I am trying to polish the appearance of my module for a first release (3.1.18 based).
However, I cannot figure out how to fix several, mostly cosmetic details, and I wonder if anybody could give me any hints. In particular, how to make sure the splash screen and the various map windows open up with the desired size.
Specifically:
a) I have prepared a splash.gif image which is like 500x400, but when I “open the module” the wizard comes up with a lot of grey space under the splash image; conversely, if I “edit the module” and then start “new game” the splash.gif image will show heavily truncated and one needs to move a vertical bar to display the entire gif… how to make sure the splash screen (start game wizard) will show in the desired size?
b) I have several map windows (all with multiple boards defined) which when opened up will either show 20 odd pixels more than desired at the bottom or, in another case, force use of an horizontal scroll bar to display the final 10 pixels to the right; no matter how I resize those windows during a test game, all changes obviously go away when I quit the game… how to make sure map windows open by default with a certain size (avoiding scroll bars or extra unneeded grey space)?
c) My game has a turn counter, but I would like to avoid showing it to the players and keep its use behind the scenes for the flow of the game to be program controlled; however, even leaving the turn counter text blank does not hide it (small empty box showing in the toolbar), especially if a player chooses the “dock” option in the Preferences (completely visible)… TimM once suggested “stick it in a hidden window”, but I fail to see how that is feasible (private windows? they won’t take turn counters)… any clue how to completely hide the turn counter from the players/sides?
Give the turn counter a name. Then place a Toolbar Menu component above it in the edit tree. Remove all information from the Toolbar Menu trait. Then add the name of the Turn Counter in the bottom of the trait. If a Toolbar Menu has no information for itself, it will not display on the toolbar and, therefore, anything attached to that Toolbar Menu trait will be invisible as well.
If this doesn’t work for a turn counter, you can hide a window using the Toolbar Menu trait in the same way. Hence, TimM’s suggestions for putting it in a hidden window.
I’m not sure about the first question, but I can answer the second.
Add a ‘Zoom Capability’ to the Map Window. You can add or delete zoom
levels as well as set the initial zoom level.
----- Original Message -----
From: “barbanera” barbanera@fantafoot.com
To: messages@vassalengine.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 3:59 AM
Subject: Re: [messages] [Module Design] Splash screen, map size etc
Sorry for pushing this up, but nobody really has any clue how to do
this?
__how to make sure the splash screen (start game wizard) will show in
the desired size? __ how to make sure map windows open by default with a certain size
(avoiding scroll bars or extra unneeded grey space)?
Thxs for your suggestion but I must say I do not understand it
I tried adding a zoom capability and, sure, I am then able to zoom in and out.
However, it doesn’t solve the problems of extra “grey” real estate at the bottom and/or right edge of the map. I would want players to see a perfectly sized map with 100% scaling, not to have to start fiddling with zoom levels (maybe using the “fit” capability, thus stretching beyond recognition some pieces/cards).
I am gonna continue this discussion (#2 issue in the original list) in another thread, with a test module to showcase this map size issue.
Set the default initial zoom level of this map to something suitable for the average screen. i.e. so that all or most of the map will be visible when the map is first viewed. Players can then change the zoom level to suit after this (assuming you add controls for this to you rmodule). You can’t ask Vassal to set an arbitrary zoom level to suit your map on a particular screen, so that the map fills the window 100%. There is no mechanism for this, so I think you would need to code some Java yourself to customise your module in this way.
The zoom level is not the issue. As TimM pointed out (in the other thread) it won’t resize to fit, anyway, so my fear there was unfounded.
However, I think you didn’t get my original point: if I define a 100x100 map window it should show 100% on every screen on Earth (well, except old mobile phones, I guess).
It should not show as 110x100 or 100x105 etc… where the extra pixels are placed there by the Windows manager/Java virtual machine/other … (choose the right one, I don’t know).
That’s instead what happens for most width-height combinations I tried, at least on a Windows machine. See test module.