Help with DX8 : creating a console

[Mister_J]

Hey,

I'm working on a directx8 game and now I've encoutered (the next) problem I can't solve. How can i make a console like window in my game. Is there a way to show another form when the main form is in fullscreen dx8 mode? I know how to program the rest of the console it's just the problem of getting a window with a textfield shown in front of the game (of if really necesary with the game paused on the background).

thnx for anyone who can help me with this.....

Jordi

[Electroman]

Have you thort of using Transformed vertices? in other word just make a box using 4 transformed vertices and make it a back color for the text area. Then make a box for every character that should be displayed in the text area and in each box put a image of a character.

So really its like your making your own TextBox for DirectX. I advise you make the characters the same width, like "Courier New" so then the text area is like a grid of character spaces. If you make the main text area box smaller than the screen size you'll be able to see whats behind it at the edges.

Hope that helps.

[SapphireGreen]

I remember a tutorial on this thing at www.gamedev.net . Just like CounterStrike, right? That's what the tutorial was on.

Could have used DirectDraw though... not sure.

[Electroman]

I just thort, is your game in 2D or 3D cos if its in 2D you can ignore what I said about the Transformed vertices and just use a sprites instead.

[Mister_J]

No its a 3d game. Im working on a textbox for directx and I've got a basic thing so, I'll be able to create a console.

Though I've already encoutered the next problem (it aint easy creating your own 3d engine but thnx to this forum I'm learning a lot)

Is there any way to create partial transparencies? I've created a shap like object for dx8. In many profesional games you see dialogs with a paratial transparent background so you can see a bit of the world behind it. Is this possible in dx8? If yes, how can i use this with transformed and lit vertices to make my shapes partial transparent?

btw SapphireGreen, there is indeed a tutorial at gamedev but it didn't teach me antything that i didn't know already so....

but thnx anyway for your help, figuring all this out by yourself would be a huge task so i appreciate all your help

Jordi

[Electroman]

Yea thats easy to make it semi transparent, all you need to do is alpha blend, there should be a load of tutorials around about it. You should find it uses the D3DDevice.SetRenderState [something]. Check out this link, its a 2D engine that uses transformed and lit vertices to do effects like alphablending and rotation. http://rookscape.com/vbgaming/tutBT.php
Another thing, its in DirectX7 but everythings the same for DirectX8 but some of the constants are slightly different in name.