martyj Posted August 15, 2015 Posted August 15, 2015 User interfaces are very difficult in Lua. Even with libraries like FlowGUI. I think Leadwerks should embed something like WebKit into the framework. This would allow easy UI creation in html. It could have some LUA bindings for onclick on elements, changing html in an element. I recommend something like this: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wke/ Having a clean UI can really help make or break a game, and at the moment Leadwerks doesn't provide much in the UI department. Quote
Josh Posted August 16, 2015 Posted August 16, 2015 I entertained this idea briefly, but I think it's just activity without progress. It's not like making a convoluted HTML layer is going to make the UI easier to design, you still have to do the work of designing the UI. I think programmers have trouble with this because it is more a matter of artwork and design decisions, rather than code. (The latest build actually does support this but it only works when the Steamworks SDK is enabled. I needed it for HTML elements in the Linux build of the editor. So it's not an official feature.) Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without.
beo6 Posted August 16, 2015 Posted August 16, 2015 the big pros about HTML in a game would be that everyone who knows HTML can create it, which are many more than any other GUI library. And you can see how the GUI looks in every webbrowser without needing a build of the game and running the game every time. So debugging is a lot easier. Quote
Josh Posted August 16, 2015 Posted August 16, 2015 I don't think you're going to come across a ton of game-ready user interfaces that you can just plug into a renderer. If you look around the web, the HTML5 GUIs out there are about as bad as the Lua ones. Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without.
martyj Posted August 16, 2015 Author Posted August 16, 2015 The biggest benefit with HTML is the speed at which UI can be developed. Even with a LUA library, GUI development is very slow. It's also IMO easier to create a nicer looking and more responsive UI with HTML. 1 Quote
Rick Posted August 17, 2015 Posted August 17, 2015 We have awesomium in our game made with Leadwerks. It works pretty well but direct support to something similar is something I have thought would be great. Quote
Einlander Posted August 17, 2015 Posted August 17, 2015 I just want to be able to render html elements on screen post render or as a surface. Adobe has the market cornered for AAA game ui's http://gameware.autodesk.com/scaleform Quote
Josh Posted August 17, 2015 Posted August 17, 2015 Incidentally, there is the beginnings of a GUI system in the latest build. It will evolve gradually. Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without.
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