Request for help

[Drumstix42]

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

[Mistal]

Yup that did it Ty very much!

[Mistal]

I finished my first mod

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

[EQAditu]

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.

[Mistal]

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

[EQAditu]

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.

[Mistal]

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 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

[Maozem]

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.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Page allowcloseontop="true" eq2usescomwndcontrols="true" Location="11,11" MinimumSize="300,55" MaximumSize="300,55" Name="New_Mao" PackLocation="center,top" ScrollExtent="300,55" Size="300,55" UserMovable="true" UserResizable="true">
	<Image LocalTooltip="Test" Name="Test" Size="300,55" SourceRect="0,0,300,55" SourceResource="images/Button1_0.dds" Tooltip="Test"/>
</Page>

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)

[Mistal]

lol Mao .. Busted! :P

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

[EQAditu]

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

[Maozem]

Originally Posted by EQAditu

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

[Mistal]

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

[Mistal]

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 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 ?

[EQAditu]

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.

[Mistal]

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

[Mistal]

Nailed it !!

I'm just about brain fried now so going to work on the buttons tomorrow

Thank you for ALL your help

Mistal x

[Mistal]

Hi

I was wondering is there some information somewhere about how to change the text font on my buttons?

[gm9]

Originally Posted by Mistal

Hi

I was wondering is there some information somewhere about how to change the text font on my buttons?

You need to change the associated ButtonStyle for that.

[Maozem]

Thanks again for the help. I am starting to see the foundation of how it all works together now.


Mao

[Mistal]

I have been playing with background images and frames etc and have a really good handle on that now I went to apply the same principle to my buttons and it didn't work. I have had a look at the commonelements dds, and nearly fell out my chair.

Is there a button tutorial or something that I can read how to do this, as it seems to be different than the background stuff, what with the mouse over effects etc .. currently the buttons in my mod point to

<Button Location="111,24" Name="BtnPort1" OnPress="equipsomething"
                parent.Visible=Parent.Checked" ScrollExtent="108,32" Size="108,32" Style="/CommonElements.PushButton.data.style">BLANK</Button>

This is what I tried to do...

<ButtonStyle Name="ButtonFrame" Center="BW5" CenterStretchH="true" CenterStretchV="true" CenterShrinkH="true" CenterShrinkV="true"/>
    <ImageStyle Name="BW5"> 
        <ImageFrame Source="images/testbuttons.dds" SourceRect="30,23,165,64" />
    </ImageStyle>

with this as my button

<Button Location="3,24" Name="BtnPort1" OnPress="equipsomething"
                parent.Visible=Parent.Checked" ScrollExtent="108,32" Size="108,32" Style="ButtonFrame.PushButton.data.style">BLANK</Button>

[Mistal]

Hello again,

I was wondering if someone has a moment that could help me out with this. I have looked in a few different files but I am having some trouble identifying which bit of code does what I want.

In the Mod I am working on atm I would like to make a button that pops open the in game browser to a specific page. Is this possible? I know you can click on the journal and have your quest pop up on the browser but I can't quite work out how it is doing it.

Many thanks for any pointers anyone can give me

Mistal

[lordebon]

Originally Posted by Mistal

Hello again,

I was wondering if someone has a moment that could help me out with this. I have looked in a few different files but I am having some trouble identifying which bit of code does what I want.

In the Mod I am working on atm I would like to make a button that pops open the in game browser to a specific page. Is this possible? I know you can click on the journal and have your quest pop up on the browser but I can't quite work out how it is doing it.

Many thanks for any pointers anyone can give me

Mistal

Just put the URI after the command. IE if you want to go to google, the command would be:
browser www.google.com

[Mistal]

Oh wow .. thank you .. that was actually easier than I thought it was going to be lol