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GUI-Tool - Poll
#385055
10/12/11 08:52
10/12/11 08:52
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,207 Germany, Magdeburg
Rei_Ayanami
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Posts: 3,207
Germany, Magdeburg
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Hello, As some of you may know, I am writing a GUI dll and editor at the moment. This brought up some question, or let me say problems. First of all, a speed vs compatibility problem:Using panels for the GUI-elements would be better, if you want to have to have the same layer system as in the native GameStudio system. (If you have any other elements with a layer, they would work as intended) - but that would be slow... The other method would be using draw_* commands, that would be faster than panels, but your elements would always be below the GUI.Okay, a quick test changed the situation a bit - it seems that panels are not really slower (maybe even faster D: ) than draw_ calls.Next problem: Image sourceThere are some plans for the image source of the elements. The first is the simple "use a image for every state of the element" which is very self explaining. The next method is, that all states (of a button e.g.) are in one picture, that is tiled. Another method is using .fx (shader) to create those elements procedurally. This prevents ugly scaling and the like.There will be many features, that are not available in the standard GameStudio GUI, an alternative input (way better than inkey/inchar - tested!), a nice and usable standard image set, the great editor and easy usage. Thanks, Marian
Last edited by Rei_Ayanami; 10/12/11 18:52.
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Re: GUI-Tool - Poll
[Re: SchokoKeks]
#385064
10/12/11 10:37
10/12/11 10:37
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,207 Germany, Magdeburg
Rei_Ayanami
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FYI: The editor will have a drag'n'drop interface, like the form editor of Visual Studio. There will be two options for scripting - user functions and a pattern based scripting, where you can do simple things by having boxes, that can be connected.
I don't really get what you mean by having at least one other option, as I am going to have as many options as possible, but I wanted to see with this poll, if my ideas are usable.
(Btw, of course there will be example and it will include a default procedural image shader that will be used, if the user does not select any other source -> fast prototyping of GUIs)
For the speed thing, well, I only read other users opinions about that (e.g. in the 2D scrolling game thread by Joozey(?)), so I used it my IsoEngine project too. I have to admit, that I have never made a real comparison, but a quick test with 800 non moving 2x2pixel panels/quads showed, that panels were faster in that case. If that is always the case (I need to think about a better test...), the first poll is useless.
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Re: GUI-Tool - Poll
[Re: Clemens]
#385088
10/12/11 15:22
10/12/11 15:22
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,207 Germany, Magdeburg
Rei_Ayanami
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Short answer: No.
Long answer: No, I am not going to use LBGUI, because I don't like its style, its usage and it was slow... It also didn't feel good (the handling) - especially the text input. My GUI already has more different buttons, less coding to get them and so on. The editor won't output a script, but a definition file, that could be (theoretically) read out by any script and parsed to LBGUI (if you really want to use it). When it comes to support, well, I get support from Felix Queißner, and you will get any support I can afford, because I want to sell this editor/dll for like 5-10$ and support is important to me.
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Re: GUI-Tool - Poll
[Re: Rei_Ayanami]
#385101
10/13/11 00:11
10/13/11 00:11
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 303 Germany
Clemens
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Posts: 303
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I see. In this case I wish you much luck with that project! I'm curious about the outcome. Submitted vote!
Last edited by Clemens; 10/13/11 00:12.
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Re: GUI-Tool - Poll
[Re: Clemens]
#385114
10/13/11 07:08
10/13/11 07:08
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 4,506 Germany
fogman
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´Bout multiply pictures and usage of panels: Please make sure that dds files are working.
no science involved
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Re: GUI-Tool - Poll
[Re: Rei_Ayanami]
#385124
10/13/11 09:35
10/13/11 09:35
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,134 Netherlands
Joozey
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When I start to do this for my application, I usually make an image that is scalable, e.g. all parts of the gui have a certain location in the image, which I read out. Corners have a static size, but frame edges can be stretched (and thus are usually 1px in width). Perhaps you can use this idea to make a little (standalone) gui component editor in which you can load an image, select the object you wish to skin (e.g. button) and drag the scalable/static parts of the button like a puzzle in your image. Write output in a separate gui skin coordinate file or so, that can be loaded via your dll.
This way you can neatly have a single image containing the skin for all components, and by "unwrapping" all these gui components into your image create a skin coordinate file. You could obviously colors in the image without the need to create a new coordinate file, but when the scale needs to be different, you'll have to make a new coordinate file.
Last edited by Joozey; 10/13/11 09:36.
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