[SeeNeYe]

Hi all,

In the team behind "the end project" upcoming mod, we were wondering about integrating a flash player into SCP engine, so that it would be easy to redo UI / MENUS / HUD in vectorized and pretty handful way. Is there a chance that something like that be integrated / added to the freespace 2 scp ? 

I've found an open source pre-alpha library (not maintained anymore though) that is doing this job here : http://tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf.html

And I know that proprietary libraries and/or middlewares with full support of Action Script 2 exist and are used in commercial games on PC and consoles (not sure for AS3).

I'm just opening the pandora's box and see what do you think about it 

It would be something great for modders !

[The E]

open source pre-alpha library (not maintained anymore though

There's problem one. There is no way in hell anything like that will ever get integrated into the source.

proprietary libraries and/or middlewares with full support of Action Script 2

Note, proprietary. We cannot use something if its license is incompatible with the FSO code license. And we cannot pay for a proper license, which means we're restricted to BSD/LGPL or similarly licensed libraries.

I'm just opening the pandora's box and see what do you think about it

Less than nothing. The hassle to integrate a framework like this into FSO is just too hard (as it means rewriting basically the entire UI framework and the HUD code from scratch. Given that at least the HUD is now in a state where it can do almost anything you want from it, there's no reason to rewrite it again (seriously, have you even looked at what is possible with hud_gauges.tbl nowadays?).

Oh, and then there's the issue of there being an entire scripting language (Lua) already integrated into most things.

[pecenipicek]

No. Just no. As a relatively "senior" modder here, i'm gonna flat out just say NO.

[Reprobator]

Replies are clear enough
we can let the topic dies by its natural death ^^

[SeeNeYe]

Replies are clear enough
we can let the topic dies by its natural death ^^

Nothing more to add here ^^

We'll see with the lua stuff what is possible to do !

seriously, have you even looked at what is possible with hud_gauges.tbl nowadays?

Yes sir ! We've looked at it and started to do our own hud, but i must be honest, we've not looked in depth all the features of it 

I was asking this because Flash is very helphul and fast to create attractive animated UI, but I completely understand the fact that you need open source well implemented library to add to the scp. Great job is done everyday on the engine, and i won't thank you enough for that ! 

Just to bring something more useful : i'm not very good in C++ but I could understand some parts of the SCP source, where should I look in order to make it possible to "unstretch" the UI (I think of 16/10 and multiscreen users). I think I saw something interesting in the 2D.cpp or something like that, am i right ? The idea would be to center on one of the screen the display, just during menus (I've managed to do it with lua for the intro, splash screen, was easy enough for my little level in LUA ^^), so that it just appears in a correctly 4/3 way. Thanks !

[pecenipicek]

Just to bring something more useful : i'm not very good in C++ but I could understand some parts of the SCP source, where should I look in order to make it possible to "unstretch" the UI (I think of 16/10 and multiscreen users). I think I saw something interesting in the 2D.cpp or something like that, am i right ? The idea would be to center on one of the screen the display, just during menus (I've managed to do it with lua for the intro, splash screen, was easy enough for my little level in LUA ^^), so that it just appears in a correctly 4/3 way. Thanks !

Thats exactly what the bloody new hud stuff does. Aspect ratio controlled HUDs.

[rscaper1070]

@pecenipicek: Take it easy dude. The guy doesn't know something, he's not hitting on your girlfriend or something.

@SeeNeYe: You can learn about the hud gauges table in the wiki. There's also a lot of good information in the original Antipodes thread.

[SeeNeYe]

Thats exactly what the bloody new hud stuff does. Aspect ratio controlled HUDs.

Hey !  I know that it can be done for the hud (we've started a few months ago the changes for a triple screen display), but I was speaking about menus (mainhall, etc...) that are streched all along your screen resolution (have you ever tried fs2scp on a triple screen ?  Just a bit annoying to navigate through the options/menus when it's stretched from 800x600 to 5760x1080). Of course you can run freespace in window mode to avoid the problems, but fs2 is so fantastic on 3 screens !

[pecenipicek]

Thats exactly what the bloody new hud stuff does. Aspect ratio controlled HUDs.

Hey !  I know that it can be done for the hud (we've started a few months ago the changes for a triple screen display), but I was speaking about menus (mainhall, etc...) that are streched all along your screen resolution (have you ever tried fs2scp on a triple screen ?  Just a bit annoying to navigate through the options/menus when it's stretched from 800x600 to 5760x1080). Of course you can run freespace in window mode to avoid the problems, but fs2 is so fantastic on 3 screens !

On that area, there isnt as much you can do unfortunately. At least not yet. And lua-based mainhalls/main interface (do not confuse it with the ingame HUD) can only display, well, the main hall.

[Dragon]

I think that support for per-resolution mainhalls should be expanded. Right now, we only have 640x480 and 1024x768 versions of each mainhall. If mainhall.tbl could be expanded to support more resolutions, it could be a solution that doesn't require a massive rewrite (unless it does).

[The E]

That would take care of the mainhall, but what about _every other interface screen in the game_? Besides, constructing a mainhall using scripting is easy.

[Dragon]

In fact, I'd like to see interface completely reworked. All interface screens should have functionality and customizablity similar to mainhalls, and scripting should be able to access and modify these. From what I've seen, it's the last thing in the engine that is barely moddable and completely inflexible. There are many mods which would benefit from more than one version of interface (for instance, in BP, you either have to switch mods around or play as GTVA with UEF logos all over the place). Of course, nobody seems to be interested in doing it, especially that there are many more things that need to be worked on.

[Zacam]

Wait, because there are no announcements of it being WIP or anything, you assume (incorrectly I might add) that "nobody seems interested"?

This sort of thing is not going to spring up over night you know. And there are other more substantial things left in the engine to improve it's stability AND longevity that should be accomplished first.

Stop making assumptions. And stop thinking they are fact.

[Dragon]

Perhaps the wording was less than perfect, I don't think my assumption is a fact, just that for me, it seems like that. I should have said "unfortunately" instead of "of course" and "from what I've heard" instead of "seems". I remember hearing (granted, it was some time ago) that interface rework wasn't very high on SCP priority list, being difficult and because there were a couple of things that were more important.