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I am trying to make pause screen with various menu options. However, the only available command while in "pause" mode is "unpause when a key is pressed" so I can't actually execute any events while paused. Does anyone know a way around this? Is there a command that can freeze all events but not actually pause the runtime?
FinalSpecimen. I have an open source sub-application example on my website that you can possibly use.
Marv
Use groups. If all you events are in groups,..you can pause the game by deactivating all the groups. You have to also stop movements and animations too. Don't put the deactivation button or however you want to pause the game in a group or you won't be able to unpause. When you deactivate all the groups you then can bring up a custom menu so you can do things you want to with the menu and everything in the background will stop!
Example:
I second using groups. Also, add qualifiers to all of your moving or animated objects. When you activate your pause menu Stop movement and Stop animation on that qualifiier group. Then when you unpause start them. It works like a charm. You can do the subapp method but I never really liked it. Plus, you have re-sizing issues with subapps (or at least I always did). Just create your menu on a top layer when you pause.
It might be a little more work but I think the outcome is worth it.
All great suggestions, thanks!
IMO,.it's the easiest way to go and gets the job done with no sub apps or complex code.
I have a problem with that pause app, that you can't edit inherit game settings such as sample volume, controls etc with the pause mfa that the Smanman posted. Is there a way of doing this easily? Also, it will work fine if you want an alternative pause screen to MMF2's default...
Yes you can if you don't have those events in a group or you can have the those events in a group but don't deactivate that group when you use my example. Whatever you don't want to pause leave that group activated or leave them out of a group.
Yeah it's just a matter of how you set up your events, as TheSmanman said. You might have to fiddle with things to get it to work for your specific implementation but creating a custom pause menu system you can still have any events you want to run active while keeping only the specific things you want paused, paused.
Technically you wouldn't even need to use group activations. You could use flags or alt values as toggles in the events themselves, though flags/values in combination with group activation/deactivation would be the route to go in my opinion. Some things might not be as simple as deactivating a group and having things work as intended. You really have to fine tune it to fit your needs. Also, you'll most likely need multiple groups to activate specific things. Putting everything into one big "Pause Group" probably isn't the best idea.
Yeah Shawn, that's what I do. I don't put everything in one big group,.that would get sloppy. And as you said,.you just have tweak it,.but it does work really well when it all comes together. You could even go one step further and on activation of the groups when you select to unpause the game you could have a delay before everything starts up again. It would give you a chance to get ready again, instead of instant start up. Thanks for posting what you did Shawn. Awesome man!!
Np! Also, to add to what I posted, globals makes the most sense if you want to use a value to pause things. Flags or alt values would work but you'd have to have your pause tied to a specific object (like the player's flags or values). That would still work just fine but it seems to make more sense to just use a global I think. But, it doesn't matter at all as long as what you have works lol.
It seems a lot less hassle to use a modal Sub-application, IMHO.
Marv
Marv, I agree the subapp is fairly simple but there's some issues with that. Since it's modal you can't do anything else if your game is running in windowed mode without closing the pause menu first. Also when you resize the game window (maximize, fullscreen) the subapp doesn't resize along with the rest of everything but stays it's original size. If you can have the subapp resize along with everything else, I've never been able to figure it out.
Take a look at my Interface Widgets http://community.clickteam.com/showthread.php?t=63607
you might get some ideas from that too that may help.
( not that you don't already have lots of awesome information already :))
Gerald thanks for the link, I'm going to check out your widget :)
NP, maybe a little out dated but still some ideas in the example. :)
would anyone be interested in taking a look at my mfa, and importing the main menu to the pause menu so it functions properly? thanks :) x
I will take a look for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by ElectricMaster
This is by far the easiest solution I have found. it can even be incorporated to an existing game without much hassle.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10184870/pau...u-example.html
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10184870/pause-menu-example.mfa
Also, please search before posting, answers to these questions have been floating around the forum for a while. :)
oruga,
I just ran both your flash and mfa examples. The flash example works. However the mfa example (run with Build 254 MMF2 Developer on Windows XP) did not work correctly. The music never played. The game was paused but could not be brought out of pause.