Often times I find myself playing a game on BYOND and being constantly pestered with alert boxes. What alternatives do you think could replace them, and when do you think it's appropriate to use them?
Keep in mind that an alternative to alerts may also require a mode of player input to respond to something.
ID:1278823
 May 29 2013, 11:42 am
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May 30 2013, 6:41 am
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Albro1
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BYOND 4.0 introduced interfaces which have been nothing but underused and/or used very badly. If used right, you can create a very good looking game that doesn't use alert boxes like that.
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Or, you can use HUDs. Forum_account's HUD Groups library demonstrates a functioning on-screen interface. If/when tree Flash client is released, interfaces won't be supported, so you'll have to use HUDs or alert()/input().
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After messing around with them, HUDs are actually really easy to make. Most of them are a box with some text, which is easy to do now that maptext exists. If you ask me, it probably takes more effort to use interfaces than it does to just use an onscreen HUD.
The only exception to this is inputting text (for chat for example). It's stupidly complex to do for what is a insignificant and seemingly simply feature. | |
I could think of some ways to do on-screen input, but I don't like the idea because maptext doesn't like having long continuous strings - the word wrap can't handle it.
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Where can I learn/read about maptext?
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Open dream maker, press F1, and type "maptext"
The Magic Man said: If you ask me, it probably takes more effort to use interfaces than it does to just use an onscreen HUD. The only exception to this is inputting text (for chat for example). It's stupidly complex to do for what is a insignificant and seemingly simply feature. Have you actually tried using interfaces? I think they are -incredibly- easy, mainly because you can do a fair amount of the work visually, like moving elements around and picking colors and whatnot. HUDs do have some advantages, and for people who are already good at it they might prefer to do that rather than learn something new. | |
Magicsofa wrote:
Have you actually tried using interfaces? I think they are -incredibly- easy, mainly because you can do a fair amount of the work visually, like moving elements around and picking colors and whatnot. HUDs do have some advantages, and for people who are already good at it they might prefer to do that rather than learn something new. I've used both extensively. http://i.imgur.com/Ed0yV6e.png This is an onscreen HUD. It took minimal effort to do. It is 5 boxes displayed on screen (these boxes are automatically generated with a simple proc and a few icons, I can define them any shape and size with a single line of code), a few lines of text using map text, and a few objects placed on screen. The only complex part about this is positioning everything correctly. http://i.imgur.com/QkNDltU.png This uses interfaces. First I have to make an interface file and add a new window. Then I needed to open up MS Paint, take the graphics I wanted and position them all correctly because an interface cannot dynamically generate boxes of the correct shape and size. Then while in the interface I need to add tons of elements like grids, make sure they match the background colour, then name and remember them all. After I've done this, I need to display all the text in the interface (remembering names of grids and so on) and output objects and what not. Despite all this extra effort it still looks uglier. | |
I don't think they are too much of an issue anymore.
This use to halt my development because I wanted to find something else to use, but everything on-screen related makes the world lag more so I decided against it. But not only for those reasons: Games that make money every year use alert box style inputs (Wurm Online is an example) and that put my worries to rest, besides if you use alert boxes correctly they can actually add to the game. You will have to wait and see how I use them in my game. | |