Questions about modding.

[Von Due]

First, I don't consider myself a mod by any stretch of the imagination but I just got Tycho's analogue clock http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=208895 to work with GWX3/WS Magui.

At first I didn't get the seconds hand but that is apparently fixed (just a slight offset from center but nothing that throws it off). This fix got me interested in looking at other mods and how to get the bits and pieces that do work with my mod combo.

Now this gets me to menu_1024x768.ini.

I am looking at CAWS 1.6 and I am trying out varius components that will work without breaking the game as it is now. First are the 3 colour filters in the OBS periscope. I got them to show but they start out hidden behind the main screen graphics. They are draggable though, into view but this I wonder could have something to do with layers, which layer goes on top of what.

Any pointers to how this works, how to change which layer a piece of graphics is on? I guess it's in the ini file but I could very well be wrong.

[sublynx]

Scudder's guide explains some of the basics:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=3988

Latemail wrote a large guide for working with that file, but only in German.

Basically what comes first is shown first.

[Von Due]

I don't speak or read German but thanks!!

I wonder how modders figure out what the ini parameters are. Frog leg and bat's eye in the cauldron with wild guesses thrown in as well or they are just plain gifted?

At least for Flight Sim X there is a lot of documentation and an SDK. Not much of that here.

PS: I'll just say, like with the game Kerbal Space Program, there are some modders who have my jaws on the floor

[badwolf]

I've been out of touch with modding for a while, but can I suggest an idea I had.
In the periscope view, there is a main backdrop, with the viewing circle, which is clear and allows anything behind it to show. Then around the circle is solid background, where the switches are placed. Now you need to place the filters under this backdrop, so it shows in the viewing circle only.
You then have 3 filters that are placed off screen and slide into position when selected.
You need a 4 position switch to select :- no filter, 1st filter, 2nd filter, 3rd filter. The switch activates the filter and it slides from off screen to under the periscope viewing circle.
This is all done in the menu_1024x768.ini file.
I never got round to trying it, but I can't see why it won't work. Hope this helps.

[Tycho]

Why you need three filters.
In reality, there have different filters for different purposes. For fog, against the sun dazzle, for dark...
But in the game, I think, just one is quite enough.
Whatever color is, orange, green, yellow, will help only to define better the contours of objects in the dark.

I have only one, orange.
sublynx, have easy solution for many filters through draggable screens.
Charts Addon (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=4686)

[Von Due]

I found that sometimes, in odd lighting, the markings on the scopes were impossible to read but with the green filter those markings stood out crisp. I go for all 3 now since that can allow for some experimentation if the green filter for some reason is sub optimal.

So what I've gathered so far is I need to rearrange the order of items in the G26 and G2B sections of the menu file. That will take some time but it's on the to do list now.

I like the idea of a switch but my skills won't allow for anything that fancy yet. I just managed a plain draggable image, anything more advanced than that will have to come later.

[badwolf]

In my early days, I found that the menu_1024x768.ini was impossible to understand when looking at it.
So I decide to use Excel and put the menu_1024x768.ini lines in it as a flowchart.
Wow, everything was far easier to understand and mod.
I learned a lot from that flow chart how the menu_1024x768.ini parts actual work.
Took me a while to construct it, but well worth the effort.
The G26 and G2B sections, where the first two parts I made a flowchart for. It showed how everything is linked together in the file and other ones, like the Dial.cfg
It also enabled you to change things and learn by what happens.
This was the days when tutorials never existed.