New to UI building

gordonzero · #1 12-22-2004, 05:54 PM

Ok i'm new to UI building and i need some help with some stuff... first is some kind of Tutorial. Somthing that will teach me how to creat a basic part of a UI.

second ... i'm asuming this is on some where but i'm going to ask anyway ... SOE's UI builder sucks ... is there no other ... is there any way to make it work ... (it's a good thing i have a 1.5 GB of ram ... stupid memory leaks)

third i don't know of any realy good XML editors ... if there is no way to graphicly

I'm just starting to get into this and trying to figure out if i can do it ... and how does it compair to the 2 Languages i know already ... VB6 / HTML

NetSapiens · #2 12-22-2004, 07:10 PM

first, SOE's UI builder is challenging, but does not suck. I would truly hate to go without it entirely. give it time, play with it.. it does allow you to do some RAD work.
second, XML editor.. depends on what you're looking for, and willing to pay. XML spy is normally touted as the editor of choice

last, html and xml are very similar

insomniac · #3 12-23-2004, 01:18 AM

2nd opinion:
I do everything in xml, I don't know/care how to use the ui builder.
and I think the definition of xml is html with custom tags. you'll feel right at home.

NetSapiens · #4 12-23-2004, 03:48 AM

just to get the last word in

go to http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp for some nice XML information, very good primers on there.

gordonzero · #5 12-23-2004, 09:52 AM

i'm not exactly saying that SOE's Editor is evil .... just ... most of the time stuff dosn't apear in the black box no graphics just a black box

Euda · #6 12-23-2004, 12:08 PM

I can get pretty much everything to appear. You can set a value named Visible to true or false for any element (many windows are Visible "False"), and it will show it or hide it. Many are hidden and need to stay that way when used but for building I turn it on and move it to the top of the tree i'm working in heh.

***Dolby*** · #7 12-23-2004, 01:49 PM

Stick with the UI builder because once you understand how it works you wont think it sucks. I thought it was bad when I first used it too but then Kudane told me to stick with it and now I love the tool.

gordonzero · #8 12-23-2004, 07:52 PM

Thanks Dolby ... i'm trying to look at some things .... like EXP bar ... and i don't see anything ... everything is visible still ... but all i see is a small black box ... help would be apriciated on this

Euda · #9 12-23-2004, 09:47 PM

Here's 2 pictures, compare to what you see when you use builder...
#1

#2

You should see something like the 2nd picture. When editing with builder, mainly you'll be opening the eq2ui.xml file and it's all visible from there. Make your changes and save, and it will automatically create (or overwrite) the proper .xml file that it needs to. (ex: if you F with the experience window it will either create or write to eq2ui_mainhud_experience.xml on it's own)

Qarma · #10 12-23-2004, 10:48 PM

Thank you Euda!! That is the information I needed, mine always looks like the top one. I will give that a shot.