Lost Scripts' Shapes Window (**New** BETA 4 PE+) for Moho 14.3+ Pro

[Rai López]

And I hope it goes well! Otherwise, there is always the previous one which may be more stable, although I precisely ended up releasing this so soon cause I wasn't experiencing issues, but well, deep changes, you know... So please, everyone take that into account and report any issue. Feedback about performance would be very welcomed too, as my old PC somewhat limits my possibilities to get a real idea. BTW, for anyone with BETA 4 already installed, this time there should be enough with just replacing/overwriting, starting from your CCF, this one file: "\Scripts\Menu\- Lost Scripts\ls_shapes.lua", which should somehow ease switching if necessary... Greetings!

[Greenlaw]

I took a quick look at the update. I haven't had a chance to really use it yet, but I have two comments. Both are mainly cosmetic, but the second one is more important to me...

1. The Info Bar at the bottom is slightly clipped.



I wondered if showing a Swatch would push it down lower, but this had no effect...



I don't have Moho's Large Fonts enabled, but maybe there's a Windows Display setting affecting this. Will poke around with settings when I have time.

2. The icons appear too small on my Surface Laptop Studio computer, so I tried enabling Use Large Buttons, but this has no effect. The GUI is usable on this computer, but it is hard to read. However, the size issue is a general Moho thing...I think all of Moho's button icons are too small on this computer. So, I'm mainly commenting about the Use Large Buttons option not working.

I don't know if these are new issues, so I may switch back to Beta 3 tonight just to compare.

I'm sure the button sizes are fine on my desktop computer with the larger display. Will check that later, too.

[Rai López]

Thanks for letting me know, Dennis, as due to that I can confirm that's exactly how it looks here if I set Scale and layout for Windows 10 to 125% with a display resolution of 1920 x 1200. I never change Windows scaling due to always had the impression that using 100% is like being in the the safe side, but of course I understand why in some cases it can be necessary, what I mean is that's why I'd never noticed that particular problem, although I've always been aware about the kind of similar display issues when using Moho's Use large fonts setting instead. The problem I've always seen with all this is I'm afraid is not possible (or not an easy task at least, specially for a script using so many tricks) to get the UI showing right in more than one scenario and that's where one have to choose, although I've always tried my best ensuring at least the UI is workable under Use large fonts one... Well, from now on I'll keep an eye on Layout scaling as well to see if something can be done on that regard as well.

Oh, but what I do see here are buttons enlarging as usual if I check Main Menu's Use Large Buttons checkbox and I'm pretty sure they are enlarging for you too, but remember large buttons only make buttons wider for providing extra clickable area and icons remain just the same, so maybe that's why (along with other widgets being bigger) you had the perception they didn't change at all? Plus, there has not been relevant changes that could make a difference on that matter between BETA 3 and 4. Take another look and luckily that will save you some time reinstalling the OLD and SLOOOW... BETA 3

[Greenlaw]

Hi Rai!

Thanks for looking into this. I haven't got back to really using the update yet, but I wanted to drop a few comments...

The Display Scale for my laptop is set to 100%. Like you, I found Moho's UI can have problems when the display scale is set to a higher level. For example, besides cosmetic issues, the Eyedropper for color sampling can get offset.

I also have the Screen Resolution dropped down from the 'recommended' 2400x1600 to 1920x1280 (the Surface Laptop Studio's screen aspect is taller than HD.) This gives me a usable size for Moho's UI on this computer, but it's not ideal because some UI items can still look tiny. However, everything else about Moho and Shapes Window's UI looks proportionately correct, and it's really only the Item Info line that looks offset and clipped.

Hmm...I wonder if I have my Windows Text Size set larger. BRB.

Ah! Yes, it's set to 125%, and when I drop it to 100%, Item Info line looks correctly placed. Setting the Text Size to 125% apparently wasn't hurting other parts of Moho's UI, but it's more noticeable in that area of Shapes Window because of the tight spacing.

Sigh! I would leave Text Size at !00%, except now the text looks too tiny throughout the Moho UI. This is not the fault of Shapes Windows; Moho just needs to be better about adapting to different hardware configurations.

Note: This is really more of an issue with smaller high-density screens, like on a laptop or tablet. On my desktop computer, I'm using 100% for both the Display Scale and Text Size, and a slightly higher than HD setting for the Display Resolution. I'll still check Shapes Window on the desktop tonight, but I'm guessing it's fine there.

On the laptop, I might try using Moho's built-in Larger Font Size option, but I believe this caused other UI problems for me in the past. Will let you know how it goes this evening.

Re: Shapes Window's Use Large Buttons option, some clarification: on closer inspection, I see the outer edge of the buttons gets wider margins, but the image size stays the same. Based on your comment, this is how it's meant to work, isn't it? I was hoping the whole button would get bigger, but I guess this is another general limitation with Moho's UI.

I'll spend a little time tonight tweaking the laptop's Display and Program Properties settings again, but I have a feeling I'm just gonna have to live with it for a while.

I've had issues Moho's UI scaling on tablets and laptops going back at least 10 years, but I'm still hopeful that Moho will get improved UI scaling across different hardware configurations. I know LM has done work under-the-hood for Moho 14, so fingers crossed.

Anyway, looking forward to really using this update. Will let you know how it goes!

[Greenlaw]

Quick follow-up: I enabled Moho's Use Large Fonts option and compared the results with the Shapes Window and Moho's UI in general. The option definitely makes both more readable on this laptop. The position of the Infobar in Shapes Window looks good...no more clipping and easier to read too. Yay!

Curiously, enabling Use Large Fonts has no effect on the text in the Moho Tools window.

I can't recall the problem I had with Moho's Large Fonts option in the past, so I'll leave it on for this laptop for now.

As a matter of fact, I'm just going to make all of Moho 'bigger' on this computer in favor of usability. The previous settings were an attempt to find a suitable display setting that worked for both usability with Moho and a suitable resolution for tutorial recording, but I'm giving up on the idea of screen recording while mobile. I'll reserve that task for the desktop computer at home.

Ok, now I can get back to actually testing the new Shapes Window.

[Rai López]

Ohhh... I wasn't aware (or didn't remember) there is another setting on Windows to only change text size, as much obvious as it sounds now... So, a third party in the mix, just what we needed . Although the effect here over Moho and the window seems exactly the same as the obtained by changing the setting under Scale and layout, but I guess the more settings the more unpredictability on final results. Anyway, I agree the less disrupting for Moho UI seems to be using it's own "Use larger fonts" settings if those problems in the past you comment be finally more "tolerable" than the others, because as I said, it'd be very hard try to get 100% consistency with normal mode when sometimes things just work in one by pure chance on it...

Re: Shapes Window's Use Large Buttons option, some clarification: on closer inspection, I see the outer edge of the buttons gets wider margins, but the image size stays the same. Based on your comment, this is how it's meant to work, isn't it? I was hoping the whole button would get bigger, but I guess this is another general limitation with Moho's UI.

Yep, that's how it's intended to work by design, and it is a system I developed to provide more clickable area (maybe more with graphic tablet users in mind than high resolutions) avoiding the necessity of extra image resources and... well, I kinda like it, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be improved in the future if at some point I had to back to UI.

Well, I hope you achieve the more acceptable look as possible in one way or another cause it's important to be able to work comfortably! And regarding other aspects, I hope the new improvements meets expectations... Greetings!

EDIT: Although the good thing about Windows text scaling is that it can be more fine tuned. For example, at 110% or even 115% things still seem to acceptably remain (more or less) in place, as long as that's sufficient to improve the situation somewhat, of course...

[Greenlaw]

...Although the good thing about Windows text scaling is that it can be more fine tuned. For example, at 110% or even 115% things still seem to acceptably remain (more or less) in place, as long as that's sufficient to improve the situation somewhat, of course...

Hi Rai!

Thanks for responding, and you're right: 115% makes my laptop text a little more readable, and Shape Window's Text Bar is not being clipped like it was at 125%.

Thanks for the suggestion! I wish the general text could be bigger still on this computer, but every little bit helps!

I am still hopeful that LM will get Moho's UI to work correctly with the regular Windows Display Scale in the future, but this will do for now.

I never change Windows scaling due to always had the impression that using 100% is like being in the the safe side...

Update: Hi Rai! Sorry, I don't wish to hijack your topic with UI scaling issues further, so I'm going to add one last note and be done with it here.

This morning, I played with the Windows Display settings again and found that I can use Moho with Windows Display Scale at 125% if I enable Override High DPI Scaling in Moho's Program Properties and set it to Application. This mode doesn't visibly affect Moho's UI, however, I discovered that it allows Moho's eyedropper for color sampling to work correctly with the higher scale setting!

I had previously dismissed the Application option because it didn't appear to change anything, but this eyedropper fix is significant! Anyway, I wanted to mention this for other users struggling with Moho and Windows Display Scale settings over 100%. (I'll make a separate forum topic with additional details, and record a video about this soon.)

Update #2: The above info is accurate but incomplete. Yesterday, I learned more things that may help anyone having Moho UI sizing issues. I'll post a link to a new topic with all the info when it's ready.

[Rai López]

Update: Hi Rai! Sorry, I don't wish to hijack your topic with UI scaling issues further, so I'm going to add one last note and be done with it here.

No, it's fine Dennis! Indeed I've learned some things and even took advantage of that text-only scaling Windows "fine-tune" setting after coming back from the swimming pool and having blurry vision for some reason I prefer not to know... I mean, even I still prefer 100% when possible, now I know I can make text slightly/enough bigger without practically any visual drawback in general and that's good news... so thanks!

Plus, I'm glad to know you made that finding about cursor offsetting at last! And, although I'm afraid it's not going to be possible to make enough changes right now to get the window looks just right under a 125% scenario, I'm making some tiny adjustments that hopefully will make it look a little better at least... Well, greetings and best whishes.

[Rai López]

Hi! Well, new BETA (v0.4.2) just dropped. As usual, check the first post for details and download links... Greetings.

[BigBoiiiJones]

Just wondering if you have a gradient on a shape or a soft edge is there anyway to have a option to have those settings be on the shape window where you can edit the settings/sliders in real time? I always disliked having to open the style itself to edit the gradient colors/type.

[Rai López]

Just wondering if you have a gradient on a shape or a soft edge is there anyway to have a option to have those settings be on the shape window where you can edit the settings/sliders in real time? I always disliked having to open the style itself to edit the gradient colors/type.

At some point I also consider try to cover Shape Effects, but the fact of not all effects and not all properties are exposed to Lua pushed me back... I think gradients are more exposed than others thought, and I've always wanted a better or more natural way to fiddle with them, but I always thought the best way would be just directly in viewport. Maybe something could be done taking advantage of what makes possible for the Shapes Window to interact with mouse clicks on it, by it doesn't sound like an easy task if even possible so, well, no promises but added to my notes... Thanks for the suggestion.

[Rai López]

Hi again,

Just a quick note to inform you that a hotfix was needed due to a small typo in the code.
If you already downloaded v0.4.2-beta4 and encountered Lua Console errors, simply re‑download the updated `ls_shapes.zip` from the release page or by clicking here and reinstall it — that should solve the issue.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you very much for your patience and quick feedback!

[Greenlaw]

Got it! Thank you, Rai!