I don’t know if this request should go here or somewhere else.
As someone who has recently entered the programming world, I sometimes find it difficult to digest some concepts of certain API’s or whatever. One way or another I solve my problems and doubts, either by reading docs, asking for help at the forums, reading code, etc…
Still, I haven’t got my head around the Storyboard API yet. Maybe it’s just me, but i feel that there’s a lack of deeper tutorials and documentation about storyboard, focusing on begginers, and that some things are supposed as known by everybody.
To sum up, I still have problems implementing storyboard and I believe that with a more extent or detailed tutorial those things will be solved. No more need to constantly ask at the forums or hours of headaches try to figure out what’s wrong. I believe i’m not the only one with this problem.
Thanks everybody for taking your time to read. [import]uid: 105206 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 321167[/import]
Well if it’s any consolation, I think I’m pretty skilled with Storyboard and there is still a lot of black magic going on.
An app I’m working on I setup a runtime enterFrame listener during the enterScene event and I remove it in the exitScene event, but it’s still running after the page transitions and I have no clue why.
Storyboard is only a few months old and we are all still learning it, so probably the best thing is to keep asking questions and as some of us who write tutorials from time to time will eventually get more done.
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 83827[/import]
nml - Storyboard is easy concept to understand but implementation brings up weird behavior, which is difficult to resolve. Truth be told, it was kinda disappointed how this was released by corona team in such a hurry with all these issues.
Imagine telling your client that you cannot support transition because storyboard has issues with transitions. It’s more frustrating because many of us left rock solid Director class module to use storyboard and landed into issues. I just finished my app using storyboard and had last minute headaches to integrate storyboard. Was able to finally finish up the app with some known limitations to the appstore.
I am seriously hoping that the team resolves all known issues with storyboard and makes it rock solid.
thx,
Bejoy [import]uid: 84539 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 83875[/import]
nml, I’d like to echo your sentiments regarding the storyboard API…
Ansca, if you provided a basic game sample (nothing crazy but something with a little more complexity than just “flipping pages”), that could go a long ways towards helping some of us get our heads around the finer points of the API.
Empirical experience indicates that there some glaring bugs within the system.
I’ve spent 3 days preparing to demo an app for a prospective client tomorrow and I’m going to have to show them something that doesn’t actually function 
Guess I should have used the director class? Bummer… [import]uid: 105707 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 86719[/import]
To clarify my thoughts:
The storyboard API should do “exactly what it says on the tin”
If it doesn’t, or if it’s not clear what it “says on the tin”, then I’d like an example that I can use to reverse engineer the functionality out of.
I’m exceptionally pleased with the Corona SDK but this is disappointing. Keep doing great work! 
[import]uid: 105707 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 86724[/import]
Hello everyone,
Thanks very much for your feedback on our Storyboard API. I want to come up with some tutorials to help you better understand how to use the Storyboard API, but first, I need to ask some questions.
First is, after reading through the already-published tutorial and FAQ page on the blog (both listed below), which areas mentioned in those two published pages are you having trouble understanding, or still aren’t clear?
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/11/introducing-the-storyboard-api/
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/11/common-storyboard-api-questions/
Please be as specific as possible, for example, if you were to say “I’m having trouble with loading scenes”, I’ll look and see that there is a Loading Scenes section of the first link above and not know exactly which areas need more explaining. I also don’t want to end up publish the same tutorial twice because that definitely wouldn’t help anybody.
Regarding the delay issue…
We haven’t forgotten about this one, and we’re working on fixing it. This will get fixed, and you’ll definitely know when the fix is available. Please be patient as this is priority #1 in regards to the storyboard API.
@bejoy: You mention strange behavior, do you have a specific bug casenum I can look at which describes the behavior in detail?
Also, if anyone is willing, could you post a reply to this thread stating where you think storyboard falls short (don’t bother mentioning the delay issue, that’s already priority #1 with storyboard right now), and what you think would make it the killer API you wished for.
Once I gather all your feedback, you can expect more storyboard tutorials
Thanks again everyone. We look forward to getting your feedback so we can improve this feature.
Best regards,
—Jonathan [import]uid: 52430 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 86768[/import]
Jonathan, overall I’ve found the tuts and docs on Storyboard pretty thorough, but two additional requests for the API it do come to mind.
-
Scene transition reference point. For some reason starting in one of the newer daily builds (definitely some time 707 or later) with identical code, the transitions such as flip and zoomInOut go from the top left of the screen rather than the center. Pretty much makes these transitions unusable unless there’s some workaround I’m not aware of?
-
It would be great to have an additional enterScene type of event fire before the transition to that scene begins and the screenshot is taken, if possible.
Glad to hear the delay issue is being worked on especially, I really enjoy the Storyboard API overall. [import]uid: 87138 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 87016[/import]
I am having trouble understanding how to have something in the screen group and another group at the same time. for example I want to have a car in a scene that can roll down the road and have the background scrolling. So far I have got the car working but I have it in a group called car and not in the screengroup when I try to insert it into the group it does not work. when I change scenes the car sticks around.
so how would I
- create an object with physics joints and put it in the screenGroup
- create parallax background and put it in the screenGroup
Thanks
Eric [import]uid: 47710 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 87033[/import]
Hi Jonathan,
Is that a known issue?
This happens between transitions, the image is upside down when rotating the simulator (happens with the Storyboard provided in SampleCode.
There are too many places (blog, api, forum…), I didn’t know where to post. [import]uid: 95346 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 87066[/import]
@MrMells,
Maybe I’m being too general but do you have your orientation settings configured in build.settings?
(sorry if you already checked that, it’s the first thing i tought of) [import]uid: 105206 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 87109[/import]
@MrMells Try to copy the code you have in the createScene function in another file (only a main.lua)
how is displaying that screen?
Sometimes I create a image in createScene and then rotate it in other functions (like enter scene), but for the storyboard transitions, the code your have in createScrene is the matter.
Hope it helps! [import]uid: 77881 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 87127[/import]
Jonathan, thanks for posting up on this thread and giving us a sense that this is an issue on Ansca’s radar.
“Also, if anyone is willing, could you post a reply to this thread stating where you think storyboard falls short (don’t bother mentioning the delay issue, that’s already priority #1 with storyboard right now), and what you think would make it the killer API you wished for.”
What would work best for me, is if Ansca created a sample game that employed many of the common features of the four scene events (create, enter, exit, destroy). For example, from the exit scene function, I think I understand how to “stop timers, remove listeners, unload sounds, etc.” but in practice I seem to not be able to get these types of functions to work. I would really like to be able to see a working app that does this effectively. I understand that you cant’ craft an example that covers every case effectively but these common tasks would go a long ways. If storyboard API is at the center of Corona functionality (built into the current templates, right?), we need a simple but solid game to showcase its functionality. I can find many examples of the Director class but Storyboard API is thin.
The storyboard sample does a very nice job of cycling linearly through 4 sample scenes. How would we set something up when we want a game “options” screne that you could go to from many different scenes in the game. I thought I had worked that out but it all fell apart on me as I more throroughly tested use conditions in my app.
On a side note related to my first post in this thread, I had a very successful meeting yesterday despite having had to “kluge” a solution together (one aspect of my work around was that I made 20 individual “options screen” scenes, one for each story scene, since I was having some hi-jinks related to managing my scenes with the create and exit functions). Previously I had been attempting to get work serving in more of a “project manager/game designer role” pitching concepts that I could build with a small team. Being able to invest in learning Corona and showing up with a tangible demo I built on my own was a game changer. My prospectie client said something to the effect “(despite many departments persuing apps) this is the first product I’ve seen”.
Hooray for rapid prototyping and rapid development. Corona is on the right path I think. Thanks. [import]uid: 105707 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 87148[/import]
I am having a lot of trouble adding and removing items to the sceneGroup from listener functions and other functions which are outside of the standard scene:createScene and scene:enterScene
Every so often I need to completely reset a lot of the objects on the screen and I have a function contentReset() at the top of the scene, after the first two typical lines of
local storyboard = require( "storyboard" )
local scene = storyboard.newScene() In contentReset() I delete some objects created in scene:createScene and add new ones. But they refuse to work with sceneGroup:Insert(), even if I declare the object names at the top of the scene file, as you have done in the samples…
In conclusion/summary:
I think a complex demo would be the best, as many others have suggested. In my particular case, I would like to see how to manage the creation and deletion of sceneGroup members outside of the initial create/enter scene functions.
Thanks for your efforts and help. We are waiting!! [import]uid: 112147 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 89526[/import]
I would like to see a demo or description of how deal with the following :
Game play is done on the default group/stage
storyboard screens for options /high scores etc.
When I try this, I run into z ordering issues. ie. any display objects added after storyboard = include “storyboard” are on top of the storyboards when they pop up
I realize that I can do the game play on it’s own storyboard but I have concerns that the storyboard “behind the scenes” code may purge remove the objects of the game play - which is paused while the menus are displayed.
any suggestions on this would be appreciated
Ken [import]uid: 112538 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 101412[/import]
Transitions using widgets in storyboard would be greatly appreciated, coming from one who uses this SDK solely for business apps. [import]uid: 110401 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 102423[/import]
I agree that an example of using storyboard for options/scores/resume/restart would be very helpful.
I’ve searched and have found bits and pieces, but a full example would be excellent.
Thanks. [import]uid: 70259 topic_id: 21167 reply_id: 115171[/import]