ZGameEditor forum

Hi guys,

This is beta version 1.9.7b (Updated May 13).

http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip

Some new stuff, this time mainly usability features in the editor:

- Upgraded to the latest version of textedit-component SynEdit used for editing ZGE-expressions. This made two new features available: Code-completion, and parameter-hints.
- New screen mode available: "Use Desktop Resolution". This means that the application will run in full screen without changing resolution or monitor refresh rate.
- New button on component-property editor that jumps to the selected component in the project tree.
- New BitmapCells-component contributed by kattle87. Note: this component is under development and will probably change quite a bit before next proper release.
- Tried to improve "gamepad not connected" detection.
- Video-option dialog now defaults to the designer-selected screen mode.
- Improved Blur-component with control over horizontal/vertical blur and amplify, contributed by Kattle87.
- Bitmap graph editor for easier creation of bitmaps.

More additions by Kattle87:
- New BitmapPixels and BitmapDistort components. BitmapCells now has a UsedMetrics-property. BitmapBlur now has a Passes-property.

From Kjell:
- App.UpdateViewport now use Round() instead of Trunc(). This should avoid viewports with one missing line (not tested).
- Fixed: "When you delete a ZExpression Component using Right-Click -> Delete Component right after working in the Code Editor on that Component's Expression Property, the Editor throws a exception."
- When an application is running in the preview-window the mouse-dragging is now disabled as it should.

For code-completion: Press Ctrl+Space in the expression editor either in whitespace or after typing a few letters. A drop-down will appear with all global names (functions, constants, components etc). Select the one you want and press enter or tab to insert.

For parameter-hint: Press Ctrl+Shift+Space in the expression editor when the edit position is inside the parenthesis of a function. It will also appear automatically after typing "(". If the function is recognized then the number and type of the parameters expected are shown.

Please report any problems, thanks!

sounds cool I'll check it out and report back,. the new screen mode will be great for screensavers.

Updated today:
- fixed an error with the "jump to the selected component"-button
- more detail is displayed in auto-completion
- included BitmapCells code from kattle

trying this out,. I got a couple of strange window focuss errors, but not sure what causes it yet,. I will report back.
The new cell component is much faster than the older script ver,. nice hopeing to see some cool draw modes and those presets for this, as it will be very usefull!

jph_wacheski wrote:trying this out,. I got a couple of strange window focuss errors, but not sure what causes it yet,. I will report back.

Does it say something like "cannot focus a disabled window"? I thought I had fixed that. Can you find a way to reproduce it?

I have also looked at the gamepad-code. If I disconnect my usb-gamepad adapter then zero gamepads are reported and zge always returns false for button-press. If I disconnect just the gamepad, then one gamepad is reported but zge still reports false when I test. I guess it comes down to the joystick driver in the o/s how well this works in practice. However I have added an extra test in the code that hopefully helps. It will be in next beta-update.

yeah I have not seen it again perhaps it had something to do with openeing an older file in the new ver,. as I am working with it now,. not sure.

I was thinking that too,. how do we know what these kids got pluged in the USB ports,. and drivers and whatnot configured,. I have fixed the game so if they do not setup a controler my program does not take the input,. as it probably should be anyhow, I suppose. just strange that some ppl get that constant button down result,. .

Hi guys,

I've had similar findings as jph concerning bogus joypad values whilst no joysticks are connected / listed. Some buttons return 0 most of the time and switch to 1 once a second on average, while others behave exactly the opposite. So I have to agree that a joyExists() function would probably be a good idea.

K

Updated today with latest code from kattle and bug-fixes.

A joyexist-function should not be necessary because zge does everything it can to make that detection under the hood and if so always return 0/false for all joystick-functions. So the problem is to properly detect this situation and not return noise-values from the gamepad-driver. Kjell, can you try disconnect a gamepad and then enter "Game controllers" in Control Panel. Usually there is a properties dialog that shows button states. Does it detect button presses when gamepad is disconnected?

Also I'm interested to get feedback about the code-completion feature. The idea is that it should save time when typing code so that you don't have to remember all the function-names and what you've named your components. Is it working? Can it be improved somehow? Let me know.

Hej Ville,

Yea, those findings where done while no Joysticks where listed in the "Game Controllers" tool from the Windows Control Panel.

Code completion has been working fine for me, but I'm afraid I know all functions by heart already

K

The code-completion is sorta cool, although I'm not sure we need it yet,. but as the list of functions keep expanding probably good to have,. however the tool tip telling how to use it is a tad annoying as it keeps obscuring my code,. and reading it once should suffice. Perhaps some settings in the settings box i.e tool tips on/off,. btw, the menu name for that is 'options' and the box is 'settings' which I think is more correct.

Kjell wrote:Code completion has been working fine for me, but I'm afraid I know all functions by heart already

Ah, but can you remember the names of all your objects when the project gets large. Or your functions defined in libraries?

Jph, yes the hint is in the way. I'll remove it for now.

Thanks for your opinions, guys.

Hej Ville,

Hmm .. usually I don't have much troubles remembering all of the Models and Functions I've defined myself. Plus I use allot of single character variables to pass around data .. and the "CurrentModel" keyword ( which isn't listed in the auto-complete database actually )

But perhaps I would use it more often if the auto-complete suggestions would always appear on typing ( or a option to turn that on ) like in most IDE's? Then I'd probably just press Enter as soon as the name I'm typing is the first suggestion found ( or if it's not too far down in the list ).

K

Ville,. that window focus error is back, just add a renderMesh!

Oops, sorry about that error. And thanks for all good suggestions.

Updated again today:
- fixed focus-error message when adding a rendermesh
- bitmapcells styles werk and nice works better now
- autocompletion triggers automatically after 1 seconds (also "CurrentModel" is included)
- options is now called "settings"
- the nr of gamepads detected by zge is written to the log-window on designer startup

Beta updated today with the latest code from Kattle and the new bitmap graph editor. The weather has been far too nice today to stay indoors and code so I haven't fixed everything with the editor yet. In particular a new producer is automatically added to the graph which is not always what you want. At least it is usable and should not crash or make you lose any work. I think we can finetune the editor and make it work after a few weeks of testing. Then if we consider it to work ok, we can make something similar for a Mesh-editor too.

If you want to comment on the bitmap-editor, then please do so in the bitmap editor thread.

Now I'll go out into the sun again