How to make 8 Direction move at the angle of the gamepad joystick?

I'm struggling to figure out how to move my character at the exact angle of the gamepad joystick using any of the movement options in C3. I'm currently using 8 Direction but it only simulates at up, down, left, or right. Which doesn't support joystick angles very well. I can force the joystick to only move in those cardinal directions but then the joystick feels weird and unresponsive.

Is there a way to fix this? I've tried MoveTo and Custom movement but none of do all the things I want. I need the movement to handle acceleration, decelleration, and collision detection at a minimum. But the sliding of 8 Direction is a massive bonus.

If no one can think of anything then please add a thumbs up to my suggestion:

github.com/Scirra/Construct-feature-requests/issues/493, which is to add "Simulate at angle" to 8 Direction movement.

Well, the 8-direction behavior works by doing the horizontal and vertical axis of motion separately. When a key is pressed it accelerates toward that direction, and if the velocity is opposite that direction, then it adds the deceleration to the acceleration to allow sharper turning and make the motion less floaty. And finally, it applies deceleration if no keys are pressed on a given axis.

Changing it to work with any angle is similar but different enough to not be a simple tweak.

Here is one attempt. Acceleration can be applied to any angle. Deceleration is added to the acceleration when the velocity is in the opposite direction to allow faster turning. It also applies deceleration to velocity perpendicular to the acceleration. And finally, it applies deceleration when no acceleration is applied.

dropbox.com/scl/fi/igrj1axj136hhuycmpp5w/360direction_movement.capx

I don't have a joystick, so I used a touch screen one. Collision detection and response (wall sliding) is done with an SDF. Player is a circle, and obstacles are any number of rotated boxes.

Seems to work alright.

Now you could do a hybrid approach to reuse as much of the 8-direction behavior as possible. Read the velocity and apply an acceleration at an angle. One key idea to make it less floaty and turn faster is to add the deceleration to the acceleration. You can find the velocity along an angle with vx*cos(a)+vy*sin(a) where vx,vy is the velocity and "a" is the angle. It will be negative if "a" is in the opposite direction from the angle of motion. You may also need to decelerate the perpendicular velocity, but after that just set the velocity of the behavior and it will handle slowing down if there are no keys pressed, and it will handle the collision detection and response.

Thanks R0J0hound for the response and example. I converted it to work with the gamepad joystick instead of the virtual one and it worked perfect.

I'm trying to study it a little bit. What does SDF mean? Is that a collision algorithm?

I think this is complex enough, and also common enough gameplay-wise, that Construct 3 should support it. I know they hate when people say a feature is "easy", but I honestly think it would be easy. They already do it in Custom movement, specifically "Accelerate towards angle"!!!!!

I worked with it today and came up with a hybrid solution. I still use 8 Direction behavior but simply handle the acceleration/decelleration controlling the VectorX and VectorY myself.

Glad it was somewhat useful. SDF stands for signed distance field, which basically lets you have a formula that gives the closest distance from a point to a shape. In the example the shape is a rotated box. It’s not exactly made for collision detection, but can be used for it. Specifically it’s simple enough to use to find a collision between a circle and a shape. Also it’s fairly simple to use to get the contact point and collision normal.

Here is my attempt:

dropbox.com/scl/fi/vbfmptsy0qdcl823c9kaw/8Direction_Gamepad.c3p

Sliding, acceleration, deceleration - all work. The speed also changes based on how far you tilt the stick.

Very interesting solution dop2000. It's much simpler than mine. Honestly I don't understand why it works. My understanding is if, for example, "simulate right" and "simulate down" at happening at the same time then the character should move down-right at a 45 deg angle. Not sure why your solution doesn't do that.

if, for example, "simulate right" and "simulate down" at happening at the same time then the character should move down-right at a 45 deg angle. Not sure why your solution doesn't do that.

What do you mean? It works like that in my example.