OffScreen Effect

Questions & Answers
1

Hi, all!
I am trying to achieve the offscreen indicator similar to that in Super Smash Bros (something we can all relate to, hopefully).

alt text

Check the upper left hand corner to see what I mean.

Luckily, I am not trying to get something that complicated. I have my sprites renderered, and I have the code to check if it is offscreen.

EDIT: I am trying to get the ‘position copying’ action, NOT the ‘player in the circle’ effect. I have simple symbols that I am using. I just want the circle to copy the player’s position but be clipped to the screen like the blue circles are.

I would just like to know how I might have the offScreen sprite copy the position of the offScreen player. (If Peach in the image were lower, the indicator would be as well).

Hopefully I have relayed my message well enough. I hope I can get this to work!

Thanks! - YA

2

For a 2D game, the indicator is fairly easy. Here is a starter script:

public class Tracker : MonoBehaviour {
	
	public GameObject goToTrack;

	void Update () {
		Vector3 v3Screen = Camera.main.WorldToViewportPoint(goToTrack.transform.position);
		if (v3Screen.x > -0.01f && v3Screen.x < 1.01f && v3Screen.y > -0.01f && v3Screen.y < 1.01f)
			renderer.enabled = false;
		else
		{
			renderer.enabled = true;
			v3Screen.x = Mathf.Clamp (v3Screen.x, 0.01f, 0.99f);
			v3Screen.y = Mathf.Clamp (v3Screen.y, 0.01f, 0.99f);
			transform.position = Camera.main.ViewportToWorldPoint (v3Screen);
		}
		
	}
}

It used the fact that when you convert a world point to a viewport point, the values for x and y will be between 0 and 1 if the point is visible. You have to fudge the number a little, since this check will be for the position of the object and does not take into account the object’s size.

For 3D, things are more complicated. See this post for a starting point:

How To Make A 2D GUI Arrow Point At A 3D Object