Sprites not being removed

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1

I'm on Windows 10.

I have functions that:

  • draw a large box
  • draw text in the large box
    then on A press,
  • it's supposed to clear the sprites this is what's not working
  • display two other boxes with text

I have a function that has multiple ways of removing sprites, and it runs, but the... sprites aren't being removed? Only if I clear the whole screen using gfx.clear will anything happen.

I have a scene manager that runs the clearing function ("tidy") every tick (when A is pressed). It's just not removing the sprites.

-- function to clear it all up:
 
function Dx5:tidy()
    print("tidy...")
self.spritedx:remove()
self.spritenvlbox:remove()
playdate.graphics.sprite.removeSprite(self.spritedx)
playdate.graphics.sprite:removeAll()
--none of this is working!!
    if self.kind ~= "nvl" then
        self.spritenamebox:remove()
        playdate.graphics.sprite.removeSprite(self.spritenamebox)
    end
end
 
 
 
--how it's being called:
 
tick = function()
        if playdate.buttonJustPressed(playdate.kButtonA) then
           print("a press")
         --  gfx.clear() -- this works but tidy does not...
        Dx5:tidy() --so this should remove em all...
 
        local dx ="111new math"
            Dx5:Pr1(dx) -- this is sending it to the first prefixinator
          print("ran dx5 with", dx)
        end
    end,
 
-- the scene manager, for reference:
 
 
scene["gallery"] = {
    start = function ()
       --beginning of scene
end,
     tick = function()
    --this runs every frame
 
--this is where the tidy function is being called; so it should be running a LOT
 
end,
    close = function()
       --when you close
end
}
 
--PD update:
 
function playdate.update()
    gfx.sprite.update()
    scene[current_scene]["tick"]()
    playdate.timer.updateTimers()
end
 
-- and how my sprites are set up:
 
 
 
 gfx.pushContext(namebox)
   namebox:drawInRect(0,self.height+nbHeight,nbWidth,nbHeight)
   gfx.drawTextInRect(name,10,self.y-15,self.maxWidth-5,25,nil,"...",kTextAlignment.left)
 gfx.popContext()
 self.spritenamebox = gfx.sprite.new(namebox)
 self.spritenamebox:moveTo(50,50) --50,50
 self.spritenamebox:setZIndex(65)
 self.spritenamebox:add()

-- pretty much this for like 5 sprites.

like... am i creating sprites wrong or...? I've had multiple people look and we couldn't figure it out, so I'm hoping yall can figure it out.

e: video!

So the back sprite should be removed when the other one comes into play, but it isn't. It just isn't.

2

Try putting:

print(“n sprites: “ .. gfx.sprite.spriteCount())

Before and after sprite:removeAll just to confirm it’s working. I suspect it is removing the sprites then regenerating them, but there’s not enough of your code here to work out why.

1 Like
3

okay:
on first A-press, it says 2, we remove, it says 0. (despite the one still being visible) (the kind = nvl on this one)
On a second a-press, there's 3, we remove, it says 1, and it just goes up from there. (the kind ~= nvl on the rest)

also just realized my tidy code in OP isn't quite up to date --


function Dx5:tidy()
    print("tidy...")
    print("n sprites:" .. gfx.sprite.spriteCount())
    if self.kind == "nvl" then
self.spritenvldx:remove()
self.spritenvlbox:remove()
print("tidy nvl")
playdate.graphics.sprite:removeAll()
    elseif self.kind ~= "nvl" then
self.spritenamebox:remove()
self.spritedx:remove()
playdate.graphics.sprite.removeSprite(self.spritenamebox)
print("tidy reg")
end
print("n sprites:" .. gfx.sprite.spriteCount())

end
4

Okay, so you need to look at the conditions that are causing the sprites to be rebuilt. That’s the bit of your code that’s not shown here. If you can share a git or zip your source folder I’d be happy to take a look.

5

source.zip (8.0 MB)

thank you for your offer to help! it's a LOT of spaghetti and i'm a pretty novice programmer, but the main thing to look at should be dialogueSYSTEM.lua

6

Well, the good news is that sprites are being removed cleanly in the version you sent. The bad news is that they're not drawn until I press :a:.

I think the original issue was that scene[current_scene]["tick"]() in playdate.update was regenerating the sprites each frame.

1 Like
7

both of those are intended, at least for now. thanks for the help though

8

Figured it out. :person_facepalming:

The way I was using push/popcontext with a nineslice was drawing it as an image and not a sprite, so... it wasn't being removed because it wasn't a sprite...

OLD:

local nvl = nineslice
    gfx.pushContext(nvl)
nvl:drawInRect(self.x,self.nvly,390,self.nvlheight)
    gfx.popContext()
    --[[ --this... does nothing...........
    self.spritenvlbox= gfx.sprite.new(nvl)
    self.spritenvlbox:moveTo(0,150)
    self.spritenvlbox:setZIndex(60)
    self.spritenvlbox:add()
--]]

NEW:

local nvl = playdate.graphics.image.new(400, 240)
    nvl:drawCentered(200, 120)

    local nvl9 = nineslice
    gfx.pushContext(nvl)
      nvl9:drawInRect(self.x,self.nvly,390,self.nvlheight)
    gfx.popContext()
    
    self.spritenvlbox= gfx.sprite.new(nvl)
    self.spritenvlbox:moveTo(200,120)
    self.spritenvlbox:setZIndex(60)
    self.spritenvlbox:add()

TL;DR: i don't understand pushcontext.

1 Like