Creating user interfaces?

You need to be more specific here.
Do you want a 2D interface that is visible all the time?
In this case you just render everything, switch to
ortho mode, turn depth testing off and render the 2D GUI
elements.



[edited by - darookie on May 2, 2004 7:27:18 PM]

Imagine something similar like this. I took it off freelancer, since it's similar to what I want.



I'm talking about things like the health bars in the center, #weapons left, options at the top right, etc.

If it is just switching to ortho mode, would you please provide some sample code? MDX code is prefered, but I can kinda read DX code. In the past, switching from perspective to ortho generally results in crashes or blank screens.

Thanks.

-Nick

[edited by - nickwinters on May 2, 2004 7:36:17 PM]

Use ID3DXSprite and ID3DXFont.

quote:

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Original post by Deinonychus
Use ID3DXSprite and ID3DXFont.

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Yup, that''s going to be good for most of the time.

To switch to ortho mode:

using Microsoft.DirectX;
device.SetTransform(Direct3D.TransformType.Projection, Matrix.OrthoLH(1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f));

It should be something like that. I''m not a C# programmer so I don''t really know.

The end result should be - if you set your world and view matrices to identity - that vertex coordinates become fractions of the screen: a vertex at (0.5f, 0.5f) is dead-center, and so on.

I really don''t understand how switching to ortho mode can crash
your app or blank the screen - it''s just a matrix transform after
all...

By switching, I never realized there''s a nice way to do it. I just kinda added the ortho initialization into the rendering code.

Thanks for your help. Since we already have some of our gui in vertices, we're going to try ortho. However, I can't get anything to display. Below is my rendering code, that's between begin scene and end scence.

device.SetTransform(TransformType.Projection, Matrix.OrthoLH(1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f));
device.VertexFormat = CustomVertex.PositionColored.Format;

CustomVertex.PositionColored[] radarB = new CustomVertex.PositionColored[2];
radarB[0].SetPosition(new Vector3(0.25f, 0.25f, 0.01f));
radarB[0].Color = System.Drawing.Color.Black.ToArgb();
radarB[0].SetNormal(new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f));
radarB[1].SetPosition(new Vector3(0.40f, 0.25f, 0.01f));
radarB[1].Color = System.Drawing.Color.Black.ToArgb();
radarB[1].SetNormal(new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f));
			device.DrawUserPrimitives(PrimitiveType.LineStrip, 1, radarB);  

The 3D stuff that was there before is still there. Just no new ortho vertices.

[edited by - nickwinters on May 3, 2004 1:45:13 PM]

The difference between those 2 points is less than 1 pixel. No wonder nothing shows up.

if it goes from 0 to 1, shouldn''t the distance between .25 and .4 be 15% of the screen?

Use transformed vertices for 2D stuff. Normals are not required
and coordinates are absolute screen offsets.

quote:

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Original post by nickwinters
if it goes from 0 to 1, shouldn''t the distance between .25 and .4 be 15% of the screen?

---

Are you remembering to set your World Matrix? If your vertices have the required position already, make sure you''re setting the World matrix to Identity.

Also, ditch the normal and turn off lighting.



Stay Casual,

Ken
Drunken Hyena