Dynamic Book Template (version 2.1)

[andylegate]

Okay, give me a few minutes, I'm going to have a look.

[andylegate]

HA! Got it fixed!!

Great looking Age by the way, can't wait to see it textures. You've obviously put in a lot of effort on the machinery.

Okay, here's what I did:

Your ALCscript is fine.
Your Python files are fine.

Your book: I turned the Bounds on and set it to Static Triangle Mesh, to make the book solid.

Your Region: unclicked Actor, your region is NOT an Actor. I also unclicked the bounds on it, not that it was blocking or causing a collision, but it's not needed.
That's when I noticed that the bottom of your region was right even with the floor. And the origination dot on the book was OUTSIDE the click region.
So I scaled your click region on the Z coordinates and made it bigger, extending it past the floor, so there was no doubt that your book is IN the region.

Exported (keep getting an error with you fni file, but it let me bypass it, not sure about that), anyway, I linked in your AGe, and TAH DAH, you can click on your book now, it opens up and you can read it.

So go do what I just talked about, and give it a try!

[dah'kree]

Thank you, I am much obliged. I was following the example of the FuncCheck age, and it had things like that, not sure about the actor part, but everything else was liked that, Ill try that later, but now I have to get back up to school.

Oh, and blender added a bunch of spaces to my .fni file, and I forgot to change that...

[dah'kree]

Indeed, it does work, thanks again andylegate.

[andylegate]

Looking into trying to call up the Notebook background (the journals that look like they are ruled paper).

Looking through Uru's journals python, I've found that in their xJournalBookDefsEnglish.py file, you'll see:

Code: Select all

xJournalBooks = {'Dummy': (1.0,
           1.0,
           xDummyJournalEnglish,),
 'Sharper': (1.0,
             1.0,
             xSharperJournalEnglish,
             'bkNotebook',),
 'ClassStructure': (1.0,
                    1.0,
                    xClassStructureJournalEnglish,
                    'bkNotebook',),
 'Pregnancy': (1.0,
               1.0,
               xPregnancyJournalEnglish,
               'bkNotebook',),

In those books it seemes that 'bkNotebook" calls up the background for this.

I was trying to think if there is a way to insert this in the *YourAge*PageDefs.py if and when you'd rather the journal to appear as a note book.

[boblishman]

I was wondering also about making "pages" appear ...you know, like maps or drawings (not a book, just a flat image) ... I was rather hoping D'Lanor could help us in that direction too...

[Trylon]

Unfortunately that requires a bit more. It needs to be supported in PyPRP...

[D'Lanor]

I did not add the standard notebook to this template because to be honest, I do not like it. There is nothing that it offers which can't be done with a normal book.

Those lines do not add anything since all text is already perfectly horizontal, but what I find most annoying: it is practically impossible to make the vertical line spacing match the lines on the paper.

And yes, to make pieces of paper appear we need GUI support in PyPRP.

[andylegate]

@boblishman, my research (amature research to be sure as I've started to barely understand Python, but have learned a LOT so far with both Trylon's and D'Lanor's help), shows that objects like Notes, Maps, etc (Baron's City office being a good example), when you look at the logic properties for those things, it says:

String Name:clickfile xDialogToggle

Very curious about this, I took a look in the xDialogToggle python file. I found this:

Code: Select all

from Plasma import *
from PlasmaTypes import *
import PlasmaControlKeys
Activate = ptAttribActivator(1, ' clickable ', netForce=1)
Vignette = ptAttribString(4, 'Toggle dialog - by Name')
KeyMap = {}
KeyMap[PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyMoveForward] = PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyCamPanUp
KeyMap[PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyMoveBackward] = PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyCamPanDown
KeyMap[PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyRotateLeft] = PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyCamPanLeft
KeyMap[PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyRotateRight] = PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyCamPanRight
LocalAvatar = None
kExit = 99
class xDialogToggle(ptModifier,):
    __module__ = __name__

    def __init__(self):
        ptModifier.__init__(self)
        self.id = 5104
        version = 1
        self.version = version
        print '__init__xDialogToggle v.',
        print version



    def IGetAgeFilename(self):
        ageInfo = PtGetAgeInfo()
        if (type(ageInfo) != type(None)):
            return ageInfo.getAgeFilename()
        else:
            return 'GUI'



    def OnFirstUpdate(self):
        PtLoadDialog(Vignette.value, self.key, self.IGetAgeFilename())



    def __del__(self):
        PtUnloadDialog(Vignette.value)



    def OnNotify(self, state, id, events):
        global LocalAvatar
        if (state and ((id == Activate.id) and PtWasLocallyNotified(self.key))):
            LocalAvatar = PtFindAvatar(events)
            self.IStartDialog()



    def OnGUINotify(self, id, control, event):
        if (event == kAction):
            if (control.getTagID() == kExit):
                self.IQuitDialog()
        elif (event == kExitMode):
            self.IQuitDialog()



    def OnControlKeyEvent(self, controlKey, activeFlag):
        PtDebugPrint(('Got controlKey event %d and its activeFlage is %d' % (controlKey,
         activeFlag,)), level=kDebugDumpLevel)
        if (controlKey == PlasmaControlKeys.kKeyExitMode):
            self.IQuitDialog()



    def IStartDialog(self):
        Activate.disable()
        PtLoadDialog(Vignette.value, self.key, self.IGetAgeFilename())
        if PtIsDialogLoaded(Vignette.value):
            PtShowDialog(Vignette.value)
            print ('dialog: %s goes up' % Vignette.value)
        PtGetControlEvents(true, self.key)



    def IQuitDialog(self):
        if ((type(Vignette.value) != type(None)) and (Vignette.value != '')):
            PtHideDialog(Vignette.value)
            print ('Dialog: %s goes down' % Vignette.value)
        else:
            print 'WTH!!!'
        PtGetControlEvents(false, self.key)
        Activate.enable()

The interesting part being the def iStartDialog bit.

Also, looking in the Baron's City Office age after importing it to blender, you find planes outside the Age, just like we can do for book covers. There are several there. One for the notepad, one for the crumpled note, one for the chart, etc.

What I found interesting was that, when you click on the plane that has the texture for the yellow note pad, if you look under the logic properties it says:

String Name:material YellowNoteBook

And......if you select the wrinkled note plane, you see some more interesting logic properties:

String Name:material DynaText

So I went looking for this DynaText, curious as to what it was. What I found, in Uru's Python.pak file was:

xDynaTextBoy.py
xDynaTextObj.py
xDynaTextDefsEnglish.py

Dynamic Texture Map........that's what those are about. If I only knew a little more about Python.....


Anyway......

D'Lanor, I respect your personal opinion, and I'm very grateful that you made the book templates. But, nobody should be stuck having to use the same back ground for their journal-> Faded parchment looking paper. I know you can't line up text on the lines very well. Heck, even in real life, I have a hard time staying inbetween the lines! But the variation is what gives other Writers the freedom to choose what they'd like to use. Old journals laying around, ancient D'ni Linking books.....this I can understand having the paper look old.

But a Maintainers Training Manual? Nah, it would be typed up on new paper.

If I could, I'd just use a white background. I mean, hello?? Didn't anyone stop off at Walmart or Staples and pick up some Xerox paper??? Duh!!

[boblishman]

Thanks for all that Andy ... if only I knew what to do with it ...

This is how I see Python ... like my car ... I can drive it, because somene taught me how to use the peddles, steering wheel and controls ... but I have no idea what's going on under the hood ... nor do I really want to, I'm far to busy travelling...

(This is not a cop out ... I'm just not 'into' coding ... now, meshing ... that's another story ... )

Hopefully this info will be of use to someone who can turn it into peddles, streering wheel and controls that I can use ...