Movement

Movement#

Basics#

Before we dive deeper into movement functions, here’s a quick recap of the core concepts:

  • You can directly control an actor’s position and orientation using self.direction, self.x, self.y, and self.position.

In addition, Miniworlds provides special methods that let an actor move straight ahead or in specific directions.

The move() Function#

The move() method moves your actor forward in the direction they are currently facing (based on direction). If you change the direction beforehand, the movement will automatically follow the new orientation.

@player.register
def act(self):
    self.direction = "right"  # You can also use an angle, e.g., 90
    self.move()

turn_left() and turn_right()#

With turn_left() and turn_right(), you can rotate the actor by a specified number of degrees to the left or right:

  • player.turn_left(degrees): Rotates the actor left by degrees

  • player.turn_right(degrees): Rotates the actor right by degrees

Example:#

import miniworlds 

world = miniworlds.World(400, 400)
world.add_background("images/grass.jpg")
player = miniworlds.Actor((100, 100))
player.add_costume("images/player.png")

@player.register
def act(self):
    self.move()

@player.register
def on_key_down_a(self):
    self.turn_left(30)

@player.register
def on_key_down_d(self):
    self.turn_right(30)

world.run()

move_in_direction()#

As an alternative to regular movement, you can use move_in_direction() to move the actor in any direction by specifying an angle.

Example: Diagonal movement#

import miniworlds 

world = miniworlds.World()
world.add_background("images/grass.jpg")
player = miniworlds.Actor((100, 100))
player.add_costume("images/player.png")

@player.register
def act(self):
    self.move_in_direction(45)

world.run()

Example: Move toward the mouse pointer#

The following example shows how to make the actor follow the mouse pointer using move_in_direction():

import miniworlds 

world = miniworlds.World(400, 400)
world.add_background("images/grass.jpg")
player = miniworlds.Actor()
player.add_costume("images/player.png")
player.orientation = -90

@player.register
def act(self):
    self.move_in_direction(self.world.get_mouse_position())

world.run()
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