When Will We Have a Menu editor Working and a Tutorial?

[grubert]

Hi,

Thanks for the list of new features in the Beta. I?m very happy with the water shader, some bug fixes etc. I have a test level (some islands) that maybe I?ll share here later.

My question:

When Will We Have a Menu editor Working and a Tutorial?



Thanks in advance for replies.

[pixel_legolas]

I dont know what you mean with working menu editor. There is a menu editor and i haven tried it to yet but it seems to work. You can open other menus and look at them

[gekido]

the menu editor works perfectly fine now - tutorials and documentation on how to use it are still being worked on.

[grubert]

Ah, thanks then.

I?ve misunderstood some post I?ve read.

[Squat]

Pretty much try to open it and see what you can do with it. I've gotten pretty decent feedback from the editor. I honestly had no clue it was even in the editor. lol. It works though, perfectly fine as he said.

Another absolutely top-notch tool for us to use. I think it's great. My only complaint is that there was no way for me to figure out what image file was being called by a button in the editor. I had to look at it visually and then go find the same thumbnail in photoshop. Wasn't hard, but a little confusing. I haven't messed a lot with it, but I hope there's a way to read and change button and bg images for our forms.

[gekido]

Another absolutely top-notch tool for us to use. I think it's great. My only complaint is that there was no way for me to figure out what image file was being called by a button in the editor. I had to look at it visually and then go find the same thumbnail in photoshop. Wasn't hard, but a little confusing. I haven't messed a lot with it, but I hope there's a way to read and change button and bg images for our forms.

Basically everything in the default projects are based off of an interface template - which is called 'DefaultTemplate'.  The Forms that are based off of the template do not show the graphics directly, but you can edit the template itself and easily see what's being used / loaded.

You can see in this screenshot that I have the 'defaulttemplate' form selected, which is simply a basic form that has all of the interface widgets that the template defines on it.  At the bottom you can see that the 'button' that I have on the form has 3 sprites defined, and the other windows that I have open are the sprite editor and file browser dialogs.

For the most part, any control on any form can have custom sprites or images defined - if you want to make a button that has a different sprite, simply add the different sprites to that button.  it's pretty simple actually.  I have a couple of video tutorials in the works that cover creating interfaces in the menu editor, it's very powerful.

[grubert]

I have a couple of video tutorials in the works that cover creating interfaces in the menu editor, it's very powerful.

Thanks for this. I?ll be waiting for these videos.

[Squat]

Once in a while these boards don't update new posts with today. I missed this, dang. Thanks Gekido, this is great news. That pretty much turns the menu-editor, for me anyway, into a completely manageable experience.

I got hung up for a few seconds on one thing only, how to pop up those windows you showed. Anyway, you just double-click on everything under properties itself. Pick the template under 'form', the item under 'controls'. If you want the properties of the enabled sprite, double-click the property under 'properties'. I know, reading it makes me sound like I'm a dummy who should go duh, but it didn't appear that easy at first and may not for others, and again I got it in about 15 seconds so I think for the most part the menu editor is relatively self-explanatory.

One thing that I am extremely interested in is acheiving an in-game 3D menu system, complete with textures, animations and lighting....AND mouse-input over it. So basically live 3D assets for buttons and backdrops. My guess is a dummy form (with invisible buttons) and scripted to control the world.

I have one major question, is it possible to envoke the mouse pointer and have it return interaction with the game world for actual gameplay related stuff? For instance, could we make a game where you can activate a mouse-pointer and then use it to simply click on and return the names of game objects?

[zknack]

Once in a while these boards don't update new posts with today. I missed this, dang. Thanks Gekido, this is great news. That pretty much turns the menu-editor, for me anyway, into a completely manageable experience.

I got hung up for a few seconds on one thing only, how to pop up those windows you showed. Anyway, you just double-click on everything under properties itself. Pick the template under 'form', the item under 'controls'. If you want the properties of the enabled sprite, double-click the property under 'properties'. I know, reading it makes me sound like I'm a dummy who should go duh, but it didn't appear that easy at first and may not for others, and again I got it in about 15 seconds so I think for the most part the menu editor is relatively self-explanatory.

One thing that I am extremely interested in is acheiving an in-game 3D menu system, complete with textures, animations and lighting....AND mouse-input over it. So basically live 3D assets for buttons and backdrops. My guess is a dummy form (with invisible buttons) and scripted to control the world.

I have one major question, is it possible to envoke the mouse pointer and have it return interaction with the game world for actual gameplay related stuff? For instance, could we make a game where you can activate a mouse-pointer and then use it to simply click on and return the names of game objects?

.

GetName
Submitted by admin on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 11:33
Description
String GetName();
This function returns the name of the object in question. Useful when you need to get a pointer to an object for further manipulation.

Code:

Eg:
Object@ hitObject = GetGameManager().GetWorld().RayCast( shotPosition, shotDirection, distance, intersect, normal, false);
if
(hitObject.GetName() == "MYOBJECT" )
{
     //
Do whatever you need
}

SetRelativeMouseMode
Submitted by admin on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 10:50
Description

void SetRelativeMouseMode( bool relativeMode)

Sets or unsets relative mouse mode. In relative mouse mode, only the relative movement of the mouse is tracked; in absolute mouse mode (normal for most programs), the mouse's position is tracked. This function also updates the mouse cursor's visibility; it is set to visible for absolute mouse mode and invisible for relative mouse mode.

ShowMouse
Submitted by admin on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 10:53

Description
void ShowMouse()
Shows the mouse cursor if it was previously hidden.

Could these 3 functions help you Squat? They're easy to miss in the docs.. These plus the tutorial in the BV guide (which works in GC) on making a 3D menu, might just help?

Hopefully I'm pointing you in a better direction.

Cheers,
~ZKnack

[Squat]

Yes sir, that will certainly get me going. Thanks zknack.

[zknack]

No problems, I read the manuals wayyyyy too much honestly. And I *still* can't get my inventory screen functional fully- I know the
commands that I am/was looking for, it's just getting it working that, well, ain't working yet.

*cue sigh*

[Ransom]

What you need is the ProjectInverseFromScreen command.  Look at the chess example - it shows how to have the mouse pointer interact with your world. 

[Squat]

ooh that sounds promising! and oh yeah!, I forgot to look at the chess game. lol