Is this possible to make gui_script parameter?

Questions
#1

I’m working on tutorial and doing separated gui files for different tutorial steps.
Each gui has own script some scripts reusable and i need a parameter to define some logic and reuse one script in several gui files.

#2

One way of doing this would be to send a message with some initialisation data from your main script file when the game starts. I do that in my game to initialise everything with the current level data and to control the order in which gui objects acquire input.

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#3

yeah. i understand that i can store settings in collection, but i thought to define everything just in gui files.

#4

I found one temporary solution how to make parameters in GUI files

  1. need to create text box and add json data there
  2. in gui_script decode this parameter as this self.config = json.decode(gui.get_text(gui.get_node("config")))

Just one question here will engine create mesh for text which has alpha = 0 or if text bounding box is out of the screen (rendering).

#5

I guess script properties are what you need:
http://www.defold.com/manuals/script-properties/

Just add a line like this for each parameter you need at the top of your script:
go.property(“parameter_name”, parameter_value)

The gui editor now generates input fields for you to configure your script.

In the script itself you can access your parameters via
self.parameter_name

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#6

yeah. it works with game objects. but in my case it’s a gui_script and if you will try to use it you will get this error

level1_1step.gui_script:9: go.property can only be called outside the functions.

#7

You can never use anything from the go.* namespace in a .gui_script and vice versa. It will not work to put go.property() in a .gui_script.

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#8

True, i somehow forgot that little detail between reading the post in the morning and answering it in the evening… :flushed:

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#9

This sounds like a really hackish thing to do! Is it really that important that you are able to enter some configuration values from within the editor?

#10

do you have any another ideas how to make gui_script flexible and reusable?
Sure it’s possible to write another game object script but it will just add one more level of abstraction. isn’t it?

#11

Is it an option to put the reusable parts into a lua module and have separate gui_scripts that use (and configure) that module?

#12

Do you have an example of a gui_script that you’d like to reuse? I would imagine that most gui scenes in a game have very few similarities and that gui_script reuse isn’t really feasible. One place where it might be useful is for different kinds of popups, but in that case I’d pass configuration values when I post a “show” message to the popup.

#13

Ok. here is my structure of the project.
I have separated collection for every level in the game. I do this to make possible to change background and make layout manually

Screen Shot 2017-01-12 at 10.50.33.png741×338 104 KB

board is reusable collection (actually it’s main game logic)
camera is the script which post to the renderer information about camera size and position
tutorial_popup is a game object where i actually attach all my tutorial popups. Each one is a separated gui file with the same script
fields_layout is just a cosmetic element (board tiles and background)

And here is my tutorial step gui scene is

Screen Shot 2017-01-12 at 10.54.21.png739×336 46.3 KB

Main thing here is the hole and which is inverted clipper for the gray shade.
Another elements here is a pointer_from and pointer_to, i use this positions to animate pointer (hand) movement.
stripe, left and right parts is a bottom info elements which show info to users.

So. each tutorial steps is almost the same, i need just to change hole position and info boxes. animation and another parts is the same. difference only is on which step do i need to show these popups.

Also i need to mention that in tutorial steps i need to lock user input to specific cells of the board. I’m doing this in the level config which is a json file and it looks like this

  "move_locks" : {
    "1": {
      "from": [5,4],
      "to"  : [5,3]
    },
    "2": {
      "from": [3,4],
      "to" : [4,4]
    },
    "3": {
      "from": [3,3],
      "to" : [4,3]
    }
  },

so if board see that it’s a step number 3 it will look user input to cell[3,3] and will allow move only to cell [4,3]

On gui side in config node (that text node) which i use, i specify following text value {"turn_number": 3} Later i also plan to add another values like show_shade or not and maybe something else. in script i use this code self.config = json.decode(gui.get_text(gui.get_node("config")))

ok and here is there gui_script file content which handle it

  1. Because all script appeared immediately with level, i need to disable all ui elements
  2. In update cycle i listen board status and if turn_number == turn_number from config i show and animate elements
    if self.data_appeared == false and BoardData.turn_number == self.config.turn_number then
      self.initial_timer = (self.initial_timer or 0) + dt
      if self.initial_timer > INITIAL_TIMEOUT_BEFORE_APPEAR then
        self.data_appeared = true
        move_captions(self)
      end
    end
  1. finally from the same module which indicate board status i listen if target_cell (the cell where selected dice is moved) is not null and self destroy this component. i do that in the same update cycle
    if self.data_appeared and BoardData.target_cell and not self.destroy_in_progress then
      print("im here", self.config.turn_number)
      self_destroy(self)
    end

full script is available here https://gist.github.com/nicloay/1086ce56435aa9aa2a3c65420f2486ea

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Pipler + DragonKid - puzzle games