Printable View
Just wondering. I haven't tried a menu yet. What's the best way to do this? So the player can bring up a menu, like say on another frame, or something to that effect, exit the menu, and still be on the frame they were on, and not have the frame start over?
hahah. Sorry for the run on and bad grammar.
Well, I haven't really experimented too much with this, but I would think that instead of going to another frame, you can use buttons that are only visible when you click the menu button. The buttons will always be on the screen, but whenever you are in-game, the buttons go invisible and get disabled. The same goes for hiding/showing menu texts and other pictures and whatever you might want to have :P Another thing that's possible, is to put the menu on a higher layer, and then show/hide the layer. This might require the layer object extension, but I think it would work nicely :)
Edit: Oh, and you might wanna pause the game while you're at it :P I haven't really done this too much either, but I would expect either putting your events into groups and then disabling them (and also deactivating character movement), or using some sort of pause extension that is sure to exist somewhere on the web :P Maybe someone can fill us in on this? ^^
you could have an option button that when pressed creates an object (your menu system) in the middle of the screen, on that you would have all objects/options and what not... and when closed its destroyed again... really deppends on what kind of game it is if you wish to pause or not, a friend of mine couldnt believe that when playing demon souls and going into his inventory or options the game didnt pause lol.
You can add a layer to the frame and put all menu-related stuff in there. Then you can hide and show your menu as you want. If you have lots of levels in your game, this approach might not be as good, as you would need to have many identicle versions of your menus, one in each frame. You could perhaps put your menu in another frame and show it as a subapplication in the menu-layer of each level. I have never used subapplications myself, but I would imagine that's the way it is done.
There are several methods of pausing a game. You should do a forum search for it, if you need that.
If you wanted an easy way to pause your game, sub-apps are the way to go. Just make the sub application "modal"
If you don't need to pause the game, you could use the layer method. Just make sure you plan out everything before you put it on multiple frames because changing just one aspect of the menu system after it is on more than a couple of levels is just awful. I usually test everything in a debug frame so I can test everything and see if anything conflicts with anything else
I have a open source example on my website.
Also, look at Under Nivram, Zoric, and the CT Forum RPG Project.
Marv
Hey guys, thanks for info. I'll look into some of the methods, and check out the site.
Hey Marv I checked out the site. It looks like sub app would be the way to go. This would work across multiple frames, and paused the game automatically? I'm gonna go have a cloer look, lol.
Use global coding. It would be best if you just experimented a little bit for your purposes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jibs
Marv
Well, it's mostly for general knowledge, where most games will have a menu...most of the times when I was working on a project I'd have each frame be a level, and have a condition that would jump to the next frame....basically like the menu you have there, where the player can open it from any level in the game...like say a space shooter thats top down, would need a menu maybe...or an rpg definitely would. I can't really give specifics, cuz I'm just wondering, lol.