[WIP] - Custom Captain's Log Entries

[panthercules]

Updated for Patch 1.4:

Whatever the devs did to the Captain's log in patch 1.4 involved some changes to the sections of the menu_1024_768.ini file that were involved in the changes noted below for enlarging the clipboard. They also appear to have slightly reduced the length of the text entries that are permitted in the log entries (only by about 5 characters or so - some of my custom entries that worked before caused CTDs under patch 1.4 until I shortened them up by about 5 characters - looks like the current maximum length is about 236 characters, though I usually undershoot it by a few just to be sure).

However, now the good news:

1. The game will still recognize and display your custom personal log entries that you make in the fashion explained in the thread below, as long as you keep the length down below the maximum mentioned above :up:



2. It is still possible to enlarge the clipboard to display the log entries better if you want to. I did not have any luck at first, trying to manually change the entries in the menu_1024_768.ini file using the same changed numbers I had used before for the earlier game versions. But, by pasting over the entire lines from my previous tweaked sections, it appears to have given me back my enlarged clipboard. The changes to the menu_1024_768.ini file that are required for this to work with Patch 1.4 are set forth below (just replace the existing lines in the following sections with the lines listed below):[G35 I19]
Pos=60,-193,310,348
Zone= 613 553 455 480 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -10

[G35 I21]
Pos=60,-122,310,35
Zone= 613 624 310 35 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 75 30

[G35 I27]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35060000 0 -1 0x35060003 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I29]
Pos=60,-194,310,318
Zone= 613 552 445 445 4 1 0x35050000 0.5 -0.5 0x35030000 -0.5 0.435 -5 -17

[G35 I30]
Pos=102,-512,32,32
Zone= 655 234 32 32 3 1 0x35050005 1 -0.5 0x35050008 0 0.5 10 0

[G35 I31]
Pos=60,-512,32,32
Zone= 613 234 32 32 3 1 0x35030000 0 -1 0x35050005 0 0 0 0

[G35 I33]
Zone= 689 623 158 35 3 1 0x35030000 0.5 0 0x3505001B -0.5 1 0 28

[G35 I39]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35050000 0 -1 0x35050001 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I41]
Pos=60,-193,310,348
Zone= 613 553 445 445 4 1 0x35070000 0.5 -0.5 0x35080000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -17

[G35 I43]
Zone= 613 624 310 35 0 1 0x35080000 0.5 0 0x35070001 -0.5 1 0 45

[G35 I46]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35070000 0 -1 0x35070007 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I50]
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70

[G35 I51]
Zone= 552 743 585 750 0 1 0x35000000 0.75 -1 0x3500000F -0.5 1.25 -100 -100


NOTE - as before, the above numbers are only for 1024x768 resolution - if you're running a different resolution you will probably need to use different numbers - BUT the good news is that since this worked this way, if you were already using this before at a different resolution you should be able to just copy/paste the above lines from your tweaked file you were using for 1.3 into the new file for 1.4 and it should restore your enlarged clipboard just fine for use with 1.4.


I have tested pretty thoroughly now - it looks good on screen, all the buttons seem to work and it displays all my test custom log entries, scrolls just fine, etc. I have now received just about every kind of radio message and patrol order update I can remember, and everything seems to be working perfectly, so hopefully there's no downside to this. HOWEVER, if anybody using this spots any problems, please let me know, and if I see anything weird develop in my further testing, I'll post back here about it.
















================================================== ============
Back in SH3 we figured out how you could make your own custom entries into your KTB, and it really added a lot of interest to the game for me (see thread here - http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=97851 )

I was hoping we could do the same sort of thing with SH4, so I gave it a shot tonight. After inducing a few CTDs for reasons still not completely understood (I think it has something to do with my initial entries having been too long, and with the fact that SH4 seems to require that you put the date and time in their designated lines rather than being able to put them only in the text of the entry as in SH3, but I'm still testing to try to find the limits), I have been able to achieve a modicum of success - see screenshot below:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4-captainlog.jpg

I haven't sunk anything since doing this, so I'm not sure if this will choke when the game tries to add the next entry, but this worked in SH3 so I'm hoping it will here too. Of course, at this point (just like in SH3) you have to make these custom entries manually outside of the game, in this case by modifying the SaveData.clg file in the latest/highest numbered saved game folder in your My Documents SH4 folder. It would be awesome if someone could create some sort of applet to do this from within the game, but that's way beyond my meager skills. I was able to test and confirm that the game does carry over the customized entries into a subsequent saved game, so that part seems to be working just like it did in SH3. So far, so good :D

One thing I could use some help with - does anybody know where the game stores the font and font size designators for the Captain's Log? or, how to resize the Captain's Log screen to maybe make it wider? I'm thinking that making the font smaller (or changing it to a typed font) and making the log screen wider would make it look better when displaying the longer custom entries.

I'm hoping that SH4 Skipper, when it gets done, can recognize these custom entries and incorporate them into the personnel file that I'm hoping it will create for our captains - that was always one of my favorite features of SH3 Commander (unfortunately, this idea came along rather late and SH3 Commander was never modified to deal with the custom entries, but at least it did ignore them so the custom entries didn't do anything to mess up the sinking totals or other aspects of the personnel files that SH3 Commander did create).

Hope this proves fun and useful to some of you fellow submariners - good luck and good hunting!

[Kataki]

Very interesting, Ill be looking forward to the finished version.

[panthercules]

Did a little more testing - definitely seems to be a length limit for the text entries - perhaps 256 characters or something - long entries seem to lead to CTDs when message log tries to load. Also, you can't use semi-colons in the text entries - doing so truncates everything after the semi-colon.

In case anyone is interested, I have posted a sample SaveData.clg file in which I have made my custom entries here, so you can see how the syntax and stuff works (couldn't find a place to host the file - the couple I had used before seem to have folded up or changed to premium /charge sites or something, so I've just pasted it in below):

[Log Entry 0]
Type=0
EntryText=S-39 First Patrol|Base: Cavite, Philippines|Patrol Luzon Straits|Part I - Personal log entries|
EntryTitle=December 1, 1941, 08:15
Date=19411201
Time=815
Categ=0

[Log Entry 1]
Type=0
EntryText=Received radio message that Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor. Ordered to patrol Luzon Straits and engage enemy shipping|
EntryTitle=December 8, 1941, 15:45
Date=19411208
Time=1545
Categ=0

[Log Entry 2]
Type=0
EntryText=Spotted a small task force. Surface attack - fired 3 torps at the lead destroyer from a good position off its starboard beam from about 2,600 yards. All missed (estimated speed too high).|
EntryTitle=December 9, 1941, 22:20
Date=19411209
Time=2220
Categ=0

[Log Entry 3]
Type=0
EntryText=Found two fishing boats traveling southwest along the coast of Formosa. Sank both with gunfire.|
EntryTitle=December 11, 1941, 03:25
Date=19411211
Time=325
Categ=0

[Log Entry 4]
Type=0
EntryText=Found small enemy convoy. Submerged attack - fired 3 torps at large freighter, scored one hit. 4th torp missed large troop transport. TDC spread angle not reset to zero from previous shot. Depth charged - no damage.|
EntryTitle=December 12, 1941, 18:55
Date=19411212
Time=1855
Categ=0

[Log Entry 5]
Type=0
EntryText=Spotted large Japanese freighter. Surface attack - missed with one torpedo. Opened fire with deck gun. Shell hit smokestack, and ship went dead in the water. Missed with another torp from port beam at 1,000 yards. Sank her with gunfire.|
EntryTitle=December 13, 1941, 21:30
Date=19411213
Time=2130
Categ=0

[Log Entry 6]
Type=0
EntryText=Lookouts spotted a small enemy freighter sailing alone. Not worth a torpedo, so sank her with gunfire.|
EntryTitle=December 14, 1941, 06:30
Date=19411214
Time=630
Categ=0

[Log Entry 7]
Type=0
EntryText=Intercepted convoy of 5 small freighters and 1 large cargo ship, with 3-4 escorts. Fired last 3 torps at large freighter from 500 yards but all missed. Suspect defect in TDC or torps as only 1 hit out of all torps fired this patrol.|
EntryTitle=December 14, 1941, 21:45
Date=19411214
Time=2145
Categ=0

[Log Entry 8]
Type=0
EntryText=S-39 First Patrol|Base: Cavite, Philippines|Part II - Ships Sunk and Aircraft Destroyed|
EntryTitle=December 1, 1941, 08:15
Date=19411201
Time=815
Categ=0

[Log Entry 9]
Type=0
EntryText=Ship sunk!|Long 120° 57' E, Lat 21° 52' N|Fishing boat, 2 tons|
EntryTitle=December 11, 1941, 03:11
Date=19411211
Time=311
Categ=0

[Log Entry 10]
Type=0
EntryText=Ship sunk!|Long 120° 56' E, Lat 21° 52' N|Fishing boat, 2 tons|
EntryTitle=December 11, 1941, 03:14
Date=19411211
Time=314
Categ=0

[Log Entry 11]
Type=0
EntryText=Ship sunk!|Long 121° 55' E, Lat 21° 56' N|Medium Old Composite Freighter, 4061 tons|
EntryTitle=December 13, 1941, 21:19
Date=19411213
Time=2119
Categ=0

[Log Entry 12]
Type=0
EntryText=Ship sunk!|Long 122° 45' E, Lat 22° 11' N|Small Modern Composite Freighter, 1858 tons|
EntryTitle=December 14, 1941, 06:20
Date=19411214
Time=620
Categ=0


---------------------------------------------------
That's pretty much it - enjoy!

[panthercules]

Discovered one other small thing this morning - got to thinking about how an SH3 Commander-like personnel file applet would be able to distinguish between the custom entries and the "normal" ones the game generates about the ships sunk. It turns out that if you change the "0" in the "Type=" line to "1", the entry doesn't show up in game any more. However, you can change the "0" to "1" in the "Categ=" line and the entry still shows up, so maybe this could be used as a differentiator when parsing the data in the saved log file.

Still hoping someone can tell me how to change the font or resize the log screen in game to improve the display of the log screen - anybody know?

[panthercules]

Managed to sink a couple of more merchants on my way back to base, and the game had no problem adding those entries to my customized captain's log, so that part seems to be working OK too.

I hope someone can figure out how to automate this in SH4 Skipper or some sort of log applet - I always loved the "War Diary" feature of IL-2 Stab, and I think something like that for SH4 would be great - but this manual method at least gets us part way there.

[panthercules]

Well, some good news and some good/bad news upon further testing.

Good news - Got back to base and started a new patrol. Was able to confirm that you can indeed create some custom entries for your new patrol (after you've saved a game in it) even before you sink anything - see screenshot below:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4-CaptainsLog2.jpg

Good/bad news - in the career history screen in base after patrol, the custom entries don't seem to screw up the ability of the game to display the sinkings on this screen - unfortunately, however, they don't seem to change the fact that the game bugs up and displays all the sinkings as having occurred on the same date/time even though they actually didn't - as seen below:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4-CareerHistory.jpg

I've seen this bug reported elsewhere here though, so I don't think it can have anything to do with these customized log entries. Hope they fix this in the next patch.

Still hoping someone can answer my earlier questions and tip me off as to how to resize the font and/or the Captain's Log screen - any clues?

[Scoochy]

Can't help you with the font, but I can reassure you that the sinking ships log entry is not related at all to what your doing :yep:

[panthercules]

Well - this sure takes a long time when you have no clue what you're doing :yep:

I have made a little progress - The [G35 I19] section of menu_1024_768.ini appears to control the text field/space for the captain’s log in-game display, and changing the "zone" line from:

Zone= 613 553 310 348 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 0 -32

to:

Zone= 613 553 525 590 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 0 -32

stretches out the text frame (and the text) for the captain's log entries very nicely.

However, this change by itself makes the text spill out over the edges of the clipboard graphic - so I still need to find that graphic (and deal with relocating the buttons at the bottom, and the scroll bar and arrows at the right side, etc., and also decide whether to do the same stretching for the radio messages and orders screens - they did not stretch when the log page did with the above change) - probably way more work than will be worth it unless I can find some easy way to make everything stretch out together. Maybe some of the modders here who really know how to deal with these .ini graphics tweaks can take it from here and do something easy and elegant [where is the smiley for /beg ?]

[panthercules]

Woohoo - success - finally managed to figure out how to increase the size of the clipboard and related Captain's log page, so that the custom log entries now show up better in game. See screenshot below:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4-largercaptainslog.jpg




In case anyone is interested, the changes to menu_1024_768.ini are pretty simple and are set forth below:[G35 I19]
Zone= 613 553 445 480 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -10

[G35 I21]
Zone= 613 624 310 35 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 75 30

[G35 I27]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35060000 0 -1 0x35060003 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I50]
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70

[G35 I51]
Zone= 552 743 585 750 0 1 0x35000000 0.75 -1 0x3500000F -0.5 1.25 -100 -100
I've only tested this at 1024x768, and it seems to work fine, but I don't know what it would do at different resolutions. The only oddity I've noticed so far is that if you click on the background to the left of the clipboard to mouse-look around the compartment, you don't seem to be able to click again anywhere to get out of mouse-look and regain control of your mouse - however, you do get control back if you press the "m" key (to bring up the message log), so this doesn't seem to be too bad a quirk. Also, the mission/orders and radio message text boxes haven't been expanded - they work fine (they're just a little small-looking centered on the now-bigger clipboard) but at some point it may be worth expanding at least the radio messages page to look a little more proportional and also show more of the messages at one time. It should be a pretty easy task at this point now that this part has been figured out.



Now - go out there and do something worth writing up in a custom log entry :D

Good luck and good hunting!

[CaptainCox]

Nice and hard work there "panthercules". I wonder if there is any "real" logs on the net?...been searching a bit but so far no go. Found this...maybe worth it...not for the mod in particular but generally
This volume contains the complete text of Tang's five official war patrol reports. Also included is an Introduction, notes, and additional reference material.
http://www.amazon.com/U-S-S-Tang-SS-306-American-Submarine/dp/193260605X/ref=pd_sim_b_2/102-8447588-2099362

EDIT:
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/1592/reports.html
Not all links work but some do :)
Very interesting read actually
ATTACK NO. 1

1010 Within an hour of securing from battle stations for
this first ship, and having avoided another patrol by
continuing in, sighted an old type loaded tanker right
against the beach headed for OMAE SAKI. As four bombers
were the only escorts, took a sounding to find we were
still in forty fathoms. A standard speed approach closed
him to 1200 yards where with echo and stadimeter ranges
checking, fired

1034 three Mk 23 torpedoes spread his length by constant
bearings, 100 starboard track. speed 8.5, set at eight
feet, gyros near zero. No hits. No explosions on the
beach three thousand yards away. Two minutes after
firing, the tanker, alerted, reversed course away, so
commenced evasion, thoroughly expecting bombs or several
depth charges. We rolled on the bottom at eighty feet
during our turn to evade, but reached deep water and
commenced periscope patrol.

1500 Very distant counter attack commenced.

1920 surfaced north of DAIO SAKI, and staying clear of its
252 MC radar, proceeded down the 100 fathom curve past
MIKI SAKI searching for any night shipping.

[panthercules]

There seem to be a number of war patrol logs available on line. I stumbled on the Batfish logs the other night, but unfortunately I didn't bookmark it and am having a lttle trouble finding it again. While looking for it, I have found the logs of the Sunfish (SS281) - see here:
(http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/2364/LOGS.html)

The Batfish logs were very interesting, as (IIRC) they dealt with the boat's patrols in the Bungo Straits (no mention of Bungo Pete though, that I remember).

In the Batfish logs, it was interesting to note the time spent doing research and logging data about weather, currents, thermal layers, etc. Also intriguing to note their comments about the ships they thought they sank versus what they were later credited with, and their experience with radar-equipped aircraft and escorts and the way they used their own radar sets as radar detectors to pick up both enemy and friendly sub activity. Perhaps the most interesting were the number of equipment/maintenance problems they experienced, especially with the radar equipment, and the discussions about the air conditioning and ventilation issues - I'm sure the U-boat crews would have gotten a big kick out of some of the things that the US crews complained about in that regard. Fascinating stuff out there.

[panthercules]

Ok - all finished - as I had hoped, it wasn't that hard to expand the mission objectives page and radio message page after figuring out the log page. All the required changes to the menu_1024_768.ini file to fix all three pages of the clipboard are set forth below (including the ones I noted in the previous posts):

[G35 I19]
Zone= 613 553 445 480 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -10

[G35 I21]
Zone= 613 624 310 35 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 75 30

[G35 I27]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35060000 0 -1 0x35060003 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I29]
Zone= 613 552 445 445 4 1 0x35050000 0.5 -0.5 0x35030000 -0.5 0.435 -5 -17

[G35 I33]
Zone= 689 623 158 35 3 1 0x35030000 0.5 0 0x3505001B -0.5 1 0 28

[G35 I39]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35050000 0 -1 0x35050001 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I41]
Zone= 613 553 445 445 4 1 0x35070000 0.5 -0.5 0x35080000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -17

[G35 I43]
Zone= 613 624 310 35 0 1 0x35080000 0.5 0 0x35070001 -0.5 1 0 45

[G35 I46]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35070000 0 -1 0x35070007 0.12 1.36 3 -45

[G35 I50]
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70

[G35 I51]
Zone= 552 743 585 750 0 1 0x35000000 0.75 -1 0x3500000F -0.5 1.25 -100 -100

So, my work here is done. :D

Enjoy :up:

[mgbmike]

There seem to be a number of war patrol logs available on line. I stumbled on the Batfish logs the other night, but unfortunately I didn't bookmark it and am having a lttle trouble finding it again.
Could this be it?

http://www.ussbatfish.com/batfish-main.html

Patrol logs on the left side.

[panthercules]

There seem to be a number of war patrol logs available on line. I stumbled on the Batfish logs the other night, but unfortunately I didn't bookmark it and am having a lttle trouble finding it again.
Could this be it?

http://www.ussbatfish.com/batfish-main.html

Patrol logs on the left side.

Yep - that's it - thanks for finding it again.

[Beery]

I hope someone can figure out how to automate this in SH4 Skipper or some sort of log applet - I always loved the "War Diary" feature of IL-2 Stab, and I think something like that for SH4 would be great...

Man! That's the one thing I regret about SH3 Commander. JScones and I were working on this when we both got burnt out. We had worked out how to automate the whole process to generate captain's log entries in prose style (i.e. not just "2-12-42, Ship sunk, 2200 tons") for each patrol but we never got to implementing it in the game. We were going to have entries of fuel status, weather reports, hydrophone contacts, aircraft sightings, evasive manoeuvres, everything... sigh!

I'll be very interested to see how you achieve what you've done. Exciting stuff! There's nothing better, in my mind, than a way to relive my old computer battles by perusing a realistic log of my exploits.

[panthercules]

Well, right now I'm stuck doing what I was doing in SH3 - manually editing the saved game log file in notepad between game sessions. I still love looking at it in my log book in game, especially since I figured out how to enlarge the clipboard so you can read the log entries in game better, but I'm frustrated by a couple of things ATM:

(1) SH4 seems to be less tolerant of long entries than SH3 was, so you have to keep each entry pretty short or it doesn't work (which I solve just by making more short entries instead of fewer long ones, but it does make the log-file editing more fiddly); and

(2) I have no usable programming skills (I used to know how to write things in BASIC, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away) so I don't have any way to either (a) come up with something you could alt-tab to and edit/make log entries while in game (and I'm not sure the game would recognize them anyway so that's not a big deal unless it could be made so you could really make real-time entries - that would be awesome), or (b) take the edited saved-log file and turn it into nice-looking, cleaned up log reports like SH3 Commander would do - it doesn't seem like that would be that hard, but it's way beyond me. I hope that function will make it into SH4-Skipper, but since that seems to be taking a while to come out, I wish someone with some skills would whip up a little something just to do this. The way it is now, once I finish a patrol I don't really have any way to view the log again other than to wade through the saved log file with all its formatting commands, etc.

What would really be nice is some simple little applet that would let you just type the date, time, and text log entry info into fields and then automatically put that info into the syntax form that the game's saved-log files need (and renumber all the other log entries as necessary), so that those entries would show up in the game's clipboard display.

Hmmm - if I could find my old database program I used to play around with, I might even be able to write something that would automate the data entry like that - trouble is, even if I could figure that part out, it would only work for people who had that same database program (basically, just for me), so it wouldn't be nearly as good a solution than if someone who knows how to write simple stuff like this could just whip something up for all us sub skippers. Any takers?

[panthercules]

BTW - further play with this revealed a small problem with an occasional word sometimes being missing along the right edge in some of the log entries in game - it only happened occasionally and I never could figure out exactly why it was happening, BUT a small tweak to the numbers in my post above seems to have eliminated the problem, at least as far as I've been able to tell so far.

I had posted above to change (among other things) the following line in the menu_1024_768.ini file:

[G35 I19]
Zone= 613 553 445 480 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -10

If you change the third number from 445 to 455, so the line now reads:

[G35 I19]
Zone= 613 553 455 480 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -10

all the words seem to show up where they didn't before, at least in my tests so far. The other pages (radio messages and mission objectives) didn't seem to need a similar change so I haven't messed with the numbers I previously posted for those other lines yet. Of course, as previously stated, these numbers are all for 1024x768 and you may need to adjust them accordingly if you run a different resolution and don't like the way these numbers work for that resolution.

A sample of my latest patrol log in game, after this tweak/fix, is shown below:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4PatrolLog.jpg

Enjoy!

[MaxT.dk]

Looks very nice! :up:

[panthercules]

Ok - since a wonderful discovery was made by LukeFF about how to make the recognition manual open back up to the same page you were last looking at, but it only seems to work at resolutions higher than 1024x768 (see this thread: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=565405&posted=1#post565405 ), I decided to start running at 1280x960 to take advantage of this. While I was at it, I decided I would enlarge the captain's log clipboard to take advantage of the increased real estate at the higher resolution - soooo, here are the revised settings for the menu_1024_768.ini file that work at 1280x960, in case anybody wants to use them:

[G35 I19]
Zone= 613 553 589 600 4 1 0x35060000 0.5 -0.5 0x35040000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -20

[G35 I21]
Zone= 613 624 310 35 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 150 45

[G35 I27]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35060000 0 -1 0x35060003 0.12 1.36 3 -155

[G35 I29]
Zone= 613 552 556 556 4 1 0x35050000 0.5 -0.5 0x35030000 -0.5 0.435 -5 -32

[G35 I33]
Zone= 689 623 158 35 3 1 0x35030000 0.5 0 0x3505001B -0.5 1 0 48

[G35 I39]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35050000 0 -1 0x35050001 0.12 1.36 3 -160

[G35 I41]
Zone= 613 553 556 556 4 1 0x35070000 0.5 -0.5 0x35080000 -0.5 0.4 -5 -32

[G35 I43]
Zone= 613 624 310 35 0 1 0x35080000 0.5 0 0x35070001 -0.5 1 2 65

[G35 I46]
Zone= 573 186 140 30 0 1 0x35070000 0 -1 0x35070007 0.12 1.36 3 -160

[G35 I50]
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 115

[G35 I51]
Zone= 552 743 731 938 0 1 0x35000000 0.75 -1 0x3500000F -0.5 1.25 -100 -115


Enjoy!

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice work on this:up:, miss this option from SH2.

RDP

[panthercules]

Check the first post, which has been updated with the info on how to get this to work with Patch 1.4.

Enjoy!

[Roger Dodger]

Is it possible to change the Captain's Log Header to read something like this: . . . ?
CAPTAIN'S LOG
S-33 (USS 138)
LtCdr Roger Dodger
<DATE>
. . . BODY OF LOG . . .

Basic setup:

CAPTAIN'S LOG
<BOAT NAME> <(OFFICIAL NUMBER)>
<RANK> <NAME>
<DATE>

[panthercules]

Is it possible to change the Captain's Log Header to read something like this: . . . ?
CAPTAIN'S LOG
S-33 (USS 138)
LtCdr Roger Dodger
<DATE>
. . . BODY OF LOG . . .

Basic setup:

CAPTAIN'S LOG
<BOAT NAME> <(OFFICIAL NUMBER)>
<RANK> <NAME>
<DATE>

It may well be. Line 2167 in the menu.txt file controls what the heading/title of the log screen displays - as you can see from the screenshot below, I was able to change the title somewhat:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4-logtitle.jpg

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to make it display more characters or split them onto multiple lines yet - when I changed line 2167 to include the three line format you asked for, it worked and displayed all the new text on 3 lines in the tooltip as you mouse over the button in lower right of screen (to call up the log), but not on the log itself. I suspect that you'd have to play around inside the menu_1024_768.ini file to increase the size of the area for this title and move the date and text area down a bit to make room for the new lines of the title (it had probably worked on the log as well, but you just couldn't see it because the display area for this title isn't large enough).

Will try to tweak the .ini file in a bit and see if that does the trick.

[panthercules]

Ok - got it to work with some adjustments to the menu_1024_768.ini file. It can display 3 lines, but I thought it looked better with only two lines (and it was easier to fit it into the available space without having to move the date and text box down if it was on just 2 lines) - see below:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Cladean/SH4captlogtitle2.jpg

It's a very simple set of tweaks - a couple to the menu_1024_768.ini file and one to the menu.txt file, as follows:

menu_1024_768.ini file:

[G35 I21]
Name=Captain'sLogTitle
Type=1029;Static text
ItemID=0x35060002
ParentID=0x35060000
Pos=60,-122,310,35
Zone= 613 624 510 135 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 -25 -27
Color=0x171717FE
Font=19
Text=2167
TextFlags=0x15

[G35 I50]
Name=Date
Type=1029;Static text
ItemID=0x35000002
ParentID=0x35000000
Pos=613,-182,310,32
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70
Font=19
Text=0
TextFlags=0x5
NOTE - the numbers above work at 1024x768 resolution if you are already using my enlarged Captain's Log tweaks - if not, you'll have to experiment some to find the right placement for your resolution and log position. The font number changes are to reduce the font size slightly to make this fit better.

menu.txt file:
2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG|USS Pantherfish (SS-55) - LtCdr Pops Panther
Of course, you can add your own boat name/number and skipper's name. The "|" (the capitalized version of the "\" key) is what signals the carriage return to put the text that follows on the next line.

Enjoy!

[Roger Dodger]

Thanx muchly, I'll give it a try.

[Roger Dodger]

It almost worked. Here's what I got:

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb239/RogerDodger1946/CaptainsLog.jpg

The date seems to have been sucked up under the clip of the clipboard. I used your numbers, but I have a feeling that one or more of them was wrong. Please advise. BTW, I've tried re-entering the boat's name when I get a new one, but the effect is the same.

[panthercules]

It almost worked.
The date seems to have been sucked up under the clip of the clipboard. I used your numbers, but I have a feeling that one or more of them was wrong. Please advise. BTW, I've tried re-entering the boat's name when I get a new one, but the effect is the same.

Did you do anything to your date section ([G35 I50]) other than just change the font number to "19" as I showed? This gets tricky because I've monkeyed with a lot of these section numbers in order to get my log/clipboard to be bigger, and the sections I copied/pasted into my post above are from my tweaked, larger clipboard file. If you're not running with all my large clipboard settings tweaks, or are running a resolution other than 1024x768, then just using the exact numbers I posted above for this fix will probably give results that aren't quite right.



From the looks of your screenshot, you seem to be running with the stock clipboard size - that would mean that using my exact numbers for this latest fix on the header will screw things up. As I noted in my post:NOTE - the numbers above work at 1024x768 resolution if you are already using my enlarged Captain's Log tweaks - if not, you'll have to experiment some to find the right placement for your resolution and log position.


I tested the following on a stock 1.4 setup and it seemed to work fine - Only make the following changes (in yellow) to your stock menu_1024_768.ini file settings:

[G35 I21]
...
Zone= 588 624 510 135 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 -75 -12
...
Font=19


[G35 I50]
...
Font=19



Good luck.

[Roger Dodger]

Hokie Dokie

I've made the following changes. I've also listed the unmodified sections for comparison. I'll load up the game and send you a screen shot.

'Twould be nice if the MENU.TXT could be a little more automatic so I wouldn't have to change it every time I got a new boat, but I guess that's a little much to ask. Something like:

2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG|$BOATNAME$ ($BOATNUM$) - $PLAYERRANK$ $PLAYERNAME$

Thanks for your help and the rapid reply. :up:

<BEFORE>
[G35 I21]
Name=Captain'sLogTitle
Type=1029;Static text
ItemID=0x35060002
ParentID=0x35060000
Pos=60,-122,310,35
Zone= 613 624 510 135 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 -25 -27
Color=0x171717FE
Font=19
Text=2167
TextFlags=0x15

<AFTER ADJUSTING>
[G35 I21]
. . .
Zone= 588 624 510 135 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 -75 -12
. . .
<TMARU 175 UNMODIFIED>
[G35 I21]
. . .
Pos=35,-122,310,35
Zone= 588 624 310 35 3 1 0x35040000 0 0 0x35060002 0 1 0 36
. . .
Font=21
. . .
<MODIFIED> [G35 I50]
Name=Date
Type=1029;Static text
ItemID=0x35000002
ParentID=0x35000000
Pos=613,-182,310,32
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70
Font=19
Text=0
TextFlags=0x5

<TMARU 175 UNMODIFIED>
[G35 I50]
. . .
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 0
Font=21
. . .

<MENU.TXT>
2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG|USS Balao (SS-285) - LtCdr Roger Dodger

[panthercules]

Hokie Dokie

I've made the following changes. I've also listed the unmodified sections for comparison. I'll load up the game and send you a screen shot.
...

<MODIFIED> [G35 I50]
...
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70


If your date header is still up way too high, I'd focus on this line's setting - I'm not sure why you would have changed that last number, but that would tend to raise the date header up on the screen like your other screenshot showed. The only change I made to the date header was just to change the font line from 21 to 19, which just reduced the size of the letters (so the extra lines would fit in the same basic space). I'm not running TM and am not familiar with what TM may have done to the clipboard, but under normal (stock) circumstances there shouldn't have been a need to change the location/height of the date header, so there shouldn't have been a need to change that last number in the "Zone" line to "70" like shown in your message above.

Hope you get it working.

BTW - It would be nice if the menu.txt file portion could be made more automatic - maybe it can be, but I have no idea how to make variables work like that in SH4 and have only made straight text changes to that file so far, so I do have to manually change it if I want to change my captain or boat name/number. Maybe it would be worth looking through some of these files to see whether/how the game uses variables for those things (player and boat names) in some other context and then see if trying that same sort of syntax would work for this - would be cool.

[Roger Dodger]

Sorry its taken so long to get back to you. I've been trying to get screenshots of my Captain's Log to include, but <CTRL>+F11 no longer seems to work. I can't find any reference to it in Commands.cfg. I also know that I didn't fool around with that. Do you know where the Screenshot command is?

BTW, I changed the Date/Zone figure because it was in the original message (#24) you sent. To wit:

[G35 I50]
Name=Date
Type=1029;Static text
ItemID=0x35000002
ParentID=0x35000000
Pos=613,-182,310,32
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70
Font=19
Text=0
TextFlags=0x5

I'll change it back to '0' and let you know what happens. Thanx for the help, and I agree with you that there must be some way to make it more automatic to insert the needed data into the Captain's Log Header.

[Roger Dodger]

<MODIFIED> [G35 I50]
...
Zone= 613 586 310 32 0 1 0x3500000F 0.5 -0.5 0x35000002 -0.5 4.4 0 70


If your date header is still up way too high, I'd focus on this line's setting . . . so there shouldn't have been a need to change that last number in the "Zone" line to "70" like shown in your message above.

Hope you get it working.

BTW - It would be nice if the menu.txt file portion could be made more automatic - maybe it can be, but I have no idea how to make variables work like that in SH4 and have only made straight text changes to that file so far, so I do have to manually change it if I want to change my captain or boat name/number. Maybe it would be worth looking through some of these files to see whether/how the game uses variables for those things (player and boat names) in some other context and then see if trying that same sort of syntax would work for this - would be cool.

I changed that last figure (70) back to '0', and everything looks NICE! Centered and everything.

I've found several places where the MENU.TXT makes references to external data. I've listed them below, and highlighted them for you. Could something like the duplicate line 2167 be done to make the process more automatic? I still haven't found the external reference to a PlayerName.

2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG|USS PERCH (SS-176) - LtCdr Philip Queeg
2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG#NEWLINE##SUBMARINENAME# - #TITLE# #NAME#
2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG|Submarine:%s - Career Name: %s %s
2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG|UnitName: %s - #TITLE# #NAME#

NOTE: MENU.TXT uses both the #DATA# and the %s references. I have no idea how it decides where to get the data.

Lines from MENU.TXT
;default name for the player starting a career
134=Richard Kentrat
140=Patrol Number: %d|Start Date: %02d/%02d/%04d|Start Location: %s|End Date: %02d/%02d/%04d|End Location: %s|Submarine: %s|Current Flotilla: %s|Current Emblem: %s
150=Career Name: %s %s|%s|Current Renown %.02f|Total Patrols: %d|Career Start Date: %02d/%02d/%04d|Current Date: %02d/%02d/%04d|Current Flotilla: %s|Location: %s|Submarine: %s|Current Emblem: %s|Total Officers Dead: %d|Total Petty-Officers Dead: %d|Total Seamen Dead: %d|Flotillas: %s

261=#TITLE# #NAME#,#NEWLINE##NEWLINE# You have been approved for the command of #SUBMARINENAME#, a #SUBMARINECLASS# class submarine assigned to the #FLOTILLA#.#NEWLINE##NEWLINE#Report to duty at #BASE#, no later than #DATE#.

1605=Submarine:
1634=Career Name:
1638=Current Date:
1641=Submarine:
1704=Name/Rank:

5890=#TITLE# #NAME##NEWLINE#Commanding officer, #SUBMARINENAME##NEWLINE##DATE##NEWLINE##NEWLINE#Fo r extraordinary heroism as Commanding officer of the #SUBMARINENAME# during the #PATROLNUMBER# war patrol of that vessel, the Navy Board of Decorations and Medals awards the #NEWLINE##MEDALNAME##NEWLINE# to #TITLE# #NAME#.#NEWLINE##NEWLINE#His inspiring leadership and aggressiveness are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Submarine Force.

From: C:\Documents and Settings\MYUSERNAME\My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\playersettings.cfg
[PLAYER_SUBMARINE]
PatrolArea=0
CrtYear=1942
CrtMonth=4
CrtDay=16
CrtHour=10
CrtMin=40
DeparturePointLong=13792344.000000
DeparturePointLat=-3862100.000000
DeparturePointHeading=352.689484
ClassName=SSPorpoise
UnitName=USS Perch (SS-176)
Origin=American
TextureName=data/Submarine/NSS_Porpoise/NSS_Pclass_T01.tga
LightmapTextureName=data/Submarine/NSS_Porpoise/NSS_Pclass_O01.tga
NormalmapTextureName=NULL
Z01=data/objects/Conning_P_01
BLD=BoldType3
M02=3_50_Soclu
M01=NULL
A01=20mm_single_soclu
H01=NSS_Hydrophone_Ball_02
H04=NSS_Hydrophone_Ball_02
R04=NULL
R02=NSS_EarlySD
O02=NSS_atack_periscop
O03=NSS_obs_periscop
O04=NSS_TBT_base
MissionEntry1=data/Campaigns/Campaign/PatrolObjectives/Sink Luzon Strait 01/Sink Luzon Strait 01.mis

[panthercules]

Fascinating - some interesting finds there. As soon as I get past this (hopefully) final hurdle/problem with getting my Pitch mod released, I'll take another look at this stuff and see if I can figure out a good, easy way to make this a bit more automatic.

Thanks for the info :up:

PS - sorry if one of my early messages got you off track there - I still don't know where that "70" might have come from - maybe a copy/paste job gone terribly wrong :lol: Glad you got that sorted finally.

[Roger Dodger]

2167=CAPTAIN'S LOG#NEWLINE##SUBMARINENAME# - #TITLE# #NAME#

Did not work. All I got was:

CAPTAIN'S LOGNEWLINE SUBMARINENAME - TITLE NAME all on the same line.

Nice try.

Back to sinking Japanese Shipping. :arrgh!: