Question

Generally, message boxes work like this:

if(ShowMessageBox("Title","Text",MB_YES_NO) == MB_YES)
{
   //the user responded yes
}

However, I’m working on a game where I have made the gui system, and when a messagebox is shown, there is still animation happening in the background so I cannot simply block the thread, the animation would stop.

Right now, the way it works is to show the message box, an IMessageHandler* must be provided and it is called with the dialog result.

I’m wondering if I’m overlooking something. Is there a better way to do this that might resemble more how it is usually done. How might other games approach it?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are multiple options, e.g…

1. Create a View-Model class that the message box reads from (title, message, button text) and writes to (result prior to closing), pass the VM to your message box before displaying it, then read result from VM after close.

   (A better technique would to use a command pattern or place an event on the message box instead of passing VM to message box, then within command/event handler update VM).

2. Use a command pattern or an event to pass result from message box (prior to close) directly to caller (or to view model).

3. Use a show dialog style call to message box (blocking), however, do that on a separate thread, then write results to a place where main thread can read from.