Howdy all,

In between coding all sorts of stuff, I've been bored enough to disect the FreeTrain 'core' from the 'MDI Main Window' interface and allow it to use other 'methodology'.

Whilst on my adventures, I have realised that I'll need to recode every bloody 'controller' that would usually open up in a little popup... I also realise that I'm probably breaking a few (C)'s ... but all in the name of fun...

So far I've got it all going in SDL except Hue-transforms (which I haven't come into the need of yet)... It's running o...k... but it could do with a lot more optimisation... which I've been tackling as I've been finding the need.

Anyway, just to show that I'm not dead, here's a pic

... so far most of the plugins can still be used; they'll just pop up outside the main window... which is utterly annoying... but knowing that they still work has kept my motivation up.

I do feel I've done a fair amount of damage to the infrastructure though

But it's been fun anyway... out of this, in the end, will be a 'snap-in' SDL DLL that will be usable by the trunk anyway... maybe a few tweaks will be required.

Cool! And it even has a mini map, something that wasn't in the original.

Have you decided on what to use for widgets/GUI yet?

Well... current intentions are to group the majority of the current functions together into groups and build them in to the interface, a-la A-Train.

ie.have a "Structures" tab/drawer on the left that encompasses all structures (allowing for numerous types, ie. multi-level/colour/etc...) and then Rail/Road construction in another and finally train purchasing and placement in a third.

Then along the bottom will be finances, etc...

All in the pipeline.. time-dependant...

Am retiring from my current position at the end of September, to have 3 weeks off in Oz and then shitloads in SE Asia (Singapore and then Japan)... so I'll have a lot of time to work on this as the weeks fly by... which they always do.........


Anyway, my main goal on all of this is for compatibility.... ... and I'm achieving it so far

Wow, so you're basically building a GUI framework with widgets and all from scratch? That's quite an undertaking! How will this work with plugins that tries to create new GUI elements, dialogs, etc?

They will still pop up ... right now all widgets just show up as extra windows... my goal would be to then create documentation as to how to convert one to a new-GUI widget and make life easier for everyone...

We'll see how it all pans out.

I'm super excited, to be honest. Ya' know I'd love to contribute to the GUI of the game because I feel that's where many games lack. Any kind of graphic work, I'd be quite happy to do. I'm a graphic designer, one might say.

Digitalicious,
Feel free to then suggest how to re-implement the majority of GUI windows that we now have in the standard MS Windows format (ie. build rail,road,buildings,etc...).

Everyone's involvement is more than welcome, I've simply been trying to build a base for everything to expand from.

Currently I've just been working off screenshots from: http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/a-train/screenshots

I'm afraid that original a-train menu is not very convenient. I played the original game, and interface made me feel sick. I suppose, minimap should be always visible and of course the number of trains must not be limited to 29!

Steven, please commit this to svn under a branch. Please keep your work in svn because that way 1) it can't get lost (hardware failures can happen) and 2) other people can play with it too.

Please please please!

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Want Free Games?
Free Gamer - open source games blog and information

_________________
Want Free Games?
Free Gamer - open source games blog and information

Pending free time tonight, I'll attempt to commit this to a branch...

As for the whole interface, I'm completely open to suggestion... This was more or less a proof of concept and I just wanted to get something working. So far I'm enjoying the progress, but haven't had free time in the recent few days.

I'll need to trawl over my code before I squeeze it back into SVN... I've changed quite a bit of the class structure and I don't think much of it was necessary. My goal would be to revert as much as possible and then fit my interfaces back to the original design. I don't want to hijack this project with my GUI; instead I want to give people the option to either use mine or run the original interface.

So... from this point, anyone who wants to contribute to the interface, then please do, but do it in the form of graphics as opposed to words
and I'll plod along with getting the code to a publicly-usable state.

Don't worry about trawling thru your code first. Commit it to SVN, it doesn't matter how messy it is, it's a good start and something we don't want to risk losing.

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Want Free Games?
Free Gamer - open source games blog and information

Code cleaned and uploaded... my brain is now fried.

Could someone please check out that branch and tell me what I missed?

Does it compile/run on Mono/Linux?

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Want Free Games?
Free Gamer - open source games blog and information

The million dollar question...
I would say no, only because of the DirectAudio library still being there

I can have that ripped out tonight, but I have no real Linux machine to test it on.. Took forever installing FreeBSD only to have a supreme shitfight trying to get Mono installed... ultimately failing.


Now, for the new branch, a few pointers:
You must install this: The TAO Framework
'New' to lay tracks
'Open' for buying/placing trains
'Save' to modify terrain
'Fullscreen' to place buildings.

Of course, the little mongrel widgets will appear under/over/all-around the main window, so a little juggling may be required