Tooltips and selecting actors

Scripting Issues
1

A bunch of semi-related queries:

Is it possible in Panda to:

a) Have “tooltip” functionality - i.e. have a label pop up when my mouse moves over an actor (to show his name/some stats)

b) Have my mouse cursor change when my mouse moves overs an actor or other model I can click to interact with (as set by myself with a “clickable” tag)

c) Somehow highlight or otherwise indicate an actor that I am using. i.e. Make the model somehow brighter ? (If not, I guess I’d have to add some other model to it to show it’s the active actor).

2

a) In Astelix’s collision tutorials, you’ll find an exemple about how to click and select 3d objects.

b) Voila

c) According to your game, you can possibly use a glow filter or cartoon shader (see sample exemples)… it’s only an idea!

3

Hi,

a) I have clicking 3d objects already working - my question is if it is possible to have a tooltip (small label) pop up when my mouse is moved over an object (no clicking).

b)This is helpful - thx. However, question is how to detect that my cursor is over a specific object (clickable) and then change its shape. (same as (a) above)

c) That may be good. I’ll see if I can get it to work.

Thx!

4

It’s the same: Instead of generating events when you click → generate them when the mouse change position.

5

Ah, gotcha. whats the best (fastest, least resource intensive) way to detect the mouse moving?

6

Do it within a constantly running task in your gui class.

This is more or less what I use. (I use a CollisionHandlerQueue. If you use a CollisionHandlerEvent, then the code will look different.)

self.mx = 0
self.my = 0
self.over = None
taskMgr.add(self.guiTask)

def guiTask():
    mwn = base.mouseWatcherNode
    if mwn.hasMouse():
        mx,my = mwn.getMouse()
        if mx,my == self.mx,self.my:
            if self.over:
                self.over.onOver()
            return
        mx,my = self.mx,self.my
        over = self.getCollisions(self.mx,self.my)
        if over != self.over:
            if self.over:
                self.over.onExit()
            if over:
                over.onEnter()
        if over:
            over.onOver()

To clarify, getCollisions(x,y) is a function in my gui class that sets a picker ray to from the camera node to x,y.