Custom cursors

[Zoo]

I read somewhere GM can have custom cursors for games. How does this work? I want to have a gun-scope crosshairs for a game I'm making.

[Connors]

I know there are some default cursors, like direction arrows or a hand etc., but I don't know that there's a way to customize them.

[Silverwind]

It involves replacing the resource files I think. I can't remember how though, as I've never done it before.

[GMG Mike]

You can use Rezilla to customize the cursors. It's an old PowerPC program but it will run on new Macs with Rosetta. OS X will automatically download Rosetta if you don't already have it installed.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/rezilla/

Check the GameMaker Read Me file for more information on how to install the custom cursor.

[Zoo]

thanks, anyone know how to put them in a game?

[Silverwind]

Here's the instructions from More Notes (packaged with Mac GameMaker):

----- CREATING CUSTOM CURSORS -----
You can create up to 10 new cursors to use in your game. Use ResEdit or other resource editor to create "crsr" resources. Put the resources in your project file. Don't put them in the GameMaker application. Make sure the game is not open in GameMaker while you are adding cursors or they will not be displayed. In ResEdit, use "Get Resource Info" in the "Resource" menu to name and renumber the cursors. The new cursors must have a name for them to show up in GameMaker. The resource ID numbers must start at 1010 and continue with 1011, 1012, and so on for as many cursors as you create.

[Zoo]

Ok, you got me. What the heck is ResEdit? lol

[Gan]

A resource fork editing application.

[Al Staffieri]

Ok, you got me. What the heck is ResEdit? lol

As Mike said you can use Rezilla in place of ResEdit (ResEdit does not work on new Macs). Open your game in Rezilla. In the Resources menu select New Resource. For resource type put crsr. For ID put 1010. Then enter a name for the cursor. Then press Create and you'll get a window to draw a new cursor. Then save and that's it. It will be available in your game.

[Zoo]

Sweet!
EDIT: That works. OMG This will be so useful. How do you change it's size?

[GMG Mike]

Sweet!
EDIT: That works. OMG This will be so useful. How do you change it's size?

You can't. "crsr" style cursors can only be 16x16. You can draw it smaller than that but not bigger.

[Zoo]

Oh well. doesn't really matter anyway. the normal size is big enough.  

[Al Staffieri]

Depending on what you want, there are two built in cross hair cursors. You can try one of these.

SETCURSOR 2
SETCURSOR 3

There are also some cursors I made at:
http://alstaffieri.com/gmaddons.html#cursors

You can open that file with Rezilla and add them to your game. Thyere is a crosshairs cursor in there.

[Zoo]

those are pretty good.

[GMG Kurt]

This block of code also works for changing the arrows, and is much simpler, and doesn't conform to arrow size constraints.
It can also act as a sprite for use in Avoider games

(make sure to check the loop script option)
SETCURSOR -1
REPEAT 100
  SPRITE 1 MouseHorz MouseVert  file.gif
END REPEAT

There are only two things wrong with it.

changing the repeat variable to a lower value will cause choppier movement, because of the loop script code, and the number (even as small as 100) will cause a delay with other commands being executed, since the repeat command has to run through

The setcurser command, using negative numbers doesn't seem to work on my computer, maybe on yours. I don't know