rant: custom pausing using sub-application

[Hamcraft]

I would like to be able to pause what's going on in my play area while perusing my GUI. I have a menu that slides onto the screen when activated, and I want the game to pause while the menu is being accessed.

I tried to use a sub-application to separate the pausing of my play area and my GUI. This would work like a charm, but WHY DOES THE SUB-APPLICATION ALWAYS HAVE TO DISPLAY ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE? If I could have active objects display in front of my sub-app, there would be absolutely no problems here.

So, instead, I have to go in and setup a custom pause by having every single active in my game stop movement and animation and stop all counters/timers while the user is accessing the menu... This is time consuming AND opens up a can of worms leading to more problems and bugs (especially as the game becomes more complicated with more objects/clocks to keep track of).

I dont understand why a sub-application has to always be on top of everything else. If the order of the sub-app could be moved back, custom pausing would be so much easier.

The fact of the matter is, the concept is simple, so why isn't the execution?

[dragonguy]

Yeah Why doe's the sub-application have to be on top? iv'e always wondered that.

[MetalGeo]

I believe it has to do with Sub-Apps being rendered in a 'seperate window', so to say... I'm not entirely sure though.

[Looki]

That's right - it's a window handle, like an application, a button, an edit box etc..
They're always in front, since the display surface of MMF is a window handle as well, and child handles of it are in front of it.

[DavidN]

I would certainly stick with the subapp for your pause menu - perhaps another way can be found for the active objects that need to be on top of it. Can you explain in higher-level detail the effect that you're trying to get?

[Hamcraft]

when the mouse pointer slides to the side of the screen, a menu slides on where you can choose between actions, inventory, save your game, etc. I want the game to pause yet retain visibility while this menu is being accessed.

[dragonguy]

I have found the solution - Set the Sub-Application to Modal in it's properties, this makes everything freeze.

[Hamcraft]

all I can think of is, as soon as the game is to pause take a screenshot, make the sub-app invisible and display the screenshot in its place for the menus to slide over. but I don't know how fluid that will be, and I will have to have 2 copies of my "cursor" active object--one in the sub-app and one outside. And the cursor inside the sub-app will have to disappear as soon as the screenshot is taken.

[DavidN]

The idea of taking a screenshot does sound initially like a very roundabout way of doing it, but this is the method I use in my current project (using the Screen Capture object and a Picture object on the other end) - it seems to go very smoothly, without the pause that you might expect. Try it out!

Another way, though this is more of an oddity, is that if you have a Windows control in the subapp, even if it isn't visible (Edit box, List object, etc) then the transparent areas of the subapp will show the original frame below them, until the window is switched away and back.

[Hamcraft]

any way I can keep the screen captures internally instead of saving them as external files?