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Post by Moongaze on Apr 20, 2007 20:39:33 GMT -5
The buttons around the sphere will be dynamically created and edited. The first time Lunar Sphere is loaded on a character, the sphere will exist with no buttons around it. This will be the default setup, and there will be pre-defined setups as well, for the buttons that have pre-set attributes (such as the drink button, food button, health and mana potion buttons, and the mount button). Since those buttons do not rely on any specific spell, ability, or item, they can be created and their action populated with item data that the item module tracks.
So, back to the buttons.
The sphere will have two "modes" for creating buttons. The "drag-and-drop" mode will be the easiest of the two, and will allow for a sphere to be created with whatever buttons you want. The second mode, "advanced" or "not drag-and-drop" will spawn a menu over the sphere or a button when the user alt-right-clicks (or ctrl, or shift, I haven't decided and will probably add the option to change it to whatever you want it to be) the mouse. This menu will have options for creating new buttons, and will pop-up more windows for the defining of new buttons and the actions they will take.
The buttons will appear at the top of the sphere, and each addition button will appear in a clockwise fashion. There will be an option in the sphere settings to change the angle at which the first button appears (for those who want an arc of buttons only on the left, right, or bottom of the sphere) and so on.
If the player chooses to make a menu button, that button will be created and will show or hide it's "children" when clicked. This button will also receive the ability to accept dragged objects, for the creation of its children.
All menu buttons on the RIGHT side of the sphere (angle 0 being top, angle 180 being the bottom) will open their menu to the right. All other menu buttons on the LEFT side of the sphere will open their menu to the left.
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Post by Moongaze on Apr 25, 2007 18:40:24 GMT -5
How strange ... I thought I posted pictures of the buttons as well. I must be imagining things ... ;D Anyway, here's a sample of how the buttons will look (taken from the code I'm using for LunarSkin), with the traditional "World of Warcraft" skin. It's essentially the same circle that goes around the mini-map buttons ... but it will still give you an idea on how they will look: Here's another sample. This image is actually to show how the technique I use to make my buttons round differs from most mods. Most mods, like Serenity, Totemis, Necrosis, Cryolosis, and more ... have pre-made buttons for all their circle icons. While this is great for making sure the icons look EXACTLY the way you want them to, you need to make an icon for each spell or item, and that is a pain. Most of these mods actually borrow from another mod that already did it (I.e., Serenity takes a lot of item icons from Necrosis). The other way of making real-time circle buttons is a method that cyCircled uses, which can be seen on all the buttons on the right in this picture: The original icon that was used is in the top-left corner. The icons on the top-right are the finished icons, in-game, that cyCircled would make. You'll notice that the art shrinks a lot so that it can fit in the circle, and the circle itself (or other shaped button) is usually THICK, so it can help hide the square edges under it (as represented by the bottom-right buttons, with some of the thickness removed). As an example, my skinning technique is displayed on the bottom-left icon. You'll notice that the border is quite thin, and there are no square edges popping out. It's a nifty trick, and will ensure that ALL icons for ALL items and spells will be able to be skinned, with this circle or any other circle I come up with. As for other shapes ... I guess I can do that too, with some tweaking =)
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Post by Moongaze on May 13, 2007 1:39:27 GMT -5
Well, today was a pretty productive day. I focused a little bit more on the buttons for Stage 2 and, damn. They're coming along nicely. As of now, I got it so there is 10 buttons around the sphere (hidden), and when you pick up a spell or item or macro from your inventory, the hidden buttons will appear and you can drag your stuff onto them and release. Upon release, whatever you dragged onto the button will be assigned to it, and the button logic will figure some things out for ya: a) If it's a spell, it will just update the button and dump the spell into the left (and right) click event for it. As of now, only one spell can be assigned per button, but as I hammer away at it, up to three spells, maybe 6 (left button, middle button, right button, and the same buttons, but with a SHIFT, ALT, or CTRL modifier to be determined later) b) If it's a macro, it will assign the macro for you (and will default at NOT showing the macro name under the button, which you may turn on as I get closer to finishing the buttons) c) If it's an item, it will assign the item to the button. HOWEVER, if it is a weapon or piece of armor, it will NOT show a item count under the image. All other items (including mounts, for now) will default at showing the TOTAL count of that item in your inventory. Thus, if you drag a Runecloth piece onto the button, you will now be able to track how many pieces of Runecloth you have, up to 9999. If the item can be used (ie., a scroll, or mote of life that will turn into a primal life), you'll automatically be able to use it when you click the button. Armor and weapons do nothing unless they are equiped and have a "use" ability (ie., trinket) I've been able to detect when spells, macros, or items are picked and dropped, so the hidding and showing of the buttons works. There is a glitch once in a while when the spell book is open, as the hidden buttons don't like to hide after you close it. I'll fix that with a hook to the Action Button bar most likely. To delete whatever is in the button, one will hold CTRL and right-click (for now) and the button will disappear and be ready to accept a new command. Also, any button that currently has an assignment can be overwritten by just dragging something onto it again (Will implement a locking function to prevent accidental over-writing in the future). As of now, you can't pick something up FROM a sphere button and drag it, but I don't see why you would too, unless you need to reorganize it. This will come in the future. Other things I still need to implement for the buttons: - Cooldown detection
- Inventory update detection (for tracking of the item, or using the last one)
- Anything I talked about above that isn't finished =)
Here's a picture of the progress. The top shows the sphere normally, and the bottom shows what happens when you pick something up and drag it around. Woo!
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Post by Dot on Aug 7, 2007 10:47:50 GMT -5
Hi there, Love the mod to start with. I was wondering if you could make it so that i can drag a button to any place in the screen and put it there instead of all locked around the sphere ;D.
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Post by Moongaze on Aug 7, 2007 14:50:42 GMT -5
That is already planned for a later stage of the betas
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