We cannot create an onscreen pause button in andengine??

[onerain88]

Hi, guys.
Yesterday, when I design my game in AndEngine, I found I cannot create an onscreen pause button in my game! So frustrate!
I try to create a ButtonSprite as the pause button of my game! When the pause button click, I take mEngine.stop(). But when I click the pause button agagin, it cannot star...(Of course, I wrote a bool variable in order to control mEngine.start() or mEngine.stop()).
So, I read the source code of AndEngine, I found in mEngine.stop(), mRunning become false. In Engine.onTickUpdate(), if mRunning is false, it will not update, but in it's update, it will listen the touch event of the screen!
In AndEngineExamples, there is an example of pause, but it used Menu key instead of an onscreen button. It works, because Menu key is system listen, not engine listen....
So, I have a try to Engine.java. I add a bool variable called pause inited false. When I click the pause button on screen, the pause turn true, and I will judge the pause in Engine.update(), as follow,

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1. public void onUpdate(final long pNanosecondsElapsed) throws InterruptedException
2.         {
3.                 final float pSecondsElapsed = pNanosecondsElapsed * TimeConstants.SECONDS_PER_NANOSECOND;
4.  
5.                 this.mSecondsElapsedTotal += pSecondsElapsed;
6.                 this.mLastTick += pNanosecondsElapsed;
7.  
8.                 this.mTouchController.onUpdate(pSecondsElapsed);
9.                
10.                 if (!pause)
11.                 {
12.                         this.onUpdateUpdateHandlers(pSecondsElapsed);
13.                         this.onUpdateScene(pSecondsElapsed);
14.                 }
15.         }
16.  

Parsed in 0.032 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

It means whatever the pause is true or false, it will listen the touch on screen!

[reittes]

Hi,

I had same problem a while back, but I think we could do a workaround. You can place an on screen pause button, when that button is clicked, show a MenuScene (from andengine menu example). If you comment out the .buildAnimations code from menuScene, I think you can place(using .setposition) the same pause button(now play button) over the actual pause button on the scene. I hope you get what I'm trying to explain, I haven't tried it though.

Goodluck

[reittes]

Ok, I tried what I wanted to explain before, and it worked

Here, you can see the example of onscreen pause button, the project is uploaded on my github.

https://github.com/reittes/On-Screen-Pause-Button

GoodLuck

[onerain88]

Thanks reittes,
You provide a better solution for the problem! Thank you again!
After I read your code, I found I cannot understand the parameters of

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1. setChildScene(final Scene pChildScene, final boolean pModalDraw, final boolean pModalUpdate,
2.                         final boolean pModalTouch)
3.  

Parsed in 0.030 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

In your code, it's

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1. scene.setChildScene(pauseScene(), false, true, true);
2.  

Parsed in 0.033 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

I couldnot understand why pModalUpdate is true.

[reittes]

I don't know much about it but i think parameters just define the modal child/scene we show. A modal child stops the scene behind and shows the pause scene in our case with its own touch touch and update handlers. I don't know much, just rough idea, from the examples.

[onerain88]

Thank you, reittes!
I will read the source code more patiently!
Good luck!

[shihab_returns]

hey onerain88, thanks for your post.

i cann't understand where i use onUpdate() method.

I follow you tutorial about onscreen pause button.

but in my code touch listener listen just once.

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1. pauseBtn = new Sprite(cameraWidth - 200, 50, btn_pauseRegion) {
2.                         @Override
3.                         public boolean onAreaTouched(TouchEvent pSceneTouchEvent,
4.                                         float pTouchAreaLocalX, float pTouchAreaLocalY) {
5.                                 if (pSceneTouchEvent.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP) {
6.                                         if (!pauseFlag) {
7.                                                 this.setVisible(false);
8.                                                 mMainScene.setChildScene(pauseMenuScene(), false, true,
9.                                                                 true);
10.                                                  mEngine.stop();
11.                                         }
12.  
13.                                         else {
14.                                                 mEngine.start();
15.                                                 pauseBtn.setVisible(true);
16.                                                 mMainScene.clearChildScene();
17.                                                
18.                                         }
19.  
20.                                 }
21.  
22.                                 return true;
23.                         }

Parsed in 0.036 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

[korn3l]

You should not use engine.stop() and engine.start() when you pause your game. Delete them and it should be fine.
When you set the child scene the parent will be paused if the modal parameters are set right;
Take a loo at the setChildScene method:

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1. public void setChildScene(final Scene pChildScene, final boolean pModalDraw, final boolean pModalUpdate, final boolean pModalTouch);

Parsed in 0.040 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

- pModalDraw - setting this to false will let the parent call its onDraw method and you want that because otherwise it will look nasty;
- pModalUpdate - if set to true the parent won't call its onUpdate method so things like position, rotation or other operations won't apply anymore. It basically pauses your game.
-pModalTouch - decides whether the parent receives the touch or not; if you set this to true the parent won't respond to touch actions