Qualifier Alterable Values

[xmetalxthrasherx]

Eh, uhh, not exactly sure if this is the right forum to post this in. So, sorry in advance.

Anyway, I've been searching around and figured it would just be easier to get an answer here rather than continue scouring the net.

Is there a way to rename the alterable values of an object's qualifier? My objects have named alterable values and I'd like the same for the qualifier. Any ideas?

[Bigfoot]

No, this is because you can have different object types grouped into the same qualifier, and some of the objects might have a different alt value name associated with them.

You just have remind yourself in a comment what the alt qualifier what for, and make sure all the objects you group have the same alt value name.

[xmetalxthrasherx]

Thanks for the reply. Alright, I'll just need to remember then. It's unfortunate though, it only helps make things less organized. It'd be nice to see this changed one day.

[Bigfoot]

Bear in mind as well if you are setting animations with qualifiers then custom ones won't show up on the list.

They're still there but you need to use an expression. Custom animation sequences start at 12.

You can how ever drag and drop the action in the event editor and it will retain the custom animation name.

[MuddyMole]

Yeah, the two things that MMF2 handles worst, are alterable values and qualifiers.
They need to do away with the whole "slot" based system for alterable values entirely.
We really ought to have access to unlimited values, as well as the option to define new values at runtime.
Same with qualifiers - we should be able to change/create these at runtime, with custom names.

Unfortunately, I'm sure it would be too big a change for a mere update to MMF2.
I'd be pretty appalled if these features didn't show up in MMF3 though, since people have been asking for them for years...

[Dynasoft]

Yeah, the two things that MMF2 handles worst, are alterable values and qualifiers.
They need to do away with the whole "slot" based system for alterable values entirely.
We really ought to have access to unlimited values, as well as the option to define new values at runtime.

ValueAdd Object. "This extension adds an unlimited number of "extended" alterable values [and strings] to any and every object."

[MuddyMole]

I've seen that, but it's a bit messy, because of the object scope issue.
If you want to pick an instance by its value, you have to always set an alterable value to one of the ValueAdd values first, and then compare that.
It would be much better for Clickteam to just build it in to the next version of MMF.

[JimJam]

One thing that I do that helps me keep track of Alterable Values between qualifiers and objects is by adding the Letter to the Alt value names.

For example, say your object has these Alterable values:

X pos
Y pos
Velocity
Gravity
Angle
ID

But on a qualifier it would only show as:

Alterable Value A
Alterable Value B
Alterable Value C
Alterable Value D
Alterable Value E
Alterable Value F

To make things easier to associate with, I name my Alterable Values like this:

A_X pos
B_Y pos
C_Velocity
D_Gravity
E_Angle
F_ID

This way you also associate the name with their equivalent Letter value. Once you get used to you this system, you will see that Gravity is always "D_Gravity" now, so when you go to change things in your qualifiers events you will now remember that "Alterable Value D" is gravity because of the association.

Now when you see an event like "Set Y to Alterable Value B + Alterable Value D" you will know you are adding D_Gravity to the B_Y Pos immediately. This way you won't have to look up each value every single time, and count up from A to see which letter it is.

Its not a very conventional method, but its saved me tons of time in my current projects. Especially when you have lots of objects with similar Alt Value order.

[MuddyMole]

That seems like a fairly good system.

For a big project, I like to use a value whose letter is the same as the first letter of the variable name (or at least reminds me of it in some way).

eg. I'll use "Alterable Value G" for "Gravity", even if I'm not using A-F for anything.

[Dynasoft]

I've seen that, but it's a bit messy, because of the object scope issue.
If you want to pick an instance by its value, you have to always set an alterable value to one of the ValueAdd values first, and then compare that.

Not true? ValueAdd has a working compare condition built into it.