
bulletYCoordinate--;
Sleep(100);
}
}
void DrawObjects()
{
//wipe the screen and show status first
system("cls");
GameBorderAndStatus();
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinate);
cout << " ^ \n";
SetCoordinate(Player1XCoordinate, Player1YCoordinate + 1);
cout << "^==|==^ \n";
//only draw the bullet if there's a bullet there to draw
if (bulletXCoordinate != 0)
{
SetCoordinate(bulletXCoordinate, bulletYCoordinate);
cout << ".\n";
}
}
const int GAMEBOARD_LEFT = 16;
const int GAMEBOARD_RIGHT = 94;
const int GAMEBOARD_TOP = 3;
const int SPACESHIP_TOP = 24;
const int SPACESHIP_BOTTOM = 28;
int Player1XCoordinate = 55, Player2XCoordinate = 55;
int Player1YCoordinate = 28;
int bulletXCoordinate = 0, bulletYCoordinate = 0;
I also made some tweaks to the rest of your code. Every case in your if-else block used the same basic drawing code, so I pulled that out of the if-else entirely. That also let me drop the entire initialization if-else.
I also dropped one of your vertical coordinates for the spaceship. You really don't need two; just keep track of the upper coordinate and draw the lower half of the ship at Player1YCoordinate + 1.
Finally, I replaced your hardcoded board edges with constants. Magic numbers are generally frowned upon; using named constants makes it easier to determine why you're using a given value in a given location, as well as making it easier to update the code in the future (perhaps you need to update for a different console size).