Build Menus

[Jonny5isalivetm]

Hi

I know this has already been posted somewhere on the boards but I cant find it anywhere...

Can someone link me to the Topic of Build Menus and where to Download ?

Many thanks

Jonny

[LOrDo]

Yes, but first you must bring me... A SHRUBBERY!

[Zydox]

Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z'nourrwringmm.

[Ishach]

If we're thinking of the same thread i think it was called "ctrlpanel.txt" in game lobby (?)

hope dis helps

[AF]

No I think he mans the tech tree, the sort in the modit or modinfo sites.

http://modinfo.unknown-files.net/modit/modit.php

[Jonny5isalivetm]

Hi All thanks for all your Kind Replies

*Jonny brings LOrDo a big fat Juicy SHUBBERY *

Would you like another Shubbery now ? :D

What I mean folks is ages and ages ago I somehow downloaded a new "build tree" when your in game the thingy you click on to build stuff see piccy...

The menu to the left..

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonny.watkins/current.jpg

[MelTraX]

This one?

[Jonny5isalivetm]

I found it :D

it is the ctrlpanel.txt thread but unfortunately the contents are no longer available

if anyone has any ctrlpanels please gimme a shout.

Jonny

[Ishach]

iirc the one included with BA is the same as the one in that thread

[MelTraX]

Well, this is my current file:

Code: Select all

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//  Spring Control Panel Configuration
//

outlinefont       1
dropShadows       0
useOptionLEDs     1
textureAlpha       1.0
frameAlpha         0.0  // use the GUI alpha if < 0.0
selectGaps           0
selectThrough        1

// newAttackMode     1  // enable attack by area selection
// attackRect        1  // use a rectangular selection
// invColorSelect    1  // use color inversion instead of tinting


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//  Extended 5x11
//

xIcons         5
yIcons         11
prevPageSlot   l0
deadIconSlot   l2
nextPageSlot   l4
xIconSize      0.0325
yIconSize      0.052

textBorder     0.003
iconBorder     0.000
frameBorder    0.000

xPos           0.000
yPos           0.16
xSelectionPos  0.018
ySelectionPos  0.115


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It's really not hard to understand.. Just change the values you'd like to change..

Note that I have a widescreen revolution and set the sizes so that the buildpics are squared.. So if you have a "normal" resolution they will look pretty odd.. Just tweak xIconSize and yIconSize in that case :D..

[Caydr]

Is it

A) Mod-defined but user-overridable, or
B) Useless

?

If a mod doesn't set something, regular end-users are too lazy to bother with, in my experience, anything.

[AF]

GUI apps to control this are really what the user wants.

Or drop in replacement files.

[Caydr]

You can post in the Spring chat anything you want, maybe 5% will even consider thinking about possibly entertaining the thought of trying it. You can post anything on the forum you want, but only 1% of Spring players actually read this. You can put anything you want in a readme, but you're the only person who will ever read it.

You'll get >1% of the playerbase using anything that's not mandatory, regardless of how good or bad it is.

Examples? How many people play anthing besides XTA/BA? They play XTA if they like XTA or are super lazy, they play BA if they get frustrated with not being able to get an XTA game going. Nobody plays nanoblobs for instance, regardless of its merits, because they're just too damn lazy. Maps are not AS bad, and the reason is simple - you can download any map in about 2 mouse clicks, thanks to UI integration. But even so, it's not easy to get a new map played, regardless of its merits.

I'm not a developer, maybe you have some clever ideas about UI integration for UI selection, I don't know. But frankly I can't see it getting used much unless it's mandatory with the option of switching to something different. The only reason I say, "with the option of switching to something different" is because I don't want to sound like I'm anti-competitive, but frankly even any option to change the UI isn't going to be used, people are just too lazy.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say, if there's an option to turn a new GUI off, there's a strong possibility that laziness to learn a new GUI might just be the only thing that will ever override a user's laziness to learn how to turn that GUI off.

[AF]

Users will change little things if it requires little to no time or effort. This si good UI design.

[Caydr]

This is not a product for Total Annihilation. This is a product for
the open-source Spring RTS engine: http://taspring.clan-sy.com

To install the mod, drop all the AA SDZ files into your Spring\Mods
directory.

To play, start up the Spring Multiplayer Client and either:
a) Join an existing Absolute Annihilation game, -OR-
b) Click Host, then choose Absolute Annihilation or one of its variants
as your dataset. I recommend you play the standard version while you
learn the mod, then start experimenting with the variants.

Please read the manual at least once. It's reasonably short and it's
got a lot of good information, not just a ton of legal junk. You can
find the manual in the "Documentation" folder.


<end>

To this day I receive emails asking where AA should be installed. One time I had an AA version that was an EXE self-installer. People put it in their Mods directory. The EXE file. Like, "Spring/Mods/AA_Installer.exe".

Be an optimist if you want. All I know is, people don't read anything and won't do anything that requires more than one click. That does not include double-clicks.

So can it be mod-defined, user-overridable or not?

[AF]

Thats just lots of people sending out conflicting messages.

[smoth]

caydr, download gundam, I have a control panel file in it.

The ui can be manipulated mod side and a user can overwrite it on their side. Which as you assume they likely will not do this, I feel that when the ice ui is done many players will have this overriding mod uis and I will comence bitching because that will break gundam which will one day it's own ui...

[Caydr]

Straight answer, thanks.

[MelTraX]

Most options in Spring can be changed by Lua.. Once IceUI progresses I will add an in-game options menu..

It will will probably be a menu button in the top left corner (like in so many games) which pops up a little menu with buttons to link to the widget selector (most likely also integrated with IceUI), the Tweak mode, an options screen for stuff like Shadows/Water/stuff, a save button once resync is implemented, a pause button.. All that stuff you have in most commercial games.. Hopefully those features will be used more often then.. This of course assumes that someday in the future IceUI will be enabled by default..

Smoth: You don't have to wait with the bitching .. I want to make IceUI configurable by the mod to a certain degree.. For example having custom resource bars defined in a little config file.. Or having detailed descriptions of units to be displayed in-game..
But I'm no modder and I don't know what you'll want to be able to modify.. Well, ofc you want to modify everything and you will be able to disable IceUI and integrate an own GUI but I don't think all mods will.. So it would be cool if some modders made some suggestions what parts of IceUI should be configurable by the mod (preferably in the IceUI thread but I don't know whether all modders check the Lua forum)..