GameCave Console 3

Posted by RhysAndrews on May 25, 2006, 3:57 a.m.

Yeah, well…

http://64digits.com/games/index.php?cmd=view_game&id=532

This was a project I worked on a long while ago, and I was quite surprised I released it without getting bored of working on it. In fact it was one of the most enjoyable things i've worked on. It's pretty much a Developer Console you implement into your game, allowing you to debug your game… includes command-adding, macros, execute-code, return-variables, and more. Includes a 20-page manual (or more can't remember), and over 2,000 lines of code.

Well; I've decided it's time to work on the third-edition; Completely rewriting it all. I'm going to make the console system much more customizable, flexible, and bug-free. Here are some features i'm implementing:

Colour-Coded GML - In GET and SET Commands (SET commands execute a piece of code, GET commands return a value), the GML is colour-coded in the console… definitely a hard project.

Errors Automatically Display inside Console - In the second edition, you have to type in "error_adv" and press enter to see the previous error message… I'm hoping now to have the errors pop-up inside the console automatically.

Drop-Down when typing with lists of commands to match input - So, if you have a command called "die_you_fool" and you start typing it in, the console will acknowledge you may be trying to type in this command, and will drag down into a box that you can click on.

Freeze Game when console is Down - In the second edition you had to put in tons of if statements to make sure things are only executed when the console isn't visible… i'm thinking of methods to freeze all objects and show the console… deactivation maybe?

Up/Down Arrows open previously-inputted commands - Yeah, so if you type in "spawn man" and you want to spawn heaps of men, you keep pressing up once to load the previously inputted message and then pressing enter.

Fully-Working ScrollBar - The second edition only has arrows to scrolling… not the bar itself.

Dynamic Window - Yeah, making it possible to resize, move, and click-close the console box.

Background Layers - Allowing multiple-window-backgrounds, moving, etc…

Multi-Lined Inputs - Allowing to have multiple lines of input… shift+enter maybe?

Archived Log Documents - Instead of one long log document, make it possible to organize log documents by months, weeks, even days maybe.

Constantly-Changing GET Values - In the second edition, using a GET Command will only show the value of the variable inputted that was found at that one step… where as it should continually change to the current value of that variable.

Stylesheets - Make it possible to import/export stylesheets for the console?

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So yeah, those are my ideas… If you have any suggestions go ahead and ask them to me, I'd like to have a huge list of what to add to make the complete rewrite worth my while.

-Rhys

Comments

shadowstrike32 18 years, 6 months ago

COnstantly changing the GET values would be extremely slow…

takua108 18 years, 6 months ago

I'm really excited to hear this; I loved GCC2, and the prospect of GCC3 sounds awesome. A really bothersome bug in GCC2 that I hope you fix sometime is when you successfully enter a command, and then hit Up on the keyboard to see previous commands, it doesn't show the previous command for some reason.

RhysAndrews 18 years, 6 months ago

Quote:
COnstantly changing the GET values would be extremely slow…
Uh… why?

Arcalyth 18 years, 6 months ago

Announcing it already? Nice :)

Some of this stuff sounds kind of overambitios/unneeded (GML color coding??) but it would still be pretty cool.

@shadowstrike32: Why would it be slow? It would basically be the same thing as using draw_text, which goes every step.

-Halo

shadowstrike32 18 years, 6 months ago

Sure, as the amount of lines gets bigger, the more you will have to update the data, even when it it out of the view of the window.

…actually come to think of it if you did it rigt you wouldnt lose any speed…

nevermind.

it looks like you lost your mod powers rhys.

Requiem 18 years, 5 months ago

Rhys resigned. 'nuff said.

RhysAndrews 18 years, 5 months ago

Quote:
…actually come to think of it if you did it rigt you wouldnt lose any speed…
Exactly, only updating the variables that are on the screen.

Quote:
Rhys resigned. 'nuff said.
Yeah

-Rhys