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ISBoxer 2 Development Update - December 2018

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 1:52 am
by lax
I'm getting all excited over here, you guys don't even know and this post hardly scratches the surface. Assuming a bunch of other stuff doesn't break in the meantime, I am looking forward to a sweet new ISBoxer 2 Alpha soon, maybe by the end of the year. :)

Inner Space has received numerous updates in preparation for this, to make ISBoxer 2 really shine -- and to move forward, in the right direction, for years to come. Here's some highlights from just the last few months:
  • Native support for JSON manipulation was implemented in LavishScript (the code used for in-game stuff), allowing the in-game code to interpret the same data used in the ISBoxer 2 app (noting that with ISBoxer 1, an Inner Space-specific set of XML files is generated)
  • A brand new in-game GUI system was developed -- LavishGUI 2 will be used in place of the LavishGUI system ISBoxer 1 users are familar with. LavishGUI 2 brings a new level of richness to our in-game GUI, with new UI layout mechanics, radial controls, animations and more
  • "Video FX" and input broadcasting controls added natively to the GUI! Control of a remote window now includes the capability to interact with the Inner Space in-game GUI (LavishGUI and LavishGUI 2) and Hotkeys
  • With the new GUI system comes a new input bindings system, including support for additional types of input controls, and more complicated binding rules
  • A new "Task" system was added to natively support what ISBoxer 1 called "Actions" and "Mapped Keys" and such, in a much more straightforward fashion. Not only are Tasks naturally better than the old system, they also include more capabilities, and a wider variety of types of tasks will be available than the limited number of Actions available in ISBoxer 1.

I've been sharing a bunch of GIFs and screenshots on the ISBoxer Discord. If you're not already on it, come hang out with our team, and hundreds of other ISBoxer users!

Here's a few GIFs and screenshots that show off some new capabilities:

Seizure warning! :lol:

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... to state the obvious here, the point of the above GIF was to a) show off one of the new radial controls, b) animated (in this case, multiple animations -- spinning, fading, and scaling). You probably would not want to actually use a GUI control that appears to be going haywire, but it is an effective display of new capabilities that are not available in ISBoxer 1.




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This one was a quick demo of Indicator Icons added to the new GUI, in this case indicating how the window can be resized when the cursor is over the border. Rather than replacing the cursor itself (which might already show useful information from the game itself), we use an area around the cursor. More than one indicator can be active, and this can be re-skinned, with the indicator icons placed elsewhere or completely hidden. Another obvious example of a useful indicator icon would be a Broadcasting Mode indicator.

The ISBoxer 2 button in the corner can be dragged around, and has a right-click menu.





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This one shows an example notification icon, and its tooltip although the screenshot does not show my cursor over the yellow !. Each notification icon may look completely different, the yellow ! is just an example. As with indicators, this can be re-skinned, with the icons placed elsewhere or completely hidden. In this example, ISBoxer 2 has detected that my mouse settings in Windows are not good for gaming -- with this mouse speed setting, Windows won't let me mouse to every individual pixel on the screen, making it hard to touch small things on the screen, and negatively affecting mouse broadcasting. ISBoxer 2 can fix these mouse settings for you. :)




And, finally, here's a link to a "Video FX 2.0" demo, which shows why Window Layouts will be a thing of the past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTcY464lcSI. With this system, your layout is more dynamic and can be adjusted instantly at will, on the fly. Even animated, if you want :twisted:



I'm in the process now of tying things together in ISBoxer 2 itself. It's definitely shaping up to be easier, better, faster, and more beautiful than ISBoxer 1. You're going to love this. Stay tuned! :)

p.s. people waiting on the next round of Alpha invites, that will be coming when the next Alpha is ready (and therefore new things to test). As mentioned at the top, this may be by the end of the year!