Hi guys! I need a lot of help please =P I have a working 2D game engine, and I'm pretty happy with it but basically doing output in DirectX is a pain in the butt. So, I realized what I need is a console! The only problem is I'm starting the console up with the DialogBox () macro and the dialog becomes the main focus, so the game window loses focus until i exit out of the console =(. Obviously, that ain't supposed to happen! I want the game to run normally, and the console will just be in the background outputting messages to its Read-Only Edit Box everytime it gets a message. Anyways, enough talking, here's the console code (very short) I have: (By the way, the console is just a dialog box,IDD_CONSOLE, with a read-only edit box IDC_CONSOLEOUTPUT) and a input box (unimplemented) IDC_CONSOLEINPUT).) Note: My game engine runs in windowed mode not fullscreen. // I N C L U D E S ///////////////////////////////////// // tells Windows not to give us MFC stuff #define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN #include <windows.h> // various string manipulation #include <stdio.h> // for implementing void function (...) #include <stdarg.h> // G L O B A L S /////////////////////////////////////// HWND g_consoleHDlg; // console text to be printed to window char consoleText[102400]; // F U N C T I O N S /////////////////////////////////// int ConsoleInit (HWND hwnd) { DialogBox(NULL, (LPCTSTR)IDD_CONSOLE, hwnd, (DLGPROC)ConsoleProc); // this code right here doesn't change the focus SetForegroundWindow (hwnd); return 1; } int AddConsoleMessage (char *message, ...) { char out[1024]; va_list body; va_start (body, message); vsprintf (out, message, body); va_end (body); sprintf (consoleText,out); return SetDlgItemText (g_consoleHDlg, IDC_CONSOLEOUTPUT, consoleText); } LRESULT CALLBACK ConsoleProc (HWND hDlg, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) { switch (message) { case WM_INITDIALOG: g_consoleHDlg = hDlg; AddConsoleMessage ("testing"); return TRUE; case WM_CLOSE: EndDialog(hDlg, LOWORD(wParam)); return TRUE; } return FALSE; } #endif //CONSOLE_H [edited by - JasonA on September 14, 2002 12:12:45 AM] [edited by - JasonA on September 15, 2002 2:20:32 AM]

Actually its the other way around. Modal dialog boxes are the type that dont let anything else happen untill you get rid of them. The opposite are modeless dialog boxes. These will coexist with your application, allowing it to continue running. A google search for "modeless dialog box" turns up several helpful pages if you decide to go this route.

Alternativly, have you considered building a console directly into your engine using directx? Its quite simple to do, there is an article here on Gamedev that talks about them:
http://www.gamedev.net/banman/banman.asp?ZoneID=1&Task=Get&X=1032096055638


Alan

Thanks!!!
Thanks for all the input guys. AlanKemp you''re right it''s modeless dialog box, and now my game can coexist with the console! By the way, I have seen the article on how to build the console directly into my engine; it''s very cool, but I mainly will use the console for debugging.
By the way, if anyone''s interested all I had to change was this MACRO call, DialogBox(NULL, (LPCTSTR)IDD_CONSOLE, hwnd, (DLGPROC)ConsoleProc);, to CreateDialog (NULL, (LPCTSTR)IDD_CONSOLE, hwnd, (DLGPROC)ConsoleProc); and in the console callback function in the WM_INITDIALOG case I had to show the dialog: ShowWindow (g_consoleHDlg, SW_SHOW);

Okay... I''m having a very annoying problem:

sprintf (consoleText, "first line \n second line");
SetDlgItemText (g_consoleHDlg, IDC_CONSOLEOUTPUT, consoleText);

so basically you would expect the output to be:
first line
second line

BUT this is what i get:
first line[]second line
([]- the solid block which means character not found)

And, I made sure to make the properties on the dialog box include Multiline.

PLEASE HELP!!

As far as I know, dialogs cannot hold more than one line. What you want is a Window that looks like a dialog. I''m not even a WinAPI n00b, so I can''t guarentee my suggestion will work.