Request for help
 

Hello,

I have been going through the forums but I'm not actually sure what I am looking for so I was wondering if someone could point me in the right directions.

I am very new to making modifications and have started out with a little mod based on the pooka druid rings file. It's all working great so I have started to play with it a bit more. I would like to add an image to the background and maybe change the style of the buttons.

This seems to be where I am getting completely lost. I understand that the mod is looking at an image .dds file I have looked at these images and even had the UIbuilder open after reading a tutorial by Phipps trying to make some sense of it but I think this confused me more.

This is the part of the code that I believe I need to change but I am completely unsure of how to start going about it. I started changing the /WindowElements... more in the blind hope I could get it to do something and figure it out from there but nothing I do seems to change anything.

I have seen others use custom backgrounds on things so I know it's possible. Any help that can be put my way would be sincerely appreciated as I would like to understand this better.

Many thanks

Mistal

I'll use your third line as an example.
RStyleDefault="/WindowElements.DesktopWindowFrame.data.bkg.rect"
This is defined in Default\eq2ui_windowelements.xml (Line 68)
Each of the attributes points to an ImageStyle... such as "center". (Line 65-67) You can define these styles directly in your own XML file and then change the RStyleDefault attribute of your background element to match.

So RStyleDefault is the default RectangleStyle that the element will use. A RectangleStyle can consist of one or more ImageStyles. You'll at least want to include a center ImageStyle for your RectangleStyle. Defining each of the eight outer edges to something different is up to you. An ImageStyle has an ImageFrame child element which defines the image to use and the part of the image to use. (Source and SourceRect)

A custom RectangleStyle can be within your root Page element and the ImageStyles should be peer elements.

Thank you for taking the time to reply :) That is starting to make a little more sense now although i think it is going to take me a little while to completely get the hang of it, I have only been trying to make mods for a few days so I'm still very green.

All help advice and pointers are most welcome.

Thank you again

Mistal

One further question..
 

I am having a lot of fun with this .. it is extremely challenging for me and I think I currently have the most messed up UI (colour wise) in game lol

I have made some great progress since one realisation hit me and have managed to get the mod to have different buttons and background. However the problem is that to change them i have to change the /commonelements and /windowelements file .. which obviously changes everything else in the UI also .. I have renamed the .dds file to MistalButtons then changed the filepath from Style="/CommonElements.PushButton.data.style" to Style="/MistalButtons.PushButton.data.style" but this doesn't change them.

Is there something i am forgetting to add or change?

Many thanks for all your kind help

Mistal

First off, if a style has a forward slash at the start of it, that means that it's a rooted reference. Meaning it starts from the eq2ui.xml file and navigates outwards. (This is why you have to open that file with UIBuilder or all rooted references to the default UI break)

If you make a new RectangleStyle, just put it in your custom XML file. Don't overwrite the default files or you know what will happen. In my previous post, I said to put this new style in the root Page element of your XML file. Afterwards you just reference the RectangleStyle by name. You can reference the style from anywhere within that window, not just elements that are peers of it.

Pretend that "some.dds" is a file in the same folder as your window file.

Technical Help
 

Thank you so much for your reply, it's a slow learning process for me but I am making progress each time :)

I have a technical question... I have searched for forum but either there isn't anything posted on the topic or I am not searching in the right way. but I would like to know if it is possible to add a delay / pause to something.

One of the buttons on my mod equips then uses an item, I would like to put the original item back once it has finished casting. but the cast takes 5 seconds. If you equip another item before it finishes casting then the cast get inturupted and cancels.

Is it possible to add code which will add a time delay of say 10 seconds then equip another item back into that slot? or /equip previous in slot 20 ... or something.

ONce again many thanks for your kind help with my little project

Mistal

There is no official way of putting a delay into things. There are... ways... but SOE does not approve of adding pauses to things.

Oops..
 

oops.. /scraps that idea then lol

Thanks for letting me know

I've put delay coding in a few of my UI mods... but it's not simple in the least. In fact it's a quick path to crashing the EQ2 client with either intermittent or perfect success. It's not a fun learning process at any rate.

It's more of the intent of the mod that is in question, not what is inside of it. As proof of such, I have these mods available on this site and Rothgar's opinion that they didn't look to be against the spirit of the EULA.

It might be too early for you to jump into UI scripting though. It's far more complicated than just using EQ2 commands.

/definately throws that idea out .. far too complicated for me atm I'm just having fun with my little beginner mod :)

I am starting to get the jist of what you are saying about the image files and i'm going to have another go at it with a fresh brain tomorrow.

I do have another question tho ... I would like one of my buttons to pop up another window.. I have tried a couple of commands and had a look at a few mods that have tabs and such on them but I think it made it worse. I have the 2nd window with the buttons on it all ready and saved in the profitUI folder I added the /includes line to the profitCustom file and put a command on the button OnPress= /show_window Custom.Mistals_Testfile, but nothing happened. Is the command wrong?

Thanks again
Mist

May be just a transcription error, but there is no "/" when calling a command from a UI handler like OnPress. So you'd want OnPress="show_window WindowPath.WindowName"

Yes sorry that was my bad I typed that into my last post rather than pasting it

here is what i have

The command template is:
show_window TreeLocation.ElementName

TreeLocation would be Custom since you're probably including your XML file in that file (or you should be).
ElementaName is the name of the top-most element in your file. The name of the file itself is irrelevant to the command. So whatever your page is called for your custom window is what you need as your "ElementName".

Thank you I have that working perfectly now :D

Still having real problems with changing the background on this little box tho, everything I do either doesn't work or breaks the UI .. gonna keep trying tho :)

A little bit more...
 

hello again..

Firstly thank you for all your help.. it is really turning my idea into an actual project :) .. but better than that one that actually works! lol

Currently my little mod is a box of buttons.. but I would like to to put a title at the top above the buttons something that says Mistal's Box for example.

I have tried various lines but all I seem to do is break my Ui .. is there some info that I can find out what I need to write here to make my text appear?

Thank you again

Mist

Look at some text in any other window. In a nutshell, you add a text object, give it a name, assign it a font style, and set the LocalText property.

If you use UIBuilder, yeah. Just fill in the Text field on the Text Object. LocalText gets filled in automatically.
All text needs a Style (font) to display. Most code doesn't make any guesses, and you need to define everything properly :) Though most applications do have "default" settings in various areas.

Oh thats brilliant.. it works great now .. it really helped to know what I was looking for in another piece of code. Found exactly what I needed. Thank you so much

You can change and add default properties for the UI builder if you so desire. the file is called defaults.cfg and is in the same directory as the uibuilder. I have all fonts and styles preset for each object so I don't have to fill them in when I add them.

:eek::eek:

You suck! :rolleyes: Thanks for the info though. That's extremely useful.

I can't see where you uploaded that file, though. Oh wait, you said you'd share it, did you?

Thank you for your replies guys, I sincerely appreciate all the pointers and help... I understood the you suck part.. and i'm pretty sure that wasn't at me lol but I am trying to learn ... mostly through trial and error .. with more errors than not .. but it's getting there :)

I still have a few things to work out.. particularly the images thing which is still causing me insane problems.. but I am sure I will get it eventually .. all that remains to be seen is how much hair I have left once I do.

Again thanks for everything, i'm sure I will have more questions coming :)

Mistal

Was DEFINITELY NOT aimed at you!! I was just saying Landiin sucks because I wish I had knew about the defaults file... mmm 4 years ago? :D (if it existed that long ago) hehe

LoL thats what I thought but I am aware of the fact that I am extremely new to all this ... that said although Im finding a couple of things quite challenging and one thing completely confusing ... I am enjoying the learning process :)

Whats causing this?
 

Hi,

I found something interesting when I started adding Text to my Mod Window. The mod window is no longer dragable around the screen. Any ideas what I missed out or what i need to add in.

This is what I put for the text line at the bottom of the page.

Many thanks

It looks like the size of your text element is pretty big. It could be taking up the whole window.

Some elements do not allow the mouse click to go through. To get around this add a property called: AbsorbsInput
And set it to: false

sorted ...
 

Yup that did it :) Ty very much!

My first Mod
 

I finished my first mod :D :nana:

It works great, and I am so pleased with it :) ... a couple of my friends have it too!

I would still like to change the background picture and seem to be having hells work with it. Is there a step by step on how to set up an image file and use it for a background? I have tried what has been suggested in this thread but I fear I just simply don't get it as nothing I have done seems to work . Any direction / info you could point me at here would be very much appreciated!

Thanks for all your help, I am now in the process of making my 2nd mod :)

Mistal

Maybe if you posted the files you want modified as an attachment someone would be willing to modify them correctly so you can see. I'm not sure what to add to my previous explanations. Maybe a photoshop mockup too since it can open DDS files with a plugin.

Ok I'll post one box with the image and button I would like to use, if someone would be so kind as to edit it for me I would be eternally grateful. I by no means expect anyone to do this for me, I really want to learn how to do it myself. but this will probably give me the references I need to be able to edit all my other boxes myself

I'll make the background image for one of the boxes .. I am assuming I should make the image the same size as the box and have it as a dds file .. correct? Same with the buttons?

Thanks again for all your help

Mistal

It depends on if you want the background resizable and how. Buttons will typically be different sizes, so this is more important.

You can think of a RectangleStyle as having nine sections.
123 1 is NorthWest
456 5 is Center
789 8 is South

The most simple way to create a RectangleStyle is to define section 5 and tell it to expand/shrink the entire ImageStyle.

The most complex way would be to define all nine sections with separate ImageStyles. Each ImageStyle can have the same Source DDS but different SourceRects.

Say you had a 12x9 image depicting a button. The button's image had a 1px border around the perimeter.

If you only defined section 5(Center) and you applied the RectangleStyle to a 120x90 button, the 1px border would be stretched to a 10px border. This would look pretty bad.

If you define all nine sections, you can say the SourceRect of #1 is "0,0,1,1", #2 is "1,0,11,1", #3 is "11,0,12,1". This will cause the two corners to always be a 1x1px image. The top edge(2/North) will always be 1px high but expand to be 118px if needed(and NorthStretch is set to true).

I might be rusty on creating SourceRects... so the above examples might be slightly off.

Ok cool .. I am gonna give it a few more goes before I post anything here, because I really would like to figure it out .. I understand about the rect pointing at a particular location / area on the dds file this doesn't seem to be the problem I have various graphics programs that tell me what the sourcerect is on the image.. the problem I am having is on the mod itself .. it doesn't seem to want to look at anything except the default :confused: I have even tried just making a completely red layer over the top of the image template so the whole thing was red everywhere and had it point to that file .. but again it doesn't work

It seems everytime I point it away from the default it either breaks or does nothing. It's oddly ironic that this is the problem I am having as usually graphically I am quite good .. but with this the graphics are causing me the technical problem not the code LOL

I am going to play with it a little more .. i still have some hair left :)

Thanks for all your advice and help

Mistal

Having Same issue as Mistal
 

Hiya guys;

After messing with this for few days I just can't seem to wrap my senile old mind around the syntax or something.
I was wondering if I could get a small example mocked up?

What I am trying to do is set the background. I think I have the buttons figured out now, but can't seem to get the background to accept any image other than the defaults or none at all.

That is what I have done so far. I tried to strip it down to absolute minimum so I could see what was going on. Unfortunately I know way too little about XML to read all the examples with extra code in them. Hopefully seeing this done correctly will clue me in to the formatting style I need to use. Eventually I intend to put buttons and such in here, but for now just want to understand the basics.
(btw Button1_0.dds is just a image to test with :) )

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(lol, don't tell Mistal I had to ask for help she will never let me live it down. J/K)

lol Mao .. Busted! :P

I haven't made any progress in this area either .. but i'm still trying :D

Here's a working example of adding a RectangleStyle to a background while defining all nine sections and an arbitrary Page where only the Center is defined.

Extract to some Custom UI folder and view with: /show_window Custom.BW

Thanks :)
 

Thanks this should help me get my head wrapped around the idea here.
Mao

Uploaded
 

Hi :)

I have uploaded my mod to the misc downloads section. This is the one that I am hoping to change the background of. I am still haven't no luck with this yet. Although I have downloaded teh file that you have posted above and I am going to have a look at that too :)

If you have a moment and can look at my mod perhaps something in there is stopping me from changing the background.

I am off to have another go at the background.

Mistal x

Ok the fantastic news is that I have managed to put a different colour on the background of my mod.. the bad news is I have no idea how i just did it :eek: but that file seems to have started me in the right direction :)

Ty .. gonna keep plugging away at it.

One quick question ... I opened the DDS file changed the background colour because it was black which is the original colour of the mod. When i resaved it it said something about an alpha channel. What is that doing ?

In b-w.dds, the alpha channel was untouched. I think I had saved it as 8.8.8.8... so while there is an 8-bit alpha channel, I didn't edit it... so it should be fully opaque. Saving it without an alpha channel probably won't have an effect.

Hooray!
 

Well I am managing to change the background all over the place now, I still haven't quite worked out how i am doing it but so far I have managed to put a pictured background on the mod (the quality is really poor tho it keeps pixilating) and also had a transparent background with a pretty frame.

Going to try and make my own custom frame and background and give that a go

Mistal x