Busy Pointer on screen

[AmiNju]

I write a little game on with Screens (without BlitzMode) - os friendly. Sometimes I need time to update the bitmap (draw things, etc.). In this time the user can't click on everything. How is it possible to change the mouse pointer to "busy" and after the action back to "normal"? NBusyPointer don't work.

[Honitos]

Unfortunetely you cannot change the mousepointer of the screen, you only can change the pointer that is related to a window. Do you have a e.g. backdropped window?

BTW, BusyPointer requires Kickstart/Workbench 2.0+

[AmiNju]

Hm...if I can't change the mousepointer for a screen, how can I change the mousepointer system wide (to Busy pointer)? Or is this not possible too?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by AmiNju

os friendly

OS-friendly means you have a window, otherwise you wouldn't be able to handle any input. Just use that window to set the busy pointer. If you don't have a window yet, just open one. A screen does not make sense without a window. In an OS-friendly environment.

[AmiNju]

What's the command to change the pointer in a window? I found WPointer but for that I need an own shape. But I want to use the system busy pointer.

[aNdy/AL/COS]

Create a shape, 'borrow' the system pointer image and just use the WPointer command?

I've always preferred the 'ZZ' pointer of 1.x to the 'stopwatch' of 2.x+ anyways...

[Honitos]

To set the busy pointer sprite, same as NBusyPointer does, you could use the Intuition function SetWindowPointerA_ ( http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD.../node03F7.html) that requires Kick 2.0.

The function requires a pointer to the current window that can be get via...

WinPointer.l = Peek.l(Addr Window(+window number+))

The taglist can be generated using the Tags()-function.


BTW, NBusypointer does not work as it requires a window opened with its own command NWindow.

[No.3]

Originally Posted by Honitos

To set the busy pointer sprite, same as NBusyPointer does, you could use the Intuition function SetWindowPointerA_ ( http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD.../node03F7.html) that requires Kick 2.0.

"V39" is Kick 3.0

[AmiNju]

Originally Posted by aNdy/AL/COS

Create a shape, 'borrow' the system pointer image and just use the WPointer command?

I've always preferred the 'ZZ' pointer of 1.x to the 'stopwatch' of 2.x+ anyways...

Thanks for your replies! I will test this next year. I need compatibility to Kickstart 1.3 for those who won't install the game to their harddisk and prefer to play by floppy disk.

[E-Penguin]

From the Amiga reference manual, there's a hint of how to do in for WB1.3:

/* data for a busy pointer.
** this data must be in chip memory!!!
*/
UWORD __chip waitPointer[] =
 {
 0x0000, 0x0000, /* reserved, must be NULL */
 0x0400, 0x07C0,
 0x0000, 0x07C0,
 0x0100, 0x0380,
 0x0000, 0x07E0,
 0x07C0, 0x1FF8,
 0x1FF0, 0x3FEC,
 0x3FF8, 0x7FDE,
 0x3FF8, 0x7FBE,
 0x7FFC, 0xFF7F,
 0x7EFC, 0xFFFF,
 0x7FFC, 0xFFFF,
 0x3FF8, 0x7FFE,
 0x3FF8, 0x7FFE,
 0x1FF0, 0x3FFC,
 0x07C0, 0x1FF8,
 0x0000, 0x07E0,
 0x0000, 0x0000, /* reserved, must be NULL */
 };

/*
** beginWait()
**
** Clear the requester with InitRequester. This makes a requester of
** width = 0, height = 0, left = 0, top = 0; in fact, everything is zero.
** This requester will simply block input to the window until
** EndRequest is called.
**
** The pointer is set to a reasonable 4-color busy pointer, with proper offsets.
*/
BOOL beginWait(struct Window *win, struct Requester *waitRequest)
{
extern UWORD __chip waitPointer[];
InitRequester(waitRequest);
if (Request(waitRequest, win))
 {
 SetPointer(win, waitPointer, 16, 16, -6, 0);
 SetWindowTitles(win,"Busy - Input Blocked",(UBYTE *)~0);
 return(TRUE);
 }
else
 return(FALSE);
}
/*
** endWait()
**
** Routine to reset the pointer to the system default, and remove the
** requester installed with beginWait().
*/
VOID endWait(struct Window *win, struct Requester *waitRequest)
{
ClearPointer(win);
EndRequest(waitRequest, win);
SetWindowTitles(win,"Not Busy",(UBYTE *)~0);
}

[E-Penguin]

OK, so this works in AB3, which has the "chip" keyword to force the section into chip ram. Tested on A1200, WB3.1, 8Mb Fast, and A500, 1.3, 500+500kb.

If just sets the pointer to the "wait" pointer image while that window is in focus. It could be cleared with

ClearPointer_ win

, or just clicking outside of the window.

One weirdness - in an A1200 configuration with Z3 RAM, it doesn't allocate the waitpointer image in chip ram after all, but somewhere up in Fast. So a more robust solution would be to dynamically allocate a bank in chip and copy the data in, but I leave this as an exercise to the reader. I guess something in AmiBlitz3 doesn't like the Z3 RAM.

WBStartup

NPrint "Hello World!"

FindScreen 0
Window 0,10,10,100,100,9,"SIZE ME!",1,2
*w.Window=Peek.l(Addr Window(0))
WindowOutput 0

win.l=Peek.l(Addr Window(0))
waitPtr.l = ?waitPointer

SetPointer_ win, waitPtr, 16, 16, -6, 0


Repeat
ev.l=WaitEvent
WLocate 0,0
NPrint *w\Width
NPrint *w\Height
NPrint waitPtr
Until ev=$200


End

Chip

Even
waitPointer:
Dc.w $0000
Dc.w $0000
Dc.w $0400
Dc.w $07C0
Dc.w $0000
Dc.w $07C0
Dc.w $0100
Dc.w $0380
Dc.w $0000
Dc.w $07E0
Dc.w $07C0
Dc.w $1FF8
Dc.w $1FF0
Dc.w $3FEC
Dc.w $3FF8
Dc.w $7FDE
Dc.w $3FF8
Dc.w $7FBE
Dc.w $7FFC
Dc.w $FF7F
Dc.w $7EFC
Dc.w $FFFF
Dc.w $7FFC
Dc.w $FFFF
Dc.w $3FF8
Dc.w $7FFE
Dc.w $3FF8
Dc.w $7FFE
Dc.w $1FF0
Dc.w $3FFC
Dc.w $07C0
Dc.w $1FF8
Dc.w $0000
Dc.w $07E0
Dc.w $0000
Dc.w $0000