Level and script editor (using the new GUI)

Community Forums/Showcase/Level and script editor (using the new GUI)

Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#1]
Hey peeps

Using that GUI i glued together the other day i updated my old level/script editor. The screenie doesnt realy show of the UI very well but i wrote some "wrapper" code so my level editor didnt actually need changing for stuff to work.



What do you think of the screenie?


All the UI stuff can be moved around and once clicked, options appear below. you can also see the script editor and a script running... (an ol zombie game a mate of mine made in blitz, rewritten in the editor. Hey Paulo! yes, he is part of the forums. This is for you! |^.^)

The main thing i like about what ive done with the interface is that ive hidden the menu clutter (until needed) and layered everything. what youre seeing:
the main camera rendered in whole, then the 2d stuff is done, then the preview camera rendered to a texture (that is, a gadget's texture) so that the preview gadget works

Then i render the UI camera

Note that it isnt required to do this, a simple renderworld will suffice for most people, its only required like this when you have several cameras that are viewed on gadgets.



Anyway, I'l get a demo download soon, i maybe selling this you see :)


wizzlefish(Posted 2005) [#2]
The GUI looks good, especially considering how fast you did it.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#3]
Cheers for the comments dude...

...is it me, or did alot of the trolls from here go to your forum? i feel sorry for anyone who ends up with Clownhunter!!! :P He will fill your forum with naff stuff as youve seen here :/

.....Well I'm off to bed. Byeee ^.^


Techlord(Posted 2005) [#4]
The screenshots are cool, truly a visual editor. Your script implementation looks very interesting as well.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#5]
Cheers Frank. IM loving your BlitzScript3D myself, I'm wondering how youve done some stuff.. fir instance, i can get a variable system working no problem, but i need to get a maths system working first.. How do i go about that? (how did YOU go about that?)


Techlord(Posted 2005) [#6]
Cheers Frank. IM loving your BlitzScript3D myself, I'm wondering how youve done some stuff.. fir instance, i can get a variable system working no problem, but i need to get a maths system working first.. How do i go about that? (how did YOU go about that?)
Unfortunately, this depends on your implementation. Blitzscript is compiled not interpreted.

I started with Mark Sibly's Compiler Code because it had a excellent way of parsing expressions and tokenizing BASIC statements, keywords, etc and output instructions.

Marks compiler code already handled:
1. Statements supported: let, print, end, if, then, else
2. Operators supported: binary +, -, *, /, <, =, >, <=, <>, >= and unary -
3. *, / have precedence over +, -, which have precendence over <,=,>,<=,<>,>=
4. Parenthesis can be used to group subexpressions.
5. Syntax Checking.

With a lil research on Assemblers and a foggy understanding of what the Assm Instructions do. I devised a Compiler (to parse a BASIC Syntax and output Assm-like Instructions) and a Virtual Machine (VM) that handles processing the them.

I could go into detail, but, I dont wanna swamp you with info.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#7]
i love all that info, It intrugues me.

I'm curently compiled as to make it easier... everything is done with blitz (its nothing special, just a simple way to enable you to modify your scripts in finished games.)

Im beginging a "compiler" for it though (i suppose thats what you would call it, what its actually doing is imterptetting tokenised commands :/ so far so good. Ive also got an export feature working that exports code to Blitz (simply creates a data set ) with some code to run the data. This can be converted to EXE through BlitzCC then meaning i can export to .EXE.

It is incredibly slow though,unlike yours. Can yours give blitz access to any info on the objects its working with? i use a status field with the objects that contains data such as "SHOOT <WEAPON NO>" and set flags via the same system.

Anyway i'm rambling on.... :)

I will take a look at that compiler code :)


Techlord(Posted 2005) [#8]
Can yours give blitz access to any info on the objects its working with?
Yes. You can give Blitz access to BlitzScript Variables and BlitzScript access to Blitz Coded Variables. There are a couple of ways to do it:

1) You can use the BlitzScriptVar construct to directly share data between the blitz source and script.

2) Write a Function or Macro that assigns and access the properties of a blitz coded object within script.

3) Script the object in which properties are accessible by default.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#9]
Coolies, a quick update here; Not looking too impressive and doesnt look like it got far, bit it has been re-written already ;)




SHows a simple use of 3d meshes (i just used createcube and createsphere) in the UI (its in its 1st rewrite now as it got pretty messy after an ordering problem!)


wizzlefish(Posted 2005) [#10]
No one is on my forum. We currently only have 5 POSTING members. The total posts on the forum is in the range of 1200 - that's less that I have on this forum.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#11]
Ahh dont worry dude, its hard to get a good community going without advertising n stuff :/ still, one day, I'll actually have a post on my website..

Oh, and maybe my website back too :/ ^.^


wizzlefish(Posted 2005) [#12]
;)


Techlord(Posted 2005) [#13]
Cygnus

Your use of simple use of 3d meshes for the UI similar to what I propose here. Looking good!


Clarks(Posted 2005) [#14]
3D gui, thats impressive


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#15]
Hey Frank, yeah I read that :) That thread made me realise my current system supported it already and all i needed to do was add rotation parameters to the objects to allow them to move amount smoothly... Animated meshes also supported allthough they need to be added manually at the moment :/

A GUI that is meant for 3d purposes from the scratch would be magnificent and outdo this by miles ^.^

I might stretch to a 3d font creation tool that generates meshes from fonts, then use those as objects for a 3D text command, it sounds like a good ol' challenge :D


wizzlefish(Posted 2005) [#16]
The Error! box looks like a 3D box - which kinda makes it look weird. You can actually see the word "Error" on the left side.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#17]
Yes. thats ebcause it was a "createcube" ;)

It can be any texture you want.. just simple showing how you can use 3d objects.. As i said.. doesnt look all that fantastic ;)


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#18]
Small update

I saw the info on Frank's thread about 3d GUI again (and the screenshot appeared this time) and realised that its possible with this;

1)Create a cylinder, and add it as an unmovable gadget to the desktop at the size of the desktop. (scale to fit ;) )

CameraRange the UI_camera so that the back half of the cylinder gets cropped.

EntityAlpha the cylinder to .5

and EntityTexture the cylinder to UI_desktop\texture;

EntityTexture Cylinder,UI_Desktop\texture


Now, any drawing you do to the desktop gadget will be curved in 3D ^.^

I've decided to make this Open Source, but i'm at work at the mo so i cant share the source out!!!

[edit]

oh and HideEntity ui_Desktop\mesh is needed else youl get it all twice...


Techlord(Posted 2005) [#19]
Yes, there are many possibilities:) I was think of deving a MAUI 2D as well.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#20]
The problem im having is z-ordering goes out of the window when i use alpha on the desktop texture... gota fix that somehow....


Techlord(Posted 2005) [#21]
The problem im having is z-ordering goes out of the window when i use alpha on the desktop texture... gota fix that somehow....
One possible solution could be to adjust the alpha dependent on the order. Controls that have focus could become more opaque, while controls out focus become more tranparent.


fall_x(Posted 2005) [#22]
Ahh dont worry dude, its hard to get a good community going without advertising n stuff :/ still, one day, I'll actually have a post on my website..
It's not that hard at all, on my website I have 1695 members, and a total of 203669 posts, which is about 200-400 posts every day.
You just need to have a subject that interests people. No offense, but why would anyone post on the No Enemies forum? You don't even have any games except for that spin shooter (which was nice, but it won't attract a huge community to your website).


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#23]
Fall_x, you also need good advertising and a nice spot on a search engine ;)


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#24]
@Frank, that wouldnt work. The individual components/gadgets work fine in alpha. Ive seen problems with meshes havnig issues with vertex alpha though.... I guess it depends, Il try it tonight ;)


fall_x(Posted 2005) [#25]
Fall_x, you also need good advertising and a nice spot on a search engine ;)

I don't have any advertising for my site :)

edit : sorry for the offtopicness.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#26]
NO prob. Thats interesting, Whats your site? if i type it into google, will i find it? ;)


fall_x(Posted 2005) [#27]
www.ontspoord.com - a Belgian hiphop community (probably the first there ever was, it's been online for about 8 years now, and it's the 5th or so reincarnation)

yes, you will find it in google. Just try, for instance, [hiphop belgië] and it's in the 4th spot.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#28]
its 8 years old. People will know it.. Search engine is a kind of advertising, and the fact it comes up in google will bring people to your site ;)

ON another note, i will take a look at this site later on. niteresting to see this :)