Drawing order issue. Easy to reproduce

[dsrf]

Hi everyone.
I’m having trouble drawing a label in front of sprites.
It is easy to reproduce. Just open NewRendererTest.cpp (official cpp test source code)

And add these lines:

LabelTTF* label = LabelTTF::create("Cocos2d-x", "Arial", 42, Size(0, 0), TextHAlignment::CENTER, TextVAlignment::TOP);
label->setPosition(40, -20);
label->setLocalZOrder(30);
parent->addChild(label);

in method:

void NewSpriteTest::createSpriteTest()

Just before:

parent->addChild(child1);

The text is rendered behind the sprites. Shouldn’t it be in front?
Using label->setGlobalZOrder(30) does’t work either (although it does work for the sprites… strange!)

The only way drawing in front is adding to the parent node the last.
But I’d like to alter the z order.
Why doesn’t setLocalZOrder work?

I’m using v3.17.1.

Thank you!

[slackmoehrle]

parent->addChild(child1);

I dont’t use setLocalZOrder() very much at all. Are you still having trouble with this?

[dsrf]

Yes.
I just need a way to reorder the depth of sprites and labels. Not the order in which they are created.
Any approach would be fine. But I haven’t found a way yet.

How is it supposed to be done?

[slackmoehrle]

Perhaps our docs don’t cover this enough. I will see where I can add text to improve this.

but have you tried:

addChild(sprite, 0);
addChild(label, 1); 

and then reverse it to see the difference?

addChild(sprite, 1);
addChild(label, 0); 

and you can make these numbers up, technically.

addChild(sprite, 98);
addChild(label, 99); 

addChild(sprite, 40);
addChild(label, 39); 

[dsrf]

Just tried. The label is always behind.

In fact, I tried with the already created sprites in the official cpp test NewRendererTest:

parent->addChild(child4,30);
parent->addChild(child5,29);

But the child5 is always in front of child4.

[slackmoehrle]

it works for me in a skeleton app running cocos new.

[dsrf]

Strange… I will do more test.
This is what I’m getting.

Could you try this particular test? Just do a simple change and recompile the cpp tests.
Just to know if there’s something less obvious in my setup.
Thank you

[slackmoehrle]

SortAllChildren()??

[dsrf]

SortAllChildren() was there originally.
Rememeber that this code is part of the official cocos2d cpp tests.

If I comment that line, nothing seems to change.

[slackmoehrle]

Rememeber that this code is part of the official cocos2d cpp tests

I’m not sure why you are stuck on this fact. cpp-tests is just a set of code we use to test the functionality of the engine. Why not create using cocos new and try the code I showed you. You aren’t going to start from cpp-tests. I will try the test you mention though.

[slackmoehrle]

ok, I looked at the same test you are using and I don’t have a call to parent->sortAllChildren()

[slackmoehrle]

ok, using just the default code, this is what I see when I run test 55 in cpp-tests, code unchanged:

Now, I changed the code to look like this:

parent->addChild(child1,7);
parent->addChild(child2,6);
parent->addChild(child3,5);
parent->addChild(child4,4);
parent->addChild(child5,3);
parent->addChild(child6,2);
parent->addChild(child7,1);

Notice the order did change:

[dsrf]

Yes, sorry, sortAllChildren was added later while testing.
Anyway, it doesn’t solve the problem.

The reason why I’m using cpp-test is because I’m getting the same problem in my game.
I wanted to find a way to reproduce the issue. This way it is simpler to report and test by others.

As you can see, using depth parameter in addChild doesn’t work, but global Z does work (but it doesn’t for labels…). Could you try if this is the behaviour for you also?

[slackmoehrle]

You are asking me to test code that you added to the cpp-test while telling me it doesn’t work.

I showed you it does work in my screenshots.

and it works with labels too.

auto label1 = Label::createWithTTF(TTFConfig("fonts/arial.ttf"), "Testing order");
label1->setPosition(10.0f, -20.0f);

parent->addChild(child1,7);
parent->addChild(child2,6);
parent->addChild(child3,5);
parent->addChild(child4,4);
parent->addChild(child5,3);
parent->addChild(child6,2);
parent->addChild(child7,1);
parent->addChild(label1, 10);

[dsrf]

Sorry, I didn’t see your last message before posting mine.

This is strange. I will investigate further, and write back if I find the issue.

Thank you for your help!