I was thinking of starting a “where is Swami?” thread. delic!!!
Sorry this has been taking so long but I’ve only been able to work on this during my train ride in and back! Just posting an update and a screenshot of the progress of the joystick user control. The colors are a bit gaudy but you get the idea! Still got a couple of bugs i want to iron out before I post the dll as I realised when it was added as an atrribute in the command panel it’s slightly too wide. Also i want to add a property to display a title of what it controls somewhere too. I have set this up with an appropriate MXS function to handle multiple morph target blending, for facial expressions and eye movements. I will also post the slider control i have been working on.
At the moment, there is a panel refresh issue with the controls. After adding them I have to click the create panel and back in order for them to be redrawn (and to be shown). anyone know what might be causing this?
Pete, your screen shot looks very cool, I’m looking forward to seeing the finished version.
I’ve been working on a floating control panel. The Idea being that you can have multiple panels open at the same time for different characters in the scene.
Theres still a lot to do but you get the idea.
There’s also some improvements to the orignal mouse window, with the new dll.
Heres all the source and the new dll
Hi Ken, That looks great!
At the moment i’m using a function that divides the joystick area into 4 quadrants depending on the x and y location. This can then workout which quadrant the cursor is in and blend the targets accordingly. In the future i’m sure this could be handled by the control, but im doing it in MXS for the time being. I’ve added a property to allow the user to interactively and specify a constrain to axis option – this is enabled as a property or by the two small checkbuttons on the bottom of the control.
I too think the floater is a good approach, but IMHO do like to keep character UIs in the modify panel on CA’s. However, I do like your semi-transparent overlay, and a callback could be introduced to initialize the floater to change according to different characters. I assume this is what you are doing! Sometimes we have 6 or seven characters in a scene so would need this to happen.
I am also trying to keep the control compact enough too, sacrificing a little precision in the process but good enough for most circumstances.
I will post code as soon as i have something stable, the control is fine but I just want to resolve the max implementation and give some instructions before i do.
Pete, how are you creating the controls again? A custom dotNet control or using existing controls?
Hi Paul,
My last screenshot is a composite dotNet control. It is formed with a label inside a panel control with some extra function buttons like reset, setkey, nudge value and constrain axis.
I couldn’t get something like this working a: in the command panel or b:with standard controls.
however, the function for dividing the control into quadrants for morph handling is the same.
It is a dotNet label? Willing to share a bit of test code just to see the direction that you are going?
Absolutely! its actually using this control that allows you to lock it into the bounds of the parent container –
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/RuntimeMovableControls.aspx
I am hoping to post the code in the next few days when I iron out a couple of issues. Sorry for the delay!
Ya I look forward to seeing that. Thanks
Thought that I would bring this tread back from the dead.
Here is my current implimentation using “system.windows.forms.pictureBox”. Not sure that I’m going with those built in buttons, looks cool but a popUp menu is easier to use I think. This one works in the command panel and is part of a scripted modifier.
Hi Paul!
Looks cool! what size are you using for those? 25×25?
I hadnt forgotten about this thread, my joystick control was almost ready to post but ive taken on some extra work that is preventing me from finishing it off. I also wanted to post a custom slider control also. so watch this space!
im liking the idea of a scripted mod and had thought about that direction too. you could have a pick button perhaps and choose the object you wanted the joystick to move and this could be stored in the #maxobject as a weak ref to the node. this would be better than before as i was trying to store the node name in the dot net control – not, on reflection the best place for it.