How to create HUD layer

[Joint]

As topic says, I'm trying to create HUD layer - a group of movie clips which are always on top of all other stuff, so a place where to put score, healthbar, ammo...The problem is that I don't know how to control the order of rendering or depth (Z-order). Any ideas?

[ImprisonedPride]

What I normally do is create each "layer" of the game as its' own MC, and then create an object to hold that MC to interface with it. For a HUD layer, I'd do something like:

HUD = {};
HUD.clip = _root.createEmptyMovieClip("hud", _root.getNextHighestDepth());
HUD.score = something;
HUD.lives = somethingElse;
HUD.health = somethingElseElse;

Then you can interface directly with this clip when say, the player loses a life:

player.lives--;
HUD.lives.gotoAndStop(player.lives);

Using objects isn't probably the best way to keep things sorted. The main point here is that you're only worrying about the depth of one group of MC's; the layer clips. You will probably only have 5-6 different layers in a typical game. Then when you go to add clips to these layer MC's you don't have to worry about depth anymore.

[Joint]

maybe an AS3 version, if I'm not asking too much?

[ImprisonedPride]

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Unfortunately, I do not code in AS3. Hope someone else answers your question. (The theory still applies, if you are using AS3 it couldn't be that hard to adapt it, could it?)

[TOdorus]

It's the order you attach children basicly. This is the same for AS2 and AS3. The latter children get placed on top of the previous ones.

var BackGround:MovieClip = new MovieClip()
var Actors:MovieClip = new MovieClip()
//
var HUD:MovieCLip = new MovieClip()
var Score:MovieClip = new ScoreClip()
var Lives:MovieClip  = new LivesClip()
var Health:MovieClip  = new HealthClip()
HUD.addChild(Score)
HUD.addChild(Lives)
HUD.addChild(Health)
//
addChild(BackGround)
addChild(Actors)
addChild(HUD)

[icezizim]

instead of using addChild(Hud); use addChildAt(Hud, 0);

the second parameter is depth. higher depths are on top of lower depths.

[tidenburg]

Or,

function foremost(obj:MovieClip) {
    obj.parent.setChildIndex(obj, obj.parent.numChildren-1);
} 

Use this function on the hud layer whenever you add a new child to the stage.