So, I used to have some decent looking timer windows; nothing special. Timer windows were always easy to work with.
What I am getting now, while working with them is a lot of "Ohh, you want this? well, go fuck yourself, how bout that?"
I say, "Hey, make this timer window height 120" and it says, "Alright, i can do that, but the timer countdown is STILL going to be offset below the window so that it sits awakwardly on the border." so I says'd, "Well, can you make the timer and title line up horizontally?" It responds, "Yeah, you can tell me to do that, but I wont." I say, "Alright, find, I will hide the background and border so I just have ugly ass floating numbers and text on my screen. Can I at least scale the numbers down so they aren't font size 40? Compared to my title, font sized 16?" To which I am told, "No, you will enjoy every second of my massive number-countdown!"
I can recall a time when you said, "Make a timer window" and what you had was a timer window. It was almost magical, how something worked perfectly in a time when so much didn't work. Anyone know what went wrong here?
you are using the premade timer windows. it's really no big deal to create your own timer windows with dialogs which can be customized as much as you wish.
Indeed this is true. I am not looking for a "work around" I am genuinely concerned for the fate of the poor timer windows. Why? Why would they take something that simply worked, and make it not work? Ohh, the inhumanity!
They actually seemed weird to me ever since I started using HOTS dependencies (maybe just campaign HOTS?).
The way to convert a timer into text and therefore use it in any text area (dialog, text tag, etc), is to use> convert integer to text(convert real to integer(remaining time of timer)). Then you have to use a repeat function or something similar to update that text every second.
For instance for a dialog you might do something like
MaskedImposter might be onto something. I'm using the HotS dependencies for my map as well, and the timer also doesn't quite work (it's just the background though, but that's an issue nevertheless).
I played around a bit and managed to make the border appear by using:
Timer - set "Insert timer window variable here" border image type to border.
But I can't get the background to work, there's nothing to fill that border. Even though I've defined the height as well, as well as used all the other timer commands, it just won't work.
Hmm, HOTS you say. I guess that would line up with my upgrade to HOTS. Yes, you can show the background, and border, and all that. However, the title and timer are different sizes and do not display horizontally, properly. Setting the height is also strange; because as you make it taller; the title and timer both move "down" also, so the countdown part is always awkwardly below and touching the bottom of the border.
Making a triggered timer is not difficult; and perhaps this should not go in the help section, as I am not looking for ways to create a timer. This is more of a "does anyone know why timers are screwed up?" Of course they can be worked around; most things can. the fact that they exist, but exist in a broken state is what concerns me.
Is this a HOTS related thing? if so, that would be strange, since I believe HOTS is data related dependencies, not trigger. Is this something worth pointing out to blizz? ... Think they would give 2 shits?
Next time I have the editor open, i will remove hots depencies and see if my timer looks like a normal timer window.
Yep it's definitely HotS dependencies which introduced this. Which is why the timers on all the old maps with only WoL dependencies still work the same.
For such a minor issue that can be easily overcome by using custom dialogs, I can see why Blizzard would prefer not to throw real, actual money and talent at the problem, especially when fixing it could (and probably would) introduce MORE bugs into an already officially-unsupported editor. Yes, fixing bugs has the tendency to make more bugs. Sometimes it's like swatting a hornet only to aggravate the entire nest - it might be better just to accept one sting.
I know it already has been mentioned, but i really recommend using custom dialogs.
Not only do they provide more freedom and can be perfectly customized to your needs, but you will also learn new things about the editor that you will be able to use at other points in development.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So, I used to have some decent looking timer windows; nothing special. Timer windows were always easy to work with.
What I am getting now, while working with them is a lot of "Ohh, you want this? well, go fuck yourself, how bout that?"
I say, "Hey, make this timer window height 120" and it says, "Alright, i can do that, but the timer countdown is STILL going to be offset below the window so that it sits awakwardly on the border." so I says'd, "Well, can you make the timer and title line up horizontally?" It responds, "Yeah, you can tell me to do that, but I wont." I say, "Alright, find, I will hide the background and border so I just have ugly ass floating numbers and text on my screen. Can I at least scale the numbers down so they aren't font size 40? Compared to my title, font sized 16?" To which I am told, "No, you will enjoy every second of my massive number-countdown!"
I can recall a time when you said, "Make a timer window" and what you had was a timer window. It was almost magical, how something worked perfectly in a time when so much didn't work. Anyone know what went wrong here?
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
you are using the premade timer windows. it's really no big deal to create your own timer windows with dialogs which can be customized as much as you wish.
Indeed this is true. I am not looking for a "work around" I am genuinely concerned for the fate of the poor timer windows. Why? Why would they take something that simply worked, and make it not work? Ohh, the inhumanity!
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
They actually seemed weird to me ever since I started using HOTS dependencies (maybe just campaign HOTS?).
The way to convert a timer into text and therefore use it in any text area (dialog, text tag, etc), is to use> convert integer to text(convert real to integer(remaining time of timer)). Then you have to use a repeat function or something similar to update that text every second.
For instance for a dialog you might do something like
repeat forever
wait - 1 second
set dialog item text (see second paragraph)
if remaining time of timer = 0 then break loop.
MaskedImposter might be onto something. I'm using the HotS dependencies for my map as well, and the timer also doesn't quite work (it's just the background though, but that's an issue nevertheless).
I played around a bit and managed to make the border appear by using:
Timer - set "Insert timer window variable here" border image type to border.
But I can't get the background to work, there's nothing to fill that border. Even though I've defined the height as well, as well as used all the other timer commands, it just won't work.
Hmm, HOTS you say. I guess that would line up with my upgrade to HOTS. Yes, you can show the background, and border, and all that. However, the title and timer are different sizes and do not display horizontally, properly. Setting the height is also strange; because as you make it taller; the title and timer both move "down" also, so the countdown part is always awkwardly below and touching the bottom of the border.
Making a triggered timer is not difficult; and perhaps this should not go in the help section, as I am not looking for ways to create a timer. This is more of a "does anyone know why timers are screwed up?" Of course they can be worked around; most things can. the fact that they exist, but exist in a broken state is what concerns me.
Is this a HOTS related thing? if so, that would be strange, since I believe HOTS is data related dependencies, not trigger. Is this something worth pointing out to blizz? ... Think they would give 2 shits?
Next time I have the editor open, i will remove hots depencies and see if my timer looks like a normal timer window.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
@GlornII: Go
"Think they would give 2 shits?" Nope. haha
Yep it's definitely HotS dependencies which introduced this. Which is why the timers on all the old maps with only WoL dependencies still work the same.
For such a minor issue that can be easily overcome by using custom dialogs, I can see why Blizzard would prefer not to throw real, actual money and talent at the problem, especially when fixing it could (and probably would) introduce MORE bugs into an already officially-unsupported editor. Yes, fixing bugs has the tendency to make more bugs. Sometimes it's like swatting a hornet only to aggravate the entire nest - it might be better just to accept one sting.
I know it already has been mentioned, but i really recommend using custom dialogs.
Not only do they provide more freedom and can be perfectly customized to your needs, but you will also learn new things about the editor that you will be able to use at other points in development.