Multiple Levels Working

Below is a seires of steps I went through to get all the GUI graphics and scene objects and interaction to work accross multiple levels. The PSK seems to have an issue when you just use the SceneLoader.Load and SceneLoader.Unload methods. On major issue is that in the FontRender class of the Torque X assembly the _fontBatch reference throws a Object Disposed error when it is trying to issue the .End method of the XNA Sprite Batch object. Not sure if this problem exists in a Torque X game?

I started a new Platformer Starter game and removed all references to Torque X and the PlatformerFramework. I then copied my Torque X Engine code and the PlatformerFramework code over and re-referenced them in the project. This allowed for the debugging of the two assemblies.

I then started TGBX and copied the sample level scenes over as well as creating a new scene with Tilemaps and pickups. You can use whatever you scenes you have available to see if this works for you.

After that I started to address the Mutiple Level Load issues. Here are the steps.

1) Create this class in you game project. You can ofcourse use whatever GUI controls you need.
Most of these are the ones used in the PlatformerDemo project.

class PlayScene : GUISceneview, IGUIScreen
{
private GUIText _livesText;
private GUIBitmap _livesImage;
private GUIBitmap _livesXImage;

private GUIText _cashText;
private GUIBitmap _cashImage;
private GUIBitmap _cashXImage;

private GUIBitmap _pepperBox;
private List<GUIBitmap> _peppers = new List<GUIBitmap>();
private List<GUIBitmap> _pepperGhosts = new List<GUIBitmap>();

public PlayScene(T2DSceneCamera camera)
{
GUIStyle playStyle = new GUIStyle();
playStyle.IsOpaque = false;

GUISceneview play = new GUISceneview();
play.Name = "PlayScreen";
play.Style = playStyle;
play.Camera = camera;
play.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Width;
play.VertSizing = VertSizing.Height;
play.Position = new Vector2(0.0f, 0.0f);
play.Size = new Vector2(1024.0f, 768.0f);

GUIBitmapStyle imageStyle = new GUIBitmapStyle();
imageStyle.HasBorder = false;

GUITextStyle lifeCountTextStyle = new GUITextStyle();
lifeCountTextStyle.FontType = @"data\font\LivesFont";
lifeCountTextStyle.TextColor[CustomColor.ColorBase] = Color.White;
lifeCountTextStyle.SizeToText = true;
lifeCountTextStyle.Alignment = TextAlignment.JustifyLeft;

GUITextStyle cashCountTextStyle = new GUITextStyle();
cashCountTextStyle.FontType = @"data\font\LivesFont";
cashCountTextStyle.TextColor[CustomColor.ColorBase] = Color.White;
cashCountTextStyle.SizeToText = true;
cashCountTextStyle.Alignment = TextAlignment.JustifyLeft;

_livesText = new GUIText();
_livesText.Name = "LivesText";
_livesText.Position = new Vector2(150.0f, 47.0f);
_livesText.Style = lifeCountTextStyle;
_livesText.Text = "0";
_livesText.Visible = true;

_livesXImage = new GUIBitmap();
_livesXImage.Style = imageStyle;
_livesXImage.Position = new Vector2(114.0f, 62.0f);
_livesXImage.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Right;
_livesXImage.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
_livesXImage.Bitmap = @"data\images\HUD_x.png";
_livesXImage.Visible = true;

_livesImage = new GUIBitmap();
_livesImage.Style = imageStyle;
_livesImage.Position = new Vector2(56.0f, 44.0f);
_livesImage.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Right;
_livesImage.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
_livesImage.Bitmap = @"data\images\HUD_extralives.png";
_livesImage.Visible = true;

_livesText.Folder = play;
_livesXImage.Folder = play;
_livesImage.Folder = play;

_cashText = new GUIText();
_cashText.Name = "CashText";
_cashText.Position = new Vector2(350.0f, 47.0f);
_cashText.Style = cashCountTextStyle;
_cashText.Text = "0";
_cashText.Visible = true;

_cashXImage = new GUIBitmap();
_cashXImage.Style = imageStyle;
_cashXImage.Position = new Vector2(314.0f, 62.0f);
_cashXImage.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Right;
_cashXImage.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
_cashXImage.Bitmap = @"data\images\HUD_x.png";
_cashXImage.Visible = true;

_cashImage = new GUIBitmap();
_cashImage.Style = imageStyle;
_cashImage.Position = new Vector2(256.0f, 44.0f);
_cashImage.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Right;
_cashImage.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
_cashImage.Bitmap = @"data\images\treasure\SonicRing.png";
_cashImage.Visible = true;

_cashText.Folder = play;
_cashXImage.Folder = play;
_cashImage.Folder = play;

_pepperBox = new GUIBitmap();
_pepperBox.Style = imageStyle;
_pepperBox.Position = new Vector2(636.0f, 34.0f);
_pepperBox.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Left;
_pepperBox.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
_pepperBox.Bitmap = @"data\images\HUD_chilibox.png";
_pepperBox.Visible = true;

_pepperBox.Folder = play;

// get base pepper position
Vector2 pepperPosition = new Vector2(_pepperBox.Position.X + 20, _pepperBox.Position.Y + 10);
float pepperOffset = 30.0f;

// place grey empty peppers
// (visible)
for (int i = 9; i >= 0; i--)
{
GUIBitmap pepperGhost = new GUIBitmap();
pepperGhost.Style = imageStyle;
pepperGhost.Position = new Vector2(pepperPosition.X + (i * pepperOffset), pepperPosition.Y);
pepperGhost.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Left;
pepperGhost.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
pepperGhost.Bitmap = @"data\images\HUD_pepperGhost.png";
pepperGhost.Visible = true;
pepperGhost.Folder = play;
_pepperGhosts.Add(pepperGhost);
}

// place red full peppers
// (invisible)
for (int i = 9; i >= 0; i--)
{
GUIBitmap pepper = new GUIBitmap();
pepper.Style = imageStyle;
pepper.Position = new Vector2(pepperPosition.X + (i * pepperOffset), pepperPosition.Y + 2);
pepper.HorizSizing = HorizSizing.Left;
pepper.VertSizing = VertSizing.Bottom;
pepper.Bitmap = @"data\images\HUD_peppers.png";
pepper.Visible = false;
pepper.Folder = play;
_peppers.Add(pepper);
}

// create game gui (important to do this as the last step)
GUICanvas.Instance.SetContentControl(play);
}
}

2) Add these methods to you game.cs file. You can do whatever pre and post setups necessary for you game.
Again these are mainly from the PlatformerDemo project.

/// <summary>
/// Delegate callback when the game's level data has finished being deserialized.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sceneFile">The filename of the level data.</param>
/// <param name="scene">The level data object containing the deserialized file.</param>
public void OnSceneLoaded(string sceneFile, TorqueSceneData scene)
{
// set the parallax manager's target object
T2DSceneCamera camera = TorqueObjectDatabase.Instance.FindObject<T2DSceneCamera>("Camera");
ParallaxManager.Instance.ParallaxTarget = camera;

// set the scene graph
_sceneGraph = camera.SceneGraph as T2DSceneGraph;

//jump to the new play gui instead of the default sceneview
_playGui = new PlayScene(camera);
}

/// <summary>
/// Delegate callback when the game's level data is being unloaded.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sceneFile">The filename of the level data.</param>
/// <param name="scene">The level data object containing the deserialized file.</param>
public void OnSceneUnloaded(string sceneFile, TorqueSceneData scene)
{
//jump to the new play gui instead of the default sceneview
T2DSceneCamera camera = TorqueObjectDatabase.Instance.FindObject<T2DSceneCamera>("Camera");
_playGui = new PlayScene(camera);
}

3) In your game.cs in BeginRun add in the lines of code to attach the OnSceneLoaded and OnSeneUnloaded events.

protected override void BeginRun()
{
base.BeginRun();

// set the callback events for load and unload
SceneLoader.OnSceneLoaded = this.OnSceneLoaded;
SceneLoader.OnSceneUnloaded = this.OnSceneUnloaded;

// load the test level
SceneLoader.Load(@"data\levels\sample_level.txscene");

// initialize the sound system
InitSound();

// game start
_gameStart = Time;
}


In doing the following I now can toggle between the test scenes I have created with not apparent issues.
The real test begins when I start to incorporate the game scenes I created which are somewhat more
complexed. If there are any issues with this approach these scenes should flush them out.

Please do you own testing and send feedback. The PSK is a nice to have but without the levels
loading and unloading functionally the kit does not seem like an attrative option for game development.

Victor