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Danjen

Sun May 25, 2008 9:12 pm


Help With Making Custom GUI

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Okay, so I'm trying to make an RPG in turing and I want pretty much everything made custom, to create the illusion of professional quality. :)
Specifically, what I'm going for is like pop up windows that can contain text (or not). If you've ever played a Final Fantasy game, you should know exactly what I'm aiming for.

I am having two specific issues with this, the first one being that I am not sure of the best way to close the window when it is finished. Yes, I can have it close have a certain period or when a user inputs the 'okay' key, but I'm not sure HOW to do this, especially since this will be a class. Secondly, I have tried without much success to make the text scroll down to the next line as it types, an effect seen in applications like notepad or wordpad. 

Here is what I have so far:
%unit
View.Set ("offscreenonly,graphics:801;601,nobuttonbar")
class Gui
    export DrawWindow, DrawTextBox

    %%16 and 24 are special scaling factors. Best not to change them
    %%once windows are in place, though easily modifiable before that.
    const font := Font.New ("Courier New:16")
    const xmod : int := Font.Width ("W", font) + 3
    const ymod : int := 24 %24
    const b_ : int := 4 %%Change this to affect all border sizes!

    const BorderColor : int := grey
    const WindowColor : int := brightblue

    proc DrawFont (text_ : string, x_, y_ : int)
        Font.Draw (text_, x_ + 2, y_ - 1, font, black)
        Font.Draw (text_, x_, y_, font, white)
    end DrawFont

    proc DrawWindow (x1_, y1_, xsize_, ysize_ : int)
        assert xsize_ > -1
        assert ysize_ > -1
        const xpad : int := (xsize_ + 1) * xmod
        const ypad : int := (ysize_ + 1) * ymod
        Draw.Box (x1_, y1_, x1_ + xpad, y1_ + ypad, black) %%Outline
        Draw.FillBox (x1_ + 1, y1_ + 1, x1_ + xpad - 1, y1_ + ypad - 1, BorderColor) %%Border
        Draw.Box (x1_ + b_ + 1, y1_ + b_ + 1, x1_ + xpad - b_ - 1, y1_ + ypad - b_ - 1, black) %%Inline
        Draw.FillBox (x1_ + b_ + 2, y1_ + b_ + 2, x1_ + xpad - b_ - 2, y1_ + ypad - b_ - 2, WindowColor) %%Fill
        Draw.Line (x1_ + xpad - 1, y1_ + 1, x1_ + xpad - 1, y1_ + ypad - 1, white) %%Outer R Hilight
        Draw.Line (x1_ + 1, y1_ + ypad - 1, x1_ + xpad - 1, y1_ + ypad - 1, white) %%Outer U Hilight
        Draw.Line (x1_ + xpad - b_ - 2, y1_ + b_ + 2, x1_ + xpad - b_ - 2, y1_ + ypad - b_ - 2, blue) %%Inner R Shadow
        Draw.Line (x1_ + b_ + 2, y1_ + ypad - b_ - 2, x1_ + xpad - b_ - 2, y1_ + ypad - b_ - 2, blue) %%Inner U Shadow
    end DrawWindow

    proc DrawTextBox (text : string, x1_, y1_, xsize_, ysize_ : int)
        DrawWindow (x1_, y1_, xsize_, ysize_)
        const xpad : int := (xsize_ + 1) * xmod
        const ypad : int := (ysize_ + 1) * ymod
        const width : int := (xpad - b_ - 2) - (b_ + 2)
        const height : int := (ypad - b_ - 2) - (b_ + 2)

        for i : 1 .. length (text)
            DrawFont (text (1 .. i), x1_ + (xpad - width) + b_ + 1, y1_ + (ypad - height) + b_ + 1)
            delay (50)
            View.Update
        end for

    end DrawTextBox
end Gui

var Message : pointer to Gui
new Gui, Message
Gui (Message).DrawWindow (0, 0, 32, 3)
Gui (Message).DrawWindow (528, 0, 16, 3)
Gui (Message).DrawTextBox ("Filler filler filler filler filler filler", 294, 252, 20, 2)



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SNIPERDUDE

Mon May 26, 2008 6:44 am


RE:Help With Making Custom GUI

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have a global boolean variable that determines whether it is visible or not - every time the user dismisses the thing it will be false, every time the text changes reset the variable.

That's pretty much what I did in mine.

For the other problem - try a text wrap.
so determine the length of the string (Font.Width) and make sure it fits.
Got through it word by word in a loop checking this, whatever doesn't fit becomes a new line.

Just an idea - when I did something like this - I used a custom made Tokenizer (used in java I believe) to help with the breaking down of the string.


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Danjen

Mon May 26, 2008 7:24 pm


RE:Help With Making Custom GUI

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The only problem I have with the boolean method is that it would be a global variable and not inclusive to the class itself. Ultimately, I'm trying to make a general case so that I can use this in any number of engines.


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SNIPERDUDE

Tue May 27, 2008 6:29 am


RE:Help With Making Custom GUI

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hmmm, the boolean var is an array, and you work with an Index?

ex: 

Gui (Message).DrawTextBox (1, "Filler filler filler filler filler filler", 294, 252, 20, 2)

* the first number in the parameters is an index number...