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Discussion New layer type for texts in GMS 2?

Miradur

Member
Since the font system is currently being reworked, I thought it might be possible to include a kind of text layer.
So a new layer type that allows you to create text boxes and position them correctly (depending on font size
and type). This would be very helpful for managers and simulation games where a lot of different data is
displayed.
Do you think it makes sense or right if you use objects or paths as control points(or did you find an even better
solution)?

Miradur
 
I know that a long time ago there had been discussions about the possibility of a proper GUI layer for people to lay out their UI for their game. Don't know whether it got much traction, or if it is even still under consideration. I do see that on the "Planned Features & Future Considerations", in the "Future Considerations" there is actually an item:
  • Room Editor : Static Text on Asset Layers - include Language Resource support
Maybe that is something along the same sort of lines as you are thinking? Although, like it says, it is only one of the many things that is in discussion so it may not even happen.

I am personally still hoping that the GUI layer gets done so that we can visually set up our UI's instead of having to do all the Draw GUI manually for everything we want to display.
 

Hyomoto

Member
@BaBiA Game Studio - Keep in mind, that would just be a WYSIWYG editor, under the hood the draw calls and positioning still happen. It's certainly a welcome addition, and making the process easier is hardly a downfall, but it won't replace the need to code things, even the UI itself. It would mostly serve to make lining things up a bit easier.
 
@BaBiA Game Studio - Keep in mind, that would just be a WYSIWYG editor, under the hood the draw calls and positioning still happen. It's certainly a welcome addition, and making the process easier is hardly a downfall, but it won't replace the need to code things, even the UI itself. It would mostly serve to make lining things up a bit easier.
Yep, aware of that. I personally don't mind doing all of the coding, but like you say it would be nice to have it as a quick(er) way to line everything up and it would also make it easier to see it in your room without having to run your game just to check the layout of the UI.
 

rIKmAN

Member
Yep, aware of that. I personally don't mind doing all of the coding, but like you say it would be nice to have it as a quick(er) way to line everything up and it would also make it easier to see it in your room without having to run your game just to check the layout of the UI.
It does cost money, but YALs GMLive extension really speeds up the process of UI layouts in realtime (amongst many other things).

Not saying it wouldn't be a nice addition to the native IDE, but I would personally prefer other things to take priority in terms of what YYG spend time on adding when there are viable alternatives already available for feature suggestions, so I thought I'd give it a mention.
 
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