GUI nightmares

7,343

Author

September 21, 2013 10:18 AM

Have you ever been told, or told someone not to unroll their own gui framework but to rely on the established available libaries? Well, this pretty much shows why they are right:


TowerStateCtrl::TowerStateCtrl(gui::Widget& parent, const ecs::Entity& tower, const ecs::MessageManager& messages): m_pTower(&tower), m_pMessages(&messages)
{
    gui::Area& area = AddWidget<gui::Area>(0, 0, parent.GetWidth(), parent.GetHeight());
    SetAsMainWidget(&area);
    parent.AddChild(area);

    const int imageX = parent.GetWidth()/12;
    const int imageY = parent.GetHeight()/12;
    const int imageWidth = parent.GetWidth() - imageX*2;
    const int imageHeight = parent.GetHeight() - (int)(imageY*3.75f);
    AddWidget<gui::Image>(imageX, imageY, imageWidth, imageHeight, L"GuiStateback");

    const Tower* pTower = m_pTower->GetComponent<Tower>();

    // name display
    m_pNameLabel = &AddWidget<gui::Label>(0, area.GetHeight() / 16, area.GetWidth(), 32, pTower->m_stName.c_str());

    const int iconSize = area.GetWidth() / 20;
    const int iconOffsetX = area.GetWidth() / 8;

    const int offsetX = iconOffsetX + iconOffsetX;
    const int offsetY = area.GetHeight() / 7;
    const int halfWidth = area.GetWidth() / 2;

    const int labelWidth = halfWidth - offsetX;
    const int labelOffsetX = offsetX + labelWidth;

    // damage display
    AddWidget<gui::Image>(iconOffsetX, offsetY, iconSize, iconSize, L"IcoThunder");
    gui::Label& damageLabel = AddWidget<gui::Label>(offsetX, offsetY, labelWidth, 32, L"Damage");
    damageLabel.SetAlign(gui::LEFT | gui::VCENTER);
    m_pDamageLabel = &AddWidget<gui::Label>(labelOffsetX, offsetY, labelWidth, 32, conv::ToString( pTower->m_atk ).c_str() );
    m_pDamageLabel->SetAlign(gui::RIGHT | gui::VCENTER);

    // speed display
    AddWidget<gui::Image>(iconOffsetX, offsetY*2, iconSize, iconSize, L"IcoHourglass");
    gui::Label& speedLabel = AddWidget<gui::Label>(offsetX, offsetY*2, labelWidth, 32, L"Speed");
    speedLabel.SetAlign(gui::LEFT | gui::VCENTER);
    m_pSpeedLabel = &AddWidget<gui::Label>(labelOffsetX, offsetY*2, labelWidth, 32, conv::ToString( pTower->m_speed ).c_str() );
    m_pSpeedLabel->SetAlign(gui::RIGHT | gui::VCENTER);

    // range display
    AddWidget<gui::Image>(iconOffsetX, offsetY*3, iconSize, iconSize, L"IcoWorld");
    gui::Label& rangeLabel = AddWidget<gui::Label>(offsetX, offsetY*3, labelWidth, 32, L"Range");
    rangeLabel.SetAlign(gui::LEFT | gui::VCENTER);
    m_pRangeLabel = &AddWidget<gui::Label>(labelOffsetX, offsetY*3, labelWidth, 32, conv::ToString( pTower->m_range ).c_str() );
    m_pRangeLabel->SetAlign(gui::RIGHT | gui::VCENTER);

    // level display
    AddWidget<gui::Image>(iconOffsetX, offsetY*4, iconSize, iconSize, L"IcoStar");
    gui::Label& levelLabel = AddWidget<gui::Label>(offsetX, offsetY*4, labelWidth, 32, L"Level");
    levelLabel.SetAlign(gui::LEFT | gui::VCENTER);
    m_pLevelLabel = &AddWidget<gui::Label>(labelOffsetX, offsetY*4, labelWidth, 32, conv::ToString( pTower->m_level + 1 ).c_str() );
    m_pLevelLabel->SetAlign(gui::RIGHT | gui::VCENTER);

	// upgrade button
    const int buttonY = (int)(offsetY * 5.75f);
	m_pUpgradeButton = &AddWidget<gui::Button>(16, buttonY, halfWidth - 32, area.GetHeight() / 6, (L"Upgrade:" + conv::ToString( 50 )).c_str() );
	m_pUpgradeButton->SigReleased.Connect(this, &TowerStateCtrl::OnUpgradeTower);

    const int iconOff = (m_pUpgradeButton->GetHeight() - iconSize) / 2;
    gui::Image& sell = AddWidget<gui::Image>(iconOff, iconOff, iconSize, iconSize, L"IcoUpgrade");
	sell.OnDisable();
    m_pUpgradeButton->AddChild(sell);

    // sell button
    m_pSellButton = &AddWidget<gui::Button>(halfWidth + 16, buttonY, halfWidth - 32, area.GetHeight() / 6, (L"Sell:" + conv::ToString( (int)(pTower->m_cost * 0.75) )).c_str() );
    m_pSellButton->SigReleased.Connect(this, &TowerStateCtrl::OnSellTower);

    gui::Image& money = AddWidget<gui::Image>(iconOff, iconOff, iconSize, iconSize, L"IcoMoney");
	money.OnDisable();
    m_pSellButton->AddChild(money);

    Update();

    OnFocus(true);
}

That monstrousity just to display a small status-widget, without any functionality mind you. I probably could have used more constants (yieks!) or seperated this huge method into smaller ones, but its a mess anyway. Anyone else here who encountered their own "gui horrors"?

unbird

8,359

September 21, 2013 10:59 AM

Meh. Looks pretty slick to me. Try the same with bare Win32 API (or even MFC) and then compare

Edit: Less tongue-in-cheek, I'm with FLeBlanc here (see below). GUI Control usually come with "option paralysis". If you setup controls manually you can end up with a lot of code. I worked with Delphi once, which had a GUI-designer and a proprietary resource format to store the settings. You rarely touched them with code. C#/Windows.Forms has a designer but generates code - which looks quite like what Juliean posted.

FLeBlanc

3,142

September 21, 2013 02:47 PM

GUI code is quite frequently ugly, especially when you go through the steps of hand-configuring the elements as you are doing here. Most GUI frameworks provide some sort of instantiation of elements, whether from XML configuration or some other means, but if you refrain from using these configuration schemes and build your elements by hand instead then your code ends up looking a whole lot like what you have written here. There's just no way to write a fully configurable and flexible GUI system without having to specify a lot of data, either by hand or by config file. So don't feel too bad. :D

Juliean

7,343

Author

September 21, 2013 02:56 PM

Try the same with bare Win32 API (or even MFC) and then compare

Would I really want to? :D

Interesting though, I didn't have any other experience in gui other than looking at some Qt-headers/examples, so I figured this was a real horrid design, specially since one of my fellow students who had done some gui work said that gui programming is supposed to work quite easy oO. Still, one thing that makes this extraordinarly hard to maintain is that I was using a fixed position mode, forcing me to hand-calculate all the sizes, etc...

Most GUI frameworks provide some sort of instantiation of elements, whether from XML configuration or some other means, but if you refrain from using these configuration schemes and build your elements by hand instead then your code ends up looking a whole lot like what you have written here.

Thats how it ended up for me, too. This, plus a relative metrics mode - 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f would mean a widget that fills its whole parent - made things work out much better. Thats the same widget, in XML:


<Controller>
	<Area name="Tower">
		<Main/>
		<Metrics type="rel" x="0.0" y="0.0" w="1.0" h="1.0" />
	</Area>
	<Image name="" img="GuiStateback">
		<Metrics type="rel" x="0.0" y="0.15" w="0.8" h="0.6" />	
		<Center h="1" v="0" />
		<Alignment h="1" v="0" />
		<Image name="" img="IcoThunder">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.075" y="0.2" w="0.05" h="1.0" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />´
			<BorderRel value="1" />
		</Image>
		<Label name="" label="Damage">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.3" y="0.2" w="0.4" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="4" />
		</Label>
		<Label name="Damagelabel" label="0">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.5" y="0.2" w="0.3" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="6" />
		</Label>
		<Image name="" img="IcoHourglass">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.075" y="0.4" w="0.05" h="1.0" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />´
			<BorderRel value="1" />
		</Image>
		<Label name="" label="Speed">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.3" y="0.4" w="0.4" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="4" />
		</Label>
		<Label name="Speedlabel" label="0">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.5" y="0.4" w="0.3" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="6" />
		</Label>
		<Image name="" img="IcoWorld">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.075" y="0.6" w="0.05" h="1.0" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />´
			<BorderRel value="1" />
		</Image>
		<Label name="" label="Range">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.3" y="0.6" w="0.4" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="4" />
		</Label>
		<Label name="Rangelabel" label="0">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.5" y="0.6" w="0.3" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="6" />
		</Label>
		<Image name="" img="IcoStar">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.075" y="0.8" w="0.05" h="1.0" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />´
			<BorderRel value="1" />
		</Image>
		<Label name="" label="Level">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.3" y="0.8" w="0.4" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="4" />
		</Label>
		<Label name="Levellabel" label="0">
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.5" y="0.8" w="0.3" h="0.15" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />
			<Align value="6" />
		</Label>
	</Image>
	<Label name="Namelabel" label="">
		<Align value="1" />
		<Metrics type="rel" x="0.0" y="0.05" w="1.0" h="0.2" />
	</Label>
	<Button name="Upgradebutton" label="Upgrade: 0">
		<Metrics type="rel" x="0.275" y="0.775" w="0.4" h="0.175" />	
		<Center h="1" v="0" />
		<Image name="" img="IcoUpgrade">
			<Disabled/>
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.075" y="0.5" w="1.0" h="0.5" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />´
			<BorderRel value="2" />
		</Image>
	</Button> 
	<Button name="Sellbutton" label="Sell: 0">
		<Metrics type="rel" x="0.725" y="0.775" w="0.4" h="0.175" />	
		<Center h="1" v="0" />
		<Image name="" img="IcoMoney">
			<Disabled/>
			<Metrics type="rel" x="0.075" y="0.5" w="1.0" h="0.5" />
			<Center h="0" v="1" />´
			<BorderRel value="2" />
		</Image>
	</Button>
</Controller>

Still a lot of code, but at least there is some consistency ;)

boogyman19946

1,487

January 11, 2014 08:00 PM

Here's the code that I generally write to assemble UI's. This one in particular is in Java and assembles a UI for the lobby of an online card game (screenshot below). As you can see, I take some of the more interesting UI components into their own classes so that I don't have to worry about their function at the same time that I'm worrying about the spatial relationships of the components.


package residentevil.game.ui.lobby;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
import java.awt.event.ComponentListener;
import java.util.HashMap;

import javax.swing.Box;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTable;

import library.menu.MenuScreen;
import library.menu.MenuStack;
import residentevil.cards.Card;
import residentevil.cards.Character;
import residentevil.game.ui.CardButton;
import residentevil.game.ui.CardPreviewControl;
import residentevil.game.ui.CardPreviewPanel;

public class LobbyScreen extends MenuScreen implements ActionListener {
   private final static String READY_ACTION = "Ready";
   private final static String CHARACTER_SELECT_ACTION = "Character Selection";
   private final static String QUIT_ACTION = "Quit";

   private final static int CARD_PREVIEW_PANEL_WIDTH = 250;
   private final static Dimension MAX_BUTTON_SIZE = new Dimension(126, 56);
   private final static int STRUT_SIZE = 15;
   
   private final static float PLAYER_LIST_SIZE_PERCENTAGE = 0.32f;
   private final static float CHARACTER_BUTTON_PANEL_SIZE_PERCENTAGE = 0.45f;
   
   private MenuStack mMenuStack;
   
   private CardPreviewPanel mCardPreview;
   private CardPreviewControl mCardPreviewControl;
   
   private HashMap<String, PlayerStatus> mPlayers;
   private PlayerTableModel mPlayerList;
   private JScrollPane mPlayerTablePanel;
   
   private CardSelectionPanel mCharacterCardPanel;
   private StatusListener mStatusListener;
   
   public LobbyScreen(MenuStack menuStack) {
      super();
      
      mMenuStack = menuStack;
      mPlayers = new HashMap<>();
      
      createWidgets();
      addComponentListener();
      
      mStatusListener = new StatusListener() {
         public void toggleReady() { }
         public void changeCharacter(String characterName) { }
         public void quit() {  }
      };
   }
   
   private void addComponentListener() {
      addComponentListener(new ComponentListener() {
         @Override
         public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
            resizePlayerTablePanel();
            mCharacterCardPanel.resizeCardSelectionPanel(CHARACTER_BUTTON_PANEL_SIZE_PERCENTAGE);
            revalidate();
            repaint();
         }
         @Override
         public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent e) {}
         @Override
         public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {}
         @Override
         public void componentShown(ComponentEvent e) {}
      });
   }
   
   /*************************************************************************************
    *                                    UI ASSEMBLY                                    *
    *************************************************************************************/
   
   private void createWidgets() {
      setLayout(new BorderLayout());
      
      createPreviewPanel();
      createMainPanel();
   }
   
   private void createPreviewPanel() {
      mCardPreview = new CardPreviewPanel();
      mCardPreview.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(CARD_PREVIEW_PANEL_WIDTH, Integer.MAX_VALUE));
      mCardPreviewControl = new CardPreviewControl(mCardPreview);
      add(mCardPreview, BorderLayout.WEST);
   }
   
   private void createMainPanel() {
      JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
      mainPanel.setOpaque(false);
      mainPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(mainPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
      
      createConnectedPlayersTable(mainPanel);
      mainPanel.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(STRUT_SIZE));
      createCharacterSelectionPanel(mainPanel);
      mainPanel.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(STRUT_SIZE));
      createControlButtons(mainPanel);
      mainPanel.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(STRUT_SIZE));
      
      add(mainPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
   }
   
   private void createConnectedPlayersTable(JPanel mainPanel) {
      mPlayerList = new PlayerTableModel();
      JTable playerTable = new JTable(mPlayerList);
      playerTable.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
      
      mPlayerTablePanel = new JScrollPane(playerTable);
      resizePlayerTablePanel();
      
      mainPanel.add(mPlayerTablePanel);
   }
   
   private void resizePlayerTablePanel() {
      Dimension parentSize = getSize();
      Dimension preferredSize = new Dimension(parentSize);
      preferredSize.height = (int)(parentSize.height*PLAYER_LIST_SIZE_PERCENTAGE);
      mPlayerTablePanel.setPreferredSize(preferredSize);
   }
   
   private void createCharacterSelectionPanel(JPanel mainPanel) {
      JLabel charactersLabel = new JLabel("Characters");
      charactersLabel.setForeground(Color.WHITE);
      charactersLabel.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
      
      mCharacterCardPanel = new CardSelectionPanel(mCardPreviewControl, this, CHARACTER_SELECT_ACTION);
      mCharacterCardPanel.resizeCardSelectionPanel(CHARACTER_BUTTON_PANEL_SIZE_PERCENTAGE);
      
      mainPanel.add(charactersLabel);
      mainPanel.add(mCharacterCardPanel);
   }
   
   private void createControlButtons(JPanel mainPanel) {
      JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
      buttonPanel.setOpaque(false);
      buttonPanel.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
      
      JButton startButton = createButton("Ready", READY_ACTION);
      JButton quitButton = createButton("Quit", QUIT_ACTION);
      
      buttonPanel.add(startButton);
      buttonPanel.add(quitButton);
      
      mainPanel.add(buttonPanel);
   }
   
   private JButton createButton(String title, String action) {
      JButton button = new JButton(title);
      button.setActionCommand(action);
      button.addActionListener(this);
      button.setMaximumSize(MAX_BUTTON_SIZE);
      return button;
   }
   
   /***************************************************************************
    *                                INTERFACE                                *
    ***************************************************************************/
   
   public void setStatusListener(StatusListener statusListener) {
      mStatusListener = statusListener;
   }
   
   public void addPlayer(String playerName) {
      PlayerStatus status = new PlayerStatus();
      status.mName = playerName;
      status.mCharacter = "Unknown";
      status.mReady = false;
      
      mPlayers.put(playerName, status);
      mPlayerList.addPlayer(status);
   }
   
   public void updatePlayerStatus(String playerName, String characterName, boolean ready) {
      PlayerStatus status = mPlayers.get(playerName);
      status.mCharacter = characterName;
      status.mReady = ready;
      mPlayerList.fireTableDataChanged();
   }
   
   public void removePlayer(String playerName) {
      PlayerStatus status = mPlayers.get(playerName);
      mPlayers.remove(playerName);
      mPlayerList.removePlayer(status);
   }
   
   public void addCharacterCards(Character cards[]) {
      mCharacterCardPanel.removeAll();
      mCharacterCardPanel.createCardButtons(cards);
      revalidate();
      repaint();
   }

   @Override
   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
      String command = actionEvent.getActionCommand();
      
      if(command.equals(READY_ACTION)) {
         mStatusListener.toggleReady();
      } else if(command.equals(CHARACTER_SELECT_ACTION)) {
         CardButton cardButton = (CardButton)actionEvent.getSource();
         Card card = cardButton.getCard();
         mStatusListener.changeCharacter(card.getName());
      } else if(command.equals(QUIT_ACTION)) {
         mStatusListener.quit();
         mMenuStack.popScreen();
      }
   }
}

Unfortunately, this is probably one of the more tame UI code that I have XD

Here is a screenshot of the lobby:

The pink squares are where that card images are. I blocked them out because they are not my work and I don't want to violate any rules :) Basically, when the player hovers above the cards, information about the card is updated in the panels on the left.

Yo dawg, don't even trip.

OpOpOpOp

154

January 15, 2014 10:55 PM

I'm looking forward to writing my own GUI framework for my current project. I've written one before but it used SDL surfaces and real-time transformations (SDL_gfx), so it was very slow and painful to think about. I've written buttons so far in my current one (OpenGL based) and they look nice, but I'm still pondering how to do the other controls like text input and listviews.

Originally I planned on emulating DOS/ncurses style GUIs since that would be much easier to do and I already have an output system for that, but it wouldn't fit with the cartoony look of the rest of the application which is a shame.

swiftcoder

18,997

January 16, 2014 02:11 AM

This reminds me of the reasons why I wrote simplui, once upon a time: roughly 90% of the time, what one actually needs is an immediate-mode GUI with auto-layout.

Of course, the corollary to that rule is that the other 10% of the time you need the whole of QT, and anything less is miserable.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

JoshuaWaring

1,359

April 12, 2014 11:23 AM

I'm about to take on the adventure of writing the GUI's for my game. I hope it looks better although I promise nothing!

AMCerasoli

111

May 24, 2014 08:23 AM

I'm also writing the GUI for my game from scratch. I would recommend you to use XML to create your windows/panels instead of pure code. That helped me to separate the code to create a new window into different modules while parsing the XML. I use TinyXML2.

Juliean

7,343

Author

May 24, 2014 10:44 AM

I'm also writing the GUI for my game from scratch. I would recommend you to use XML to create your windows/panels instead of pure code. That helped me to separate the code to create a new window into different modules while parsing the XML. I use TinyXML2.

Yep, that helped a lot for me too. I was so crazy though, and wrote my own XML-Parser. No reason, just madness (and probably a bit learning-factor). I also gotta say that one thing that probably makes my gui a little more complicated than it should be, is that I'm not only using it for the game, but also for the editor/toolchain. When you want to do somthing like I did in the attached screenshot, it adds some additional levels of complications in comparison to when you "only" need some simple game overlays, I assume.

GUI nightmares

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GUI nightmares

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