How to build a simple scrolling text for mobile?

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  • How to build a simple scrolling text for mobile

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  • Hello developers. I really like the engine you are developing and I see that there are new updates all the time which is wonderful. My problem with this engine is that you haven't developed the parts of the controls for years, for example scrolling lists, quality buttons of different types such as radio, check box and let's not talk about advanced displays like. tree view, date time. Every time I want to do something with construct I end up working with Unity because with you these simple things are really complicated. So please invest a little in the next update also on the old things that are today in every game in the menus and settings etc...

  • so sad. Well let's get back to Unity.

    And because of such small things. That's why it's so sad

  • You can do a great deal of all that with the HTML element object. Construct comes with examples with things like richly formatted text, scrolling data tables, popup menus and dialogs, all using HTML and CSS. For example you can get scrolling text by just adding a HTML element, entering some text in to it, and giving it the CSS style overflow-y: auto.

  • HTML is nice and all but it's simply not a desirable option. Here are some things you can't do with HTML-based UI:

    Render it behind non-HTML objects

    Z-ordering, Z-elevation, mesh distortion, paste to canvas, use as a 3D face object, or any sort of "world-space" UI

    Use native effects or blend modes

    Use Construct objects like sprites/9-slice/etc.

    See your results in the layout

    In addition, you'll have to use CSS to make anything look nice. CSS is super powerful if you're a web designer trying to flex your skills. It's a pain for everyone else on the planet.

    OP, this is the reality of Construct. Either learn html/css and cobble together a UI, or roll your own. I'd say that third-party plugins are kind of dead in the water right now (usable, but less reliable as time goes on), at least until someone picks up the torch. There is some progress happening in that department, from what I've seen in the community.

    Honestly, Construct does soooo much already that it's probably going to be quicker for building a game than Unity (depending on the game). I hate building UI but I do it every time, and get quicker every time, often pulling in functions and assets from other projects.

  • HTML does have it's limitations, but I think it still serves well for certain UI uses. The original post was asking about making simple scrolling text. That's just one line of CSS, as I showed.

    As another example, suppose you want to show a scrolling data table in your game. Do you really need a whole stack of built-in plugins to handle that, which would probably still be only a fraction as powerful as HTML, when you can just use a HTML table? There's also plenty of free guides out there for learning HTML and CSS, it's incredibly powerful, and you'll be learning industry-standard technologies that you can get a job in rather than some tool-specific details.

  • Yeah no doubt that HTML is powerful, and very quick to do certain things.

    In your example I would absolutely just build a table using events, and have done so many times.

    I'd do it that way because I might want a dialogue box to appear on top when a user taps something. Maybe I want a gradient that is across the whole screen. Or, what I do most often, is I want to populate that table with sprite fonts that I use elsewhere in my project, and sprites I use elsewhere. These contents are built using a mix of hierarchies, templates, and containers, using C3-specific techniques that I've learned through years of practice. Maybe I just want a sparkly particle system to appear where the user taps. One of my current big projects uses an entirely world-space UI with all sorts of pretty effects. It's gorgeous, but it was a nightmare to put together.

    I'm not a classic developer, so I'm put off by the idea of learning new languages, but I currently work full-time as a Construct dev. Every other dev in the team is amazed at the speed of this software, and appalled at the lack of UI support. I stand by Construct, and I'm probably as tired as you are of hearing about UI! 😂

    I once used an adjustable wrench to knock in a nail because I had no hammer. It did the job, but I wish I had a hammer at the time.

  • If Construct let you place layers on top of HTML elements, would that solve a lot of the problems then? I had a feature like that planned.

    I think people mean lots of different things when they say "UI" - sometimes it means things like text inputs, which browsers already do very well, and are often very tricky with in-house engines. Playing Valheim recently I noticed the text inputs are kind of janky with poor support for selections, keyboard shortcuts, and other missing features - I think that's some in-engine Unity plugin. The browser built-in stuff is actually very sophisticated, something I went in to detail on in this blog. In other words, doing this in-engine is extremely difficult and a colossal amount of work, and even then it doesn't always reach the standard of a basic part of a browser engine!

    I don't think it's even feasible for us to address this as we just don't have a large enough team, which is why I'm focused on making HTML and CSS work - and if we can get it integrating nicely it will probably end up a much more powerful and flexible system than if we did it ourselves. Still, third-party developers could give an in-engine UI system a go if they really wanted to - best of luck to them if they try!

  • That would definitely solve a lot of problems. If HTML objects behaved just like regular C3 objects, it'd go a long way in encouraging users to do things with HTML. Right now it feels too disjointed, like we're working with two vastly different systems despite there being so much under the hood that they have in common. Bringing these two spheres closer together will go a long way!

    But yes, please, anything to help me avoid having to build my own text entry system system (again)! :P

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