tab between controls

[TOP-Proto]

Hi guys has anyone seen any example code of tabbing between controls?


id like my users to be able to press the tab key (or whatever key they set) to go to the next control. I can't seem to find anything on it though since the forum moveabout .

[taz1004]

Between different controls? You mean pressing tab to switch between keyboard and gamepad? Or do you mean switch between buttons on the menu? I actually would like to know how to switch between buttons using a button. On the default UT UI, you can switch between buttons using arrow keys but I can't seem to do that on the menus I create.

[Matt Doyle]

Tab key normally functions as you want it to in GFx & CLIK, via focus handling. For instance, try running the CLIK tutorial file found here: \Development\Flash\CLIK\tutorial in GFx Player. Tabbing should switch between the buttons on the main menu, as well as the controls on the options screen. You must set a button/control to be focused before focus control via Tab key will work.

However, I believe the Tab key brings up the bottom UDK console input. So, I assume you'll have to disable that?

If you aren't using CLIK, you'll need to implement your own focus handling code to handle Tab input.

Some of the key CLIK files to get you started can be found here:

\Development\Flash\CLIK\gfx\ui\InputDetails.as
\Development\Flash\CLIK\gfx\managers\FocusHandler. as

If you are trying to send Tab key input to something in game, say a render to texture on a 3D surface, instead of in a menu, you'll need to use Kismet to capture Tab key input and route it to the GFx movie in question - via Capture Keys in OpenGFxMovie.

[TOP-Proto]

thanks matt i will look.


by control i mean like a form with text boxes on and tabbing to the next text box. probably what i want in your post. will check it out.

[TOP-Proto]

this all works fine in scaleform itself, how do i enable it in uscript though???

[Doublezer0]

I used a tab menu system (ie. general PC style menu) in my first draft of a menu but was advised that although its fine for PC to use tab-menus its not looked upon as a good interface method on a console. Im generalizing of course in the respect that console menus are generally pragmatic, vertical and lets face it policed by the respective companies with a ruleset (XBL for eg.). Sometimes a tabbing option is required and it can be handled fine with Scaleform. My tab menus worked nice.

[TOP-Proto]

I used a tab menu system (ie. general PC style menu) in my first draft of a menu but was advised that although its fine for PC to use tab-menus its not looked upon as a good interface method on a console. Im generalizing of course in the respect that console menus are generally pragmatic, vertical and lets face it policed by the respective companies with a ruleset (XBL for eg.). Sometimes a tabbing option is required and it can be handled fine with Scaleform. My tab menus worked nice.

I agree to a point, the point i stop agreeing at is they dont have tab keys in console but they have the option to choose the options using their direction keys.

both methods i want to make availible in TA.

alot of the PC gamers expect to use tab keys to navigate the controls and theres going to be no excuse i can give my gamers as to why i havnt implemented the tab functionality

[TOP-Proto]

do you have the code in uscript for how you "turned on" the tab key functionality?

is it one line of code?

[Matt Doyle]

I think we're discussing two different topics here.

1. Pressing the Tab key on the keyboard to move focus form button to button in the UI.
2. A Tabbed UI - where there are "tabs" at the top, and clicking them opens different views.

I assume what you are after is #1. This should simply work out of the box with CLIK components, assuming the Tab key is not bound to something else in Unreal. There is no "enabling" to be done as far as I know. Take the arrow keys - using them simply works. There is no setup to be done. You can use the arrow keys to move from UI element to UI element in UDK using a CLIK based menu. Tab key should function the same. But I'll talk to our engine integration chaps tomorrow and see if there is something I'm leaving out.

Of course, if you're not using CLIK - then you're going to have to write your own focus handling stuff.

[TOP-Proto]

im using the clik components with custom skinning, and some small actionscript changes.

It might be how i bring up the menus.

i got a flash menu and i open another flash menu using this code from my first flash menu.

gfx.core.UIComponent.createInstance(this, "Window", "dynwindowplayer", this.getNextHighestDepth(), {_x:50, _y:250, _formType:"swf", _formSource:"PlayerSettings.swf", _title:"Player Settings", _offsetTop:36, _offsetBottom:0, _offsetLeft:0, _offsetRight:0});
 //... removed code.

so it might be how im loading the swf's into my first flash scene. (its fantastic though its using window.as)

[Doublezer0]

i meant both. I was going to add tab works out of the box with CLIK. I had my tab menu working properly with a gamepad too so you used the L+R buttons to tab across. Bear in mind my tab menu wasnt CLIK integrated (the rest of it was) and it still worked.

[Matt Doyle]

After speaking with the engine integration guy here at Scaleform, he assured me that the Tab key should just work, assuming you've unmapped Tab to its normal UDK function (console command line) and remapped it. Here is some info from our older Unreal integration doc that may be of some help. But some things may be different, as Epic may have renamed some things since this was written.

4.1 Input Handling

The GFxGameViewportClient and GFxInteraction classes pass input from the game’s viewport to the currently playing movies. Input can be captured (not provided to game), or shared by the game and movies.

Keyboard and gamepad input is passed to a focus movie, and mouse input is passed to all playing screen (overlay) movies as long as a focus movie is set. Individual keys can also be captured by a movie; these key events are passed to that movie (unless there is a focus movie set and it is capturing input), but other keys are processed normally. Capturing individual keys is one way to support an in-game menu using GFx. The movie will receive an event when the designated key is pressed, and it can then show its content and make an ExternalInterface or FSCommand call to pause the game, set itself as the focus movie, and enable input capture. This movie should have TimingMode set to TM_Real.

The mapping of Unreal keys (and mouse/gamepad buttons) to GFx keys is configured by a [GFxUI.KeyMap] section in the input configuration file (ExampleInput.ini for ExampleGame). This section should contain a list of pairs mapping input keys to other keys that directly map to Flash keys.

For example:

XboxTypeS_DPad_Left=Left
XboxTypeS_DPad_Right=Right
XboxTypeS_DPad_Up=Up
XboxTypeS_DPad_Down=Down

This maps the D-Pad buttons to the arrow keys. The special directive “FullKeyboard=1” maps each supported keyboard key to itself. FullKeyboard should be the first line in the [GFxUI.KeyMap] section. Using the gamepad sticks to emulate arrow keys is supported using the same configuration as the game. The emulated keys still need to be mapped:

Gamepad_RightStick_Left=Left
Gamepad_RightStick_Right=Right
Gamepad_RightStick_Up=Up
Gamepad_RightStick_Down=Down

This maps the right stick to the arrow keys.

Gamepad mouse axis emulation is configured by a [GFxUI.GamepadMouse] section. Specify the gamepad axes to use for the X and Y mouse axes; prefix the axis name with a minus sign to invert it. Mouse buttons should be listed in the KeyMap section. For example:

[GFxUI.KeyMap]
XboxTypeS_LeftThumbStick=LeftMouseButton
[GFxUI.GamepadMouse]
X=XboxTypeS_LeftX
Y=-XboxTypeS_LeftY

This maps the left stick as a mouse, inverting the Y-axis.

[TOP-Proto]

sounds like all i need to do is a .focus on the movie menu thats opened

will try that thanks

[TOP-Proto]

ok i went though this and i can use the arrow keys on some controls to navigate them (dropdown boxes) but cant control though like i did in the scaleform video.

im using may atm, is this something thats changed in later versions of scaleform??

[Matt Doyle]

I don't believe anything has changed in that regard. It's hard to diagnose the problem you're having without having your files. Maybe you could shoot them to me and I could try them out here. Send them to support@scaleform.com and mention my name in the email so they get them to me.