Tabbed gui - multiple .gui files, layers, clone?

Questions
1

I am looking at building the classic “character” screen that will have multiple tabs for the stats, inventory, and equipment. Currently I am using a parent gui (character_screen.gui) and then a .gui for each of the tabs to which I init with a msg.post("/url", "disable) except for the first entry tab.

The character_screen.gui contains the main screen with the buttons for the tabs and each tab has a corresponding gui that I cycle through and enable/disable based on the button that is clicked.

Is this the appropriate way to handle this tabbed gui? I want to compartmentalize the different screens so that the code can be minimal per (could always build modules to make it manageable).

Is there a performance hit for multi gui files that are enabled/disabled?

2

Each gui scene will result in at least a separate draw call. You will also have one gui script per scene and depending on the content it could also affect performance.

In general this shouldn’t be a problem for something like a character screen. There really isn’t much going on that could tank performance. Be wary of drawcalls and make sure to use layers to keep them in check.

3

So layers is the preferred way for most guis that have multiple views to it to reduce the draw cycles.

Thanks

4

No, layers are used to group nodes (within a gui) of the same type and with same kind of settings to batch the draw calls. Check the gui docs for more info!