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Program Announcements / [LOCKED] BLUE Graphical User Interface Plugin Release - Windows Gadgets in your apps

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Mnemonix
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Posted: 22nd Apr 2004 20:35
I am perfectly happy to test blueGUI v.2 if you need help

Visit the Db chat room, ask me for details!.
Jeku
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Posted: 22nd Apr 2004 23:39
RobK - Please sign me up for the beta, I'd love to test it out!

Rob K
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Posted: 23rd Apr 2004 18:39
Thanks

@jeku,Kangaroo2,Mussi

Can you send me your email addresses please.

For the others I've used the one from your forum profile.

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Mussi
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Posted: 24th Apr 2004 01:31
mussi@apollostudio.nl



Specs: AMD Athlon 1800, 256 DDRRam 266mhz, 80GB HD 7200rmp U133, Geforce 4 Ti4400 128mb
Rob K
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Posted: 24th Apr 2004 20:07
BTW. If anyone is interested, more information on BlueGUI v2. development is available here on the LLRGT forums.

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
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ReD_eYe
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Posted: 26th Apr 2004 20:31
yay! finally got round to ordering this i await the the download link eagerly

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Powersoft
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Posted: 27th Apr 2004 20:12
can the new window created using blueGUI support 3d activity in it?
(if not add it???)

Just to add to the confusion.
Look at my avatar
ReD_eYe
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 21:22 Edited at: 28th Apr 2004 23:00
Smashing job rob i'm having a great time with this.
#edit problem solved, stupid me
smashing plugin though! loving it

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Mussi
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 21:34
try, RESET INPUT and then sync



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ReD_eYe
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 21:42 Edited at: 28th Apr 2004 23:00
#edit, damit! i'm an idiot, ignore me... problem solved

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Powersoft
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 23:13
and my question?

Just to add to the confusion.
Look at my avatar
Rob K
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Posted: 29th Apr 2004 03:58 Edited at: 29th Apr 2004 04:03
Quote: "can the new window created using blueGUI support 3d activity in it?"


Nope. In the current version you cannot import DBPro images into windows, in BlueGUI v2 you can however (so it will sort-of be possible)

Short Summary: In BlueGUI v2. you will be able to do small 3D displays in gadgets realtime or larger more static displays in gadgets. You cannot however create three 512x512-sized gadget windows and stick a realtime display in all of them and expect a high framerate.

Technical Explanation
Quote: "
Small 3D displays (128x128) and below are OK for realtime displays (for fairly static - non frequently-moving 3D stuff, you can use larger images), however for reasons partly beyond by control, its not possible to do realtime 3D at a high resolution. As you may have noticed the GET IMAGE command is very slow. To grab a 256x256 area from the screen it takes 70ms or so, if you wanted to do this in realtime, repeatedly, this would limit your FPS to between 10 and 20. (Eeek!)

Unfortunately you cannot use MAKE MEMBLOCK FROM IMAGE with SET CAMERA TO IMAGE, so in order to get 3D to display in a gadget, I have to do the following:

- 1. Programmer grabs an image from the current bitmap
- 2. Use setPanelImage or setButtonImage to apply the image to the gadget
- 3. The plugin has to call MAKE MEMBLOCK FROM IMAGE so it can access the data
- 4. The colours are the other way round in DirectX from the rest of windows, so I have to swap the colours round for each and every pixel (eek! again).
- 5. The plugin has to call DELETE MEMBLOCK to free the memblock for use again.

End result - It takes time
"


Example of copying a camera's image to a gadget in BlueGUI v2:



BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
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Powersoft
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Posted: 29th Apr 2004 20:24
oh ok.

Just to add to the confusion.
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1tg46
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Posted: 1st May 2004 06:03
Will we eventually see support in gadgets (Like windows) for DBP commands like printing text to the window with
or just having some other basic commands of DBP available to interact with the gadgets??
Cpt Caveman
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Posted: 1st May 2004 14:20
I know this has probably already been answered, but I had a look through this thread and can't solve my basic problem, I can't get the menu dll plugin working with the Blue GUI gadget dll, I can only get one of them to show at once not both, can some please just show me a quick snippet, I know Im doing something wrong that should be basic. Thanks
Rob K
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Posted: 1st May 2004 18:01 Edited at: 1st May 2004 18:04
@Elemenop

Change the SETUP GUI parameters from:

SETUP GUI WindowTitle$,InitCode$

to

SETUP GUI WindowTitle$,InitCode$,1

@1tg46

Quote: " or just having some other basic commands of DBP available to interact with the gadgets??"


No. BlueGUI is entirely independant of DBPro, there is no way I can "hook" a command like Print (ie. so I could respond to it in my own way).

However, if you want to do 2D drawing on a gadget, that will be possible in BGUI v2:

eg:

`Create a new canvas to draw in, if you want to draw in a window, create a window first, then create the canvas inside it. This canvas is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high
paintingArea=createCanvas(0,0,640,480,0)

`Draw some black text, the syntax is drawText canvasGadget,x,y,text$
drawText paintingArea,10,10,"I love"
drawText paintingArea,10,30,"BlueGUI version 2's"
drawText paintingArea,10,50,"new canvas drawing commands!"
`Set the drawing colour to red border / red fill / black text before drawing out rectangle
setDrawingColor paintingArea,RGB(255,0,0),RGB(255,0,0),0
`There are various shape drawing commands, for drawRect, the syntax is drawRect canvasGadget,left,top,right,bottom
drawRect paintingArea,10,70,100,140

(other commands for drawing are drawLine, drawEllipse and drawPoint)

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
1tg46
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Posted: 1st May 2004 18:25 Edited at: 2nd May 2004 17:50
Thanks hopefully it will be out soon

@RobK
Did you ever get my e-mail I sent you??
Cpt Caveman
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Posted: 2nd May 2004 00:31
Sorry, if I put a ,1 at the end it comes up with a parameter mismatch error

@Elemenop

Change the SETUP GUI parameters from:

SETUP GUI WindowTitle$,InitCode$

to

SETUP GUI WindowTitle$,InitCode$,1
Rob K
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Posted: 2nd May 2004 18:14
@1tg46

I think so - I just haven't had a chance to reply yet.

@Elemenop

Are you using the latest version of the plugin?

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1tg46
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Posted: 2nd May 2004 18:21
And I am also interested in testing the beta BlueGUI v2.0.
Cpt Caveman
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Posted: 2nd May 2004 22:50
I am now, I did not realise that 1.045 was released, unfortunately even though its fixed the error I was getting, I still cant get the two to work together
Rob K
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 02:28
Do you still get a crash with the ,1 flag?

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
Cpt Caveman
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 04:19
No more errors, I have just not sorted out how to get them to work together, I know Im doing something terrible wrong, per one of my previous posts I cannot get both on screen. I thinks its due to the actual window type. I am not sure of this of course or else I would have it working. But the drop down menu is in an actual window when they work, but the gadgets are full screen, I have tried to get both full screen as that is what I want.
Rob K
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 15:18
I see what you mean. Menus *have* to be attached to windows I'm afraid. I'll look into it more later.

@All

First screenshot of Rainbow, the Visual UI editor for BlueGUI v2. Rainbow is written entirely in DBPro using the new plugin.

http://www.robertknight.me.uk/files/temp/rainbow1.gif

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1tg46
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 16:33
This looks great, very useful.

Can't wait before it is released
ReD_eYe
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 16:56
that looks amazing! one question though, is there a way to check(select) radio buttons and checkboxes in blue gui 1.45? its abit awkward with out that.

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Scraggle
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 17:14
I agree. It would be very awkward without that.

Which is probably why Rob included the CHECK GADGET command.

Need a reference manual for Tokamak? How about one for Nuclear Glory Collision? Or maybe BlueGUI?
S.O.S. Site Of Scraggle
ReD_eYe
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Posted: 3rd May 2004 18:23
right, i'm kicking myself
much apologies chaps.

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1tg46
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Posted: 4th May 2004 00:03
And how long will it be before the release of BlueGUI v2.0
soapyfish
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Posted: 4th May 2004 00:48
This may of already been asked but I wasn't really looking forward to reading 579 (580 now) posts. Can BLUE be used to implement a simple save game feature in my game or not.Thanks for putting up with my lazyness.

code2kill

Rob K
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Posted: 4th May 2004 10:56
Quote: "Can BLUE be used to implement a simple save game feature in my game or not."


I'm not quite sure what you are after. If you want a file save dialog box which allows the user to enter a name for a saved game then yes, the plugin does provide that.

Obviously you have to write the code to actually create the save file, and the code to load it again later.

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Cpt Caveman
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Posted: 4th May 2004 11:29
Rob K, I finally got it to do what I wanted with the menu and gadgets on the same page, I knew there was a simple answer I can now continue with my project.
Rob K
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Posted: 4th May 2004 14:25
Quote: "And how long will it be before the release of BlueGUI v2.0"


I aim to start beta testing by the end of May. The release will all depend on how well the beta testing goes.

The actual core code of GUIv2 is now largely complete. Items still left to add are: Web Browser Gadgets, Progress Bars and Font Dialogs.

Rainbow is still early days, we'll see how well that progresses.

Virtually all the documentation still has to be done, although I've written a couple of custom tools to help speed up work in that area.

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1tg46
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Posted: 4th May 2004 16:39
can you also take a look at the get menu string command in the menu plugin, because I am having trouble with the command get menu string(). I think that it is getting mixed up with what menu I want to put with it.

I do have the latest version of the plugin
Rob K
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Posted: 4th May 2004 16:53
Yes, this is a known issue. Drop me an email and I'll reply with an update.

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1tg46
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Posted: 4th May 2004 19:03 Edited at: 5th May 2004 00:14
I've already sent you an email on a different subject(about 4days ago), and you have not written back to me yet. Should I send you another one with the problem I am having with your BlueGUI plugin and Menu Plugin?
soapyfish
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Posted: 4th May 2004 21:23
Thanks

code2kill

Rob K
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Posted: 5th May 2004 01:07
@ltg46

Can you send another email with your forum name in the subject. Thanks.

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1tg46
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Posted: 5th May 2004 23:40 Edited at: 5th May 2004 23:41
I've sent another email and it was entitled "1tg46's problem with your plugin".
AI666
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Posted: 6th May 2004 02:30 Edited at: 6th May 2004 02:32
Will the rainbow editor only create DBpro code to be added to a db project (so it will be needed to recompile the whole project, every time you change a position of a gadget), or will it create some kind of a file that stores the layout of the gadgets created in the editor?

If it will have some kind of its own file format, will there be an internal command in the TPC that reads the data from that file and creates the gadgets during runtime, or will we need to create our own functions to handle gadgets layout, positioning and properties?

A command like: Load gadgets layout "<FILE NAME>" will be a very cool addition to an already great DLL for dbpro.

Cheers,
AI
Rob K
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Posted: 6th May 2004 16:47
Quote: "Will the rainbow editor only create DBpro code to be added to a db project (so it will be needed to recompile the whole project, every time you change a position of a gadget), or will it create some kind of a file that stores the layout of the gadgets created in the editor?"


To load the layouts in DBPro, Rainbow will export the DBPro code to create the gadgets.

Why? - Because its more flexible. You can modify the outputted code so that you can edit gadget properties that cannot be set in Rainbow as soon as you have created the gadget.

However, it is possible that some time after release I could add the ability to load Rainbow layout files (Rainbow will obviously need some way of saving layouts so that you can come back and edit them later) - (or a keen community member)

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
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AI666
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Posted: 6th May 2004 18:31
"I could add the ability to load Rainbow layout files"

Until than, it will be really great if the editor will save the layout to an easily parsed text file (in XML format maybe?), so we can write our own parsers easily (without the need to learn the exact structure of an obscure binary file).

Anyway - Keep on the good work dude. I'm really looking foreward to see the new editor and v2 of the TPC (coz v1 is a very cool and useful DLL already, and I use it in almost all of my projects).

Cheers,
AI
1tg46
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Posted: 6th May 2004 23:52
-RobK

With the email I sent you the wrong menu section of the code this is what the problem goes for.



You should still have the gadget section
Rob K
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Posted: 7th May 2004 00:37
Quote: "
Until than, it will be really great if the editor will save the layout to an easily parsed text file (in XML format maybe?), so we can write our own parsers easily (without the need to learn the exact structure of an obscure binary file)."


I personally dislike binary file formats and these layout files will be small enough that the time taken to parse them should be minimal. It'll be a very simple text file, probably something like:



With one line per gadget.

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AI666
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Posted: 7th May 2004 12:02
@Rob K

Cool

Cheers,
AI
1tg46
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Posted: 9th May 2004 17:58
@ RobK have you got my email yet??
Tapewormz
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Posted: 11th May 2004 03:25 Edited at: 11th May 2004 04:40
Hey Rob,

I was just wondering what resources you would suggest using on the subject of syntax parsing. Not for the purposes of writing an IDE, but for the purposes of writing a proprietary scripting language CLI. I'm working on an adventure interpreter and I want the scripting to look nice and slick. (not proprietary as in top secret and copywritten...)

I haven't tried BLUE IDE yet, does it format? Just curious. DBP IDE removes indentation (laugh)...

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Posted: 11th May 2004 14:06
Quote: "I was just wondering what resources you would suggest using on the subject of syntax parsing."


Do you mean "syntax highlighting"? (Different kinds of symbols drawn in different colours). If so then a RichEdit is OK at a very basic level, otherwise look into CodeSense or Scintilla for more advanced stuff - but you need to be using C++ to use these more advanced components.

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Powersoft
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Posted: 11th May 2004 22:25
hows version 2.0 coming along rob?

Just to add to the confusion.
Look at my avatar
Rob K
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Posted: 12th May 2004 00:09
Pretty well.

The plugin itself is almost complete. Rainbow can now create layouts, save and open layouts and export DBPro code.

However, there is a ton of work to do on the documentation.

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