Quick Change Performance Profiles. 4 out of 8 so far.

[Kosmos]

Ok! After a few hours of playing and some much needed relaxation I went back at this and figured out what a few of my problems were.
I have all 7 buttons working now for the 'pre defined' profiles.

I have a few cosmetic issues I want to correct, and a few tweaks here and there, but I suspect I'll have an official release verysion ready for testing by the end of the week.

If anyone has any suggestions now would be the perfect time.

I'm sure this will go under many revisions as there are a few things I will want to change, I just want to get a fully working mod out there. Then later adjust things to make it a bit easier for the initial setup.

As it stands now..
There will be '7' buttons attached to the 'StartButton' In addition to In'somn's 2 mute buttons.
These 7 buttons are going to be fully configurable by each person.
When you first download the mob, the buttons will be set for for 6 of the -pre'defined' profiles. Which come with the game.
The 7th button will be the custom one.
I'll have the 7th one set up the 'extreme quality' values.
I.E. Each setting will be the same if you had just loaded the Extreme Quality profile.
I'll provide a simple step-by-step guide on how to put your custome profile values in the XML so that button 7 will be your 'custom' profile, that will never get changed. I additon you can also turn the other 6 buttons into 'custom' profiles, or leave them as they are, which is set to some of the predefined profiles.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by Laffs

Well first time round it worked fine , had to click on buttons twice likes and the start menu didnt work in that file , but the mute buttons etc did along with the 1 2 3 4 etc, and nothing changed the sreen rez or ref rate...

But on my other char....


Sorry should have read the pop up more closely to me it looked like a standard one that changes screen size and rez , and I did click yes and then you get the time out pop up where you need to accept or cancel but point is it worked , and I didnt get any errors at all !

And I tried that with all the buttons..

What I am going to try and do is copy my profile into a button and then make a lower one into another button Both using same screen size etc and see how that switches.... That will be tomorrow likes ... I will let you know the results..

The reason your start menu was not working was because you overwrote all the information eq2ui.mainhudstartmenu.xml with all the information in eq2ui.mainhud.startbutton.xml.
These are two different things.
You will need to delete the statmenu file and let the patcher re-download it.

[Kosmos]

In case anyone wants to play with what I have so far. Here is the file.
Button #6 is Very High Performance
Button #5 High Performance
Button #4 Balanced
Button #3 High Quality
Button #2 Very High Quality
Button#1 Will is being created for user-defined custom settings.
At this time, I ony have the variables entered for the first few sections of the display properties.

[Kosmos]

I re-created the list of commandsa and values today to be easier to work with. You can download file here, or just view it in a webbrowser if you prefer.
You can download the document from here.
http://www.geocities.com/ziggy_bock_...ay_Command.xls

[Laffs]

Nice one much easier to work with,

By the looks that is the full list inc the defaults?

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by Laffs

Nice one much easier to work with,

By the looks that is the full list inc the defaults?

The 'recent' list that I posted last night is the commands including the labels that you see in the display options window when you are setting your choices.

The commands are 99% accurate. The 'values' and ranges I still have a few to test. For instance. the Spell Particles Close to Me. r_point_particle_near_plane value is giving me some problems.
It wants a negative value. and I'm having trouble formating the syntax in the code to accept the variable. I've tried =(-0.001) =(0.0) =-3.000 etc..etc..
I can't get that slider to move at all with my code.
Everything above that is tested and works. Everythign below that I still have to code. i didn't get work on the project at all last night.

This mod is going to be much more than what the average user wants.
I plan to attempt to make a couple of other mods for the casual end user that just wants a reliable jump in FPS when things get laggy.
For example a button you can hit when you head to town, then can unclick when you leave town.
Perpahps just maping a few of the big pretty features like shadows etc.. to single click/unlcik button for those people wold do the trick.
I may also attemp to create a slider type button that is maped to complex shader distance and stays on screen all the time.

At the moment I'm realy gonig to look at how the whole project is giong to work, I'm not happy with the method I'm using and would prefer to code these things correctly, rather than just forcing these changes on the OnPress event as I'm doing now. I think if I can get them coded correctly I will get past the double-click thing of the buttons.

Anyway, a bit of work to do, but it's a fun puzzle.
The main thing was figuring outthat it could be done, which before I didn't think any of this was even an option.

By the way.
You can type those commands ingame.
For example in your chat window
type

/r_performance 4

That would put you into balanced mode.

You will also notice that i took out the commands for the screen res and refhresh rate and triple buffer etc..
Those are on the previos table I put up.
I wanted to have only the specific commands that deal with the dislay options that change with the pre-defined profiles.

[Laffs]

From what I have seen in the mods I have looked that they all use the "on press" whilst that does work I know what you mean it is a bit messy when you have lots of varibles to put in there.....

I am new to xml , So not a lot I can do to help at this stage,

But I am going to have a snoop about on the net and see what I can find out, if I find anything that maybe of use or interest I will send links.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by Laffs

From what I have seen in the mods I have looked that they all use the "on press" whilst that does work I know what you mean it is a bit messy when you have lots of varibles to put in there.....

I am new to xml , So not a lot I can do to help at this stage,

But I am going to have a snoop about on the net and see what I can find out, if I find anything that maybe of use or interest I will send links.

This is about the best place I've found so far for information.
Especialy the section on XML Events, Targets, and Observers.

http://www.informit.com/guides/conte...xml&seqNum=101

[Kosmos]

If I'm really, really lucky and things go as planned and I don't run into any hick-ups I'll have something ready tonight.

I'm crossing my fingers.

[Laffs]

After that is released, I will concentrate on finding a script that will read the current profile information and save it to a .txt file.

I have been looking for somthing like that also , but had no luck

This another longshot but could Microsoft Access not do somthing like this?

[ger]

Originally Posted by Laffs

I have been looking for somthing like that also , but had no luck

This another longshot but could Microsoft Access not do somthing like this?

Not really. At least, not well. On the bright side, it shouldn't be too difficult to write something in a standard language (VB, C, Perl, Python, whatever) to parse the file.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by ger

Not really. At least, not well. On the bright side, it shouldn't be too difficult to write something in a standard language (VB, C, Perl, Python, whatever) to parse the file.

I would think it would be a fairly easy script.

There are a couple of things that are keeping me from writing the script.

1. I dont' know how. LOL. I just started with this XML stuff about a week ago. So it's slow going. From what I've seen on the boards, the 'scripting' ability has yet to be exploited fully in the EQ2 User Interface.
Not from lack of trying though. It's probably just a matter of time before someone discovers the magic syntax needed.

Once that happens. It should be much easier to do a few things.
I am trying to mod the fewest possible files, for this.

I think you guys will like what I've done with the Start Button.
It won't look at hideaous as my orginal post up top. I promise.

[Laffs]

Ger : Is it within your grasp to build an app that would do this? My Vb , C++ etc sucks bad I can do it np in the old style but thats of no use to the rest of you..

Kosmos, has and is coming on leaps and bounds on this and I know the guys with the skills that could do this are working hard on the map mod atm, and the guy I know is too busy to do this for us atm also lol.

So I guess we learn real quick or wait hehe.

Another thought Kosmos, I managed to make a new window that contained the buttons to switch (only made 2 buttons as it was a test) so it could be placed anywhere and dont rely on anyother windows.

[Kosmos]

Ok, I need Beta Testers on this one.
I have the one for you guys that want to creat custom profiles coming out tomorrow probably with VERY detailed instructions etc.
Here is the one I'm posting for the average user.
Let me know how you like it.

Quick Change Performance Buttons.

Included Files.
eq2ui_mainhud_startbutton.xml
mugshots_female.dds
readme.txt


Instructions on How to Install an Interface can be found here.


I've shrunk the EQ2 Start Button.
Included 3 Quick Change Performance Buttons, and two additional buttons for Mute, and Music On/Off.

Credit for the idea for the Mute and MUsic On/Off Buttons goes to Insomiac.
I have slightly changed the implementation and the visual aspect of the those two buttons.

The three performance profile buttons work like this.

Button #1 on top is for Very High Quality

Button #2 in the middle if for Balanced

Button #3 on the bottom if for Very High Performance.

So, that's no so complicated is it?

Hope that you enjoy them.
If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them if I can.

For those of you who want to create 100% Custom Profiles see my other Mod and Post for Quick Change 'Custom' Performance Buttons.

-Kosmos


Note:
If you want to change which Pre-Defined Profile these these buttons load.
Than open the eq2ui_mainhud_startbutton.xml file in Windows NotePad.

In that file you want to look for the code similar to what I've pasted below after the [BEFORE Change] and [After Change].

You can change the value for r_performance using the following guide.

r_performance=0.0 Extreme Quality

r_performance=1.0 Very High Quality

r_performance=2.0 High Quality

r_performance=3.0 Balanced

r_performance=4.0 High Performance

r_performance=5.0 Very High Perforamnce

r_performance=6.0 Extreme Performance


If you wanted the top button to put you in 'Extreme Performance' mode. Than you would change r_performance=1.0 r_performance=1.0 to the following:

r_performance=6.0 r_performance=6.0

DO NOT add any additional puncuation or spaces. Just save the file again as an .xml file and your good to go!

[BEFORE Change] (Button 1 is coded for Very High Quality}
<Checkbox Activated="true" BackgroundColor="#FFFFFF" BackgroundOpacity="1.000" Checked="true" LocalTooltip="Quality" Location="31,7" Name="quality" OnSet="Parent.balanced.checked=false Parent.performance.checked=false Parent.balanced.checked=false Parent.performance.checked=false r_performance=1.0 r_performance=1.0" ScrollExtent="20,5" Size="20,5" Style="QualityStyle" TextColor="#EBDEAA" Tooltip="Quality"></Checkbox>

[AFTER Change] (Button 1 is coded for Extreme Performance)
<Checkbox Activated="true" BackgroundColor="#FFFFFF" BackgroundOpacity="1.000" Checked="true" LocalTooltip="Quality" Location="31,7" Name="quality" OnSet="Parent.balanced.checked=false Parent.performance.checked=false Parent.balanced.checked=false Parent.performance.checked=false r_performance=6.0 r_performance=6.0" ScrollExtent="20,5" Size="20,5" Style="QualityStyle" TextColor="#EBDEAA" Tooltip="Quality"></Checkbox>

[Kosmos]

For those of you wanting to set up multiple custom display profiles.
You want this mod, rather than the other one I've posted.
This onE already had all the code for the individual settings as well as all the documentation you need for value ranges etc..

Hope you guys enjoy. Let me know if there are any bugs or anything, I wanted to get it tested a bit before I post the offficial release.

I've also include these two PDS files.

EQ2_Display_Command_Table

EQ2_Performance_Profile_Matrix

[ger]

Originally Posted by Kosmos

For those of you wanting to set up multiple custom display profiles.
You want this mod, rather than the other one I've posted.
This onE already had all the code for the individual settings as well as all the documentation you need for value ranges etc..

Hope you guys enjoy. Let me know if there are any bugs or anything, I wanted to get it tested a bit before I post the offficial release.

I've also include these two PDS files.

EQ2_Display_Command_Table

EQ2_Performance_Profile_Matrix

Two suggestions. First, create your own DDS for the icons. Using the female mugshot DDS means this mod won't work with others like the SaintSinner NatureUI. Second, split the custom button out into its own XML and link it back to the startbutton XML via an include line. Without doing that the parser I'm about to write is going to be useless, since it won't be able to automatically link back the custom file it generates.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by ger

Two suggestions. First, create your own DDS for the icons. Using the female mugshot DDS means this mod won't work with others like the SaintSinner NatureUI. Second, split the custom button out into its own XML and link it back to the startbutton XML via an include line. Without doing that the parser I'm about to write is going to be useless, since it won't be able to automatically link back the custom file it generates.

Thanks. Yes I was guessing that was going to be the case for the .DDS file.
I threw this together in about two weeks. Going from zero knowledg to this.
So not too terrible bad I think. I've got ALOT to learn.
I'm not sure what you man by splitling the buttons out to there own XMls' someone else mentoned that. I sounds like it should be fairly easy, I just havn't learned that one just yet.
Couple of things I'll do with updates.
Make the a single style for the three custom buttons since they use the same graphics. No point in having three seperate sytles.
Create a seperate DDS file with all my buttons in it.
I was pretty proud of two things I was able to figure out on my own.
How to declare the style inside the document rather than linking back to another style. It wouldn't let me use my own pictures that way. I had to create my own style.

Using the checkboxs as buttons.
Seems the common method is to make a couple of buttons on top of one another and make one hide while the other shows, and vice versa.
I think using the checkboxes as I did works much better.

About perser you are going to right?
It seem to me that one already exist with the game. I am guessing that Xpath is and it's various functuions are used for the Display Options window.
It's basicaly a form and the data types are set in the eq2_options_xml.
So Perhaps you can use code that is already in the game to out put a file with that data on it. Perhaps just set new path or something.

Saving your current setting out to file, and then being able to read them back into the game should be fairly streigh froward, I just simply do not have the knowldege yet. The IDEAL solution I think would be to have a list box inside the options window that you could sect 'custom profile 2' and do a save. and it would save your settings. Then do change your settings and select Custom Profile 3 and save the settings.
Then the buttons could be link to pull the information from those files.
That would be heaven.
This is better than anything we had before. So I'm happy to provide that.

Can you send me a link to the type of script you are using for the parser.
I'm really lost in trying to find any documentation for this sort things.
I don't even know what type of script I should be looking at.
Vbasic? Java? There's been alot of people unable to do anything with strings or if statements in these forums with the game.
Have you found a way around that?
When you say command line script. Do you mean command line script 'in the game' or outside the game?


Also, I still can't understand why the commands must be entered 'twice' to get them to work with the first button click.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by ger

Two suggestions. First, create your own DDS for the icons. Using the female mugshot DDS means this mod won't work with others like the SaintSinner NatureUI. Second, split the custom button out into its own XML and link it back to the startbutton XML via an include line. Without doing that the parser I'm about to write is going to be useless, since it won't be able to automatically link back the custom file it generates.

Oh yeah? I almost for got? Did you try it out? Did it work for you?
Which one did you try.

The one that uses the 'r_performance commnads works best.

Eventually I'm sure we will see SOE put in the abiltiy for us to have multiple profiles, but untill then...

[Kosmos]

I'll toodle around with this a bit this week since these changes seem pretty easy, but I never know. Little things can be a big deal for me.

The new window will probably be after thursday though. I've got a week off work for vacation so will have plenty of time to desing the new Performance Panel.

It took me forever to figure out how to use the check boxes to make my buttons stay in the right state.

I prefer having an indicator lite for which performance mode I am in.

Since I'll be starting with a clean window and not truing to squeeze things in, I'm sure the new one will look a bit different.

I prefer to keep as little clutter on my screen as possible and that start button takes up way too much space for my taste.

I guess I should just make the thing invisible.

[ger]

I'm a little hesitant to start trying to make this parser a really interactive program. For starters, it's only intended to turn a user's recent.ini into a useable XML, so having the user have to manually set each setting again is counter-productive. Also, I have no idea how to make pretty GUIs. I changed majors before we got to that, and they don't teach you Visual C++ as a Criminology/Anthropology major (C# didn't exist yet when I was a Computer Science major hehe.)

Let me post a mostly-working version of the parser so you can get an idea what it does as far as input and output. I recommend you copy your eq2_recent.ini to your desktop; wherever you choose to put it, the parser has to be in the same folder. You can run it via a double-click, don't worry about the text that streams by in the command window, it's just telling you what variables it's changing internally and which eq2_recent.ini entries it's ignoring because they aren't relevant to the mod. Defaults are based on the balanced entries in your customizable mod.

(NOTE: When I say mostly working I mean it. The output will look like a file you could just link in and go, but I haven't tested it at all. It doesn't even have a page declaratory, so linking the output file as-is will very likely cause you not to be able to load EQ2.)

P.S. If somebody who actually knows how to handle GUIs wants to make a pretty front-end for this thing I'd be happy to release the source, but I think that may be going beyond the original intended scope of this parser.

[Kosmos]

I'll check this out when I get home this evening.

[Kosmos]

That is very, very cool!

I'm very impressed.

That beats the crap out of typing those values in by hand.

We will have to address the missing data values some way.
Putting in the Balacned values works for now, but we have to come up with a way that will put the correct user preference in that file even when the information isnt in the INI file.

The other thing that may or may not be an issue is that when I was doing my mod and testing, I found that some of the commands required the decimal and some didn't I'm not sure if it matters for the regular whole number values, but it wouldn't hurt to make all the values include the decimal. Would it?
I used decimal values for all mine, but I don't know if it was necssary.

That thing is really, really nice.
Do the user could set the preferences up. Click Accept.
Then run your parser and it will create the XML file.
Than they could just change the 'filename' to indicate 1, 2, or 3?
How very groovy.

[Kosmos]

Is there anything else I should add to the panel besides three buttons?
And the two volume buttons?

Should I make the buttons bigger?

Or just break them off the startbutton window and
keep them the same size?

Is three enough? Personall I think three is a pretty good number, to get
a good range of profiles for quick change. run in balanced
hit the high quality button for screen shots or whatever, and run in high performance for those laggy times.
I think more than 3 would be over kill.

And I dont' want to get anybody excited but I 'might' have found a way to get rid of those stupid splash screens on load up.

Take a look at this file, if you are bored.
eq2ui_loginscene.xml Just glancing at it, it seems like it would be pretty easy to remove those totally, or at the very least reduce the time they are on screen, or set some state to true to just pass over them. My first shot wll be to just remove the dang things totally, Epilespy warning will probably have to stay in there. I'm sure someone will beat me to that though. I won't be able to play with this much for a day or two. Really sucks cause it's fun to get couple of people working on this together.

[Kosmos]

Looking over the matrix right now to make sure nothing needs to be tweaked the default values. Most fo them are the grey values. But I did some guess work on a couple and want to make sure Ive got things correct.

[Kosmos]

Ok Ger,

Notes for you on the Matrix to help with your parser.

If I understand your parser is going to 'fill in' the spots for commands that don't exist in the
eq2.recent.ini

90% of the grey listings do not change.
So basically if your parser doesn't find those values in the eq2.recent.ini file it can
create the command and the default value and put in the .xml file.

There are a couple of exceptions though.and changes I need to make to the matrix

Animate procedural Textures should be 'true' by default I believe. I have it listed as true on
the extreme quality settings, but as you can see I have it false on the others.
It specifically shows up in the file at Very High Performance as false, so
I believe this value should be set to True by default.

That's a mistake on my part.

These tables were making my head swim, but I'm sure it can in handy for you when you wrote the parser.
I do have Excel Database files available if you wantt those rather than thte PDF file.
You can import the data into whatever database program you use.
The links are here.

Particle Level Of Detail Bias (r_particle_lod_scale) should set to 1.0 if it's not found in the
eq2.recent.ini file. The 1.125, 1.250 and 1.375 I created as a gradiet.
After you pass 1.5 at high performance the listing vanishes from the eq2.recent.ini file so I think it
just goes to max.

Spell Particles Close to Me (r_particle_near_plane) is a tricky one. This one doesn't show up
in the eq2.recent.ini file unless you change it to anything below max. 0.0
This one also doesn't update the slider properly, but it does get set with accept. So it's just a
freaky thing with the slider.(I might be confusing that with the triangles slider though)
I would set that value to 0.0 if it's not found in the eq2.recent.ini file.
NOTE. Anything lower than max, turns in a negative value. You can find this in the options.xlm file.
That slider has negativetype set to true.
So you may have to specifically do something with the parser to make sure it outputs a negative value.
if the user has set this setting to something other than default.


Maximum Triangle Density. 80000.0 (I think) would be the default for this one. I think. I don't think the file
list anything over 80000.0 but you might want to double check that one.

The other values I came up with. The slider goes to max on the pre-defined profiles.

Low Detail Characters needs to be set to 100.0 if it's not listed in the eq2.recent.ini file.
It's only not listed on the Extreme Quality settings,
I'm prety sure this listing is in every eq2.recenent.ini file so it's safe to use 100 as the default since
it will be likly that the command is listed in the eq2.recent.ini file.

All of the other listings use the value that is in grey. Which I believe you have done already.

Especially include the Graphics Resolution, lighting resolution, Flora Radius, and Flora Density.
If you tweak these lower, and then load a pre-configured profile, it won't change them back automatically.

If you have any other questions just let me know.
This parser is going to be super sweet, great team work. lol

Logically, I can't see any holes in our theory here.
User sets there settings. Clicks Accept.
Goes windowed. And moves the eq2.recent.ini file to the parser directory and runs it.
user goes back into game and creates second bunch of settings.
Clicks accept and and goes windowed
and moves the file and parsers it again. Creating Profile #2
Repeat again.
that's 3 .xml custom profiles.
Than they would need to restart the game, and from then on they will always have those profiles
settings set to the buttons for as long as they want.

Super sweet!

Here are links to the files.
If you want to download the Excel Files
EQ2_Display_Commnad_Table Excel File

EQ2_Performance_Profile_Matrix Excel Files

EDIT!
I just read your last post. LOL
The 'DEFAULT' Values are all of the values in grey. With the acceptions of the ones I've listed above. Which need to be set to the values indicated if the value isn't listed already in the eq2.recent.ini.

As for the settings for the other profiles they are all in the Marix.
Under each column.

You can even use the Excel files perhaps to just cut and past all the command and values! Save you some typing.
There is a typo on the max Triangle Deinsity for the Extreme Quality.
it should be 100000.0 I put an extra zero on accident.