naming each sprite in a list with a unique name

1

Is it possible to name each sprite in a list with a unique name so that I can identify each sprite to do various things?
`
public Energy(ContentManager contentManager, string spriteName, int x, int y, int i, string name)
{
this.sprite = contentManager.Load(spriteName);
this.energyPosX = x + (sprite.Width * i);
this.energyPosY = y;
this.typeName= name;

 drawRectangle = new Rectangle(energyPosX, energyPosY, sprite.Width / 2, sprite.Height / 2);

}`
I named each sprite with a string name + number ( this.typeName = name) but I cant access that name any where. Any suggestions?

2

You could use a Dictionary to identify each sprite.

1 Like
3

i actually found a solution just now.
I declared a
public string typeName
to each sprite and then identified it with
sprite.typeName
was easy. :slight_smile:

4

Texture2D’s have a Name field already built in.
You could just load them into a dictionary and query it.

  Dictionary<string, Texture2D> textureDict;

  // in LoadContent
  textureDict = new Dictionary<string, Texture2D>();
  var t = Content.Load<Texture2D>("sky");
  textureDict.Add(t.Name, t);

  // in draw...
  spriteBatch.Draw( textureDict["sky"], ... ect .... );

You can use a list as well with a predicate i guess but meh…

You can load everything from say a sub directory like Content/images.

            Dictionary<string, Texture2D> textureDict = new Dictionary<string, Texture2D>();
            //
            // Say you placed all your textures into the same folder.
            // string path = (Content.RootDirectory += @"/images/");
            //
            Console.WriteLine("\n  enviroment path " + Environment.CurrentDirectory);
            string path = (Content.RootDirectory);
            Console.WriteLine("\n  path " + path);
            
            //
            // using System.IO can help specifically the Path and Directory classes.
            //
            string[] filesInFolder = Directory.GetFiles(path);

            int i = 0;
            while (i < filesInFolder.Length)
            {
                filesInFolder[i] = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(filesInFolder[i]);
                Console.WriteLine("\n   filesInFolder[" + i + "] : " + filesInFolder[i]);
                // textures have a Name field.
                var t = Content.Load<Texture2D>(filesInFolder[i]);
                Console.WriteLine("    t.name : " + t.Name + "  t.ToString() : "+ t.ToString());
                //
                textureDict.Add(t.Name, t);
                // next file
                i++;
            }

            // safe way to query
            Texture2D temp;
            if (textureDict.TryGetValue("skyimage ", out temp))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("\n we found a skyimage \n " + temp);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("\n we could not find a skyimage, we must not of loaded it :( \n ");
                // load up a dot texture , throw a debug assert
            }
            // or
            temp = textureDict["sky"];
5

The name field of a sprite takes the name of the image that we load. What I want is to give it a name I want.

For instance I have an energy class from which i build 10 energy cells and give each a name of

“energy1”, “energy2” etc. In the for loop that builds.

A Gun Temperature control i build with the same class I give the name

“temp1”, “temp2” etc.

This way I can find any cell with a short name. But the sprite.Name which is inbuilt if using the same sprite gives the same name.

Can I give it a name of my choice like I did with my code above? How do I do sprite.Name get and set?

6

There are lots of ways you could do it.

Though you can do it with lists. Dictionarys are more suited to strings as they map its hash.

define a sprite class

public class Sprite
{
    public int x;
    public int y;
    public string nickName;
    public Texture2D texture;
    public Sprite(string nickname, Texture2D t)
    {
        this.nickName = nickname;
        this.texture = t;
    }
    public Sprite(string nickname, Texture2D t, int x, int y)
    {
        this.nickName = nickname;
        this.texture = t;
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
    }
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return "Sprite{NickName: "+ nickName + " FileName: " + texture.Name + " Position X: " + x + " Y: " + y +"}";
    }
}

Create a class that uses dictonarys of dictionary’s to do what you want.

public class SpriteContainer
{
    Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentManager content;
    Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, Sprite>> typeItems = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, Sprite>>();
    
    // construct 
    public SpriteContainer(Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentManager content)
    {
        this.content = content;
    }

    // load and overload
    public void Load(string fileName, string typeName, string nickName)
    {
        Load(fileName, typeName, nickName, 0, 0);
    }

    public void Load(string fileName, string typeName, string nickName, int x, int y)
    {
        if(content == null) { Console.WriteLine("you forgot to pass in content to the constructor");  }

        var texture = content.Load<Texture2D>(fileName);

        if (typeItems.ContainsKey(typeName))
        {
            typeItems[typeName].Add(nickName, new Sprite(nickName, texture, x, y) );
        }
        else
        {
            Dictionary<string, Sprite> sprites = new Dictionary<string, Sprite>();
            sprites.Add(nickName, new Sprite(nickName, texture, x, y) );
            typeItems.Add(typeName, sprites);
        }
    }

    // get
    public Sprite GetSprite(string typeName, string nickName)
    {
        return typeItems[typeName][nickName];
    }

    public Texture2D GetSpriteTexture(string typeName, string nickName)
    {
        return typeItems[typeName][nickName].texture;
    }

    // set
    public void SetSprites_Xy(string typeName, string nickName, int x, int y)
    {
        typeItems[typeName][nickName].x = x;
        typeItems[typeName][nickName].y = y;
    }

}

usage

    SpriteContainer sc;
    // setup in load
    sc = new SpriteContainer(Content);
    sc.Load("littleTexture", "energy", "energy1");

use were ever

    // set
    sc.SetSprites_Xy("energy", "energy1", 1, 10);
    // get
    var texture = sc.GetSprite("energy", "energy1").texture;
    // spriteBatch.Draw(sc.GetSpriteTexture("energy", "energy1") , ... , ... );

Edit saw a booboo

7

To handle the “unique” part, you can append a GUID at loadcontent time, or a “simpler way”: read the creation date of the file in a customcontentprocessor, (or at loadcontent time too but it could be very slow) and append it to a string like:
string name = myassetspritename_20171208_1056;
and add it to the tag property.

If it is only for debug purposes, just adding a counter to the name of the asset and storing it in your ‘public string typeName’ should be enough (and storing it in a dictionary as key to be sure it is unique while loading content or either method to store a list of string and search existence, then the dictionary/list/etc can be disposed after the loadcontent has finished)