Guild of Writers

I made a tutorial for GUI Pop ups (simple ones like Notes and Maps). Here's the link:

Simple GUI Pop Ups

Andy, thanks for making this tutorial. I've been meaning to get around to it but haven't had the chance. A couple of things:

1. The camera you're using for your GUI does not have to be a target cam. You can use either a free cam or a target cam. You also don't need to put a fixed camera component on the camera as it's not exported as a camera but as the GUI.

2. You don't need to attach a region sensor component to the clickable region. You only need to reference it in the logic modifier part. The plugin will create the region just from the node.

3. The GUICam does not need a tag id. (and for the dialog itself you do not need to change the tag konstant) It just needs the dialog and the pageinfo components. The clickoff plane however needs both the dialog and the GUITagId (which is set to 99).

4. Finally, if you wish to hide your GUI upon link in and have it in the same spot as your plane clickable object, when you set up your age file if after the page num you place an extra ",1" it will hide everything on that page.

So it would look something like this:

Code: Select all

StartDateTime=0000000000
DayLength=24.000000
MaxCapacity=10
LingerTime=180
SequencePrefix=10139
ReleaseVersion=0
Page=mainRoom,0
Page=ChloesDelorean,1,1

ChloesDelorean would then be hidden and can be placed anywhere in the age, including at the same spot as your actual clickable.

Hope those things help to clear up a few difficulties for people

GPNMilano wrote:Andy, thanks for making this tutorial. I've been meaning to get around to it but haven't had the chance. A couple of things:

1. The camera you're using for your GUI does not have to be a target cam. You can use either a free cam or a target cam. You also don't need to put a fixed camera component on the camera as it's not exported as a camera but as the GUI.

Ahhhhh! Okay, I'll have to give this a try. I did that as TheMagician said in his video tutorial that the Cameras needed to be Target Cams (I more than likely missheard it though, kids running around here, hehe).

2. You don't need to attach a region sensor component to the clickable region. You only need to reference it in the logic modifier part. The plugin will create the region just from the node.

Gave this a try: my cursor refuses to go hot. I must be missing something here.

3. The GUICam does not need a tag id. (and for the dialog itself you do not need to change the tag konstant) It just needs the dialog and the pageinfo components. The clickoff plane however needs both the dialog and the GUITagId (which is set to 99).

Good to know. Funny story about that, I didn't know about using the GUI ID Tag at all, I got the pop up to work, in that, it would pop up, and go back down...and then it would stop working, hehehe. I threw the ID Tag on all the components involved, for good measure.

4. Finally, if you wish to hide your GUI upon link in and have it in the same spot as your plane clickable object, when you set up your age file if after the page num you place an extra ",1" it will hide everything on that page.

That's good to know. I've been doing it like I saw in the Barron's Office and Teledahn where they are seperate pages and the age file shows that.

I'll edit my tutorial later today. I'd like to get them on the GoW Wiki as more people hang out there than the GoMa of course, but also because then others can fix mistakes or add stuff to the tutorial.

I suck at Wiki however, heh

I did that as TheMagician said in his video tutorial

So now it's my fault .... thanks

I must admit I said that in the tutorial because sometimes a camera gave an export error when it wasn't a target cam.

Well, using PrpShop and looking at Cyan's prp files for like:

Baron City Office
Teledahn (upper shroom)
The roof top in the city

I've found that all the GUI cameras are: Target

That's because included in the scene objects is the "camera.target" of each camera. Free cams when exported, do not have this.
I also experienced export errors when trying to use any Free Cams instead of Target Cams, but that was messing with camera regions and transitions. I just assumed that you have to use Target Cams, and so immediately used them for my GUI cameras.

I know in the KI Max file that Cyan released, they are using a Free Cam there, but then it's a different can of worms, heh.

I haven't tried replacing my GUI cam with a Free one yet and seeing what happens. But I do know it works just fine with a Target Cam.

andylegate wrote:Baron City Office
Teledahn (upper shroom)
The roof top in the city

I've found that all the GUI cameras are: Target

Some of them are. The rest are not. There's only one (maybe two) in Teledahn that are not. The rooftop ones have ones that are not. I know that the Pod Map has one. It may just be a preference of whoever is making that particular GUI. I know that when I converted ChloesHoodOffice with the plugin I used a free cams and it worked fine. The plugin does complain however if you're using a free cam for anything other than a GUI. It may just be the actual plugin exporter requires a target, while GUIs do not.

Since PyPRP exported camera's without target's just fine, it appears to just be a Max Plugin issue.

Gave this a try: my cursor refuses to go hot. I must be missing something here.

GUIs are tricky little buggers. I couldn't for instance figure out for the life of me that you could actually type a number into the tagid drop down box until on a hunch i tried it. Up until that point I continued to export each of the options in there on the hopes one of them would actually be the one I needed (None of them are by the way).

Huh. Are you making sure to reference the region in your Logic Modifier? In the selection box you select the actual scene object that you made for your region. Region Sensors are for volume sensor regions, (these are the type of regions that detect that the avatar has actually entered the region and activate the modifier they're attached to. An example being the regions that activate imager's so you can upload a ki pic or note) If you were exporting these for example, the moment you walked into the region it would have popped up the GUI, rather then when you clicked on it. So something wacky's going on there.

GPNMilano wrote:
GUIs are tricky little buggers. I couldn't for instance figure out for the life of me that you could actually type a number into the tagid drop down box until on a hunch i tried it. Up until that point I continued to export each of the options in there on the hopes one of them would actually be the one I needed (None of them are by the way).

Huh. Are you making sure to reference the region in your Logic Modifier? In the selection box you select the actual scene object that you made for your region. Region Sensors are for volume sensor regions, (these are the type of regions that detect that the avatar has actually entered the region and activate the modifier they're attached to. An example being the regions that activate imager's so you can upload a ki pic or note) If you were exporting these for example, the moment you walked into the region it would have popped up the GUI, rather then when you clicked on it. So something wacky's going on there.

The way I figured out the Tag ID number of 99, was by reading the GoW Wiki on GUI Pop ups for Blender and the GoW Plugin, at the end, is the part about hacking the files to enable a Click Off plane, in there they talked about the Tag ID needing to stay at 99, and I went:

The region will not automatically go to the GUI Pop up, unless you make your responder's detector that. If you set up the region sensor like in my pic below, the region simply detects when you are IN the region:



The reason I did it this way, is I did not want the cursor going hot all the way on the other side of the room, and have the GUI Pop up happen there (it wouldn't make any sense that you could pick something up from the table on the other side of the room). So I'm simply using the region as a sensor to make sure that you can't click on the GUI Pop up, unless you're close to the table (IE inside the region there), and the clickable parameters help with that:



With the actual responder being a Python File Mod (xDialogToggle), I'm telling it that the toggle is actually when you click on the clickable, not when you are in the region:



So you are absolutely right: You can make your GUI Pop up with out the region, as you don't need a region to make something clickable. However, if you do that, you could end up with a situation that you might not like. So I'm using the region as a CONTROL, to keep the player from clicking on something that they should not be able to click on, unless they are close to it.
Here's a video of me clicking on the Pop up from across the room after telling it to ignore the region:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJUbrhw2xc0

I'll still edit the tutorial to point out what you said about not needing the region so that you can click on it, but that I'm using the region to control when something can be clicked on.