Manual Questions

[chikitin]

Hi,

I have a few questions regarding the manual.

1. In the pipmak demo I want pipmak to show a text reaching the end of game in the middle of screen, say


"Congratulations, you can now advance to level 2."


I am on windows. Should I use image:drawtext to do this? if so how?

or I should use it as slide? In other words, creating an image file showing/displaying the text, "congratulations" and then having pipmak display that in particular even. I

appreciate it if you could give me some insight in the method as well.



2. node:getcurrentnode() returns the number of the current background node. Is there any command that returns the the number of the last visited node?



3. I am going to use print.pipmak for debugghing. The following code give me an error:


local junk=1  // also without local, ie, global

print.pipmak( "junk is " , junk)

it gives me the following error: attemp to index global "print' ( a function value)


what am I doing wrong?


4. I use the pipmak.gotnode() to go to a particular node. How can I ask pipmak to say go to node 99 after 10 seconds? The following doesn't work:

pipmak.gotonode(99,10)


Thanks in advance,

cs

[Christian Walther]

> 1. In the pipmak demo I want pipmak to show a text reaching the end  
> of game
> in the middle of screen, say
>
>
> "Congratulations, you can now advance to level 2."
>
>
> I am on windows. Should I use image:drawtext to do this? if so how?
>
> or I should use it as slide? In other words, creating an image file
> showing/displaying the text, "congratulations" and then having pipmak
> display that in particular even.

You can do either (or even both at the same time). It depends on what  
exactly you want to do, there are a lot of combinations.

If you want to display the "congratulations" box on a screen of its  
own, you can make it a separate slide. If you want to display it on  
top of a panorama, make it a slide with transparency (scaled to fit  
the screen) or a panel (kept at screen resolution) and display it as  
an overlay. If you want to display it on top of one particular slide,  
you can make it a patch on that slide node.

If you are satisfied with Pipmak's text rendering and don't need any  
fancy effects on the text, or want to be able to change the text  
easily, you can use image:drawtext. Otherwise, you draw the text  
yourself in a graphics program and incorporate the result as an image.

Here's a working example of a slide with a background picture and a  
patch containing drawn text (using a built-in image and font for  
demonstration, you will want to use your own image and perhaps your  
own font):

--------
slide "../resources/missing.png"

patch {
   x = 0, y = 50,
   image = pipmak.newimage(128, 20):color(1, .5, 0):drawtext(64, 0,  
"congratulations", "../resources/Vera.ttf", 16, pipmak.center)
}
--------

You could also draw the text directly on the background image:

--------
local img = pipmak.newimage("../resources/missing.png")

img:color(1, .5, 0):drawtext(64, 50, "congratulations", "../resources/
Vera.ttf", 16, pipmak.center)

slide (img)
--------

Or even create the whole background image programmatically:

--------
slide (pipmak.newimage(640, 480):color(1, .8, .5):fill(150, 200, 340,  
80):color(.4, .2, 0):drawtext(320, 210, "congratulations", "../
resources/VeraBd.ttf", 24, pipmak.center))
--------

Does that help? I admit that this is all a bit complicated and low-
level, that's why Andrea has created a more user-friendly text display  
system on top of it that will be integrated into the next version of  
Pipmak: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/454


> 2. node:getcurrentnode() returns the number of the current  
> background node.
> Is there any command that returns the the number of the last visited  
> node?

No. You need to keep track of that yourself if you need it, by adding  
an onenternode handler to every node that takes the node number and  
appends it to some list in the state table, or something. You could  
put that into its own file and include it in all the nodes using  
pipmak.dofile() to avoid duplication.

> 3. I am going to use print.pipmak for debugghing. The following code  
> give me
> an error:
>
>
> local junk=1  // also without local, ie, global
>
> print.pipmak( "junk is " , junk)
>
> it gives me the following error: attemp to index global "print' ( a  
> function
> value)
>
>
> what am I doing wrong?

What you want is "pipmak.print", not "print.pipmak". The function  
that's stored under the name "print" in the table "pipmak". What  
you're trying here is to get the entry named "pipmak" in the global  
variable "print", which doesn't work because "print" is not a table  
but a function (one that prints to standard output, which is of  
limited use in Pipmak).


> 4. I use the pipmak.gotnode() to go to a particular node. How can I  
> ask
> pipmak to say go to node 99 after 10 seconds? The following doesn't  
> work:
>
> pipmak.gotonode(99,10)

pipmak.schedule(10, function() pipmak.gotonode(99) end)
>


   -Christian

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[chikitin]

Thanks much for the answers. Unforntunatly it seems none of the methods that you describe for for me.
I want pipmak as soon as leaves a specific node, show the small fram in the middle of the page and start over the game. well, I supposed something like this work:

img = pipmak.newimage("congratulations.jpg") // picture file is in the node folder

onleavenode(
function

slide(img)

end
)

but this gives me an error:attemp to call global slide ( a nil value).

thanks in advance,

cs

Christian Walther wrote:

> 1. In the pipmak demo I want pipmak to show a text reaching the end  
> of game
> in the middle of screen, say
>
>
> "Congratulations, you can now advance to level 2."
>
>
> I am on windows. Should I use image:drawtext to do this? if so how?
>
> or I should use it as slide? In other words, creating an image file
> showing/displaying the text, "congratulations" and then having pipmak
> display that in particular even.

You can do either (or even both at the same time). It depends on what  
exactly you want to do, there are a lot of combinations.

If you want to display the "congratulations" box on a screen of its  
own, you can make it a separate slide. If you want to display it on  
top of a panorama, make it a slide with transparency (scaled to fit  
the screen) or a panel (kept at screen resolution) and display it as  
an overlay. If you want to display it on top of one particular slide,  
you can make it a patch on that slide node.

If you are satisfied with Pipmak's text rendering and don't need any  
fancy effects on the text, or want to be able to change the text  
easily, you can use image:drawtext. Otherwise, you draw the text  
yourself in a graphics program and incorporate the result as an image.

Here's a working example of a slide with a background picture and a  
patch containing drawn text (using a built-in image and font for  
demonstration, you will want to use your own image and perhaps your  
own font):

--------
slide "../resources/missing.png"

patch {
   x = 0, y = 50,
   image = pipmak.newimage(128, 20):color(1, .5, 0):drawtext(64, 0,  
"congratulations", "../resources/Vera.ttf", 16, pipmak.center)
}
--------

You could also draw the text directly on the background image:

--------
local img = pipmak.newimage("../resources/missing.png")

img:color(1, .5, 0):drawtext(64, 50, "congratulations", "../resources/
Vera.ttf", 16, pipmak.center)

slide (img)
--------

Or even create the whole background image programmatically:

--------
slide (pipmak.newimage(640, 480):color(1, .8, .5):fill(150, 200, 340,  
80):color(.4, .2, 0):drawtext(320, 210, "congratulations", "../
resources/VeraBd.ttf", 24, pipmak.center))
--------

Does that help? I admit that this is all a bit complicated and low-
level, that's why Andrea has created a more user-friendly text display  
system on top of it that will be integrated into the next version of  
Pipmak: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/454


> 2. node:getcurrentnode() returns the number of the current  
> background node.
> Is there any command that returns the the number of the last visited  
> node?

No. You need to keep track of that yourself if you need it, by adding  
an onenternode handler to every node that takes the node number and  
appends it to some list in the state table, or something. You could  
put that into its own file and include it in all the nodes using  
pipmak.dofile() to avoid duplication.


> 3. I am going to use print.pipmak for debugghing. The following code  
> give me
> an error:
>
>
> local junk=1  // also without local, ie, global
>
> print.pipmak( "junk is " , junk)
>
> it gives me the following error: attemp to index global "print' ( a  
> function
> value)
>
>
> what am I doing wrong?

What you want is "pipmak.print", not "print.pipmak". The function  
that's stored under the name "print" in the table "pipmak". What  
you're trying here is to get the entry named "pipmak" in the global  
variable "print", which doesn't work because "print" is not a table  
but a function (one that prints to standard output, which is of  
limited use in Pipmak).


> 4. I use the pipmak.gotnode() to go to a particular node. How can I  
> ask
> pipmak to say go to node 99 after 10 seconds? The following doesn't  
> work:
>
> pipmak.gotonode(99,10)

pipmak.schedule(10, function() pipmak.gotonode(99) end)
>


   -Christian

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[Christian Walther]

> I want pipmak as soon as leaves a specific node, show the small fram  
> in the
> middle of the page and start over the game. well, I supposed  
> something like
> this work:
>
> img = pipmak.newimage("congratulations.jpg") // picture file is in  
> the node
> folder
>
> onleavenode(
> function
>
> slide(img)
>
> end
> )
>
> but this gives me an error:attemp to call global slide ( a nil value).

"slide" is not a function that you can call at any time to create a  
slide node out of thin air. It is only used at the top level of a  
node.lua file to describe that particular node, and is only defined at  
the time the node.lua file is read. It is technically a function but  
you shouldn't think of it as one, rather as a statement in a  
declarative node description language. (I know that statements like  
the 'local img = something; slide (img)' I proposed blur that notion,  
that's why I consider them inelegant and confusing. The slide  
statement is really intended to be used only as 'slide "imagename"' or  
'slide {"imagename", more stuff}'.)

I'm a bit confused by your desire to display a third node when the  
player moves from one node to another (rather than at some other time  
determined by your game code). Do you want the move to be canceled and  
the popup displayed above the old node, or should it be displayed on  
top of the new node? (Are there several possibilities of what the new  
node can be? If there's only one, it would seem more natural to me to  
do this in the code that triggers the leaving than in the onleavenode  
handler. Or in the new node on entering.)

Here's how displaying it on top of the new node should work:

onleavenode(
   function()
     pipmak.overlaynode(123) -- node 123 is your popup
   end
)

   -Christian

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[Christian Walther]

Christian Walther wrote:
>> but this gives me an error:attemp to call global slide ( a nil  
>> value).
>
> "slide" is not a function that you can call at any time to create a
> slide node out of thin air.

PS: It occurs to me - perhaps I wasn't clear enough about this: The  
code examples I gave in yesterday's message (those between --------)  
were complete node.lua files, not code snippets that you paste at some  
point into the code of another node.

   -Christian

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[chikitin]

Thanks very much Christian.

cs