Problem when inventing knuckles glide animation

[KauanGamer2130]

I was setting up the knuckles animation script to run the glide turn animation (when turning) and it is working correctly, however, in the middle of the animation, it ends up inverting to the other side due to facing = _angle < 90 ? DIRECTION.NEGATIVE : DIRECTION.POSITIVE; which serves to invert the knuckles' normal glide sprite, however, it ends up inverting the glide turn sprite, causing the animation to be executed incorrectly!

2025-07-10-20-14-38-online-video-cuttercom_uEUQRLMT.1.mp4

[TrianglyRU]

Knuckles will always perform a turn within the same amount of time regarding of his gliding speed. I'd completely rework the way animation works for your case.
For example, if Knuckles' current sprite is spr_knuckles_glide, set facing direction based on his current vel_x, and match the turn animation timing to the amount of time it takes for Knuckles to perform a turn

[TrianglyRU]

Basically the turn animation should only play when abs(glide_angle) > 0 && abs(glide_angle) < 90 if vel_x is negative, and abs(glide_angle) > 90 && abs(glide_angle) < 180 if vel_x is positive.

i.e., when Knuckles is gliding to the left, his glide_angle is 0, and when he's gliding to the right it is 180.

[KauanGamer2130]

Still, no solution :/ how should I know the time it takes for knuckles to take a turn? since that is the problem, because the turn animation is executed and in the middle of it, the character is mirrored so that the spr_knuckles_glide is on the correct side, but the turn animation ends up being on the wrong side because it mirrors during it happens, is it possible to mirror the sprite only if the turn animation is changed to spr_knuckles_glide?

[TrianglyRU]

Okay so, I tried to do it myself and it is indeed a tricky case to solve. Had to spend around 2 hours, that's what I came up with

First, you need to initialise a new variable for the player object, called end_turn_angle.
Then, you need to modify the glide code in the scr_player_glide():

// Turn around		
if input_down.left && glide_angle != 0 || input_down.right && glide_angle != 180 || glide_angle % 180 != 0
{
	if input_down.left && glide_angle >= 0 || input_down.right && glide_angle <= 0 
	{
		if glide_angle <= -90
		{
			end_turn_angle = 180;
		}
		else if glide_angle <= 0
		{
			end_turn_angle = 90;
		}
		else if glide_angle <= 90
		{
			end_turn_angle = 0;
		}
		else
		{
			end_turn_angle = -90;
		}
		
		glide_angle = -glide_angle;
	}
	
	glide_angle += ANGLE_INC;
}

After that, you make animation code to make use of the new variable:

case ANI_GLIDE_AIR:
		
	// Update animation based on glide angle
	var _angle = abs(glide_angle);
	
	if _angle % 180 != 0 && glide_angle < end_turn_angle
	{
		ani_start(spr_knuckles_glide_turn);
		if _angle < 15 || _angle > 165
		{
			ani_update_frame(0);
		}
		else if _angle < 30 || _angle > 150
		{
			ani_update_frame(1);
		}
		else if _angle < 45 || _angle > 135
		{
			ani_update_frame(2); 
		}
		else if _angle < 60 || _angle > 120
		{
			ani_update_frame(3);
		}
		else if _angle < 75 || _angle > 105
		{
			ani_update_frame(4);
		}
		else
		{					
			ani_update_frame(5);
		}
	}
	else
	{				
		ani_start(spr_knuckles_glide);
	}
	
	if (_angle == 90)
	{
		facing *= -1;
	}
	
break;

This is not ideal and Knuckles' will only play the full turn animation if his glide_angle in the moment he start to turn is 0 or 180. I haven't taken a look at how the animation works in Mania, but it does its work I guess

[KauanGamer2130]

I also tried creating a new variable to solve this problem, but I didn't know that I would have to modify scr_player_glide(): for it to work correctly, I was putting the variable inside obj_player, but I wasn't thinking about modifying scr_player_glide():

[KauanGamer2130]

After adjusting the code, I managed to get the animation to run correctly, now I just need to make sure that knuckles doesn't turn while the turning animation is already happening!

Timeline.1.mp4

[KauanGamer2130]

Did it!

2025-07-12.13-47-01.mp4

2025-07-12.13-48-24.mp4

[TrianglyRU]

Glad to help!