troopie
07-23-12, 06:28 AM
I've been following karamazovnew's excellent Menu editor tutorial but have struck a lil' prob. I've got as far as here and have followed pretty much by the letter, however after saving the work SH5 would no longer last out the intro without CTD every time. I deleted the new pages and all is back to normal so just wondering what I did wrong?
:88) I'm sure it'll be something pretty obvious 'n' basic. I backed up the data 'n' menu folders as sugested and then went to work on the originals, should I have been using the backup or something (don't even know if that's posible)? What's the risks/interferance potential of adding new unused pages to the game?
Sorry I'm a bit of a dunce and don't yet understand how the game uses these files. (am slowly trying to work it out though!)
Can we create new pages? Hell yeah!
Just Right click on the Root Parent in the Control Panel list...
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9082/tutorial2s.jpg
In the new dialog box, just enter a good name and, if you want, a specific ID. Don't worry about existing items, the edit will not let you create duplicates:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4452/tutorial2h.jpg
For example, I've just created 2 items, a Page called Karamazov and a group called Karamazovgroup. After I saved here's what happened:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4636/tutorial2d.jpg
The proper files were created. Both new items were added to the menu_1024_768.ini file (which now acts as an index for all the pages). You might also see that any new page is automatically configured to fill the entire screen on any resolution (more about that later). Both new items appear just under the Root Menu, first in the list. But you can drag/drop them to any place you want. This will have an effect on the order in which these pages appear on screen. More about that later, but remember that the any item will appear BEHIND any item that is further down in the list. In other words, any new item that you've just created inside a group/page will always be behind any other items that were already in that group. I'll come back to this in just a second.
Let's add a new item to my Karamazov page. I will right click on it and get the following menu:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8418/tutorial2o.jpg
- Change ID: allows you to input a custom ID.
- Add Controls group: allows you to create a group. You can create as many nested groups as you want, even if only to keep the list tidy for easy modding
- Add Control: Create a new item inside the group. Here's the control box you get when you click it:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4467/tutorial2mw.jpg
You can now select the type of item you want to create. Be careful as this is the only time you can do this. If you change your mind later, you'll have to delete this and create a new item.
Also notice that the ID input box is dynamic. When we created the Page we were only allowed to change the first 2 numbers in the string. We are now allowed to change the last 4 items in the string. This is done to prevent a mess up of the ID's and also to keep things simple to read for you:
-Any page or main group (the ones just below the root) will have this pattern: XX000000. So you have a maximum of 196 pages available to you. Remember that all of these get their own file!
My Karamazovgroup item got the ID of: 1B000000.
-Any group inside a page will inherit the ID of the parent. So any groups that I create inside my Karamazovgroup will look like this: 1BXX0000. It doesn't matter how they're nested together (unless you write this in binary code :D). Thus you can create a total of 196 groups in any page!
For example, I create a new group that receives the ID of: 1B010000
- Any item that is placed inside this group will have this pattern: 1B01XXXX. In other words I am able to create 9999 items inside ANY on of my 196 total possible groups in ANY 196 pages. That's a LOT of possible items :D
So what items can we create? Here's a quick list:
Static Text, Static BMP, Static BMP Array, Button, Checkbox, Slider, EditBox, Radio button, EditBox, Move, Progress, TabControl, DetectMouse, etc., etc.,etc.
Renaming items
To rename an item, first select it in the list by clicking on it in the list. Then, after half a second or so, click it again. Don't rapidly double click or it won't work.
Deleting Items
At the moment refrain yourself from deleting any original game items. It might cause crashes. If you want to remove an item from the screen, just move it outside of the viewport (I'll explain how in the next post). The only way to delete items is to Right click on them in the list and select Delete from the menu.
Changing the Order of the items inside a group
For the next example I have created the following structure:
1. I created GROUP 1
2. I created a Progress Bar inside GROUP 1
3. I created a Static Text inside Group 1
4. I created GROUP 2
I then moved the items with my mouse in the Preview Screen:
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/3994/tutorial2w.jpg
:88) I'm sure it'll be something pretty obvious 'n' basic. I backed up the data 'n' menu folders as sugested and then went to work on the originals, should I have been using the backup or something (don't even know if that's posible)? What's the risks/interferance potential of adding new unused pages to the game?
Sorry I'm a bit of a dunce and don't yet understand how the game uses these files. (am slowly trying to work it out though!)
Can we create new pages? Hell yeah!
Just Right click on the Root Parent in the Control Panel list...
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9082/tutorial2s.jpg
In the new dialog box, just enter a good name and, if you want, a specific ID. Don't worry about existing items, the edit will not let you create duplicates:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4452/tutorial2h.jpg
For example, I've just created 2 items, a Page called Karamazov and a group called Karamazovgroup. After I saved here's what happened:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4636/tutorial2d.jpg
The proper files were created. Both new items were added to the menu_1024_768.ini file (which now acts as an index for all the pages). You might also see that any new page is automatically configured to fill the entire screen on any resolution (more about that later). Both new items appear just under the Root Menu, first in the list. But you can drag/drop them to any place you want. This will have an effect on the order in which these pages appear on screen. More about that later, but remember that the any item will appear BEHIND any item that is further down in the list. In other words, any new item that you've just created inside a group/page will always be behind any other items that were already in that group. I'll come back to this in just a second.
Let's add a new item to my Karamazov page. I will right click on it and get the following menu:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8418/tutorial2o.jpg
- Change ID: allows you to input a custom ID.
- Add Controls group: allows you to create a group. You can create as many nested groups as you want, even if only to keep the list tidy for easy modding
- Add Control: Create a new item inside the group. Here's the control box you get when you click it:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4467/tutorial2mw.jpg
You can now select the type of item you want to create. Be careful as this is the only time you can do this. If you change your mind later, you'll have to delete this and create a new item.
Also notice that the ID input box is dynamic. When we created the Page we were only allowed to change the first 2 numbers in the string. We are now allowed to change the last 4 items in the string. This is done to prevent a mess up of the ID's and also to keep things simple to read for you:
-Any page or main group (the ones just below the root) will have this pattern: XX000000. So you have a maximum of 196 pages available to you. Remember that all of these get their own file!
My Karamazovgroup item got the ID of: 1B000000.
-Any group inside a page will inherit the ID of the parent. So any groups that I create inside my Karamazovgroup will look like this: 1BXX0000. It doesn't matter how they're nested together (unless you write this in binary code :D). Thus you can create a total of 196 groups in any page!
For example, I create a new group that receives the ID of: 1B010000
- Any item that is placed inside this group will have this pattern: 1B01XXXX. In other words I am able to create 9999 items inside ANY on of my 196 total possible groups in ANY 196 pages. That's a LOT of possible items :D
So what items can we create? Here's a quick list:
Static Text, Static BMP, Static BMP Array, Button, Checkbox, Slider, EditBox, Radio button, EditBox, Move, Progress, TabControl, DetectMouse, etc., etc.,etc.
Renaming items
To rename an item, first select it in the list by clicking on it in the list. Then, after half a second or so, click it again. Don't rapidly double click or it won't work.
Deleting Items
At the moment refrain yourself from deleting any original game items. It might cause crashes. If you want to remove an item from the screen, just move it outside of the viewport (I'll explain how in the next post). The only way to delete items is to Right click on them in the list and select Delete from the menu.
Changing the Order of the items inside a group
For the next example I have created the following structure:
1. I created GROUP 1
2. I created a Progress Bar inside GROUP 1
3. I created a Static Text inside Group 1
4. I created GROUP 2
I then moved the items with my mouse in the Preview Screen:
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/3994/tutorial2w.jpg