Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
380 lines (234 loc) · 8.02 KB

a_PATH_JOIN.md

File metadata and controls

380 lines (234 loc) · 8.02 KB
Raw

🧶 Path / issue

When working with file paths in a Pygame project, the path you use to load assets like images depends on the directory structure of your project.

    • Initially, the teacher used a relative path with ../images/player.png, but then switched to using join('images', 'player.png').

🍊 The success of these paths depends on where your script is located relative to the assets.


Here's a summary of the issue and solution based on different project structures:

🟤 Initial Path Example:

player_surf = pygame.image.load('../images/player.png')

🟤 Alternative Path Example:

player_surf = pygame.image.load(join('images', 'player.png'))



🟤 Project Structure

PROJECTFolder
   ├── images
   ├── audio
   └── game
       └── game.py
    • 🔴 In this structure, using join('images', 'player.png') does not work because game.py is located in the game subfolder, requiring a relative path ✋ to move up one level to access the images folder.

Avoiding the .. in Different Scenarios

If you want to avoid using .., you need to make sure that your working directory is always set to PROJECTFolder when you run the script.

This way, you can use relative paths based on the current working directory:

import pygame
from os.path import join

# Define the path relative to the working directory (PROJECTFolder)
image_path = join('images', 'player.png')

# Load the image
player_surf = pygame.image.load(image_path)



🫐 Options

  • If you're working on a project where the folder containing your assets is nested inside another project with many other games, you might be using a relative path like this:

🟠 Direct Path String (EASY but not good)

player_surf = pygame.image.load('../images/player.png')

🔴 Issue with Using Relative Paths:

  • This approach may work perfectly on your development machine, where the relative path ../images/player.png correctly points to the image file.

    • However, if you share your project with a colleague or deploy it on a different machine, the directory structure might differ.

    • ✋ In such cases, the relative path may no longer be accurate, leading to broken image loads.

    • 🔴 This can cause your game to crash or display missing assets if the expected path does not match the actual location of the files.


🔴 Cross-Platform Issues:


The project may be developed on a Windows machine where paths use backslashes (..\\images\\player.png), but if it needs to be deployed on a Unix-based system (like macOS or Linux), the backslashes won’t work and will cause errors.

    • ✋ Hardcoding paths doesn’t account for platform-specific path separators.

🔴 Version Control Conflicts:


✋ When working in a team, different members might use different folder structures or make changes that affect the paths.

    • ✋ Hardcoded paths can lead to conflicts and confusion, as other team members might not have the same directory layout.

This complicates collaboration and maintenance.


🔴 Deployment Complexity:


For deployment in different environments (e.g., a production server or a packaged executable), hardcoded paths might not be valid.

    • It requires additional configuration to adjust paths, making the deployment process more complex and error-prone.


🌈 Solution

  • IF your game.py is located in the game subfolder , example
# in the below scenario i need to use the ../ to reach the images folder
allPygame
       subFolderGame ✋
        ├── images
        ├── audio
        ├── gameFolder
             └── game.py

And not like this:

allPygame
    ├── images
    ├── audio
    └── game.py

🌈 THEN the solution for such scenario:

import os
import pygame

# Get the directory of the current script
script_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
# Build the path to the image file
image_path = os.path.join(script_dir, '..', 'images', 'player.png')

# Load the image
player_surf = pygame.image.load(image_path)

🟦 In my code (within the Subfolder)

import pygame


# ✋
import os

pygame.init()

# ✋
script_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)


# --- window
WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT = 1280, 720

display_surface = pygame.display.set_mode((WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT))
#------
 # title
pygame.display.set_caption("Space shooter")


running = True
surf = pygame.Surface((100,200))
surf.fill('orange')
x = 100



# BEFORE
# player_surf = pygame.image.load(join('../images', 'player.png'))


# ✋
image_path = os.path.join(script_dir, '..', 'images', 'player.png')
# ✋
player_surf = pygame.image.load(image_path)



while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
       if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False

    display_surface.fill("lavenderblush2")
    x += 0.1
    display_surface.blit(player_surf, (x,150))
    pygame.display.update()


pygame.quit()


🟠 If your project set up looks like the below, then you can use this path (join('images', 'player.png'))

allPygame
    ├── images
    ├── audio
    └── game.py

import pygame

from os.path import join


pygame.init()

WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT = 1280, 720
display_surface = pygame.display.set_mode((WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT))

pygame.display.set_caption("Space shooter")

running = True

surf = pygame.Surface((100,200))
surf.fill('orange')

x = 100

player_surf = pygame.image.load(join('images', 'player.png'))


while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
       if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False

    display_surface.fill("lavenderblush2")


    x += 0.1

    display_surface.blit(player_surf, (x,150))

    pygame.display.update()

pygame.quit()


🟡 On the root folder

#0
import pygame
#14
from os.path import join


# 1
pygame.init()
#2 --- window
WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT = 1280, 720
#3
display_surface = pygame.display.set_mode((WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT))
#------
# 9 change the window caption:
pygame.display.set_caption("Space shooter")
# change icon
# add an img to the project folder and insert it below
# pygame.display.set_icon('')


# 4 LOOP var
running = True


#10 create a surface
# w:100 px & h: 200px
# size of the shape
surf = pygame.Surface((100,200))
# Add color to the shape/Surface
surf.fill('orange')
# 11 anima
x = 100


#15 using join to concatenate
# path = join('images', 'player.png')
# print(path)
#13 IMporting img
player_surf = pygame.image.load(join('images', 'player.png'))

# 5 the Loop
while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
       if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False


 # FILL the window with a red color
 # player = pygame.Rect((300, 250, 50, 50))
 # https://pyga.me/docs/ref/pygame.html

 # 7 --- DRAW the game ----
 # list of colors: https://pyga.me/docs/ref/color_list.html
    display_surface.fill("lavenderblush2")


    # 12 anima
    # CAREFUL with the identation, otherwise it wont work
    # means **you are increasing** the **value of x by 0.1 each time the loop runs.**
    x += 0.1
    # pos of the shape
    #  Position: Top-left corner at (100, 150) on the display surface
    display_surface.blit(player_surf, (x,150))
    #`Blit()` is a fancy way of saying **You want to put ONE surface on ANOTHER surface**
    pygame.display.update()




# 6 EXIT
# - if you dont add the below, its not going to cause a problem but it will behave
pygame.quit()


🧶 Conclusion

If The teacher’s code works without .., it’s likely due to their working directory being set to the project root when running the script.

Ensuring that your working directory is correctly set or adjusting the script’s path handling to account for directory differences should resolve the issue.