BUG Charts

[ruff_hi]

oh well - that is an easy fix. I was looking at a much different fix. Sure - legend is a little bit wrong but ... oh well - it is only in debug mode

 

[Dresden]

OK, with a bit more fiddling the legend is fixed too. Committed. You can resume playing with the menu layout.

 

[ruff_hi]

what do people think of the blue marble cloud background for the charts? The more I look at them, the less I like it. However, Civ4 in its wisdom is using the same background and chart area as the main menu. I am tempted to create separate chart graphics so that we can separate these two and users can take their pick.

 

[mystyfly]

I would LOVE another background, I don't like the bluemarble one much either...

 

[EmperorFool]

Agreed, the Blue Marble background is pretty by itself or in the main menu but a horrible choice behind text and charts.

 

[Dresden]

That damned sky background showing on the advisor screens nearly made me uninstall Blue Marble when I first tried it. Eventually I wound up flipping it horizontally and lowering the brightness which made it somewhat more tolerable as a text/chart background. Although when I was playing with the EFA Info screen I reverted to original graphics and haven't gotten around to reinstalling BM yet.

 

[ruff_hi]

it actually makes a very nice wall paper.

 

[Dresden]

Indeed, it's very purty if you aren't trying to read something overlaid on it.

 

[Dresden]

/me runs away

 

[EmperorFool]

Can you make the background in purple and have it flash? That would pwn!

 

[Dresden]

Minor chart bug: The "[DEAD]" tag can fall outside the legend border:

 

[ruff_hi]

This actually wasn't the first time I showed these graph ... the first was in PH14, slightly less than a month back, in which I praised the work, and suggested for an improvement to allow user to select which graphs to show (eg. show only power, GNP, and Prod). As someone who knows programing, I do know that is significantly more difficult, so its just a wish, not a demand .

His one suggestion on the charts was a 3in1 option. The issue there is how do we let the user select the 3 charts to show? Drop down options in the option tab (takes up room) or an interactive method when the screen is up?

My current thinking:

• replace the text along the bottom with '1 in 1', '3 in 1' and '7 in 1' with the currently active display in yellow
• retain the current methods of zooming in and out (click on heading or background of chart) - just need to remember which of the zoom out options is active (ie '3 in 1' or '7 in 1')
• put the banner (list of charts) across the top when in '3 in 1' or '7 in 1' mode
• thoughts on '3 in 1' mode
  • initial display in '3 in 1' mode is 3 blank backgrounds
  • the user clicks on the banner to select the 3 to display - the chart(s) names on the banner selected turn yellow
  • the 4th option clicked replaces the 1st
  • the 5th option clicked replaces the 2nd
  • etc
  • selection(s) is/are remembered between displays

 

[EmperorFool]

I'd love a 3-in-1 view, assuming they'd be long horizontal strips aligned vertically. Here's how I would have it work:

• Choose defaults for the 3-in-1 view; save them as options like the other stuff
• Click graph title to choose the graph to display in that spot using a popup. This may be awkward because the other views won't work the same way. I just don't like the cycling you described above.

I also have a few random suggestions:

• Change the smoothing factor to a slider
• Set no-hit on screen title and instructional text
• Make clicking small rectangles behind graph titles work like clicking title itself or clicking graph--right now they are ignored

 

[ruff_hi]

I was thinking that we have it set up like this ...

1  2
L  3

Smoothing slider is an idea - will look at that.
Not sure what you mean by no-hit on screen title - does it do something if you click on the title / instructional text?

 

[EmperorFool]

Not sure what you mean by no-hit on screen title - does it do something if you click on the title / instructional text?

Search for setHitTest and copy that line. It keeps a text label from highlighting yellow and acting like a button when you click it, and you should set that for text that has no action. As it is now, those things appear to be broken buttons.

Regarding the layout, go with what you like. I was thinking all in one vertical strip would allow the list to be tall without overlapping a graph and allow long graphs for easier reading later in the game. I find that the square graphs appear squished and that horizontal resolution is more important for a nice graph than vertical. I'm not attached to any particular way, however.

Yet another option instead of making them choose the 3 to show is to segregate the graphs into groups and have 3 pages, perhaps:

Economy

• Food
• Production
• Gold

Strength

• Score
• Power
• Culture
• Espionage

Heck, let the user build their own graph pages a la the CDA. They create a page and then add each graph they want to see on that page. Have a layout for each number of graphs you can have on a page so they screen adjusts as they add graphs. They can then segment them however they want, even showing the same graph on multiple pages. Wow, that'd be awesome!

 

[ruff_hi]

Search for setHitTest and copy that line. It keeps a text label from highlighting yellow and acting like a button when you click it, and you should set that for text that has no action. As it is now, those things appear to be broken buttons.

I'd never noticed that the title and help comment move as if they are links. There are two commands ...

screen.setText(self.szHeaderWidget, "Background", self.SCREEN_TITLE, CvUtil.FONT_CENTER_JUSTIFY, self.X_TITLE, self.Y_TITLE, self.Z_CONTROLS, FontTypes.TITLE_FONT, WidgetTypes.WIDGET_GENERAL, -1, -1)

screen.setLabel(self.szHeaderWidget, "Background", self.SCREEN_TITLE, CvUtil.FONT_CENTER_JUSTIFY, self.X_TITLE, self.Y_TITLE, self.Z_CONTROLS, FontTypes.TITLE_FONT, WidgetTypes.WIDGET_GENERAL, -1, -1)

It seems that both can be used to create clickable items (assuming you set up the click intercept the right way ) but the setText one creates text that moves when you click on it.

I was using setText for the two you mentioned - I swapped them to setLabel - now they are just plain old text and do nothing.

 

[EmperorFool]

I was using setText for the two you mentioned - I swapped them to setLabel - now they are just plain old text and do nothing.

Do they highlight yellow when you hover over them? I've always used setText() and followed it by setting no-hit for the HitTest.

 

[ruff_hi]

No they don't, they stay white.

 

[ruff_hi]

discussion between EF and I ... just so I don't forget what we decided ...

Spoiler chat :

ruff_hi: chat via forum is too slow
emperor.fool: lol
emperor.fool: indeed
ruff_hi: good pick on those clickable titles - never noticed
ruff_hi: it seems I had setText and setLAbel round the wrong way
emperor.fool: ya I'm a stickler for . .. .. .. . like that
emperor.fool: caught a few in the original game
ruff_hi: should have been using setText for the clickable ones
ruff_hi: so that it moves when you click on it - way cool
emperor.fool: ya I use setText() and then setHitTest() to disable it. I wonder if that's the only diff btn Text and Label
ruff_hi: will think about swapping them but knowning my luck will totally screw it up
emperor.fool: no worries. I asked on the forum if they still turn yellow when you hover over them?
ruff_hi: parameters are the same
ruff_hi: and I answered
emperor.fool: oh ok
ruff_hi: no - still white
emperor.fool: damn, it IS slow
ruff_hi:
emperor.fool: cool, perfect then
ruff_hi: the dates on the bottom of the charts were the key
ruff_hi: they didn't do anything when I clicked on them
emperor.fool: what do you think about clicking graph title to popup list to select graph?
ruff_hi: so I had to hunt up the command that placed them
emperor.fool: ah yes
emperor.fool: I just wish I could get mouse-over events for text, but no
ruff_hi: oh - I see ... for the 3-in-1 ... click on title, dialog box pops up and you select the one you want
emperor.fool: yup
ruff_hi: if only the python dialog box could read info from a check box
emperor.fool: dunno how confusing that would be since it's different for the 7-in-1 page
ruff_hi: oh wait - it can
emperor.fool: yes, it can
ruff_hi: just not from an option box
emperor.fool: you can add checkboxes
ruff_hi: the 7-1 is fixed - there aren't any more charts to add
emperor.fool: even better, just make them pushbuttons so you click the graph you want
ruff_hi: the 3-1 is optional
emperor.fool: that's what I mean, clicking the title on the 7-1 graphs would zoom in, right?
ruff_hi: ??? - pushbuttons - where
ruff_hi: clicking on either 7-1 or 3-1 graph goes tot he 1-1 graph
emperor.fool: I'll have to hunt down the code, but it works just like the research/build popups
ruff_hi: click on 1-1 and it goes back to 7-1 or 3-1 (depends on where it was)
emperor.fool: you push what you want, and that dismisses the dialog
ruff_hi: nice
emperor.fool: yes, but right now clicking the graph title on 7-1 zooms, and doing the same thing on a 3-1 graph would popup a dialog
ruff_hi: are those popups for tech python driven
emperor.fool: no
ruff_hi: oh - I see - yes
emperor.fool: but I think we can gain access to the same features
ruff_hi: re 7-1: guess we should disable the zoom if you click on title
ruff_hi: so it isn't confusing

 

[ruff_hi]

3 in 1 chart option added to BUG charts. Known problem - dropdown selection shows 'score' for all 3 charts but the actual charts are score, production and food (the first 3). Only occurs first time you view the charts for the game session.

Anyone know how to set the 'active' element of a drop down?