display text in game

[Hakke]

i have been trying to use a third party software called "style guru" to add text to my game. it generates scripts that when attached to a story zone display text on screen.but for some reason it doesnt work well. i can make a line of text appear in a box but so far i could not manage to make a different line of text appear- it shows always the same text no matter how much different scripts i generate. not sure how to explain this...

since i started with game guru 500 hours ago i always wanted a simple way to add text messages to my games but until today i dont get how i could do it. i know that i can add a small text with textinzone.lua - no problem there - but that is just a small text and i cant control size,font and position. how can i do that ? if there is a way to make custom text appear that works for lua noobs please let me know.
if it is still very complicated please consider to make it easy.

if anybody uses style-guru and has an idea how it works - please let me know.
:) thanks in advance

[Hakke]

-- Script generated with StyleGuru
-- www.styleguru.de.vu

sg_txt = "no quests available"

function sg_noquesttext_main(e)
if g_Entity[e]['plrinzone']==1 then
TextCenterOnXColor(50,53,3,sg_txt,192,220,192)
Panel(31,50,69,20)
end
end


example of a style-guru generated script. it works but when i add another script to my game trying to display a different text it just shows the same text again.

-- Script generated with StyleGuru
-- www.styleguru.de.vu

sg_txt = "this game is so dead lol"

function sg_loltext_main(e)
if g_Entity[e]['plrinzone']==1 then
TextCenterOnXColor(50,2,1,sg_txt,255,0,255)
end

end

[Hakke]

basically i want to know what is the easist way to add text and narrative to a game

[Skaine]

Probably something like this, attached to an entity where you want the text to appear.

function text1_init(e)
end

function text1_main(e)
PlayerDist = GetPlayerDistance(e)

if PlayerDist < 175 then
TextCenterOnX(50,90,3,"Text")
end

end

[Hakke]

hey thanks for the quick answer - this looks cool but i have no idea how to use it.
i made a notepad document... copied this but what now ? where i put my text ? how i have to name it ?
gah after 500 hours of game guru i feel like a bloody noob

[Skaine]

Just name it text1.lua and save it in the scriptbank folder. Change "Text" to "Anything you want displayed". Make sure the entity you attach the script to isn't set to static.

[Hakke]

Originally posted by Wep:

Just name it text1.lua and save it in the scriptbank folder. Change "Text" to "Anything you want displayed".

ah! i tyhink i get the drift lol- will experiment with it now.

anyway- is style-guru still being used by someone here ? it would be an awesome tool if i could make it work. the thread on the forums has been closed long time ago.
if anybody has something to say about "style guru" please let me know

(btw another cool program i have been using is "entity-workshop" - it is soooo extremly awesome and still working ( hope it will continue to be supported !?)

[Hakke]

actually i was always hoping that "entity-workshop" would be somehow integrated into game guru...
why is it not ?

[Hakke]

hey - i tried out the script and it did exactly the same result as the textinzone.lua script.
i would want to change font,size,color and position.

the good thing about the "style-guru" software is that i can choose font,size,color and position very easily. the bad thing is that i cannot make more than one text work for some reason.

gah i´m kind of frustrated about the lack of "easy" when i try to add text and narrative

[Hakke]

ok- i think i have to add that despite of occasional frustrations game guru has been and continues to be my favorite thing on steam ever. without wanting to sound like total noob i just wish it would be more accesible. for example the description of the latest update is total chinese to me - it sounds like cool new features but from the description i get zero idea what its about.

[Skaine]

Use TextColor(x,y,size,txt,r,g,b)

function text1_init(e)
end

function text1_main(e)
PlayerDist = GetPlayerDistance(e)

if PlayerDist < 175 then
TextColor(50,90,3,"Hello.",255,100,100)
end

end

[Sanguis]

When I coded StyleGuru I wanted just a solution for basic things. So... for me it works to make a trigger or story zone and attach the lua file wich was generated. I can do this with different trigger or story zones wich have different lua scripts attached. But it's right... each zone just one line of text.
If you want to display more, use the "Storyzone with Image" generator. But be aware... it's a little bit more complicated, course everything must be in the folder it belongs and named right.

[Holden_Mcgroin]

Originally posted by Hakke:

anyway- is style-guru still being used by someone here ? it would be an awesome tool if i could make it work. the thread on the forums has been closed long time ago.
if anybody has something to say about "style guru" please let me know
(btw another cool program i have been using is "entity-workshop" - it is soooo extremly awesome and still working ( hope it will continue to be supported !?)

yes I use style Guru. its great. Brilliant. I can't understand why making title screens is top of the voting board when we already have all the features we need already in StyleGuru.

I did have a script issue like you had but the "solution" was very simple (I'm trying to remember what I did, when I do I'll let you know, sorry that's not much help but im not at home atm to look at the programme) I think I may have put the scripts into different folders (?)

also entity workshop, thats great as well. But it's an old programme and doesn't look like it is being developed or supported. I counted myself lucky that he's been kind enough to keep the download available after all this time ;)

anybody still needing entity workshop here's a video with a link in it and an overview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4raj6INCQo

[Hakke]

Originally posted by Sanguis:

When I coded StyleGuru I wanted just a solution for basic things. So... for me it works to make a trigger or story zone and attach the lua file wich was generated. I can do this with different trigger or story zones wich have different lua scripts attached. But it's right... each zone just one line of text.
If you want to display more, use the "Storyzone with Image" generator. But be aware... it's a little bit more complicated, course everything must be in the folder it belongs and named right.

hey Sanguis - thank you so much for the awesome software you made ! it really makes game guru much more awesome. i will experiment more with it and i will figure out what i did wrong.

and Mcgroin - yes entity workshop is really a super good tool. actually i was hoping that EBE would have it´s functionality integrated somehow... but EBE itself is super awesome too. just hope entity workshop will be somehow continued and supported in the future.

for me this "easy visual costumisation tools" are soooo important to enable me to use game guru as a tool to express my own ideas.

Sanguis style guru deserves much more visibility and support from the community- same for entity workshop- actually not sure who made it- but it is essential for me.

[Hakke]

Originally posted by Sanguis:

When I coded StyleGuru I wanted just a solution for basic things. So... for me it works to make a trigger or story zone and attach the lua file wich was generated. I can do this with different trigger or story zones wich have different lua scripts attached. But it's right... each zone just one line of text.
If you want to display more, use the "Storyzone with Image" generator. But be aware... it's a little bit more complicated, course everything must be in the folder it belongs and named right.

it´s weird because i created several different scripts and attached them to different story zones but for some reason only one and the same text ( of the last edited zone) would be displayed in all of them. i tried to put them in different folders and also tried to rename etc... dunno maybe i was just tired. will try again

[Sanguis]

Perhaps is because this line:

sg_txt = "this game is so dead lol"

Try different varables. Change "sg_txt" for every script. I've got no time to test it at the moment, I'm not at home.

Beside of this make sure you have not only different labeled lua files, even the functon names must be different (but the same name the .lua file has).