starting up a UI class structure

running how to run the UI for an editor in my head. So starting on building a class hierarchy to control it. I haven't liked any of the premade ones I have come across, they are not transferable to different projects very well. They all want to take over the whole program, and dictate how you do you program under them.

I want one that will be a simple add-on to the SDL framework, that works under it, not take over the whole thing. So working on a simple base class that all other elements will come from, and a control that will display and check what input was done. Then react to that input. It is going to be a semi-persistant immediate mode GUI. It will follow the IMGUI style, but with some persistance but without a complicated callback system.

Instead of the normal IMGUI where the program checks and reacts right away to the input as it draws out the GUI, it will run through all the GUI elements, then do a direct call on the element that has the focus. Doing this so I can have drag-n-drop. If everything stayed in one place a standard IMGUI would work fine.

Still hate, but better

Still have my strong dislike for vectors (and alot of STL in general). But found out what was the problem. It just didn't like the way I defined it (location of the define). Got past that part, now on to other weirdness.

Still hate vectors

Some reason just one of the vectors I am working with, says it is multiple defined. I can't find it as it is only defined in one .h file, and only referenced in the corresponding .cpp file. No one else knows of it.

Grrrrr.

Off to read some docs, and maybe redo the bad boy in a different way. (maybe write my own vector, no not really).

aarrrghhhh

I HATE frak'n vectors.

Got to love free flow programming. . . AKA

spaghetti code. Not sure how I want to do the listing of UI elements as they will be held in memory for display and manipulation. So just hacking out a few ideas and see how they stick. Will have to neaten it up after(if) it works.

sorry, forgot the BB codes

Got used to my Hot and Spicy site that you just have to drop a link into and it becomes a hot link.

imageflip_zip

step one done

Actually step one.something is done. Got image on screen, and a small program that will walk through all images in the Q3 files (in theory it will work on all of the SFC series Q3's. But I only supported some of the formats the Q3 could have an image in, but I think it is the only ones used in all the games).

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20159469/imageflip_zip

grab it here, put it in a directory with a Q3 file and run it. Any key will walk you through the images, but backspace will walk backwards through them.

Remeber grab it while it is hot, it is on gamefront so when the downloads slow, it will get dropped off. So not sure how long it will really be here.

back to an old nemesis

STL stuff is still a major weakness of mine. Hacking around a stupid vector of pointers to assets, and trying to get data back out of it. GRRRR

We got clipping

Okay, my break is over, and I got the clipping working right. Now the image can show up anywhere on the screen and be alright. Not sure if it will work right if I run it off the end, but not going to worry about that right now.

part way there

Okay, it shows the image now. But have to figure out why it doesn't like to be moved out of the top corner. It has to do with the clipping zone, but not sure why. It shouldn't crash, it should just clip the image if it doesn't match the clip area.

Progress

Well, working on my function that didn't draw the image for me. I must be making progress, it now crashes the program.

So Far

Well, the weekend is over and I spent some time writing code to display an image. Was doing some conversion on the code and making it call correctly. Then I ran it, and it displayed, well, a blank screen.

Hmmm, going back to an earlier function that did work, and modifying the one I converted over the weekend to see if I can get one to display the image. It was rather disappointing. But ever forward.

working on step one

about half way done with step one. Relearning how to do things in SDL and all. Sad when I times I am saying, hmmm, I knew this. And it has only been about a year or so.

Gaaa more strangeness

Well, more odditites on the Development machine.

It locked out after an update, it seemed. So four more installs of XP on the machine and we might be stable. Seems odd, but installing the drivers for the motherboard from the disk I got with it seems to make it unstable now. Worked for years before, now install the drivers, system locks out.

But it seems stable, but I haven't moved back onto that machine yet. It now has XP and two versions of Linux on it. Will be interesting to see how compiling on different OSs work out. I program using Code::Blocks and use SDL so in theory my code should work on both sides of my machine.

Now for the actual update.

I have stepped back on what I have been doing as I set up a project that was to big for me to work on and beyond my skills (and knowledge) at the moment. Working on the editor for adding new Ship UI's to the game, and in the future changing the other UI parts of the game.

So first step I am working on a small program that will take the image files and just display them to the screen. No translation to other formats, right from the Q3 image file format. This is step one.

Step two, work on making my buttons work, then add moving images (the click on and move image thingie). This will allow the picking up of elements and putting them on the ship where needed.

Then work on adding Windows that hold the images that you need to use to add on the ship. Step three.

So this is where I am right now. Sorry so slow on updating here, been working on learning on alot of the Q3 stuff and other parts of the game. Details on that, sadly can't be talked about right now. But maybe I can put out some spoilers as I work on the UI editing parts with screen shots down the road.

But first on to step one, going to start tonight on that.