How can I create a continuous fire effect on mouse click with actionscript 3?

Question

When someone "click and holds" I want to fire off function over and over, say, once every 100ms while the mouse is clicked. Instead of MouseEvent.CLICK I would look for MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN and then start a timer on that event function that calls another function every 100ms. Then, on MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP I would stop the timer. Am I on the right track? Will I be able to get updated X and Y coordinates while the mousedown event is firing?

Answer 1

Try something similar to this: Personally I wouldn't have a timer, and just let the framerate handle how often stuff happens.

var _mouseDown:Boolean = false;
var _msTimer:int = 3;
var _msMax:int = _msTimer;

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, _mousedown);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, _mouseup);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _handle);

function _mousedown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = true;
}

function _mouseup(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = false;
}


function _handle(e:Event):void
{
    if(_mouseDown) _msTimer --;
    else _msTimer = _msMax;
    if(_msTimer < 1)
    {
        _msTimer = _msMax;

        // DO FIRE EFFECT HERE
        var xm:Number = stage.mouseX;
        var ym:Number = stage.mouseY;

        trace("do fire effect here", xm, ym);
    }
}

Here's a quick fire effect just for kicks:)

var _mouseDown:Boolean = false;
var fire:Array = [];
var colors:Array = [0xFF0000,0xFF9900,0xFFCC00,0xFF0000,0xFF9900,0xFFCC00,0x333333];

var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
var point:Point = new Point(0, 0);
var bmd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
var filter:BlurFilter = new BlurFilter(6,6,3);

var container:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
var bitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bmd);

addChild(bitmap);

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, _mousedown);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, _mouseup);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _handle);

function _mousedown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = true;
}

function _mouseup(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = false;
}


function _handle(e:Event):void
{
    if(_mouseDown)
    {
        // DO FIRE EFFECT HERE
        var xm:Number = stage.mouseX;
        var ym:Number = stage.mouseY;

        var k:uint = 0;
        for(k; k<10; k++)
        {
            var s:Sprite = fireThing();
            s.x = -30 + xm + Math.random()*30;
            s.y = -30 + ym + Math.random()*30;
        }
    }

    // handle fire
    var i:Array;
    for each(i in fire)
    {
        i[0].x += Math.cos(i[1].ang) * i[1].speed;
        i[0].y += Math.sin(i[1].ang) * i[1].speed;

        if(i[0].y < 0 || i[0].x < 0 || i[0].x > stage.stageWidth || i[0].y > stage.stageHeight)
        {
            if(i[0].parent) i[0].parent.removeChild(i[0]);

            var ix:uint = fire.indexOf(i);
            fire.splice(ix, 1);
        }
    }

    bmd.lock();
    bmd.draw(container);
    bmd.applyFilter(bmd, rect, point, filter);
    bmd.unlock();
}

function fireThing():Sprite
{
    var s:Sprite = new Sprite();

    s.graphics.beginFill(colors[uint(Math.random()*colors.length)]);
    s.graphics.drawCircle(0,0,1+Math.random()*2);
    s.graphics.endFill();

    var o:Object =
    {
        ang: Math.random()*Math.PI*2,
        speed: Math.random()*4
    };

    fire.push([s,o]);
    container.addChild(s);

    return s;
}

Answer 2

You're on the right track. To get updated mouse coordinates also on MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN add MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE listener and save X and Y coordinates to some variable in this listener. So when calling your "pseudo" click listener, you'll always have updated coordinates. And on MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP remove MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE listener.
OR
You can just use mouseX , mouseY , and contentMouseX , contentMouseY (for UIComponent in Flex) properties of your component.

Answer 3

Listen for buttonDown event after setting autorepeat property of button to true.

<mx:Button label="Click" buttonDown="trace('continuous')" autoRepeat="true"/>