How would I make the ball move faster?

Question

I am recreating a basic pong game.. and I am unable to figure out how to make the ball more faster. I have tried modifying speed but that was unsuccessful. Also, when the ball hits the paddle it goes through the paddle instead of bouncing back. I am trying to use collision to allow the ball to bounce back.

# import the necessary modules
import pygame
import sys

#initialize pygame
pygame.init()

screenSize=(700,500)
screen=pygame.display.set_mode((screenSize), 0)

# set the size for the surface (screen)
screen_h = screen.get_height()
screen_w = screen.get_width()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((screen_w,screen_h),0)

# set the caption for the screen
pygame.display.set_caption("Pong Game")

# define colours you will be using
WHITE = (255,255,255)
GREEN = (0,255,0)
RED = (255,0,0)
BLUE = (0,0,255)
BLACK = (0,0,0)
YELLOW = (255,255,0)

playerRect = pygame.Rect(100,100,50,50)
playerRect2 = pygame.Rect(300,300,50,50)

#initialize variables for player
#variables for first rectangle
R1x = 740
R1y = 300
R1w = 30
R1h = 132
R1dx = 0
R1dy = 0

#variables for second rectangle
R2x = 10
R2y = 300
R2w = 30
R2h = 132
R2dx = 0
R2dy = 0

#ball variables
bx = 100
by = 150
dby = 1
dbx = 1
br = 15
cy =  screen.get_height()/2
cx =  screen.get_width()/2

#speed
speed = 5

fontsize = 50
fontTitle = pygame.font.SysFont('arial',fontsize)
textTitle = fontTitle.render("Left paddle score ="+str(R1x),True, (YELLOW))


clock = pygame.time.Clock()
FPS = 300

# set main loop to True so it will run
main = True
# main loop
while main:
    for event in pygame.event.get(): # check for any events (i.e key press, mouse click etc.)
        if event.type ==pygame.QUIT: # check to see if it was "x" at top right of screen
            main = False         # set the "main" variable to False to exit while loop
        if event.type ==pygame.KEYDOWN:
            if event.key == pygame.K_UP:
                R1dx = 0
                R1dy = -speed
            elif event.key == pygame.K_DOWN:
                R1dx = 0
                R1dy = speed
            if event.key == pygame.K_w:
                R2dx = 0
                R2dy = -speed
            elif event.key == pygame.K_s:
                R2dx = 0
                R2dy = speed
        if event.type == pygame.KEYUP:
            if event.key == pygame.K_UP or event.key == pygame.K_DOWN:
                R1dx = 0
                R1dy = 0
            elif event.key == pygame.K_w or event.key == pygame.K_s:
                R2dx = 0
                R2dy = 0

        clock.tick(FPS)

        R1x = R1dx + R1x
        R2x = R2dx + R2x
        bx = dbx + bx
        by = dby + by

        if R1x >= screen.get_height() - 80 or R1x < 0:
            R1dx = 0
        if R2x >= screen.get_height() - 80 or R2x < 0:
            R2dx = 0
        if by >= screen.get_height() - br:
            dby = -1
        if by <= 15:
            dby = 1
        if bx >= R2x - br and by - R2x > 0 and by - R2x < 100:
            dbx = -1
        if bx <= R1x + br and by - R1x > 0 and by - R1x < 100:
            dbx = 1
        if bx == 1:
            R2xscore = R1xscore + 1
            pause = True

        if bx == 799:
            left_paddlescore = left_paddlescore + 1 
            pause = True

     # check collision
    collided = playerRect.colliderect(playerRect2)
    if collided == True:
        playerRect.x = oldX
        playerRect.y = oldY


    # move the x and y positions of the rectangles
    R1y = max(0, min(screen_h-R1h, R1y + R1dy))
    R2y = max(0, min(screen_h-R2h, R2y + R2dy))
    R1x = max(0, min(screen_w-R1w, R1x + R1dx))
    R2x = max(0, min(screen_w-R2w, R2x + R2dx))

    screen.fill(BLACK)

    playerRect.move_ip(R1dx,R1dy)
    playerRect2.move_ip(R2dx,R2dy)

    # draw the shapes, in this case the blue rectangles
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, WHITE,(R1x, R1y, R1w, R1h),0)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, WHITE,(R2x, R2y, R2w, R2h),0)
    pygame.draw.circle(screen, RED,(bx,by),br,0)

    # we are using .flip() here,  it basically works the same as .update()
    # we will discuss this more in class (you can use either one)
    pygame.display.flip()

    # quit pygame and exit the program (i.e. close everything down)
    pygame.quit()
    sys.exit()

dbx dby seem to control the ball speed in "pixels per frame". — Joe, Mar 06 '20 at 06:24

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 06 '20 at 14:22

The movement of the ball has to be computed in the application loop, rather than the event loop. Use pygame.Rect obejcts for the paddles and the ball. Detect a collision between the ball and the paddles by colliderect(). If the ball hits the right paddle, then the right border of the ball has to be set by the left border of the paddle. If the ball hits the left paddle, then the left border of the ball has to be set by the right border of the paddle. e.g.:

while main:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            main = False  
        # [...]

    clock.tick(FPS)

    R1x = R1dx + R1x
    R2x = R2dx + R2x
    bx = bx + dbx * speed
    by = by + dby * speed

    # move the x and y positions of the rectangles
    R1y = max(0, min(screen_h-R1h, R1y + R1dy))
    R2y = max(0, min(screen_h-R2h, R2y + R2dy))
    R1x = max(0, min(screen_w-R1w, R1x + R1dx))
    R2x = max(0, min(screen_w-R2w, R2x + R2dx))

    playerRect = pygame.Rect(R1x, R1y, R1w, R1h)
    playerRect2 = pygame.Rect(R2x, R2y, R2w, R2h)
    ballRect = pygame.Rect(bx-br, by-br, br*2, br*2)

    if ballRect.top <= 0:
        dby = abs(dby)
    if ballRect.bottom >= screen.get_height():
        dby = -abs(dby)  
    if ballRect.colliderect(playerRect2):
        ballRect.left = playerRect2.right
        dbx = abs(dbx)
    if ballRect.colliderect(playerRect):
        ballRect.right = playerRect.left
        dbx = -abs(dbx)
    bx, by = ballRect.center

    screen.fill(BLACK)

    # draw the shapes, in this case the blue rectangles
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, WHITE, playerRect)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, WHITE, playerRect2)
    pygame.draw.circle(screen, RED, ballRect.center, br)

    # we are using .flip() here,  it basically works the same as .update()
    # we will discuss this more in class (you can use either one)
    pygame.display.flip()

How would I make the ball move faster?

1 Answers1