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Old 10-08-2012, 03:04 PM   #1
shillingworth
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Default Reviving EQIA editor

Now that I'm to a point where I have time to work on it again, I'm reviving my old EQInterfaceArchitect project. The goal is to create a WYSIWYG editor that complies with modern EQUI.

Progress:
- Wrote my own xml (de)serializer to avoid the pitfalls I encountered in my past attempts, as well as to make it more customizable.
- Have the basic look of the xml editor complete with syntax highlighting and block folding. This is disabled for now, focusing on drawing code.
- Have the core drawing code in place in textures and animations.
- Starting on drawing code for draw templates, so far have ButtonDrawTemplate

Requirements (subject to change later):
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 and 3.5
- Microsoft XNA Framework 3.1

To compile:
- SVN client to download source, see google code page for repository address
- Visual Studio 2012 (express is fine)
- XNA Game Studio 3.1 (may require Visual Studio 2008, express is fine)

Currently it's only safe to load the default UI with it, I make no garuntees yet that it'll load a custom UI. There is no editing functionality yet. To open a UI just try to open any XML file in the appropriate folder, it should find a suitable equi.xml file.

EQInterfaceArchitect on GoogleCode

Preview will be updated later when I have something better than random textures, animations, and button draw templates to show.

If anyone would like to work with me on this. The serializer is pretty much automatic, as long as a type is derived from EqElement and is marked up with EqX attributes, it will figure out how to read/write it. As far as what I could use help on, that'd be implementing all of the EQUI elements.
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Last edited by shillingworth : 12-14-2012 at 10:18 PM.
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Old 10-13-2012, 04:14 PM   #2
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Got an update coming sometime this coming week. I have text editing working and it updating the preview every chance it gets that the xml your working is able to be deserialized. But currently it's a very hackish first draft code that needs to be cleaned up before I'll commit it.
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Old 10-13-2012, 08:11 PM   #3
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Great work Shillingworth. Looking forward to using it.

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Old 10-15-2012, 04:26 PM   #4
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Hey, great job so far!

This would be something new to me to use and im excited to see what all it can do!
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Old 10-26-2012, 07:07 PM   #5
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Had a bit of a setback due to a tooth infection that started about a week ago. It's starting to clear up thanks to the antibiotics the ER prescribed when I finally gave in, but I have to focus on finding jobs to pay for a dentist appointment to fix the problem before it gets that bad again.

Been getting a little done here and there as I can, but it far from my normal pace.
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Old 11-03-2012, 06:29 PM   #6
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Shill! Just saw your thread, very very happy you have decided to go further with this. You will truly make the community, as well as myself, a very happy gamer
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Old 11-04-2012, 05:22 PM   #7
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Working on moving it over to VS2012. After finally installing the copy of VS2012 I got from early testing I was very impressed. First time since VS2008 I don't have to fight the IDE to make it do what I want it to do. The improved support for threading helps too, especially with a project like this where I have to use no less than two threads at a time. To be fair VS2010 had half decent threading support, but debugging one thread at a time made it hard to see the big picture.

But this puts me with updating Avalon for proper .Net 4.5 support. I can use some tricks with config files to wedge it in. I don't like that option since it requires end-users to have multiple versions of .Net installed just to run the program and produces vague error messages if any of the required libraries are missing from the machine running it. Considering I rely on Avalon almost as much as .Net/Mono in most of my projects, it's in my best interest to update it.
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Old 11-16-2012, 05:03 PM   #8
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Finally had time to really focus on it today (been real busy lately with odd jobs). Managed to get about 8 hours in which allowed me to move almost everything over to VS2012, as well as work out a few things that I only had shoddy temp code in place.

Googlecode was being really temperamental when I tried to commit the code, so that'll come a bit later. Stopped using SVN because I got fed up with the sorts of problems it's giving, guess I'll go back to that since at least I know it inside-out.
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Old 11-16-2012, 06:32 PM   #9
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I appreciate all the effort and time you are putting into this my friend.
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Old 12-14-2012, 08:33 PM   #10
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Decided to just come back to text editor side later an focus on graphic side of things, so been working on drawing code for everything. I'd really like a time machine to travel back and punch younger me in the face for not being meticulous with backups.

If anyone has a copy of the old demo I put together that loaded the default UI's inventory screen I would appreciate it if you could upload it somewhere (hint: mediafire and dropbox are free and easy to use). I have tools I can use to reverse the code back out of it, of course it'd be a tad outdated but not by much.

A couple things ya'll can work on for me if ya feel like it:

Icons for each UI element. Design em yourself or locate some online that have free licenses for non-commercial or open-source software. Same size as the icons next to websites in modern browsers would be awesome.

Data file with all of the EqType and ScreenID listed in a format that can be parsed easily. Be sure to include names and what type of UI elements it can be used in. XML and YAML are my idea choices, but text is fine as long as you use a visible delimiter (commas, colons, semi-colons, pipes, etc).

Play with various conflicting layout parameters on elements to figure out what priority they have. For example if MaxHSize or MaxVSize is set does it limit Size or ignore Max sizes. I had a lot of these figured out at one point but can't find the note book I had them written down in.
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Old 12-14-2012, 08:46 PM   #11
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15000 Android style Icons

It's a free sign up. Enter an email address and they will email the link with the download. No gimmicks. There's all kinds of nifty freebie web and graphic design downloads on this site.
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Old 12-14-2012, 09:01 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shillingworth
Data file with all of the EqType and ScreenID listed in a format that can be parsed easily. Be sure to include names and what type of UI elements it can be used in. XML and YAML are my idea choices, but text is fine as long as you use a visible delimiter (commas, colons, semi-colons, pipes, etc).


Are you going to make this a dynamic feature? In other words, SIDLWIDL had it so there was a Toolbox Templates file that could be edited to keep up with future UI Changes and could be manually updated.

I have not updated it in quite a while, but here is the link to the one I was working: SidlWidl v2.9 and You (Part 2 - The Toolbox)
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Old 12-14-2012, 09:24 PM   #13
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Ah no Sparxx, close but not exactly what I had in mind. The idea is to pull the EqTypes from a config file and into a context sensitive combo box. Although the template idea does sound a lot more noob friendly.
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Old 12-14-2012, 09:30 PM   #14
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EQ Devs give me a headache:
Code:
<AutoStretch>talse</AutoStretch>

Code:
<X>3+</X>
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Old 12-14-2012, 11:25 PM   #15
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Wh00psie!
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