Path Follow

Travels along its parent Path: speed, loop / ping-pong / stop, faces the way it goes. Put a sprite, a platform or an enemy under it.

Type: PathFollowNode · Category: Animation & Effects · Also found as: path follow, follower, moving platform

Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
progress	number	0	Distance travelled along the parent path (px). Set it to place the follower; scripts can animate it. Range 0 to 10000.
speed	number	0	Pixels per second it moves along the path by itself (negative: backwards; 0: only scripts move it). Range -2000 to 2000.
loop	enum: Stop, Loop, PingPong	Stop	At the end: Stop (path_finished), Loop (start again) or Ping Pong (turn back).
rotate	boolean	true	Turn to face the direction it travels.
sideOffset	number	0	Pixels to the side of the path (positive: to the right of the travel direction) - lanes, offsets. Range -500 to 500.

Plus the common properties every node has.

Lua methods

Call them on the node (self.node in its script, or self.node:get_node("path")). Every node also has the Node methods.

PathFollowNode:connect(event, handler)

Connects a handler to one of this node’s events: path_finished (The follower reached the end of its path (loop: Stop)), path_looped (The follower wrapped round or turned back (Loop / Ping Pong)); the tree events; custom ones.

self.node:connect("path_finished", function(value, source) Log.info("path_finished") end)

• event PathFollowNodeEvent|string
• handler fun(value: any, source: PathFollowNode)

Returns integer id Connection id for disconnect

PathFollowNode:get_property(path)

Reads an Inspector property by its path (vectors and colours as tables); “script.” reads a field of the node’s script.

local value = self.node:get_property("progress")

• path PathFollowNodeProperty|string

Returns any

PathFollowNode:set_property(path, value, y)

Sets an Inspector property by its path: vectors as {x, y} or x, y; colours as {r, g, b[, a]} 0..1 or “#rrggbb[aa]”; enums by name; “script.” a field of the node’s script.

self.node:set_property("progress", 1.5)

• path PathFollowNodeProperty|string
• value any
• y? number

PathFollowNode:follow_ratio()

How far along its path the follower is: 0 at the start, 1 at the end.

if platform:follow_ratio() > 0.5 then ... end

Returns number

PathFollowNode:follow_set_ratio(ratio)

Puts the follower at a fraction of its path (0..1) at once.

platform:follow_set_ratio(0.25)

• ratio number

PathFollowNode:follow_restart()

Back to the start, moving forwards again (after “path_finished”).

self.node:get_node("Route/Cart"):follow_restart()

In a scene file

{
  "type": "PathFollowNode",
  "name": "PathFollow",
  "position": [
    0,
    0
  ],
  "properties": {
    "progress": 0,
    "speed": 0,
    "loop": "Stop"
  }
}