Creating an overlay view ontop of EAGLView - iphone

I am creating a game using OpenGLES.
Game consists of a view controller and the EAGLView.
I have created another view controller that I want to handle the extra view that go ontop of the EAGLView so things like menu and options.
I have a call from the EAGLView view controller to the extra view controller that adds an IBOUTLET UIView to the appdelegates window however its not appearing. The methods being called but no view is being added.
Probably a really easy and stupid question but I cant work it out.
Thanks for any help in advance

Ok I have done it a different way.
I use a view Controller called GameViewController to load up and i add its subview to the window in the appDelegates applicationDidFinishLaunching method
Then i call a method to add another view controllers view (my open gl view) to the subview. This means I can then put other views over the top.
I don't know why i didn't do this before to be honest
Thanks for your help

Can you be more specific with this sentence:
I have a call from the EAGLView view controller to the extra view controller that adds an IBOUTLET UIView to the appdelegates window however its not appearing.
One approach is to use navigation controller that could be initalized with EAGLView controller as root. So, you can push and pop in navigation controller another view controller that handles the game menus.
Another approach is to present menu as modal view controller. This can be invoked with presentModalViewController: in current EAGLView controller.

Related

Custom view controller help

I'm a bit confused as to implementing custom view controllers. I have a view that I want to have slide down from the top of the window. The view has three buttons on it. When the button for the view to drop is tapped the view drops. And when tapped again the view slides up/goes away. I have the drop down view saved as a nib file. Would this be the best method for implementation? Or should I have the view in the main view's nib?
And could I get some direction on how I should set it up?
The usual pattern has each of the view's stored in their own XIB file and associated with their own view controller objects. You then alloc/init the new view controller and point it to its XIB and present it modally. Once its presented, its VC responds to its actions and interacts with the model and updates its own views. You can then dismiss that view controller and its views to revert back to the parent view controller.
I have noticed a pattern mentioned in SO where people alloc/init a child VC and then within their present VC they addSubview the newVC.view, but that just seems pretty unusual to me.
If you just have a subview that is being animated down to partially cover the screen, perhaps it doesn't warrant its own VC since, as I think I'm understating your usage, its actions would map to your current VC. In that case, I would either create its contents programmatically or just as another view in the XIB for your first VC and animate that down when needed.

Managing multiple UIViews from one UIViewController

I'm getting confused on view controllers and would love a straight example. Here's the preamble:
I have a UIViewController with a matching .xib.
By default IB gives me a single View in the Document window.
I can make it appear by telling my UIWindow to addSubview:controller.view and bringSubviewToFront:controller.view
Here's the questions:
Should I add another View to the ViewController in IB? Or is there a better, programmatical way?
How do I tell the ViewController to switch between the Views?
From the ViewController downward, what does the code look like to achieve this?
I'm trying things but just making a mess so I thought I'd stop and ask...
Note that every button, label, image, etc. in your main view controller is actually a view in itself, however I've interpreted your question to mean that you want to manage multiple full-screen views or "screens". Each screen should have its own view controller to manage it. So to get the terminology right, a view-controller is an object that manages a single full-screen view (or almost full screen if it's nested inside a navigation controller or tab bar controller for example) and a view is the big area managed by the view controller as well as all the sub-views (images, buttons, labels, etc.) within it (they are all UIView sub-classes). The view controller manages all of them on that screen, if you want another screen/page then you should create a new view controller to manage it.
The root view controller (the one you add to the window) can be a plain old normal view controller that you've designed in IB, however it's probably more useful if you use a navigation controller or a tab bar controller and add your designed view controller to that - then you can push additional view controllers as needed.
Another way (if you don't want navigation or tab-bar style) would be to transition to other view controllers directly in the main window using whatever transitions you like (or just replace the old one). We'll leave that for now though.
Any sub-views of your main view controller (the one you've designed in IB) will be automatically loaded from the nib file, but you can also add your own views programatically if you want (typically you would use one or the other, i.e. nibs or programatically, but you can mix and match if you want). To do it programatically, override loadView in the view controller and then call [super loadView]; then do [self.view addSubView:myOtherView]; (create the myOtherView first of course). Note that the first time .view is accessed on your view controller, it actually calls loadView to create the view, so inside loadView it's important to call [super loadView]; before trying to access self.view :D
To switch between views, using the navigation or tab bar controllers makes it very easy. So put your main view controller inside (for example) a navigation controller and put the navigation controller in the window, so you've got window->navigationController->myController. Then from an action method in your view controller (you can hook up the action methods in IB), for example when an "about" button is pressed do this:
- (void)doAbout
{
// Create the about view controller
AboutViewController* aboutVC = [AboutViewController new];
// Push the view controller onto the navigation stack
[self.navigationController pushViewController:aboutVC animated:YES];
[aboutVC release];
}
Note that the about view controller is created programatically here - if your about view is designed in IB then instead use initWithNibName:bundle: to create it.
And that's how you manage multiple screens.

Iphone UIViewController to UINavigation controller programmatically

I have been stuck on this for a few days now and it is killing me... In my viewDidLoad event, I am trying to programmatically add a full screen UINavigationController to a subview of my view controller. So far, I have only succeeded in doing two things...
1) Only a grey screen shows up
OR
2) I get something that resembles a navigation controller added to the view controller, instead of being my navigation controller from a XIB it is just a generic one... even though I loaded from the XIB. Oddly enough it is always shifted 25 pixels downward and slightly cut off.
I have read every single link on google and I can't seem to figure this out. I just created a new viewcontroller... added a UINavigationController to it... try to load that view controller and it messes up.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!
Instead of having the UINavigationController be a child of some other view controller, make the UINavigationController the root controller itself. The navigation controller is one of the special "container" view controllers, and it generally wants to own the whole screen and be at the root of the controller hierarchy (except in certain circumstances).
Try something like this:
UINavigationController * rootNavController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:myRootControllerInTheNavController];
[window addSubview:[rootNavController view]];
Which will obscure any existing views with the nav controller (those existing things will still be there when you -removeFromSuperview the nav controller's view). The nuclear option is to set your UIWindow's rootViewController property with the nav controller, but it sounds from your comment that this may not be what you want to do here.
Possibly a cleaner approach: If it accomplishes what you want, I believe you could also take your nav controller and present it modally (see docs for uiviewcontroller) from whatever the current view controller is. Set the transition appropriately, and while you're in the nav stack, the nav controller will be visible.

How do I push a new controller via UIButton, nested in a UIScrollView?

I have my views that are part of a tabBar. Each view has a navigationController.
In one of my views I have an embeded xib component. This is a scrolling view
with UIButtons inside it.
I want to slide in another view, inside the navigationController when a person taps the button. I can get the taps, etc.
BUT, I can't figure out how to find the controlling navigationController of that page to push the new view into. Nothing seems to work that I have tried.
IS this possible?
Thanks
You need to pass a reference to the navigation controller "down" your view hierarchy. Or pass another object that has a reference to the navigation controller "down". Or get the app delegate if it has a reference to the navigation controller.

Showing a view controller from an OpenGL view

I have created an iPhone application based on an OpenGL view. Now I
would like to show a "settings" form. Since my code runs in UIView, I have no pushViewController. How do I show a view controller on screen?
Thanks!
You can do this in one of two ways:
You can create a new view hierarchy, and then add it as a subview of your UIWindow when you want to show preferences. When you're done with your prefs, you can animate it out and then remove it as a subview.
You can switch to a UINavigationController/UIVIewController based hierarchy, and hook your current OpenGL/UIView to a UIViewController's view outlet. Then you can use all the regular UINavigationController based navigation stuff.