Build Queue Project

[Tethys]

This thread will be discussion and information on extending the build queue to build more things, possibly with a scrollable feature but that remains to be seen. In the mean time I didnt want to clutter the Energy Screen project thread with the elements of this project, hence the new thread.

(Original post from Energy Screen topic)

On a side note, and I diverge from the topic, would this be possible? I can start a topic on it if you like...

http://i55.tinypic.com/kecl6b.jpg

My idea would be to use the *9.fnts in place of the *15.fnts that are used by build queue, but everytime I try to change to any 9.fnt it just mashes the 15.fnt closer together, like its using the 9.fnt template with the 15.fnt tga file

[Flocke]

On a side note, and I diverge from the topic, would this be possible? I can start a topic on it if you like...

http://i55.tinypic.com/kecl6b.jpg

explain
you already can build multiple ships of a type, can't you?
or do you mean increasing the list? yes, that might be possible now, would be interesting if also a scrollbar can be added

Edit: ah, the fonts, I leave that for QD
I'm not into botf ui yet anyway. ^^

[Tethys]

Ah yes Flocke I hadnt even thought about adding a scroll bar, that seems like a good idea to test the scrollbar on too

But yes this suggestion has been made long ago years in fact, and has the potential to make the game much more playable for larger maps.

[QuasarDonkey]

Ah I was away for a few hours. Anyway Tethys, all you want is to change font for build queue? Sounds simple in theory, we'll have to play with the WDF files. How did you try change the font before?

[Tethys]

No QD, I was just voicing my experiences. I am in fact referring to the extension of the queue.

Also, I have used the 9 fnt renamed to the 15 fnt and have tried separately to change the font in the wdf with the same result.

[Tethys]

Ah yes Flocke I hadnt even thought about adding a scroll bar, that seems like a good idea to test the scrollbar on too

But yes this suggestion has been made long ago years in fact, and has the potential to make the game much more playable for larger maps.

I THINK in order to use a scrollbar or scrolltab to scroll through the queue, you would need to create a separate wdf for the build queue and transfer all the information OUT of *solars.wdf (where the build queue slots/widgets are located) into this new wdf file, creating along with it another reference to it in the exe. Not sure if that would be practical, but Ive created a wdf of hsolcur.wdf to allow 2 additional build queue items, for testing purposes for anyone who wants to test with it

hsolars.wdf

Note this will not allow buildable 5th and 6th items in game, but will show up in UE GUI editor and can be edited. Hope it helps.

[QuasarDonkey]

Thanks Tethys, the wdf will come in handy for testing. I have a feeling we'll have to make a similar mod to trek.exe like the energy screen project to extend the build queue. Although it may not be as simple. The energy screen was (relatively) easy to extend because it used arrays to store the energy structure buttons, so ultimately the code works the same way for 100 as it would for 7. Let's hope it's the same way with the build queue.

Since everything in the BotF GUI has to have hard-coded functionality, adding anything to the WDFs like scrollbars won't make a difference.

[Tethys]

Yes, but it is my theory (but you might know better than me) that a scrollbar on the wdf, moves the entire wdf, not just a certain part of it. Thats where the 'sub'-wdfs would be used, and for having multiple screens of course. Feel free to prove me wrong I would encourage it

The energy screen was (relatively) easy to extend...

Well then maybe we need to give you a bigger challenge?

[QuasarDonkey]

Yes, but it is my theory (but you might know better than me) that a scrollbar on the wdf, moves the entire wdf, not just a certain part of it.

Well what I mean is, you can add all the scrollbars you want, but I'm certain they won't do anything. Every widget has to have code associated with it in order for it to do something. Even if you're writing a standard windows program, e.g. in VB, adding a scrollbar won't give any functionality. It has to be programmed to do something.

The energy screen was (relatively) easy to extend

What I mean by this is that it didn't require any new code in Trek.exe. Just replacing about 30 numbers and moving some memory around did the job. The hard part was figuring out what needed to be done.