Some questions about dialogs

[Br3akth3w1nd]

Is there a way to anchor the dialog at X and Y on the screen?
Is there a way to exactly detect where to put dialogs on the screen? Its really hard to gamble (talk about time consuming).
What could be the cause of super lag (like 1 to 3 second freeze) on unit death? (happens only at the first unit that dies). I've checked my triggers and its not their fault, 95% sure.
I am unable to make a stalker missile impact effect on an unit. I think I've tried everything. Attach actor, attach model... Here is what I've got in the trigger editor right now (not working tho):
Actor - Attach Stalker Attack to Head on (Killing unit)
Actor - Attach Stalker Attack Missile to Head on (Killing unit)

And a question specially to Dr Super Good - May I credit you in my map? I could even advertise a map of yours. Since I got many questions answered here and you've helped me a lot. My map is about a planet under attack by alien super-hybrids. There are 2 teams that both want to save it, but the 1st team wants to destroy the Hybrids, and the second team wants to control them. There will be a third hidden option, that both teams can access and ally against the evil. Waves of zerg + hybrids will attack the friendly lines until everything is destroyed. To win the game, one of the teams have to gather 21 000 minerals to build a cannon or a controller in order to destroy/control the hybrids. The terrain is not nearly done, there are a lot of things missing but soon it will be ready. Here are a few screenshots of my map uploaded in imageshack:
Normal - http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/373/sc22012062620410277.jpg
After heavy damage taken while shields are down - http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/880/sc22012062620413151.jpg (I am firing both weapons in this one)

 

[Dr Super Good]

Is there a way to anchor the dialog at X and Y on the screen?

When are they not anchored? I play full screen all the time but I am guessing this is a problem when resizing the game client in windowed mode. As far as I am aware there is no work around due to the pixel space coordinate system.

Is there a way to exactly detect where to put dialogs on the screen? Its really hard to gamble (talk about time consuming).

The problem is the position is resolution dependant so that some dialogs might appear fine at 1080p but be out of bound on lower resolutions like 1680*1050. I really do not know why Blizzard did not use vector space for dialogs like most programs do now days.

What could be the cause of super lag (like 1 to 3 second freeze) on unit death? (happens only at the first unit that dies).

Poor hard disk read performance. The art has to be read from disk the first time a unit dies and this takes time that is noticeable by humans. Subsequent deaths read the art from the file cache or even an internal game cache so are many orders of magnitude faster. There should be trigger script actions to force the preloading of art during a time it is not game critical so when the art is required it will not force the game to drop frames while it is loaded. Additionally this problem will fade in time as solid state drives become more common (already they are only 4-6 times more expensive than mechanical disks).

I am unable to make a stalker missile impact effect on an unit. I think I've tried everything. Attach actor, attach model... Here is what I've got in the trigger editor right now (not working tho):
Actor - Attach Stalker Attack to Head on (Killing unit)
Actor - Attach Stalker Attack Missile to Head on (Killing unit)

You will need to make specific actors for this. The stalker impact effect actor that is used by the standard game is probably only suited for use with the stalker weapon effect chain.

And a question specially to Dr Super Good - May I credit you in my map?

If you feel it is necessary. It is your map and my help is generally given unconditionally so it is entirely up to you if you want my name there.

I could even advertise a map of yours

Sounds great! Now if only I had a map... lol.

 

[Br3akth3w1nd]

Bad news about the resolution, I guess my map would be played only in 1980x1020 (or maybe 16:9 aspect ratio). Anyways, I fixed the stalker impact! But, are you sure about the unit death? I've never had this problem with any other map. There are triggers for Preloading, but they are too time consuming as I will have to make a trigger for each unit animation. And hopefully it will work after that.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

I use dialogs rarely but the more thinking you do, the less you will have to use time to figure out and Test map. Things you want to consider - video resolution with which you play the game, create Dialog in the Center, put text as a label, start any buttons you want to do 50-70 or 100 offset Y to not make the buttons starts on the label and cover each other.,

When creating buttons best is to start them from the same position and just gradually increase the offeset, e.g Start a Button from Top Left 50,100 (50 to make the button a little on the right and not on the very edge of the dialog window, 100 for putting it below the Label of the dialog and not to cover each other)

Your next buttons would be e.g if 1st button starts 50,100 and you make a button with width 50, make 2nd button start e.g 50 (the offset where your first button starts) + 50 (the width of your button) +30 (so that the next button starts 30 distance after the 1st one ends) (X Position),100 (Y position). So like 2nd button 130 offset, 3rd button e.g 30 distance + 50 width + 30 distance, 110 so add 110 to the 130 = 240 offset, if you imagine how the distance should be use MS paint to depict it, you can do all the buttons and dialog from 1st try.

 

[Br3akth3w1nd]

I use dialogs rarely but the more thinking you do, the less you will have to use time to figure out and Test map. Things you want to consider - video resolution with which you play the game, create Dialog in the Center, put text as a label, start any buttons you want to do 50-70 or 100 offset Y to not make the buttons starts on the label and cover each other.,

When creating buttons best is to start them from the same position and just gradually increase the offeset, e.g Start a Button from Top Left 50,100 (50 to make the button a little on the right and not on the very edge of the dialog window, 100 for putting it below the Label of the dialog and not to cover each other)

Your next buttons would be e.g if 1st button starts 50,100 and you make a button with width 50, make 2nd button start e.g 50 (the offset where your first button starts) + 50 (the width of your button) +30 (so that the next button starts 30 distance after the 1st one ends) (X Position),100 (Y position). So like 2nd button 130 offset, 3rd button e.g 30 distance + 50 width + 30 distance, 110 so add 110 to the 130 = 240 offset, if you imagine how the distance should be use MS paint to depict it, you can do all the buttons and dialog from 1st try.

Yeah, I figured that changing the offset by 10 changes the dialog position by like 8 to 10 pixels. Its kind of confusing