see full screen in gamesalad and centering/aligning

Leanne

i'm desinging for ipad(landscape) with scene taking up the full 1024x768. how can i view the whole thing?
And...
I'm rebuilding my images layer by layer and will have to center and align and all things that i can do really, really easily in Fireworks. Any tricks to making it perfect in here?

I'm really excited about this game and gamesalad, but there are so many road blocks to just digging in to production. Please, help. Help, please?

Riffel

set x pos to 512 and y pos to 384
for landscape mode

Leanne

Riffel said:
set x pos to 512 and y pos to 384
for landscape mode

yes, thank you, riffel. I understand that is the centre point. is there a way to centre two images in relation to eachother? Ex.
I have two actors, a piece of text and a square.
I would like the text to appear in the exact centre of the square. is there a shortcut for this?

also, is there a way to zoom out so i can see the full screen while i'm working?

Leanne

easy answer for full screen width - feeling silly 'bout that one
still can't get full screen height for ipad...

mynameisace

I use math for my central positioning. For x use the screen x /2 and same for y

Ace

Leanne

what about when you want to align one actor with another actor that's not in the centre...
because this project is pretty massive with a lot of this kind of aligning, i'm wondering if there's a quick command to achieve the alignment/centring, so that i can do it visually.

i can probably do it mathematically,or maybe make a full screen image of a grid, note the dimensions of the squares, use math and gridlines to guide my way, then delete the grid

hmm....

there must be a better way

MotherHoose

@Leanne...

I too do nothing but iPad... and I am picky-picky about placement

the first thing that I put in any new Project:
1. Actor Display Text [expression] game.Mouse.Position.X
2. Actor Display Text [expression] game.Mouse.Position.Y

I usually place them in upperRight corner of every scene, unless I have something for that area.

If I need real detailed position data, I will put in my crossHairs image; make it drag-able; and assign the Display Texts to its X and Y. The crossHairs will not change position unless I move them and the Display Text will keep the current position visible...

Remember (Landscape) that the X=0 is the Left edge of the scene.... the x=1024 is the Right edge.
the y=768 is the Top of the scene... the y=0 is the Bottom.
Visualize that there are 1024 lines 1 pixel in width aligned vertically across the screen. that are the X coordinates of the screen.
there are 768 lines 1 pixel in width aligned horizontally across the screen. that are the Y coordinates of the screen.

Horizontal alignment: Once you know the Y of your 1st actor... use that # for the Y of your 2nd actor.
Vertical alignment: use the X of 1st actor...

I most often do not care where I put an actor on the editor's screen... indeed many are placed then dragged to the grey area... I use the changeAttribute to place them at the correct X and Y in runtime.

In myBehavior I drag a [Rule] when touch is pressed
--ConstrainAttribute self.Position.X to game.Mouse.Position.X
--ConstrainAttribute self.Position.Y to game.Mouse.Position.Y
and drag that rule to an actor I want to place correctly... √ its X and Y in Preview
put those coordinates in changeAttributes on the Actor and delete the [Rule]

sounds complicated... but is really fast and easy and way less frustrating than trying to eyeball a gad-zillion things!

I concur with Ace to center things on screen use the expression game.Display Size.Width/2 and game.Display Size.Height/2 ... as those two attributes are part of the core code of your application.

MH

Leanne

This makes so much sense. Thank you for being so thorough and articulate. Can't wait to try.

gyroscope

Excellent advice from MH + the other guys. As added help, you could also make up a grid in Photoshop or Illustrator, place this image at the lowest layer and use that as a visual guide. When you've completed the scene, delete it. :-)

osucowboy18

gyroscope said:
Excellent advice from MH + the other guys. As added help, you could also make up a grid in Photoshop or Illustrator, place this image at the lowest layer and use that as a visual guide. When you've completed the scene, delete it. :-)

I've tried the grid method and it works great, but adding in the display text behaviors into each scene, as MotherHoose said, would allow for any fine tuning that would need to be done.