Scriptable UI

[jakubg1]

Right now, the UI is actually scriptable but it's a made-up custom script syntax. Because there is already some Lua module stuff going on, I think it's time to make UI scriptable also via Lua. This has actually quite a few benefits:

• The custom script code will be shredded, and so it will probably be the game event code too
• No need to calculate and store the so-called widget variables
• No need to store HUD paths in config anymore

This has of course a disadvantage - Lua knowledge would be slightly more mandatory for altering such code. This is especially important if one would want to create a custom UI for their game. Furthermore, I don't plan any direct Lua scripting support in an upcoming game editor yet.

[jakubg1]

Example:

lostFocus >>
    jump:widget?root/Game/Hud/Frame/Button_Pause.buttonActive=false,3
    jump:widget?root/Game/Hud/Banner_Paused.visible=true,2
    widgetShow:root/Game/Hud/Banner_Paused
    levelPause:

changed to:

function c.lostFocus()
    if f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Frame/Button_Pause"):isActive()
    and not f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Banner_Paused"):isVisible()
    then
        f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Banner_Paused"):show()
        f.levelPause()
    end
end

or:

function c.lostFocus()
    local Button_Pause = f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Frame/Button_Pause")
    local Banner_Paused = f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Banner_Paused")

    if Button_Pause:isActive() and not Banner_Paused:isVisible()
    then
        Banner_Paused:show()
        f.levelPause()
    end
end

Note that this is still subject to change and the method may look different in its final version.

[jakubg1]

Another example with a wait command used before:

levelLost >>
    widgetButtonDisable:root/Game/Hud/Frame/Button_Pause
    widgetShow:root/Game/Hud/Banner_LevelLose
    wait:root/Game/Hud/Banner_LevelLose/Panel,hideEnd
    levelRestart:

to:

function c.levelLost()
    local Button_Pause = f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Frame/Button_Pause")
    local Banner_LevelLose = f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Banner_LevelLose")
    local Banner_LevelLose_Panel = f.getWidget("root/Game/Hud/Banner_LevelLose/Panel")

    Button_Pause:disable()
    Banner_LevelLose:show()
    f.scheduleFunction(c.levelLost_2, Banner_LevelLose_Panel, "hideEnd") -- any idea how to make it work better?
end

function c.levelLost_2()
    f.levelRestart()
end

[jakubg1]

When opening the UI functions for doing things like level advancing or saving the progress, add console commands to access them too. This would be useful.

[jakubg1]

After voting on the SM discord server, it has been decided that:

• Actions will not be implemented. The only unit supported by the new scripts will be callbacks.
• Instead of defining actions via script files, there will be an optional field in a JSON widget object, which would contain callback names for any possible action performed.

This makes the new mechanism fast and simple. There was also considered an option to implement actions as a mechanism which would append them to the widgets once spawned, however it has been proven to be a hassle to implement.

[jakubg1]

Done: https://github.com/jakubg1/OpenSMCE/commit/baee2a9ea74e1335266d89a10b1a5efade5a2f1a