I recently added an extended Label Component for the UDK Scaleform CLIK Components. 

xLabel allows you to set a maximum width to the dynamic textField of the Label. 
It also allows you to set Word Wrap to enable automatic wrapping of text if the font size changes.
Oh and you can also change the Font Size dynamically and if thats not enough you can set all options up through the Component Inspector !

:: Links ::

- Visit the xLabel Flash Scaleform Label class page to check for updates

- Download the xLabel Flash Scaleform Label class

The current version is 0.2b but this will not be the final version.

I plan on creating many varied and useful components for the UDK Scaleform and Flash development tools. The CLIK Component capabilities are really useful and really easy to extend.

I have been working on a new blog to cover my scaleform development and move away from external blog hosting. 

The first post is a Flash Cursor class I created for scaleform and UDK.  The class prevents the depth of the cursor from being overlapped by CLIK component dropdowns etc.

Any CLIK component that uses the PopUpManager class will create the dropdown to force it on top of anything else.  This cursor class keeps the cursor on top by creating it with the PopUpManager.

Visit the site at : Scaleform and Flash Development

You can download the file with this link : UDK Scaleform Flash Cursor

The skybox viewer is purely a way to display and browse the thousands of skyboxes that people make that get no attention for what can be hard work to create.  I know that writing the cubecross actionscript for the skybox gave me a few days of nightmares as I tried different techniques to get an 8-vert cube cross to display the lowest poly/triangle skybox I could.

In the upcoming release my flash skybox viewer will give you the ability to upload, share, browse and network with other modellers, artists and general geeks like me ( ).

I will be writing it for the 3 main 3d flash platforms but first release will be for alternativa 3d and flash player 10.

To-Do list

• google search page in place of current search engine (requires site to be indexed by google first)
• The site will need a login script for customer data and viewing admin only pages
• A data capture voucher system was advised would also be on the site
• URL REWRITE needs enabling
• Deals page needs creating and linking to
• Sitemap needs creating but will require URL REWRITE implementing

Completed tasks

• Receipt page needs securing via either a login or htaccess protected page ** DONE ** – 27/11/2009
• flash alternative to javascript banner implemented with SEO functionality ** DONE ** – 27/11/2009
• Transfer the site to the new webspace from test server and update hardcoded options ** DONE ** – 25/22/2009
• Mail script needs activating when site goes live ** DONE ** – 25/11/2009
• callback page mail script is sending wrong size image ** DONE ** – 20/11/2009
• option to use billing address as delivery required ** DONE ** – 20/11/2009
• items without roomshots need a way to show another image ** DONE ** – 19/11/2009
• magnifying glass enlarge image needs to be part of the link ** DONE ** – 19/11/2009
• products names in H1 tag require “tiles” or “basins” or “tile lights” adding ** DONE ** – 19/11/2009
• Shopping cart shortlist needs changing from product_code to product_name  but truncated to ensure text fits ** DONE ** – 19/11/2009
• magnifying glass style image to indicate you can enlarge the product images is required ** DONE ** – 17/11/2009
• livesupport needs enabling on the new webspace ** DONE ** 17/11/2009
• htaccess requires a rewrite to allow for trailing slashes and non-canonical URLs ** DONE ** 17/11/2009
• Meta tags needs updating ** DONE ** 17/11/2009
• Receipt/Invoice email links are hardcoded and will require changing when site goes live ** DONE ** 17/11/2009
• Checkout links are hardcoded and need replacing when site goes live ** DONE ** 17/11/2009
• Hardcoded URL’s needs to reflect new webspace ** DONE ** 17/11/2009
• Site updated into live space ** DONE ** – 17/11/2009
• Basins needs related item image to compensate for lack of product_codes type image.  ** DONE ** – 16/11/2009
• removeItem button on product page isnt catching the product_code of the last added item.  Might be best to change the button to redirect to shopping cart for individual removals. ** DONE ** – 16/11/2009
• LED lights added – image missing for T-Splitter ** DONE ** – 16/11/2009
• IE javascript works differently than in other browsers and needs rewriting ** DONE ** – 15/11/2009
• IE css fix needs to be made to ensure cross browser compatibility ** DONE ** – 15/11/2009
• Shopping Cart will need finalising after design and navigation is complete ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• Not all the tile lights are displayed ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• SL003Q size should be 305×305 not 305×350 ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• Missing Products — SS003F|400x400x8-12|Supp. 2|£18.37 || SG001S|406x406x10|Supp. 2|£52.90|| SG002S|406x406x10|Supp. 2|£50.60   ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• Artic Grey Granite – should be spelt “Arctic” and SG004F size should be 400x400x10 ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• The room shot for Vesuvio Grey Honed Basalt is incorrect – it is currently showing ST006 RS – Vein Cut Trav , the correct image code is SB001 RS. ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• Live support option is not yet on the site ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• Paypoint payment system needs implementing. (update : payment system working but needs a callback page to redirect the usr to after payment is accepted or declined. ) ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• Receipts page needs to accommodate new delivery address details. ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• live support needs button images for right hand menu. ** DONE ** – 13/11/2009
• **BUG** delivery prices not being passed through to payment gateway ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• alternate order method form details needs validating ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• add a link to each Basin product page to show the corresponding tile ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• footer :   registered address / company name need adding ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• remove all instances of “&” and replace with “&” ** DONE** – 12/11/2009
• remove “welcome to stone2tile” ** DONE ** 12/11/2009
• Add basin to basin products name ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• input text boxes that have default values should empty onfocus() ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• need to find a nice live support script ** DONE ** – 12/11/2009
• Payment gateway logo added to secpay page ** DONE ** – 11/11/2009
• Client Details needs expanding to cover delivery address and possible other questions. ** DONE ** – 10/11/2009
• shopping cart footer does not contain the usual footer content ** DONE ** – 09/11/2009
• Error form needs creating in case a product fails to pass the delivery postcode check. ** DONE ** – 09/11/2009
• SG002RS needed rebuilding from the original image at stoneworksltd.co.uk ** DONE ** – 09/11/2009
  
• Order process requires postcode choice for delivery option implementing ** DONE ** – 09/11/2009
• Paypoint does not allow free transactions so some code needs to be written to seperate the free samples from the real orders and deal with them seperately.  Probably by mail. ** DONE ** – 05/11/2009
  
• The category description font has been changed to that of the product descriptions, it was supposed to be the other way round ** DONE ** – 04/11/2009
• FSB logo not added * DONE ** – 04/11/2009
• product_codes/1024×768/ images need making for the lightbox popup ** DONE ** – 04/11/2009
• I am not that keen on the white buttons used for “Checkout”, “Empty Cart” & “Order Free Sample”. The same buttons are used for add & remove items but I know these are being changed anyway to a drop down version. Could these be made similar to the “Submit”, “Calculate”, “Confirm” buttons or the “Great Deals” button ** DONE ** – 04/11/2009
• Could we also change the “Subject” to “Telephone” and the message box to say “Message” ** DONE ** – 03/11/2009
• Also, can the boxes for Name, email & phone be made shorter but slightly deeper ** DONE ** – 03/11/2009
• Postal Address amended ** DONE ** – 03/11/2009
• Could we change the text you have put “Use this form if you do not have an email client” etc. to just say Send us a message in the same font as the “Contact us” ** DONE ** 03/11/2009
• Credit card icon logo added to footer below terms and conditions/privacy statement ** DONE ** – 03/11/2009
• User cannot add two free samples of the same product OR buy an item that they have ordered a free sample for.  An error message should show to indicate this ** DONE ** – 03/11/2009
• Free Sample does not reflect price on shopping cart ( ie. free sample order has the original item price) ALSO free sample is causing incorrect sums upon item removal ** DONE ** – 03/11/2009
• Privacy Statement and T&C needs placing somewhere on the page and also on the shopping cart page. ** DONE ** – 02/11/2009
• the remove item button does not need a quantity, it should just remove the total amount for that item ** DONE ** – 02/11/2009
• The total price is in bold but could the word “Total Price” also be in bold ** DONE ** – 02/11/2009
• The confirm button at the bottom of the page looks a little small, I like the button you have used for the delivery “Calculate” could it be similar to this? ** DONE ** – 02/11/2009
• Not keen on the font colour though (individual product listings/pcode=cat) and at the moment you need to click on the name not just anywhere in that box; can that be changed so that you can click on the image as well to take you through to be product page? ** DONE ** – 02/11/2009
• Font & colour for this description be changed to match with with range descriptions ** DONE ** – 02/11/2009
• Contact page needs cleaning up, has a bug and requires email/address/phone adding. ** DONE ** 02/11/2009
• Pls. Remove free sample request from Tile lights ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• Add onto end of the category description for tile lights “Manufactured & tested to IP67 standards” ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• Tile Lights product display misaligned due to large item name. needs fixing. ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• Word “delivery” removed from Free Sample image ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• Word “description” removed from product page ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• index.php?pcode=cat could use some images and css changes to reflect images ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• Redesign shopping cart according to sketch ** DONE ** – 29/10/2009
• shopping cart button is misplaced through the CSS on the shopping cart pages ** DONE ** – 26/10/2009
• Product descriptions need updating ** DONE ** -16/10/2009
• Free Sample order needs implementing ** DONE ** – 16/10/2009
• shopping cart callback page for successful sale needs building ** DONE ** – 16/10/2009
• product page needs some text to define square meters being purchased and work out the price based on amount selected ** DONE ** – 16/10/2009
• Product page needs tidying up and tile image added ** DONE ** – 15/10/2009
• The NO VAT FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY should be animated ** DONE ** – 14/10/2009
• ** BUG ** product pages have embed unordered lists cause irregularities and invalid markup. ** DONE ** – 13/10/2009
• Product images need to enlarge when clicked ** DONE ** – 13/10/2009
• ** BUG ** empty items in shopping cart was allowed to checkout. ** DONE ** – 13/10/2009
• Background image added ** DONE ** – 12/10/2009
• Receipt page needs creating to finalise order ** DONE ** – 04/10/2009
• Basin images need replacing ** DONE ** – 03/10/2009
• html receipt of invoice sent to client and s2t.co.uk in email and record stored for receipt functionality ** DONE ** – 03/10/2009
• Checkout button needs page building ** DONE ** – 03/10/2009
• invoice and receipt database needs building ready for automation ** DONE ** – 03/10/2009
• Checkout code needs to be ready to pass data to paysystem ** DONE ** – 02/10/2009
• * BUG * search engine has no output for zero results ** DONE ** – 30/09/2009
• Products page needs search choice design implemented (browse by cat or type) ** DONE – 30/09/2009
• Privacy statement page needs creating ** DONE ** – 29/09/2009
• Terms and conditions page needs creating ** DONE ** – 29/09/2009
• * BUG * trailing zeros on prices are truncated ** DONE ** – 29/09/2009
• *BUG* price on shopping cart does not display correct price when multiple items are in the list ** DONE ** – 29/09/2009
• LED lights data needs building ** DONE ** – 29/09/2009
• Basins and Led Lights are sold per unit not per sqm ** DONE ** – 29/09/2009
• *BUG* recently added products with double letters in name (ie. ss001ll ) dont show product image. ** DONE ** – 28/09/2009
• Not all the Basin Pictures are showing ** DONE ** – 28/09/2009
• *BUG* Basins product_desc has too much data (ie. Classic Travertine Mosaic Stone Verona 434×168 ) when it should just be the dimensions. This causes drop down list to not work with design. This also inhibits the variable basin data from appearing properly. It will require some database reworking ** DONE ** – 28/09/2009
• *BUG* DIV innerframe needs to stretch to fit content ** DONE ** – 27/09/2009
• combobox of item sizes needs to go into type&tid=1 pages along with link to product ** DONE ** – 27/09/2009
• Some of the colouring on the website is not as per Luke’s design ** DONE ** – 27/09/2009
• The Home, About Us etc buttons at the top are not yet as per Luke’s design ** DONE ** – 27/09/2009
• Clicking on the logo from any page should take you back to the home page ** DONE ** – 26/09/2009
• Images on individual product pages are not of good quality ** DONE ** – 26/09/2009
• *BUG* DIV innerframe needs to stretch to fit content ** DONE ** – 26/09/2009
• In the range section it shows prices range from 0 – ?. I would prefer it just said prices from (the lowest price) ** DONE ** – 26/09/2009
• On the individual product pages you have to select a size before you can see the price. I think it would be better if the customer could see all the prices for the different sizes ** DONE ** – 26/09/2009
• Search Engine needs implementing ** DONE ** – 26/09/2009
• * BUG * shopping cart addItem and removeItem functions need cleaning up to validate item selections for the list ** DONE ** – 25/09/2009
• shopping cart page needs remove item buttons per item for quick access ** DONE ** – 25/09/2009
• Minimum price range needs to be set on type&tid=1 pages ** DONE ** – 24/09/2009
• Product Item images for single items needs dynamic code implementing ** DONE ** – 24/09/2009
• *BUG* cart addItem button needs to pass data for item sizes ** DONE ** – 24/09/2009
• Shopping cart hidden itemid input value needs updating as SELECT box is changed ** DONE ** – 24/09/2009
• UPDATE database with new prices and sizes and change green/grey to just grey ** DONE ** – 24/09/2009
• Fix the item size combobox so the list is sorted in proper size and order ** DONE ** – 24/09/2009
• *BUG * pcode=cat&tid=BASINS and TILE+LIGHTS need an image fix to avoid mis-parsing image url ** DONE ** – 23/09/2009
• index.php?pcode=type&tid=1 needs css output ** DONE ** – 22/09/2009
• *BUG* index.php?pcode=type&tid=9 returns NULL tile lights **DONE** (temp fix requires original data) – 22/09/2009
• H1 tag CSS needs building ** DONE ** – 22/09/2009
• javascript image rotator needs implementing **DONE** – 21/09/09
• *BUG* ADDITEM cart button redirect should NOT move user from current page but should reflect the added item **DONE** – 21/09/09
• shopping cart needs checkout and empty cart buttons adding and the css of the buttons needs work **DONE** – 21/09/09
• *BUG* Header image needs hardpainted menu items removing **DONE** – 21/09/09
• Shopping cart hidden itemprice input value needs updating as SELECT box is changed **DONE** – 21/09/09
• Product page output for single item requires 1 large image + description + sizes + cart buttons **DONE** – 21/09/09
• Template needs rebuilding and all code injections need to reflect the new template **DONE** – 20/09/09
• Index product type listings need roomshot images replacing current ones then resizing to 130×130 **DONE** – 20/09/09
• *BUG* index.php?pcode=type needs to clone homepage **DONE** – 20/09/09
• AboutUs || Contact || Sitemap pages needs building **DONE** (sitemap requires URL REWRITE) – 20/09/09

I am pretty sure there is software already written out there so I wil obviously spending a lot of time learning the methodology in conjunction with the workflow that comes in daily.

This leaves me with no time to do any games development which saddens me but fortunately I really enjoy this work and the time constraints help me focus.  The other advantage of the system is the better i code a cms the more time I will have to work on games development.

:: Download link ::

http://forum.alternativaplatform.com/posts/downloadAttach/161.page

::  Source code ::

http://forum.alternativaplatform.com/posts/list/593.page

Sandbox editing for Crytek engine
Interface development with flash and scaleform
c++ coding and possibly lua

I will miss the level design side of things for the time being but once the interface is done I can get back to it with a better understanding of what i can do.

I will be posting my experiences with the crytek engine now and keep my notes based on what i do. I will define the game and tools I am using with categories.

So far I have my concept and I have begun greyboxing out the bsp. 

The concept is based on an abandoned mall scenario. 
The mall has 3 tiers inside.
Each tier has a row of shops that can be navigated for cover and pickups.
The mall centrepeice is a fountain that can be used to get a boost through the hole in the roof.
The roof is covered on both sides by two “facing worlds” style towers.
Each tower will have a teleporter to the top to access the “birds nest” sniper point but it will sound an alarm and a rotating/flashing light will alert the sniper in that spot he has a visitor.  This is to avoid the random shot in the back moments u get in other maps. I want the sniper to be able to fight for his spot. He has to come down for ammo at somepoint anyway.
The two exits to the mall (north and south) lead to a small blocked off street scene where you can get pickups and use the teleporter to the sniper point.
In addition to the deathmatch elements of the sniper towers they can be internally modelled to open up the layout as a small CTF map and also can be used for TDM with proper placement of spawn points.
The mall skybox will be low poly using basic nightsky and some distant buildings. This of course can be upgraded later. The direct surroundings of the mall are a parking lot and some extra demolished buildings.
Jump-pads give quick access to upper levels.
The shops have been gutted and holes in the walls, floors and ceilings have been made accessible for navigation through makeshift walkways.

Im gonna carry on with CTF-IronMountain to help build a portolfio and then do one more gametype based map for ut3.

As soon as I feel comfortable with that I plan on making my first game using the ut3 engine.  Its a simple concept so I dont need to get a whole team to create it but when the time comes I will look for one or two people to assist.

Wish me luck

Its been a while since I posted and since then I have diagnosed the cause of my ut3 crashes.  

It seems that patch 2 was what broke it.  It doesnt overheat my system or anything as far as I can tell (no alarm before reset) and patch 1 works fine.  I tried both the beta and official release of patch 3 and that didnt help. 

I read through the patch notes and the only thing I can see that would affect my pc was an optimisation they added in patch 2. 

All I can say is Epic Fail