i am trying to create a main menu for my game, but its doing strange things.
first i create a panel, with a bitmap as the background.
There is one button inside the panel. when i put my mouse over the button, the "over" bitmap wont appear.
if i draw text to the screen, it stays on the screen. any text that i place just writes straight over the top.

is there some sort of "refresh screen" command? or do i need to put the button or menu into some sort of loop? i am really lost here and its hard to explain

I don't understand really
but you can use the layers.
Or try it with e.g. text1.visible=off;

kwpsp

Your second problem can be solved by typing "vec_set(screen_color,vector(128,128,128));" where you can replace the 128s with any color you like, apart from 0,0,0.

For the first problem it would be helpfull to see the panel definition.

PANEL* main_menu =
{
bmap = image_menu;
button = 300, 200, image_join_on, image_join_off, image_join_on, NULL, NULL, NULL;
flags = VISIBLE;
}

//loads the menu
function load_menu()
{
main_menu.size_x = 800;
main_menu.size_y = 600;
main_menu.pos_x = (screen_size.x - 800) / 2;
main_menu.pos_y = (screen_size.y - 600) / 2;
}

function main()
{
while(1)
{
wait(1);
}
return 0;
}









thats the panel. i couldnt get it to work properly when i put my mouse over it... so i decided to create a level for the background... but that wont work either. all the level contains is a sphere with an earth-like skin. When it loads, it says "error loading planet.mdl". is there something you have to do to a model after u put it into an empty map? i was just thinking of having a planet rotating in the background of the menu.

are you sure you have set the right mouse_mode? by default, the mouse pointer is inactive.
...

function main()
{
mouse_mode = 1;

while(1)
{
mouse_pos.x = mouse_cursor.x; // snap mouse
mouse_pos.y = mouse_cursor.y; // snap mouse
wait(1);
}
}

It is "button(x, y, bmapOn, bmapOff, bmapOver, functionOn, functionOff, functionOver);". You forgot the brackets. And if you define a background bitmap you don't need to set the size of the panel.

@Uhrwerk...

using = instead of brackets is still valid syntax. I'm thinking that he has forgot to snap the mouse cursor to its position, so that it can react.

ohhhh hahahah it works now. didnt realise that engine mouse and actual mouse had to be snapped together
mouse_mode = 1
and snapping worked. thanks heaps.

just another question tho - any ideas as to why i cant get a model into the map?

i made a sphere, put it into the level editor, built the map and loaded it into the game.

the primitives created by the level appear (i tested with a cube etc.) but the sphere just wont load

hmmm that's odd. Is it only the sphere that wont load? Try with some other models, as you may have a damaged model.

If it still wont load them then that is another problem.

i needed an earth-like model, and MED's spheres dont have enough vertices to look like a smooth planet (unless there is an option i have missed). so,
i created a sphere in maya
imported it into MED
used 2-sided mapping
pasted a quick atlas image onto the planet
imported it into the level.

is there something i missed? or would it be a better option just o use a basic sphere from MED