Bouncing Balls



Bouncing Balls


Note: This example uses parallel arrays. In other words, we’re storing our data across multiple arrays. This is a good way to learn about arrays, but in real life you should use classes instead of parrallel arrays. If you haven’t learned about classes yet, don’t worry about it too much.

int ballCount = 10;

float[] x = new float[ballCount];
float[] y = new float[ballCount];
float[] xSpeed = new float[ballCount];
float[] ySpeed = new float[ballCount];
float[] size = new float[ballCount];
float[] r = new float[ballCount];
float[] g = new float[ballCount];
float[] b = new float[ballCount];

void setup() {
  size(200, 100);
  for(int i = 0; i < ballCount; i++){
    x[i] = random(width);
    y[i] = random(height);
    xSpeed[i] = random(-5, 5);
    ySpeed[i] = random(-5, 5);
    size[i] = random(5, 20);
    r[i] = random(256);
    g[i] = random(256);
    b[i] = random(256);
  }
}

void draw() {

  background(200);

  for(int i = 0; i < ballCount; i++){

    x[i] += xSpeed[i];
    if(x[i] < 0 || x[i] > width){
      xSpeed[i] *= -1;
    }

    y[i] += ySpeed[i];
    if(y[i] < 0 || y[i] > height){
      ySpeed[i] *= -1;
    }

    fill(r[i], g[i], b[i]);
    ellipse(x[i], y[i], size[i], size[i]);

  }
}

10 bouncing balls

Code Editor

See the Pen by Happy Coding (@KevinWorkman) on CodePen.

Now that we have this code, we can easily make our program show 100 balls, just by changing the first line:

int ballCount = 100;

100 bouncing balls

Or we could even make it show 1000 balls:

int ballCount = 1000;

1000 bouncing balls

Tweak Ideas

  • Instead of having disconnected balls, make it so they’re connected and form a trail.


Arrays Examples

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