A Movable and Resizeable Console

I think it was F.A.K.K. 2 when i first saw a movable and resizable console window. It's amazing to me that it isn't part of Torque yet. So here is my little resource which gives you much nicer console window:


Note that this is a drop in replacement for the current console and works with TSE, TGE 1.3, and Torque2D. Download ConsoleDlg.gui now.

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GuiScrollCtrl

The GuiScrollCtrl class is the one that provides the scrollbars for the console window. Scrolling the console you've probably had it snap back on you if you move your cursor just a bit away from the bar. This distance is actually based on the width of the scrollbar and is very small... too small. In the normal windows environment this distance is around 70 pixels or so. To fix this properly we'll make a simple code change to GuiScrollCtrl and add a new script $pref:: .

In GuiScrollCtrl::onMouseDragged() make the following change:

// ok... if the mouse is 'near' the scroll bar, scroll with it
   // otherwise, snap back to the previous position.

   // ADDED CODE
   const S32 snapDist = getMax( dAtoi( Con::getVariable( "$Pref::Gui::ScrollSnapDist" ) ), mScrollBarThickness );
  // ADDED CODE

   if (curHitRegion == VertThumb)
   {

Now right after this in this same function change all instances of mScrollBarThickness for snapDist. It should look like this:

if (curHitRegion == VertThumb)
   {
      if (curMousePos.x >= mVTrackRect.point.x - snapDist &&
         curMousePos.x <= mVTrackRect.point.x + mVTrackRect.extent.x - 1 + snapDist &&
         curMousePos.y >= mVTrackRect.point.y - snapDist &&
         curMousePos.y <= mVTrackRect.point.y + mVTrackRect.extent.y - 1 + snapDist)
      {
         S32 newVThumbPos = curMousePos.y - mThumbMouseDelta;
         if(newVThumbPos != mVThumbPos)
         {
            S32 newVPos = (newVThumbPos - mVTrackRect.point.y) *
                          (mChildExt.y - mContentExt.y) /
                          (mVTrackRect.extent.y - mVThumbSize);

            scrollTo(mChildRelPosAnchor.x, newVPos);
         }
      }
      else
         scrollTo(mChildRelPosAnchor.x, mChildRelPosAnchor.y);
   }
   else if (curHitRegion == HorizThumb)
   {
      if (curMousePos.x >= mHTrackRect.point.x - snapDist &&
         curMousePos.x <= mHTrackRect.point.x + mHTrackRect.extent.x - 1 + snapDist &&
         curMousePos.y >= mHTrackRect.point.y - snapDist &&
         curMousePos.y <= mHTrackRect.point.y + mHTrackRect.extent.y - 1 + snapDist)
      {

Now let's add the default into the script. Open the client/defaults.cs file in your mod folder and add the following line at the bottom:

$Pref::Gui::ScrollSnapDist = 70;

You can change that value to whatever you feel works best for your mousing style, but the code will never let it get smaller than the scrollbar width.

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Change Log:

5/6/2005
* Initial resource posting.

5/7/2005
* It now stores it's last position and size into the client prefs.
* Removed $ConsoleActive and replaced it with isAwake() which fixed missed "toggle on" bug when console is forced off during mission load and after the splash screens.
* Changed default position and size to something more reasonable.

5/9/2005
* Added notes above for fixing scrollbars snap distance.
* Increased the borders on the window a bit to make it easier to resize.
* Minor formatting changes.

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If you have any suggestions or bug reports please drop me a comment.