UI Switcher

ger · #1 03-14-2005, 12:28 AM

Well, the first half of this project took a lot less time than I'd thought. The second half, that's going to be a doozie though. Recursion, fun.

Anyway, the first half:

UI Switcher.

Installing: Unzip into your EverQuest II directory. (Not your UI directory or any subdirectory of it)

Using: Run the application. Select the UI you'd like to use from the left-hand list (details on the selected UI will appear in the right-hand box.) Click "Set UI". The switcher will automatically write your EQ2.ini for you and launch the EQ2 patcher.

The second half, in case you hadn't guessed, is going to be a UI installation utility that mod authors can include with their mods to allow for easier installation by users. (One that'll prevent users from putting UIs in places where they shouldn't be)

Edit: Forgot the ZIP. Oops!

***Dolby*** · #2 03-14-2005, 12:35 AM

Split thread and moved to correct forum =/

nice tool though.

ger · #3 03-14-2005, 12:42 AM

Woot. Thanks.

Laffs · #4 03-14-2005, 07:54 AM

Nice one

Maybe SoE should trash there /loadui and use this insted Lol

*EDIT*

Just ran this... works well

....... But (hehe you knew this was coming Ger)
Maybe you could parse the old .ini first, reason I say this is I have extra info in mine that gets lost when I use this tool the extra info being=

cl_letterbox_position 1
ics_maxcameradistance 10.0

Whilst there is probably only a few of us that have extra info in that .ini, I thought it was worth pointing it out

ger · #5 03-14-2005, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laffs

Nice one

Maybe SoE should trash there /loadui and use this insted Lol

*EDIT*

Just ran this... works well

....... But (hehe you knew this was coming Ger)
Maybe you could parse the old .ini first, reason I say this is I have extra info in mine that gets lost when I use this tool the extra info being=

cl_letterbox_position 1
ics_maxcameradistance 10.0

Whilst there is probably only a few of us that have extra info in that .ini, I thought it was worth pointing it out

I used to have similar data in my eq2.ini, moved it to the eq2_recent.ini and it works just fine.

(In other words, if it's a question of me coding extra parsing or you changing which file your extra settings are it...guess which one it's gonna be?

)

ger · #6 03-17-2005, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ger

I used to have similar data in my eq2.ini, moved it to the eq2_recent.ini and it works just fine.

(In other words, if it's a question of me coding extra parsing or you changing which file your extra settings are it...guess which one it's gonna be?

)

*sigh* Just noticed that it works fine the first time you load the game, but it'll strip out some settings when it triggers a save (ics_maxcameradistance and chat_show_time for sure, not sure what else.) Guess it's time to add in some more code to the switcher.

Edit: extra setting retention code is in and working. I'll release it as soon as I make a couple other changes. Trying not to make poor Dolby approve my uploads more than 2 or 3 times a day.

Kosmos · #7 03-14-2005, 11:23 AM

As far as I can tell with my experiment with the whole Custom UI fun.

You can't use more than one UI Piece or set while useing the eq2.ini trick we use.
The eq2.ini points the game to one specific directory.
So the people that just use pieces here and there are still going to have to move those around, because you can't use eq2.ini to point to two different directories, at least I've not been able to.
You could put your custom pieces in all of your directories that you switch between.
This is pretty nifty utility for newbies thought that are having trouble.

Personally I think we might need to include a screenshot of the correct directory structure, with ICON types, LOL.
I really don't know how we could make things more clear.

ger · #8 03-14-2005, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kosmos

As far as I can tell with my experiment with the whole Custom UI fun.

You can't use more than one UI Piece or set while useing the eq2.ini trick we use.
The eq2.ini points the game to one specific directory.
So the people that just use pieces here and there are still going to have to move those around, because you can't use eq2.ini to point to two different directories, at least I've not been able to.
You could put your custom pieces in all of your directories that you switch between.
This is pretty nifty utility for newbies thought that are having trouble.

Personally I think we might need to include a screenshot of the correct directory structure, with ICON types, LOL.
I really don't know how we could make things more clear.

The next stage of this project (which I'm working on now) should solve some if not all of the problems you outlined here. This part is intended for use once you have the UIs installed correctly. The next part is going to make sure they get installed correctly in the first place.

Kosmos · #9 03-14-2005, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ger

The next stage of this project (which I'm working on now) should solve some if not all of the problems you outlined here. This part is intended for use once you have the UIs installed correctly. The next part is going to make sure they get installed correctly in the first place.

Just out of curiosity how do you plan to use pieces from various UIs?

Are you going to use the UI installer to allow the user to grab files from the various folders and install them into one folder, then adjust the eq2.ini to always look in that folder?

You are alot like me I think, you like to take on a challenge!

Laffs · #10 03-14-2005, 12:41 PM

Quote:

I used to have similar data in my eq2.ini, moved it to the eq2_recent.ini and it works just fine. (In other words, if it's a question of me coding extra parsing or you changing which file your extra settings are it...guess which one it's gonna be? )

Lmao so basicly your telling me to go shove my settings up my .........erm ...... recent.ini , insted

Yes boss doing it right now....

ger · #11 03-14-2005, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kosmos

Just out of curiosity how do you plan to use pieces from various UIs?

Are you going to use the UI installer to allow the user to grab files from the various folders and install them into one folder, then adjust the eq2.ini to always look in that folder?

You are alot like me I think, you like to take on a challenge!

The idea is to provide a tool mod authors can package with their mods to allow the end user to take the guess-work out of installing a mod. It will allow the user to autodetect their EQ2 folder (got that part working) and will then check that the folder they're installing to is a first-order child of "UI". Once those conditions have been met the installer will recurse the file structure provided by the mod author and copy the mod files into the specified folder, prompting the user if any files are going to be overwritten (to allow users to install multiple components to the same mod folder.)

Anyway, I've got the directory search working, I've almost got the install conditions working, after that I get to figure out how progress bars work and finalize the format of the install package file structure. Right now I'm thinking I'll just have the installer check a folder named "EQ2Interface" and copy the files over as-is, creating an eq2ui_skininfo.xml if one doesn't exist so that the newly-installed mod shows up in the UI Switcher.

Laffs · #12 03-14-2005, 12:55 PM

Re: progress bars is THIS link of any use to you?

Humudce · #13 03-14-2005, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ger

The idea is to provide a tool mod authors can package with their mods to allow the end user to take the guess-work out of installing a mod. It will allow the user to autodetect their EQ2 folder (got that part working) and will then check that the folder they're installing to is a first-order child of "UI". Once those conditions have been met the installer will recurse the file structure provided by the mod author and copy the mod files into the specified folder, prompting the user if any files are going to be overwritten (to allow users to install multiple components to the same mod folder.)

Anyway, I've got the directory search working, I've almost got the install conditions working, after that I get to figure out how progress bars work and finalize the format of the install package file structure. Right now I'm thinking I'll just have the installer check a folder named "EQ2Interface" and copy the files over as-is, creating an eq2ui_skininfo.xml if one doesn't exist so that the newly-installed mod shows up in the UI Switcher.

This additional feature sounds awesome, right now for my Guild I have written installer Versions for all of my Mods, and the most popular ones on EQ2Interface so that my guild mates can install the mods with out having to know anything about the Directory structure of EverQuest 2. To write my installers I have used NSIS (Null Soft Install System) to do the installers. From my end it's a lot of work to setup the Files installed and such in the installer, this feature would make everyones (including my life) allot easier.

But wouldn't that break the Upload Rules for interface authors where is states No Exe's? I forget exactally how it was worded but I'm pretty sure it says it. I may be wrong and it only says it after uploading to the EQInterface site.

ger · #14 03-20-2005, 11:33 AM

Within the next few days I'll be going from Beta to Release on UISwitcher. If you've noticed any bugs or thought of a feature that would be useful, but hasn't made it into a Beta version yet, please post about it. I rely on you guys and gals to smack me in the back of the head when I've messed up or forgotten something, you know.

Updates since yesterday's release:
* Added "Get more UIs" button (opens http://www.EQ2Interface.com)
* Added "Refresh" button (refreshes UI list in case of UI install during UISwitcher session)
* Added tooltips to all buttons in main and UIS windows