Quick question about making a static engine...

[Bahmo]

OK, I understand that to start out, I'm supposed to set detector objects on all sides of Mario, by setting their position to Mario, plus or minus a few. But is there any way to easily calculate where I should place them? They usually go too far or close!

[Draco Icebane]

Treat Mario like a box.

His sprite is not a box. His collision area is. It is possible to make him several boxes for somewhat more precision but this is not recommended unless your sprites are really big

[Bahmo]

THink you misunderstood my question, Draco. I knew that. What I need to know is this:

Assuming I am setting the location of sensor, I will create an always event that reads something like this: Set X Position of (SENSOR) to X(MARIO) + n.

My problem is guessing what n is. My sensor either moves too far from Mario, or too close. I can build a box around him by hand, but to keep it in place I need to use an event with an equation. Is there any way to solve for n?

[Nicholas Ainsworth]

Make a separate collision mask that's the exact size of Mario's tallest and widest frame of animation (in all his animations), use that as a reference, and move from there.