scrolling blues

[ajp]

I have been going over the scrolling tutorial but I just can´t seem to get it. I have to assume that I am mucking something up. I got it working once a long time ago but since then have not been able to set things up right.

I set the screen size on the frame properties window, right? I set the game window size at...? This is the virtual height, width of the screen? I don´t understand frame size in frame properties versus frame size in application properties versus resolution settings. My guy starts in the upper right hand corner and scrolls left and down. If I don´t put an event he disappears off the top and left sides of the window. I also am having truoble making the backdrop big enough to cover the entire screen. I can´t see the entire play area if I make the screen 1200 x 1000. I have to drag the (quick) backdrop toward the center of the screen to make it bigger and then push it back down guessing where it will end up. This can´t be the right way to do this operation.

Could somebody post a simple scrolling example app so I could check it out?

[Popcorn]

Here are the few steps you need:

1: Start MMF2 and open your application.

2: In the Storyboard editor, you'll see the values 640 and 480. These are the width and height of the playarea. At default the game window is also 640*480, so you have to make the playarea larger by altering these values.

3: Go to the frame editor. If you can't see the entire playarea, go to Tools / Preferences and in the Frame Editor tab, change the dimensions of the frame editor.

4: Go to the event editor and make this event:

* Always
- Center display relative to Player

[Arnax]

Change the frame size in the storyboard editor.

Make an event like this:
Always > center window position in frame (under storyboard controls and scrollings)

Now click on your character and type in (0,0).

Hopefully this makes sense and helps.

[ajp]

Thanks guys. Now it´s working but I think it´s the terminology that was screwing me up. For others who might be having the same problem, it worked after I set "virtual height and width" in the frame properties window to the bigger screen size (1200x1000) while leaving the frame size at 640 x 480 (CAREFUL: when you set the frame size the virtual sizes change automatically to match and so you have to set frame size AND THEN virtual size). As you will see the screen starts at the upper right hand corner of the screen area that is marked off with the dotted lines so that´s where you want the upper corner of your backdrop to be located. I was trying to fill the entire visible work area and that just wasn´t necessary. I also found that it is a lot easier to just go to your backdrop properties and set the size you want rather than stretching with the mouse. To make the work area bigger you have to go into the menu Tools + Frame Editor and then change the margins to a bigger size. I was also a little confused by this because I consider margins, like in Microsoft Word, to only be the dead space around the edges of the entire usable work area but it seems here it refers to the entire area outside the main screen size (the dotted lines) although it is usable (if that makes any sense).

I hope others can learn from my mistakes and thanks again to the helpful people who answered my question.