Emanuele Feronato

Talking about Actionscript 3 and Flash.

Detecting and handling right mouse clicks in Flash has always been a pain.

I blogged about it four years ago in the post preventing the right mouse cheat in your Flash games where I explained a dirty trick to trigger right mouse button with As2, and guess what? Things got even worse with As3, although I found a workaround preventing players to cheat in my Flash game Stringy.

Finally, the pain is over. With Flash Player 11.2, you can finally do everything you want in Flash movies, without exporting them for Air.

Look at this movie:

You can use left mouse button to drag boxes, and right mouse button to destroy them. Also notice, the default right click menu does not appear.

Look at the source code:

package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.*;
	import Box2D.Common.Math.*;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.Joints.*;
	public class Main extends Sprite {
		private var world:b2World;
		private var worldScale:Number=30;
		private var mouseJoint:b2MouseJoint;
		private var debugSprite:Sprite=new Sprite();
		public function Main() {
			world=new b2World(new b2Vec2(0,9.81),true);
			debugDraw();
			var bodyDef:b2BodyDef=new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(320/worldScale,470/worldScale);
			var polygonShape:b2PolygonShape=new b2PolygonShape();
			polygonShape.SetAsBox(320/worldScale,10/worldScale);
			var fixtureDef:b2FixtureDef=new b2FixtureDef();
			fixtureDef.shape=polygonShape;
			var groundBody:b2Body=world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			groundBody.CreateFixture(fixtureDef);
			var box:b2Body
			for (var i:int=0; i<20; i++) {
				bodyDef.position.Set((Math.random()*400+120)/worldScale,(Math.random()*400)/worldScale);
				bodyDef.type=b2Body.b2_dynamicBody;
				polygonShape.SetAsBox(30/worldScale,30/worldScale);
				fixtureDef.density=1;
				fixtureDef.friction=0.5;
				fixtureDef.restitution=0.2;
				box=world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
				box.CreateFixture(fixtureDef);
			}
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,updateWorld);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,createJoint);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.RIGHT_CLICK,destroyBody);
		}
		private function destroyBody(e:MouseEvent):void {
			world.QueryPoint(queryCallbackDestroy,mouseToWorld());
		}
		private function createJoint(e:MouseEvent):void {
			world.QueryPoint(queryCallbackJoint,mouseToWorld());
		}
		private function queryCallbackJoint(fixture:b2Fixture):Boolean {
			var touchedBody:b2Body=fixture.GetBody();
			if (touchedBody.GetType()==b2Body.b2_dynamicBody) {
				var jointDef:b2MouseJointDef=new b2MouseJointDef();
				jointDef.bodyA=world.GetGroundBody();
				jointDef.bodyB=touchedBody;
				jointDef.target=mouseToWorld();
				jointDef.maxForce=1000*touchedBody.GetMass();
				mouseJoint=world.CreateJoint(jointDef) as b2MouseJoint;
				stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,moveJoint);
				stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,killJoint);
			}
			return false;
		}
		private function queryCallbackDestroy(fixture:b2Fixture):Boolean {
			var touchedBody:b2Body=fixture.GetBody();
			if (touchedBody.GetType()==b2Body.b2_dynamicBody) {
				world.DestroyBody(touchedBody);
			}
			return false;
		}
		private function moveJoint(e:MouseEvent):void {
			mouseJoint.SetTarget(mouseToWorld());
		}
		private function killJoint(e:MouseEvent):void {
			world.DestroyJoint(mouseJoint);
			mouseJoint=null;
			stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,moveJoint);
			stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,killJoint);
		}
		private function mouseToWorld():b2Vec2 {
			return new b2Vec2(mouseX/worldScale,mouseY/worldScale);
		}
		private function debugDraw():void {
			var debugDraw:b2DebugDraw=new b2DebugDraw();
			addChild(debugSprite);
			debugDraw.SetSprite(debugSprite);
			debugDraw.SetDrawScale(worldScale);
			debugDraw.SetFlags(b2DebugDraw.e_shapeBit|b2DebugDraw.e_jointBit);
			debugDraw.SetFillAlpha(0.5);
			world.SetDebugDraw(debugDraw);
		}
		private function updateWorld(e:Event):void {
			world.Step(1/30,10,10);
			world.ClearForces();
			world.DrawDebugData();
		}
	}
}

Without entering in detail into Box2D coding, which is just the drag and drop example you can find in the official demo, look at the listener at line 39, which is the core of the script.

Then, you can easily publish the movie for Flash Player 11.2, thanks to Flash Professional CS6 you can download and try for 30 days at this link.

Just notice right mouse clicks examples will only work in browsers, testing them from the Flash IDE won't work.

What else to say? How many new game concepts can you imagine using both left and right mouse buttons?

Download the source code.