draw different strings from different haligns depending on a value | GameMaker Kitchen | Page 1

night yew Feb 16, 2023, 10:53 PM

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alright so here's some code i have:

for(var i = 0; i < array_length(text_messages)-1; i++) {
    switch(text_messages[i].from) {
        case -1:
            draw_set_halign(fa_right);
            draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(text_messages[current_message].msg)*text_messages[i].from)/5),text_messages[current_message].y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),text_messages[current_message].msg);
            break;
        case 1:
            draw_set_halign(fa_left);
            draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(text_messages[current_message].msg)*text_messages[i].from)/5),text_messages[current_message].y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),text_messages[current_message].msg);
            break;
    }
}

now it looks kinda messy, but basically i'm trying to go through an array of structs, each of which holds a string, and a from value. i thought about using a for to check for the from value, but when i do this it draws each string from both haligns, at once. whats the better way to do this?

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this is how it should look, basically

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text_messages = [
    {msg : "hey thanks again for getting me this doll. super creepy lol", from : 1, y_val : 0},
    {msg : "Yeah, I really love garage sales. Def a nice find!", from : -1, y_val : 0},
    {msg : "I knew you'd like it too! Thought it would make a nice addition to your decor.", from : -1, y_val : 0},
    {msg : "it's perfect! thank u so so much dude", from : 1, y_val : 0},
    {msg : "No problem :)", from : -1, y_val : 0},
    {msg : "Aight it's late, gonna head to bed. Gnight max", from : -1, y_val : 0},
    {msg : "gn", from : 1, y_val : 0}
]

the array in question

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(view_wport[0]/2)+(
    (string_width(text_messages[current_message].msg) * text_messages[i].from) / 5
), // x
text_messages[current_message].y_val + (string_height(-1) * current_message) // y

edited the positioning for readability

silent plume Feb 16, 2023, 11:22 PM

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works fine for me

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only change I made was in the for loop, var current_message = i because that variable wasn't provided

night yew Feb 16, 2023, 11:30 PM

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wait i forgot a piece of code sorry hold on

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if(keyboard_check_pressed(vk_enter)) current_message++;

current_message is a variable created at 0, and it increases by 1

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its meant to be like a text message thing

silent plume Feb 16, 2023, 11:33 PM

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you want the messages to display up to the current_message?

night yew Feb 16, 2023, 11:33 PM

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yea

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im going to work on changing it to have like text bubbles and animation etc, but rn im just wanting to get the basic framework down

silent plume Feb 16, 2023, 11:51 PM

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alright, I got it figured out

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your for loop is exiting early by 1
you need to exit out of the for loop when i is greater than current_message
(future optimization) the draw_text y value should be incremeted separately from just the current text's height. suppose you have a line break or text wrap
you don't want to draw the text from the current_message, you want to draw the text from i. for example: you have text_messages[current_message].msg

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hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions

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or need the code to compare after trying it yourself

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 12:59 AM

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silent plume hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions

hope i did this right

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so at the end of the for loop, i added

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if i > current_message break;

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for point 2

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and in the draw_texts i changed [current_message] to [i]

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is that what you meant?

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:00 AM

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night yew so at the end of the `for` loop, i added

you would do it at the beginning of the loop

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:01 AM

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alright

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so this is the current code

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or(var i = 0; i < array_length(text_messages)-1; i++) {
    if i > current_message break;
    switch(text_messages[i].from) {
        case -1:
            draw_set_halign(fa_right);
            draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(text_messages[current_message].msg)*text_messages[i].from)/5),text_messages[current_message].y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),text_messages[i].msg);
            break;
        case 1:
            draw_set_halign(fa_left);
            draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(text_messages[current_message].msg)*text_messages[i].from)/5),text_messages[current_message].y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),text_messages[i].msg);
            break;
    }
}
if(keyboard_check_pressed(vk_enter)) {
    if current_message < array_length(text_messages)-1 current_message++;
}

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again ignore the messiness

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lemme record this

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i really feel like ive made another mistake somewhere

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:02 AM

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looks good to me, ship it!

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:03 AM

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silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:03 AM

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you're still referencing text_messages[current_message]

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to make your life easier, make a variable that holds the current text message you're trying to draw

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var _message = text_messages[i];

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:06 AM

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changed every mention to _message (which is text_messages[i].msg)

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silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:07 AM

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surprised it didn't throw an error

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can you show what you have?

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:08 AM

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the whole code?

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for this part at least

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:08 AM

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draw event code

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:08 AM

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if !surface_exists(message_surface) message_surface = surface_create(1280,720) else {
    surface_set_target(message_surface);
    
    draw_set_font(fnt_text_message);
    for(var i = 0; i < array_length(text_messages)-1; i++) {
        if i > current_message break;
        var _message = text_messages[i].msg;
        switch(text_messages[i].from) {
            case -1:
                draw_set_halign(fa_right);
                draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(_message)*text_messages[i].from)/5),text_messages[i].y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),_message);
                break;
            case 1:
                draw_set_halign(fa_left);
                draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(_message)*text_messages[i].from)/5),text_messages[i].y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),_message);
                break;
        }
    }
    if(keyboard_check_pressed(vk_enter)) {
        if current_message < array_length(text_messages)-1 current_message++;
    }
    
    //window_set_caption((string_height(text_messages[current_message > 0 ? current_message-1 : 0].msg)))
    surface_reset_target();
}

draw_surface(message_surface,0,0);

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:09 AM

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I'm just looking at the loop

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var _message = text_messages[i].msg; is supposed to be var _message = text_messages[i]; because we want to know the current struct we're using, we have other variables we need to reference

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then any other instances of text_messages[i] can be _message

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string_width(_message) we want to get the width of the msg string: string_width(_message.msg)

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:12 AM

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var _message = text_messages[i];
switch(_message.from) {
    case -1:
        draw_set_halign(fa_right);
        draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(_message.msg)*_message.from)/5),_message.y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),_message.msg);
        break;
    case 1:
        draw_set_halign(fa_left);
        draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(_message.msg)*_message.from)/5),_message.y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),_message.msg);
        break;
}
}

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does make it neater

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ok real quick

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gonna try something

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ok

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current_message is always less than i

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so is if i > current_message break; obsolete then?

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no wait

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:16 AM

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night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:17 AM

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so i is ALWAYS greater than current_message until the end

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for some reason

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hm

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:20 AM

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did you fix #1?

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your for loop is exiting early by 1

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:21 AM

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so

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for(var i = 0; i < array_length(text_messages)-1; i++) {

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do i get rid of the -1?

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:21 AM

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yup

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:22 AM

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alright

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:22 AM

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the loop will continue as long as your expression is true

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:22 AM

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now i is always greater than current_message

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so the loop should break bc of that check

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but it doesnt

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:23 AM

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how are you updating the title?

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:24 AM

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window_set_caption("current_message = "+string(current_message)+"; i = "+string(i));

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:24 AM

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and where?

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:24 AM

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im lazy and prefer to set caption rather than draw text

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right at the start of the loop

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:25 AM

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so that explains why i is greater than current_message

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you're updating your title before checking if you need to break out of the loop

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update your title just after the break

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:26 AM

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ok that did that

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cool

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so the issue left now (?)

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is that it's drawing every text up to i

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:27 AM

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alright, let's see what your loop looks like now

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:30 AM

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for(var i = 0; i < array_length(text_messages); i++) {
        
    if i > current_message break;
    window_set_caption("current_message = "+string(current_message)+"; i = "+string(i));
    var _message = text_messages[i];
    switch(_message.from) {
        case -1:
            draw_set_halign(fa_right);
            draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(_message.msg)*_message.from)/5),_message.y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),_message.msg);
            break;
        case 1:
            draw_set_halign(fa_left);
            draw_text((view_wport[0]/2)+((string_width(_message.msg)*_message.from)/5),_message.y_val+(string_height(-1)*current_message),_message.msg);
            break;
    }
}

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:34 AM

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your y position needs to be incremented by i, not the current_message

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:48 AM

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holy shit

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that did it

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thank you so much

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:48 AM

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you're welcome!

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do you want to go for the extra credit?

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:49 AM

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silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:49 AM

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#3

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(future optimization) the draw_text y value should be incremeted separately from just the current text's height. suppose you have a line break or text wrap

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 1:51 AM

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string_height_ext?

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 1:52 AM

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string_height would work for now

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you need to have a variable store the current y position you're drawing at

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and then increment that by the string's height and padding

night yew Feb 17, 2023, 2:01 AM

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silent plume you need to have a variable store the current `y` position you're drawing at

which would be _message.y_val+(string_height(-1)*i) correct?

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actually im not even sure why i have y_val

silent plume Feb 17, 2023, 2:02 AM

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you added that to your structs, they're all 0 anyways, that could probably be removed

#draw different strings from different haligns depending on a value