How to turn the sprite in pygame while moving with the keys

Question

So basically ive been hoping it would be possible to effectively turn your sprite while moving it around with WASD. Any ideas because im certainly stumped, thanks!

Answer 1

See How do I rotate an image around its center using PyGame? for rotating a surface. If you want to rotate an image around a center point (cx, cy) you can just do that:

rotated_car = pygame.transform.rotate(car, angle)
window.blit(rotated_car, rotated_car.get_rect(center = (cx, cy))

Use pygame.math.Vector2 to store the position and the direction of movement. Change the position by the current direction when w respectively s is pressed. Change the angle of the direction vector with rotate_ip, when a respectively d is pressed:

keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
if keys[pygame.K_w]:
    position += direction
if keys[pygame.K_s]:
    position -= direction
if keys[pygame.K_a]:
    direction.rotate_ip(-1)
if keys[pygame.K_d]:
    direction.rotate_ip(1)

See also:

• Motion and movement
• Image rotation while moving

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Minimal example: repl.it/@Rabbid76/PyGame-CarMovement

import pygame
pygame.init()
window = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 500))
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

car = pygame.image.load('CarRed64.png')
position = pygame.math.Vector2(window.get_rect().center)
direction = pygame.math.Vector2(5, 0)

run = True
while run:
    clock.tick(60)
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            run = False

    keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
    if keys[pygame.K_w]:
        position += direction
    if keys[pygame.K_s]:
        position -= direction
    if keys[pygame.K_a]:
        direction.rotate_ip(-1)
    if keys[pygame.K_d]:
        direction.rotate_ip(1)

    window.fill(0)
    angle = direction.angle_to((1, 0))
    rotated_car = pygame.transform.rotate(car, angle)
    window.blit(rotated_car, rotated_car.get_rect(center = (round(position.x), round(position.y))))
    pygame.display.flip()

pygame.quit()
exit()