Wolfire Games Forums

First a reminder to please keep the contents of this thread to the SPF.

Also keep in mind that the stuff in this post are under extremely early development. Like literally five days old. I figured you guys would like to see how it progresses though, and early feedback on this would be useful.

Here's some info on how mods are going to be handled in Overgrowth. This is just for the UI - I'm going to start another thread about the stuff we are planning to add in game.

One large piece of news is that we are embedding the rendering engine, WebKit, inside of Overgrowth. WebKit is the fastest, most advanced browser rendering engine, used in Safari and Chrome. It is used all over OS X, for example, it is what powers the widgets in the dashboard and in the iPhone.

We are going to be using WebKit to power all of the UI in Overgrowth. From the main menu, to the in-game dialog, to the palettes in the map editor.

So how does this fit in with mods? Well, Overgrowth is going to have an integrated mod browser where you can view mods from inside the game and play them seamlessly.

You will access the mod browser like you would the Apple App Store (we were toying with the name Mapp Store). Just click install and it will seamlessly download and install the mod. You can then launch the mod from inside of Overgrowth.

When you launch a mod, the mod has full control over the entire UI - except for a little menu at the top that lets you return to Overgrowth. The mod author will interface with Overgrowth using a javascript API. For example, you could make a button that has onclick=''overgrowth.loadlevel('mylevel');" . When the user clicks the button, it would tell Overgrowth to load that level.

Here are two examples of what I am talking about. To view them, you must install Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
This is critical because other rendering engines don't support the features used in these demos.

Simple map campaign: http://wolfire.com/ui/modexample/modexample.html
More complicated campaign: http://wolfire.com/ui/modexample2/modexample2.html

I made both of these last night - they are pretty ugly, I know, but it's a testament to the power of Webkit and what can be accomplished with it rapidly.

We are really excited to see what kind of things people do with this.

Here are a few more examples of webkit stuff:

Overgrowth console: http://wolfire.com/ui/console/console.html (press `)
Map editor palette: http://wolfire.com/ui/palette/palette.html
Map editor inspector: http://wolfire.com/ui/inspector/inspector.html
Mod launcher: http://wolfire.com/ui/modbrowser/modbrowser.html

Again all of this stuff is v0.00001, but that's what SPF is for!

Sexy

"iPhone" and "UI" on the same page makes anyone moist in their special places.

Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing. I downloaded the webkit but it's just a bunch of files, and when I click on the links it brings me to a new tab, but I don't think they're supposed to open in my browser... How do I use this "webkit"

Ozymandias wrote:Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing. I downloaded the webkit but it's just a bunch of files, and when I click on the links it brings me to a new tab, but I don't think they're supposed to open in my browser... How do I use this "webkit"

Install Safari if you don't already have it: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Alright, that seemed to work. Everything looks spiffariffic =)

awesome

first beta!

Heh, works fine in Firefox for me. And looks good, can't wait to get my greasy mitts on it

Wow. This is going to make so many things possible.

Small glitch with the slider in the inspector window:
if you move the window around, then click the slider, it refuses to acknowledge when you release the mouse button.

Even if you don't move the window first, if you move the slider and release the mouse button ouside the slider area, the slider remains in pressed state graphically (darker shade of blue).

(this is with latest Safari on latest OS X)

Looks very nice. The mod menu would be so convenient.

I agree with Zamzx, that is indeed quite sexy

Any chance that window in the mod browser could be movable?

I also get the same bug as Silb in the inspector window; the slider responds fine until the window has been moved, after that it 'sticks' and keeps moving with the mouse, even after clicking to let go.

Very nice though, I especially like the console, the ASCII rabbit is a nice touch

The ASCII rabbit is awesome.

Credit for the ascii rabbit goes to Braden.

And you just had to map the console to a key that requires mod keys, didn't you? D'=

And yes, just as Silb sez; this opens up a lot of possibilities =D
Oh, wow, it unfolds even as I write.
Oh, wow, the depth of my campaign.
Oh, wow.

how do you get webkit to float over lugaru?

Because wouldn't you need a transparent background for when you are editing with the palette?