What do you want of a GUI?
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/What do you want of a GUI?
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| There's buckets of GUIs out there, and more being written al the time. I'm just curious as to how much of the full-featured products' features you actually use? Of course you use buttons, I guess, but what abut sliders? Moveable windows? Scaleable windows? Text gadgets? Combo boxes? Menu systems? It seems to me most of these are of use for applications more than games. I just kinda wondering if a lot of these UIs are excessive for most needs. |
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| I think most people use these for applications rather than games. Level editors are an almost essential part of the game developement process and without them creating large games becomes a nightmare. |
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| I have an 'editor' mode in the app I'm creating. I use BlitzUi - virtually every feature except window resizing. |
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| When I do game GUIs, I just hard-code an interface from scratch. It generally works out, and fits the game perfectly, and allowd me to add in all kinds of little subtle movements. It also means that the program won't be initializing a huge GUI that it only uses a quarter of. (And yes, believe it or not, I have done a few small game GUIs) |
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| The top feature would be an unobstrusive GUI. A GUI that only acts when acted on and only has the smallest possible percentage of processing time. A GUI with an editor that will auto generate the code. The Visual studio VB.NET editor is an excellent example. A GUI that is easy to use at the code level. I usually do as Mr. Picklesworth suggests with a few functions that I recycle, File requesters(Save,Load), text and numerical validation for inputs and so on. |
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| Simple, modular, extensible. When trying out a new API, I want to be able to get my hands dirty without being overwhelmed. I'd love to see a GUI lib that provides nothing but the simplest features by default (windows, text, and buttons) but is easy to expand upon - all the other gizmos and doohickeys should be in other .bb file(s) that won't be included by the simpler examples. |
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| Well, I play lots of console games and IMHO GUIs for games are far more complex then the typical Windows Style GUIs. Game GUIs are highly animated and many use windows-style controls like scrollbars, etc. I've also noticed is that some console game GUIs are trully 3D in which you point and click on 3D objects vs 2D sprites. I have yet to see a Free Blitz-made GUI Lib thats supports animation and 3D GUI Scenes. This is what has motivated me to start developing MAUI a GUI System suitable for both games and in-game applications. The distinction for MAUI will be Animation, Script Support, and FREE use. So with Animation being a key feature you can imagine the type of editor that will be needed. A fusion of 2d & 3D Animation Editors. |
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| Yay Frank! Yes I have used BlitzUI for a few projects in the past but I too just coded what I was going to use as specific for the game or app written... smaller and simpler that way. |
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| Granted, finished game GUIs are complicated, but what I want in an API is simplicity. Let the programmer make it complicated, just give him/her the architecture to do so. Can you elaborate on "Script Support"? |
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| I just use buttons with NSprite that dissapear when they are not needed, One thing I would find useful is textboxes,so I dont have to squeeze words on the screen without wordwrap. |
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| Can you elaborate on "Script Support"? At a guess, you write code that performs actions on the GUI element when you mouse over or click on it. Or just a custom way to animate the interface while idle... |
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| I think Frank was talking about animation scripts for resizing and moving meshes, for active, bouncy buttons. |
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| Can you elaborate on "Script Support"? I think Frank was talking about animation scripts for resizing and moving meshes, for active, bouncy buttons. Correct. |
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