[2.11] GUI warnings and changes

[stgatilov]

The dev build dev16574-10036 includes many engine changes for better error reporting in GUI code.

Not that GUI scripting has become any better, but at least now you'll see warning messages if you mess up (my favorite example is forgetting to put a semicolon where necessary or putting it where it must not be).
This work is mostly done, although some more changes will probably follow.

Notes:

1. If a mission seems to have broken GUI (especially its briefing), please report. Some modifications actually changed behavior of obscure cases, so breakage could happen.
2. If you see a GUI warning which you think does not represent a problem or is unclear, please report too. False warning are usually as bad as lack of true warnings.

Also note that I did not introduce any hard errors, only warnings. So the situation when you edit GUI code and engine crashes on start will probably still happen. In this case I recommend enabling "logFile 2" and looking at qconsole.log: most likely some warnings are emitted before crash.

UPDATE: There are more changes in dev16599-10071, this time potentially more mission-breaking.

It is possible to use arithmetic expressions in GUI scripts and materials. Previously, same-priority operations in such expressions were evaluated in right-to-left order, so a - b - c was evaluated as a - (b - c) = a - b + c. This is fixed in the new version. Also, logical AND is given greater priority than logical OR. Of course, these changes can break stuff

I also fixed indexing vector values for individual components, which was totally broken.

Another weird mechanics was that if you reference a window register anywhere, then its auto-updates were disabled on startup (really hard to find good example for this). Now auto-updates are disabled only after you assign to this register using Set script command.

Lastly, it is now possible to write expressions on the right side of Set script command: make sure enclose the right side in parentheses to use expressions mode.
Here are some examples of this new syntax (combined with vector component indexing):

  set visible (1 - "OtherWindow::visible");
  set backcolor (backcolor[0], backcolor[1], backcolor[2], 1 - backcolor[3]);

This allows to implement some basic logic purely in GUI.

For instance, scrolling in the new objectives GUI code is implemented without C++ interoperability, with button working like this:

	onAction
	{
		set "gui::ObjStartIdx" ("gui::ObjStartIdx" + 1);

Yep, it's year 2022 and our GUI engine has just learned how to increment a variable!

But keep in mind that all expressions are evaluated before script gets executed, so if you copy/paste this incrementing line several times, the behavior will not change (same for "if" conditions).

[snatcher]

Hi stgatilov,

Thanks for your work. Are you open to suggestions about the GUI and is this a good place?

[stgatilov]

8 hours ago, snatcher said:

Are you open to suggestions about the GUI and is this a good place?

I'm open about GUI engine improvements, as long as they don't break too much existing code.
I don't think I want to spend much time on the actual GUI code, aside from fixing planned issues: 5852 5282

[snatcher]

My main concern about the GUI is found in the objectives screen. Trying to compare the differences between Easy-Medium-Hard difficulties when the list of objectives is long is a daunting task because of the large fonts and the next/prev page system.

To keep thing simple, I think the problem could be solved if we somehow could reduce the size of the font in the objective list, either via config file or in-game via A+ and A- buttons. A more elaborated approach would involve scrollbars.

Please let me know if didn't explain myself well or if you require clarifications to understand what I am talking about.

Many thanks.

[Obsttorte]

1 hour ago, snatcher said:

To keep thing simple, I think the problem could be solved if we somehow could reduce the size of the font in the objective list

That's already possible. Chech your video/advanced settings. There is an option to adjust the hud size.

[snatcher]

I don't recall going that far down into the settings! The HUD/Size Opacity screen is fantastic!

Thank you developers for your great work and thanks stgatilov and Obsttorte for the help!

[stgatilov]

By the way, you can also reduce size of console font now, with cvar con_fontSize.

Immensely helpful if you look through it often!
I almost halved it and my life has become so much better

[Obsttorte]

Now, that is useful. Funny how long it takes sometimes until someone comes up with such a small yet huge tweak.

[Dragofer]

Now we just need to remove the console clutter from core asset bugs and pointless mass-warnings and the console will be perfect.

[stgatilov]

There are more changes in dev16599-10071, please read the original post.

Basically:

• vector component indexing is fixed
• expression evaluation order fixed
• don't disable auto-updates of register because of a reference to it
• Set command can now have expressions on right side

I wonder if we have information about GUI scripts anywhere that should be updated?

[Dragofer]

I've noticed a lot of new GUI warnings when loading various FMs - haven't looked too closely at that, though.

[stgatilov]

40 minutes ago, Dragofer said:

I've noticed a lot of new GUI warnings when loading various FMs - haven't looked too closely at that, though.

Yes, all those missions have incorrect GUIs, including Saint Lucia and New Job.

The original GUI engine did not report any kind of error, just tried to continue doing something. And it had some bugs.
The latest GUI engine reports almost all issues as warnings, has most bugs fixed, and still tries to continue despite errors.