I'm reviving an Old Project A New Old Tool for the Community

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:36 pm

I am reviving an old project that everyone was very excited about at the time, but I had to drop because I hit a programming snag I didn't know how to overcome. I have since learned how to program a little better, and have found out how to do what I needed to do. I have also learned more about the structure of what I am trying to create, and that it is much bigger than I originally thought. So, today I set about improving the first interface and giving it the complete flexibility that it needs.

Now. . .this is not done, and it will take some time to finish, but I really want to do this for the community.

A GUI menu creator:

I have made it so you select a background image (800 X 600), then select your buttons image, which will open in a second window, where you will drag to select a section for your button, then copy it into the first window. Then you type in an x/y coordinate to move it around. You can change it big, with x/y values, and I have included a nudge tool to make small changes for accuracy. You do have to reselect the buttons bitmap each time, but it's worth the small step.

At the end of each screen, which are dedicated to each individual menu, you will click Save Menu, to append the finished menu.ini. It will be created in the root folder of the menu creator program.

I will post more screens later to show the actions. I hope to make a video tutorial to show how to use it when it's done.

Just a note, and don't groan. I program in .NET, so you will need the .NET framework on your machine.

MakerOfGames · Post by **MakerOfGames** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:10 am

WOW! That makes the hard part of trudging through all that menu code non existent. That is awesome!!! I cant wait for it steven8!

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:00 am

WOW! That makes the hard part of trudging through all that menu code non existent.

That is what it's for. The user can physically see where everything is at, an the program will write those positions to the file for you. I started on this, like, a year ago, but got stuck in a coding dilemma. I have resolved that dilemma, and want to get back underway. I also realise now that I had greatly underestimated the vast complexity of the menu.ini file. Even though I like to make menus, I guess I wasn't seeing quite the whole picture at the time. I believe I will have all the bases covered this time.

Juutis · Post by **Juutis** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:24 am

WOW! That makes the hard part of trudging through all that menu code non existent. That is awesome!!! I cant wait for it steven8!

I have nothing else to say... This is just great, simply amazing!!!

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:31 am

I'm excited too. Now, I am going to make the Main Menu part just right before moving on to the other menus. I hope to make a test menu.ini with just the main menu by the end of this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Post by **bernie** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:58 am

Now that's a worthwhile project. Looking great, I can't wait for it. I wish I could code that well. I do a bit in ms visual c++ but its at a very early learning stage and at my age one tends to be a slow learner

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:11 am

Shoot, bernie, I've known plenty of people your age that are much faster learners than some 20 year olds!! MS VC++ is not something to 'learn fast', at all!! I have poked around in it, and can spot issues and basically understand what's going on, but as far as 'knowing' it. . .I'm miles away!!

Post by **AndyCR** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:42 pm

steven8 wrote:I also realise now that I had greatly underestimated the vast complexity of the menu.ini file.

Oh, I could have told you THAT, that is what I'm working on in RF2 right now... Well, I was up to a couple days ago anyway, now I'm working on the particle system.

Sounds great, can't wait to use it!

(If you want a finished menu ini reader code done in C++, I can slip you the old RF2 inireader by PM)

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 4:44 pm

PM me, good buddy!!

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:17 pm

Okay, here a couple of shots in action:

To make your buttons, you open the buttons bitmap you wish to use, drag to select the correct button area desire and crop it to the clipboard:

You the click the button marked appropriately to assign that button image to the right picturebox. The you type in a coordinate in the x and y textboxes provided on the right and click 'Locate so-and-so Button'. You can move it around as you wish to get it where you want. You can use the nudge tool at the bottom of the window to fine tune it:

Juutis · Post by **Juutis** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:49 pm

Compared to modifying the .ini file with notepad or something like that... that is sooooo simple.

Like taking candy from a baby! (erm... which I never EVER do)

Maybe with that even I can make decent menus.

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:57 pm

Like taking candy from a baby! (erm... which I never EVER do)

Which you NEVER should. Unless it's a Kit Kat. . .then it's okay. Babies don't REALLY like Kit Kats. It's a documented fact.

The concept behind RF is to make game making as simple for everyone as it can be. Menus are rough!! Hopefully this will make it a breeze. I will make a help file to go with it as well. I'll break down the components of the menus, so the user will know what they need to have media-wise before starting to make a menu.

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 6:35 pm

I'm gonna take out the nudge tool. It's not needed when you can just alter a position by one pixel and click locate. Besides, we need a way to select fonts for our menu and sounds for our menu. Those selection options will go in it's place!

MakerOfGames · Post by **MakerOfGames** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:05 am

Wow! This project looks so awesome. I'm very glad I didnt take myself seriously when I said to myself I would tackle the menu a few weeks ago, because it looks like your program will get me in business in about 15 minutes instead of 4 hours!!

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 4:05 am

it looks like your program will get me in business in about 15 minutes instead of 4 hours!!

I hope so MOG!! I have made some good progress today and started outputting to file. I don't want to miss any nooks and crannys like cursors, crosshairs, loading screen etc., so I spent some time tonight getting those things in there.

I also want the process to be as painless as possible for the user. As it looks right now, the menu creation would have to be a 'you'd-better-be-totally-prepared-because-the-whole-thing-is-going-to-be-done-in-one-sitting' type of deal. I will work it that way for the moment, but i will come up with a way for the user to save progress and quit if they wish, and reload later to finish. That will take a bit of doing, so I am going to just concentrate on the nuts and bolts of getting a menu auto-output for right now.

I will post some sample output tomorrow night when I get more stuff done. It's off to bed for now. . .