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View Full Version : Feasibility of Rich Text WYSIWYG Story Entries



JimSocks
May 15th, 2021, 18:25
So, if you guys haven't noticed, I have a major Story addiction within FG. I always want MORE POWER.

Along these lines, I would like to take a crack at changing the functionality of how text is input and displayed within a story entry. I would like to make it somewhat like this forum right here- with buttons for formatting, and more formatting options overall. The idea would also be to not interfere with already-existing story entries: NEW entries would have the new functionality available to use and edit, but pre-existing ones would be tagged to function as normal without the new abilities.

Here's a preliminary idea list:

Formatting Toolbar with buttons
Different Header Size Options
A small selection of fonts to choose (standard, old english, treasure map?)
Justification (might be a pipe dream?)
insertion of auto-sizing image assets based on window width (again, might be over-reaching. This is just a proposed wishlist!)
More formatting options (strikethrough, sub/superscript, font color selection)
Possibly adding numbered lists to the bulleted lists already there in-game


I know that typical WYSIWYG text editors use HTML/javascript/.CSS and they are typically translating the input for another format, and that this would be fundamentally different but still striving for the same end result.

So, here's my question:
Master Wizards of FG, is this project even theoretically possible with lua and the current architecture of FGU?

I don't want to start off on a journey only to find out later that asking this question now would have saved me hundreds of hours of time!

Moon Wizard
May 15th, 2021, 18:38
This would be a massive undertaking; and it would still be super kludgy to use. The issue is that you would essentially be trying to build a full-fledged WYSIWYG text editor out of very basic string and graphic controls; and handling all the placement, manipulation and interaction among them all.

Personally, I wouldn't take it on, because it really needs to be a whole internal project to build a new kind of control to tackle that need. However, we don't have any current plans to tackle that either right now. Too many items on the plate with higher priority.

Regards,
JPG

Three of Swords
May 15th, 2021, 21:27
Darn! I was hoping that moving to Unity would make a good text editor easily done using some of the Unity libraries and would be one of the next projects now that Lighting and Vision is complete.

JimSocks
May 16th, 2021, 16:35
trying to build a full-fledged WYSIWYG text editor out of very basic string and graphic controls

Yeah, that's the concern. An uphill battle to be sure...


Personally, I wouldn't take it on

Well, that's really all the advice I need then. If YOU wouldn't do it, it'd be pretty dumb for me to try. Bummer. At least you saved me a ton of time though- Thanks MW!


Too many items on the plate with higher priority.

Ooooo I wanna know what they are! After the recent grand-slam out-the-park with lighting, vision, and story templates- what's on the docket now is probably more stability stuff though, right?
I can't imagine it would be another round of ground-breaking feature sets. Wait, it's my imagination here, so yes... yes I can imagine that if I want :)