How to use the "Actor.create" function in Scaleform

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to autopopulate a menu with buttons using the "Actor.create" function, but I'm getting a little confused as to how to implement it.  If I have a prototype of the object I'm trying to replicate, how do I access it using the create function?  It accepts a parent container, and a table.  How to do I feed the prototype object in as a table?

[dan.matlack]

Hi biotic,

'create' makes a new Actor, can add to the parent and can create any child components. There is some documentation here at Scaleform Studio help :

chrome-extension://hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd/nhc.htm#url=http://help.autodesk.com/view/ScaleformStudio/ENU/?guid=__lua_ref_obj_scaleform_Actor_html

I will also check with the team and see if we can offer any specific help on this for you. 🙂

[dan.matlack]

Also, could you explain what you mean by 'prototype object'?

[Anonymous]

I mean an object I've already created in the scaleform scene, like a button.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying the "scaleform.Actor.load("filepath")" function instead now, since it seems to be a better way to do this.  The path can lead to a template Actor that's been saved previously.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the template to load, here's my code

 if (e.name == "MENU") then
        local newButton = scaleform.Actor.load("content/ui/simple_menu.s2d/Start_Button.s2dactor")
        newObjects[1] = newButton
        newPoint = {x=160, y= -60}
        scaleform.Actor.set_local_position(newObjects[1],newPoint)
    end

It's giving me this error

Test Engine / Scaleform Studio: Error: ...i/simple_menu.s2d/Scripts/main_menu_keyboard_handler.lua:179: Error attempting to load 'content/ui/simple_menu.s2d/Start_Button.s2dactor'

What am I doing wrong here

[dan.matlack]

The path should be relative to the scaleform project.

[Anonymous]

I guess this is where I'm stuck.  Do I put the full file path "D:/stingRay_projects/demo_one/content/ui/simple_menu.s2d/Start_Button.s2dactor" ?  Or is there some other path I'm supposed to be using?

[dan.matlack]

the file path should start in the directory where the ui project is. Make sense? so if your project is in "D:/stingRay_projects/demo_one/content/ui/" then the path would be "simple_menu.s2d/Start_Button.s2dactor"

[Anonymous]

That still generates an error.  Here's my code now

 if (e.name == "MENU") then
        local newButton = scaleform.Actor.load("simple_menu.s2d/Start_Button.s2dactor")
        newObjects[1] = newButton
        newPoint = {x=160, y= -60}
        scaleform.Actor.set_local_position(newObjects[1],newPoint)
    end

and here's the same error basically

Test Engine / Scaleform Studio: Error: ...i/simple_menu.s2d/Scripts/main_menu_keyboard_handler.lua:179: Error attempting to load 'simple_menu.s2d/Start_Button.s2dactor'

I'm unsure as to why it's still logging an error.

[dan.matlack · Accepted solution]

 if (e.name == "MENU") then
        local newButton = scaleform.Actor.load("Start_Button.s2dactor")
        newObjects[1] = newButton
        newPoint = {x=160, y= -60}
        scaleform.Actor.set_local_position(newObjects[1],newPoint)
    end

Above should be correct, that was my fault from previous post. It should be relative to where the project lives and it lives in the .s2d folder so you don't have to include that.