Firedancer VM

Virtual machine for Firedancer, a Haxe based language for defining 2D shmup bullet-hell patterns.

Usage

Install

haxelib install firedancer-vm

Preparation

ProgramPackage

Prepare any firedancer.vm.ProgramPackage instance created with Firedancer library.
If you have a serialized program (which is a JSON string), parse it by ProgramPackage.fromString().

Emitter & EventHandler

Extend the classes below and override their methods:

• firedancer.vm.Emitter
• firedancer.vm.EventHandler

Actors

Assuming you set the compiler flag -D firedancer_use_actor_class, create your actors by doing the below for each actor:

1. Create a firedancer.vm.ThreadList instance.
2. Create a firedancer.vm.PositionRef instance that provides read access to the position of the actor at the end of the last frame.
3. Create a firedancer.vm.Actor instance passing the two above.

Without the compiler flag -D firedancer_use_actor_class, the Actor class is not available and you have to prepare any SoA or AoSoA style structures using the type banker.vector.WritableVector for each property (see library banker).

Target position

Prepare another PositionRef instance that indicates the position of the target to be aimed.

This may be either common in actors or specific to each actor.

Set Program

At the beginning, at least one actor should be active and have any firedancer.vm.Program instance.

Set any Program instance (that you get from your ProgramPackage instance) by ThreadList.set() or Actor.setProgram().

Run

Run firedancer.vm.Vm.run() every frame for each actor, passing the below:

• The programTable that you get from your ProgramPackage instance.
• Instances of your classes extended from EventHandler and Emitter.
• The memory capacity in bytes, which you used when creating ThreadList instances. Typically it's common in all actors.
• Your actor data (#if firedancer_use_actor_class, the Actor instance).
• The PositionRef instance for the target position.

Then render the actors using any game framework or some kind of that.

Compiler flags

-D firedancer_verbose

Emits verbose log.

-D firedancer_positionref_type=(name)

Specifies the underlying type of PositionRef.

Example: -D firedancer_positionref_type=broker_BatchSprite

Valid values:

• broker_BatchSprite for using broker.draw.BatchSprite
• heaps_BatchElement for using h2d.SpriteBatch.BatchElement
• Otherwise uses an anonymous structure { x: Float, y: Float }

`-D firedancer_use_actor_class

Enables to use Actor class instead of the default SoA (Structure of Arrays) style.

(Not yet tested)

-D firedancer_debug

Throws error if:

• infinite loop is detected in the Vm
• unknown Opcode is detected in a Program

Automatically set #if debug.

Dependencies

• sinker v0.5.0 or compatible
• sneaker v0.11.0 or compatible
• banker v0.7.0 or compatible
• reckoner v0.2.0 or compatible

See also: FAL Haxe libraries