Release

EZ GUI - make GUIs in GFX designer!

SP4CEBAR 2022-09-20 20:46 (Edited)

This program can analyze BG files and generate an interactive GUI based on that

How to use:

Easy:

• open this program in GFX designer to draw new GUI elements
• feel free to change the BG, the pallettes, and the design of the characters
• however don't change the function of a character
• menus are expected to be stacked vertically in a single BG with dimensions 20x(16*n), menu 0 starts at (0,0), menu 1 starts at 0,16, menu 2 starts at 0,32, etc...

if you want to make music software, then check out my NX music file API

Advanced:

• at the start of the program you can define ROM

• in "gui configurations" you can define settings, it'll load a preset if it's undefined (zero)

• in "define characters" you can give each character a purpose by writing character numbers in categories

  • each GUI type is a category
  • within each GUI type there are six categories, these allow the system to find the root character (upper-left cell of an element), the root character number depends on how the cells are flipped
  • there's also a category for "exceptions": these characters are not GUI elements and will be ignored

• below that is space to add your own code that will be run while a GUI element is running

• the program has two very important variables:

  • T: which is the element type, and
  • N: which is the element ID within that type, this makes it possible to distinguish between those elements
  • P is not a variable, but a manually entered parameter ID
  • these variables are used to access data inside arrays like:
    • PARS(T,N,P) for all the custom settings
    • VARS(T,N,P) for the GUI output variables

Future Features:

• touch modes
• deletion of obsolete code from previous GUI systems, and code that's commented-out
• slider sprite position loading
• some parameters are passed on, but there's no code that cares about them yet

predecessor: a tool, for what?

was8bit 2022-09-20 20:56

Very clever indeed :) kinda like my llafttip (pitfall) game reads the backgrounds to create sprites for each section of the game :)

SP4CEBAR 2022-09-20 21:00 (Edited)

Yes, that's a similar concept

I found that the best tool is having no additional tool
I totally over-engineered it with my enormous file-tree-based memory system and my GUI editors

was8bit 2022-09-20 21:09

Hey, LowRes is about having fun programming stuff :D it can be said that making the code work is as much fun as playing the game ;)

SP4CEBAR 2022-09-20 21:10

Very true

SP4CEBAR 2022-09-21 10:57 (Edited)

UPDATE:

• menus
• space for your specific code that needs to run while a GUI element is running, it's called "returns"
• GUI settings (define ROM)
• touch groups (for the setbuttons)

SP4CEBAR 2022-09-21 12:09

Update:

• fixed fader bug
• added touch modes