UI Player Window Request (Images already created need XML help)

[Xeno326]

Hello,

So recently I played the FFXIV beta and thought that its UI seemed pretty sleek as far as the player status bars went. (I wouldn't spend another minute in FFXIV just because of how that game is. They do make some nice simple yet fancy looking UI's) So I took some time to create a variation of those same bars in hopes to use them in EQ2.

I have the images already made in Photoshop. Looked at some UI's and the default UI in the EQ2 UI Builder to kind of get an idea and I have no idea where to start as far as importing my images into an existing player window and any xml changes I may need to do and how to do that.

I tried opening the xml document with dreamweaver but of course you get all the code associated with it. Otherwise inside the actual EQ2 UI Builder I just can't seem to figure it out in my situation. Any help maybe even implementing it for me if it would take too much time to explain the process? I have some XML knowledge but from what I understand everything can and should be accomplished through the EQ2 Builder program.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks. =)

Image:

[gm9]

Moved to correct forum (what I think it is anyway, the wish list to SOE was definitely not it) and deleted cross post. Please take care while posting. Thanks.

[Xeno326]

Originally Posted by gm9

Moved to correct forum (what I think it is anyway, the wish list to SOE was definitely not it) and deleted cross post. Please take care while posting. Thanks.

eh ok thought that was the wish list to the EQ2 interface UI developer community, ohwell lol.

[Xeno326]

so 72 views already. Anybody who is familiar with making UI's want to help me make this simple UI come alive? Just need some help on how to get this made into something usable. My first steps to understand some things about making UI's in EQ2 and probably pump out some really good stuff.

[abbelyn]

There is a modder that hasn't been around for a while that did health windows based loosely on FFXI windows.

http://www.eq2interface.com/download...thWindows.html

The placement for those looks close to what your looking for, see if the image files for Mother's windows is close to yours, would give you a good starting basis.

I really can't code a window from scratch but I find (as with HTML) sometimes the easiest fix is to modify what is there already.

[TW Shrub]

Here is a quick "prototype" player window that I mocked up using the image attached to your post.

To preface this; I didn't spend much time on it so its pretty basic and just a bit "ugly". The graphics definitely need help but if you've got a better rendering of the graphics (which it sounds like you do) then that can be easily fixed.

It only has 3 bars instead of 4 because I couldn't think of what to do with the 4th bar but, again, that can be easily changed.

What you'll need to do to prepare the images is to export them to DDS format (there are plugins available for that). The final DDS image should sized in multiples of 8 (e.g. 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, etc.). I don't know if that's actually required but I find that things behave strangely if isn't.

The UI builder will really be helpful in positioning elements and doing the basic editing but I find that it often adds extra code automatically when you save it, especially if you have "run" the UI in the UI Builder. I always do a quick check of the actual code after saving it in the UI Builder to clear out anything that I don't need/want in the code.

One thing that tripped me up the first time I used the UI Builder is loading the UI right. When you load the UI you have to load the eq2ui.xml file rather than just opening the file you want to edit. That way it loads the whole UI and you get all the default stuff to work with. Then just locate the window you want to change in the element tree and start making changes. Never edit the files in the "default" folder (or "default blue") since they will just get overwritten on updating. Make a copy of the default folder and work from that.

There are probably (most likely) much better ways this could be done but I tried to keep it as straight-forward as possible. If you have any questions about what I did with this just let me know.

[Savie]

I think the 4 bars were supposed to be HP, Mana, Concentration, pet hp.

[Xeno326]

Originally Posted by TW Shrub

Here is a quick "prototype" player window that I mocked up using the image attached to your post.

To preface this; I didn't spend much time on it so its pretty basic and just a bit "ugly". The graphics definitely need help but if you've got a better rendering of the graphics (which it sounds like you do) then that can be easily fixed.

It only has 3 bars instead of 4 because I couldn't think of what to do with the 4th bar but, again, that can be easily changed.

What you'll need to do to prepare the images is to export them to DDS format (there are plugins available for that). The final DDS image should sized in multiples of 8 (e.g. 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, etc.). I don't know if that's actually required but I find that things behave strangely if isn't.

The UI builder will really be helpful in positioning elements and doing the basic editing but I find that it often adds extra code automatically when you save it, especially if you have "run" the UI in the UI Builder. I always do a quick check of the actual code after saving it in the UI Builder to clear out anything that I don't need/want in the code.

One thing that tripped me up the first time I used the UI Builder is loading the UI right. When you load the UI you have to load the eq2ui.xml file rather than just opening the file you want to edit. That way it loads the whole UI and you get all the default stuff to work with. Then just locate the window you want to change in the element tree and start making changes. Never edit the files in the "default" folder (or "default blue") since they will just get overwritten on updating. Make a copy of the default folder and work from that.

There are probably (most likely) much better ways this could be done but I tried to keep it as straight-forward as possible. If you have any questions about what I did with this just let me know.

Oh hey I appreciate it. Ya I have all the images layered the actual bar graphic can be separated, and the 4th image was showing what the bars look like empty.

Since this was only for the player window I haven't decided on the other UI features yet, but I will see what you have done and work with it and maybe go from there with creating a complete UI. Appreciate your assistance and if you're interested in helping me more with the UI as far as its coding goes you're more than welcome to. Mainly my problem was figuring out how to work through EQ2 UI Builder.

[Xeno326]

ok well I got one step out of the way, figuring out how to save .dds files; which I don't know if I need a specific save setting when I do save it or just pick w/e I feel like based on common graphic knowledge.

Anyways I load up FFXIV bar you made with the EQ2 UI Builder. Then I see all the garble on the left hand side.

FFXIVStyles
- FFXIVBars
-- CpBarBgFull
- HpBg
-- HpBarBgFull

etc etc; which i know are the parent and child directories. I guess the only way i can create or edit those is directly through the XML file? because with the EQ2 UI thing I see nothing that allows me to add/remove or edit those.

Anyways other than that problem I separated the image into several images to put into the folder where you had the original image at. I saved them all as .dds files and well when I pull them back up they are all black/blank images. Not a damn thing of the actual image is saved.

The image itself in photoshop is composed of layers, with the background image disabled since I want that part transparent. The save settings I used were:

Palette RGB 8 bpp | 256 colors - no MIP maps - 2D Texture

using Nvidia dds format v8.23 plugin