Flambe code snippet: Control overall speed

Flambe has a nice specialized component called SpeedAdjuster. It adjusts the update speed of an entity (and its components and children), and can be used for slow – motion and fast forward effects.

Sometimes it helps to see things at very slow speed. You can use the SpeedAdjuster to debug your game. I wrote a function that gives you control over the speed using [ and ] keys on your keyboard.

// press [ or ] to decrease or increase speed. returns SignalConnection
function addDebugSpeedAdjuster(entity:Entity)
{
if (!entity.has(SpeedAdjuster)) entity.add(new SpeedAdjuster(1));
return System.keyboard.down.connect(function(event:KeyboardEvent)
{
var speedAdjuster = entity.get(SpeedAdjuster);
if (event.key == Key.LeftBracket)
{
speedAdjuster.scale._ /= 1.61803398875;
trace(“Speed Adjuster scale: ” + entity.get(SpeedAdjuster).scale._);
}
else if (event.key == Key.RightBracket)
{
speedAdjuster.scale._ *= 1.61803398875;
trace(“Speed Adjuster scale: ” + entity.get(SpeedAdjuster).scale._);
}
});
}

If you want to use it in debug-mode to control the entire speed of everything, you can use it like this.

#if debug
addDebugSpeedAdjuster(System.root);
#end

Of course, make sure all your components make use of the deltatime from the onUpdate function.

Learn more about Flambe in this guide.