Game Development Community

The GUI Editor

by Joe Bourrie · in Torque Game Builder · 09/08/2005 (2:25 pm) · 3 replies

I just have a quick question about T2D's built-in GUI editor and its capabilities. One game I plan to make is an entirely GUI driven game, where the majority of the game takes place in a simulated computer OS (complete with fake file browsing, a point & click GUI, and a command prompt). How complete is the GUI editor? Does it support window hierarchies? If I wanted to create multiple "drives" to browse, would I have to create a new window for each drive or can I create a generic browsing window that takes different drive data? Just, basically, is the T2D GUI editor designed for a single-use UI or can I create more generic UI windows and feed them data?

Hopefully this question makes sense... it's kind of hard to put into words...
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Torque 3D Owner Luke D
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#1
09/08/2005 (3:32 pm)
The Torque GUI system is wildly flexible and robust. You could easily represent an entire 'computer desktop' UI experience with it. Designing one template UI (such as a file prowser) and filling it dynamically with data at runtime is not only possible but completely intentional behavior (The GUI editor itself is a Torque GUI for example, with file browsers and property trees; one GUI template that gets dynamically filled.)

Currently your biggest potential setback (and it might not be a setback at all depending on your needs) is a lack of animation capabilities or advanced T2D features (particles, etc.) directly integrated into the GUIs. You can fudge it somewhat, putting T2D scenegraphs above and below your Torque GUI elements and syncronizing visual elements between them (e.g. making a file browser GUI 'zoom' into view from a 'drive' icon).

Alternatively there are several individual initiatives to do a fully native T2D-imbedded GUI control and windowing system which would of course benefit from all of T2D's own functionality and visual capabilities. I don't know the availability or schedules for these, but it seems like a hot concept in general so I can imagine something is/will be available.

Torque Owner Joe Bourrie
#2
09/08/2005 (3:46 pm)
Well, I've got three different games I'm considering, each with wildly different engine needs... and from the replies I've gotten on this board it sounds like T2D will do them all :)

Thanks for the help!

Torque 3D Owner Matthew Langley
Torque
#3
09/08/2005 (6:14 pm)
Its pretty easy to do some very nice dynamic GUIs even and with the new links between T2D and the GUI system it will be even better.