Hey Doug,
It all worked smooth here, cause my Gstudio7 dir was the same as yours anyway.. I took a close look at the new templates and by the majority I'm very impressed and pleased with what I saw..
Here's how I understood that the new templates work.. (let me know if I'm wrong somewhere..). components are stored in an xml and can be used (and re-used) for all sort of different behaviors like player's and Npc actions. When adding a new model in WED and assign for example the t7_biped_player action on it, the namesake xml behavior window will pop up if you click on behavior. Whatever you change in there is no longer saved in the entity's skills but in a different xml which gets exported when you publish. Xml data can be accessed and altered using the t7.dll functions.
Pros 1. I really liked how the Project Wizard created a new dir for you somewhere, including folders and files in it from a custom xml file. That would prove tremendously useful..
2. I also love the new xml system, in comparison with everything being saved in the script files in T6
3. Expand/Collapse buttons for the Behavior windows.. Good stuff
Bugs 4. The scrolling in the Behavior window doesn't work. If the components expand more than the window size, they dissapear into their own panel.
5. In my computer, it crashes when I publish your 't7 outside' project and try to run it from the executable. However, it works fine when I run it from WED (not published).
6. When published, only myProj.xml gets exported in the 'myProj.cd' directory. Inside there's a line:
'<Paths proj_file="C:\Documents and Settings\Larry Laffer\My Documents\t7 Outside\" t7_file="C:\Program Files\GStudio7\templates\xml\" />' that tells it that the rest xmls are in my GameStudio folder, but that means the game will crash when i send it to a pc without gamestudio installed.
7. Not a bug, but if you need help fixing your comments, then some are wrong above the entity_get_vec(..) in line:88 at t7.h. Let me know if you need more feedback like that, or if it's not important at this stage
Questions8. In T6 we could have pictures displayed on the customizable panels which was a really cool idea. Will this be possible in t7?
9. Haven't found a function entity_get_str(..). I guess it just isn't ready yet?
10. t7Camera.h has certain camera function prototypes that are commented as DLL functions. Does this mean T7 are going to be closed sourced?
11. How do we let the user change general parameters now(apart from behaviors)? Didn't see any examples, but i did saw some T6 comments in startup.c, like:
Code:
// entry: Select the background bitmap
// id: 9
// help: This will coverup the game window while the logos are being displayed.
BMAP* startup01_backgrnd_bmp = "black.pcx"; // the default A5 logo in templates
Hope that's not gonna be it.. I saw Cameras.xml with some parameters that looked like it, but i haven't found any function in t7.h to retrieve that information, or where will the user be able to change those parameters using customizable panels.
Suggestions12. How about being able to permanently dock the behavior panels (and all other customizable panels) in the main WED window, like this:
and maybe even the project manager window can be docked, so the user can choose which panel he wants to configure from a list of Cameras.xml, Weapons.xml etc... Will save a lot of clicks, and WED will look like unity's cool interface:
13. For customizing flags and the sort, I'd much rather prefer showing a checkbox in the behavior panel, than a pop-up list where you can choose True or False. Saves time imo..
That's it.. If i'm not clear somewhere, plz let me know so i can add more screenshots and the sort.. I just didn't want to make a long post longer..
btw, my notes from Project Manager are:
Code:
Project Manager: 2.0
T7 Path: C:\Program Files\GStudio7\templates\xml\
Proj Path: C:\Documents and Settings\Larry Laffer\My Documents\t7 Outside\
Behavior File: Behaviors.xml (t7)
Component File: Components.xml (t7)
Warning(LoadProperty): CMP(animate): Property "animGroup" using unknown type.
-->"animGroup"
Warning (LoadProperty) "brain :Property found without name. Not added.
Camera File: Cameras.xml (proj)
UI File: UI.xml (proj)
Animation File: Animations.xml (t7)
Weapon Def File: Weapons.xml (t7)
and once again, amazing work on the templates. I can see what danting task this must have been...
Cheers,
Aris
