Campaign Scenario "button" editing tutorial

[Sherlock]

OK, I think I am loosing my mind today (but then again there are those who say I have already lost it....including my wife....but I digress).

At one time I thought I had read in one of the tutorials how to unpack, create/edit and repack the campaign scenario "buttons" for a theater. But I've now gone through each tutorial and searched the forums (and spent 2 hours doing all this). So now I am going to ask for help in locating what I am sure I read at one time or another.

It may have been (and probably was) just a post that described how to make one button "brighter" and the second button "darker" so when the button position was clicked on the brighter image would display.

Anybody got a bookmark to that post or those procedures written down so they could repost them?

Thanks!

[T_Rex]

They are two separate buttons in an rsc.

In F4 they are in the art\resource folder under select.idx/.rsc.

I *know* these tgas used indexed alpha. That means that one color (first or last depending on your app) will be used as transparent. Let me know if you want my inelegant method of getting around that.

Edit - whoops, I'm wrong.

One button. The higlighting must be in the .scf. Look in the art1024\campaign\select\cs_load.scf and look for this:

Code: Select all

[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_UP -25 -30
[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_DOWN -25 -30
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_0 230 230 230
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_1 0 255 0

I think those last two control the hilighting color.... I think.

YMMV.

[Sherlock]

They are two separate buttons in an rsc.

In F4 they are in the art\resource folder under select.idx/.rsc.

I *know* these tgas used indexed alpha. That means that one color (first or last depending on your app) will be used as transparent. Let me know if you want my inelegant method of getting around that.

Edit - whoops, I'm wrong.

One button. The higlighting must be in the .scf. Look in the art1024\campaign\select\cs_load.scf and look for this:

Code: Select all

[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_UP -25 -30
[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_DOWN -25 -30
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_0 230 230 230
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_1 0 255 0

I think those last two control the hilighting color.... I think.

YMMV.

Actually T, I think you were correct the first time. The two buttons I am talking about are the:

CAMP_SCENARIO_1.tga ...........dark button

CAMP_SCENARIO_1GREEN.tga.......light button

these both are found in the select.rsc/select.idx resource file (along with the other button tgas).

These are the graphics I am talking about creating. Here is an example from ODSAF:

[T_Rex]

hehehe

That's funny, actually!

Julian/Sylvain used what they did with the taxi/takeoff/ramp buttons - split into 2 buttons - to the campaign select files. In post-SP3-F4, at least from the files I can get to right now - there are only 1 button graphics for the campaigns. Gotta be the scf that does the highlighting.

Good for them. I kinda like the paired solution. Gives more creative flexibility in how to handle the button pushing.

[Sherlock]

hehehe

That's funny, actually!

Julian/Sylvain used what they did with the taxi/takeoff/ramp buttons - split into 2 buttons - to the campaign select files. In post-SP3-F4, at least from the files I can get to right now - there are only 1 button graphics for the campaigns. Gotta be the scf that does the highlighting.

Good for them. I kinda like the paired solution. Gives more creative flexibility in how to handle the button pushing.

ha- HA! THAT's IT!!
you saying what you just did dropped my memory into place. It wasn't the campaign selection buttons; it was the PIE SCREEN UI!!
Thanks! Now if only I can find that post!

EDIT: I think I found it:
viewtopic.php?t=20231&highlight=pie+screen

[T_Rex]

Excellent. I wondered about that.

[Snake Man]

Could one of you guys summarize this into the tutorials 2007 topic so when we get around to update them, this kind of button tutorial would be added. Thanks.

[Sherlock]

Could one of you guys summarize this into the tutorials 2007 topic so when we get around to update them, this kind of button tutorial would be added. Thanks.

Well, not quite yet SM. The AF tgas are now 16 million color files (as opposed to the original F4 which used 256 color tgas I think). The Pie Screen thread really doesn't apply very much (although as T_Rex pointed out the Pie Screen stuff uses the same kind of principle as these campaign "buttons" to create the images; however, the images are activated by moving the mouse over them in the UI--a little different operation). I don't quite understand enough about yet to describe it (in other words I don't know any details yet!).

I've got to try creating/editing them yet to figure out how to make them correctly first. Then I'll be able to write something else. Will that work?

[T_Rex]

Yo Holmes- (Yeah, you don't know how long I've been waiting to say that!)

I'd bet that if you look at the campaign\select scf for the one that references the tgas, you'll find a buttonstate statement. That tells the code to use the "other" tga when the cursor is over it.

That's pretty much the way the animated buttons work in old F4.

Ranger822 is going to send me a writeup he did on UI files. That'll help put all this together in one spot, too.

[Sherlock]

Yo Holmes- (Yeah, you don't know how long I've been waiting to say that!)

hehe...glad you got it out of your system now!

I'd bet that if you look at the campaign\select scf for the one that references the tgas, you'll find a buttonstate statement. That tells the code to use the "other" tga when the cursor is over it.

That's pretty much the way the animated buttons work in old F4.

Ranger822 is going to send me a writeup he did on UI files. That'll help put all this together in one spot, too.

Here's the code from the CS_LOAD.scf dealing with these buttons:

Code: Select all

[BUTTON]
[SETUP] CS_LOAD_SCENARIO2,C_TYPE_CUSTOM,31,229
[IMAGES] CAMP_SCENARIO_2 CAMP_SCENARIO_2GREEN CAMP_SCENARIO_2 CAMP_SCENARIO_2
[CLUSTER] 4001
[FLAGBITON] C_BIT_ABSOLUTE
[SOUNDBITE] SND_POP C_TYPE_LMOUSEUP
[LABELFLAGBITON] C_BIT_LEFT
#[LABELALL] TXT_IRON_FORTRESS
[FONT] HAETTEN_18
[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_UP -25 -30
[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_DOWN -25 -30
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_0 230 230 230
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_1 0 255 0
[USERDATA] 0 2
[USERDATA] 1 1
[USERDATA] 2 3
[USERDATA] 100 MV_UIFORTRESS
[CURSOR] CRSR_F16_ON

[BUTTON]
[SETUP] CS_LOAD_SCENARIO1,C_TYPE_CUSTOM,31,135
[IMAGES] CAMP_SCENARIO_1 CAMP_SCENARIO_1GREEN CAMP_SCENARIO_1 CAMP_SCENARIO_1
[CLUSTER] 4001
[FLAGBITON] C_BIT_ABSOLUTE
[SOUNDBITE] SND_POP C_TYPE_LMOUSEUP
[LABELFLAGBITON] C_BIT_LEFT
#[LABELALL] TXT_ROLLING_FIRE
[FONT] HAETTEN_18
 [TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_UP -25 -30
[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_DOWN -25 -30
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_0 230 230 230
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_1 0 255 0
[USERDATA] 0 1
[USERDATA] 1 2
[USERDATA] 2 3
[USERDATA] 100 MV_UIROLLINGFIRE
[CURSOR] CRSR_F16_ON

[BUTTON]
[SETUP] CS_LOAD_SCENARIO3,C_TYPE_CUSTOM,31,41
[IMAGES] CAMP_SCENARIO_3 CAMP_SCENARIO_3GREEN CAMP_SCENARIO_3 CAMP_SCENARIO_3
[CLUSTER] 4001
[FLAGBITON] C_BIT_ABSOLUTE
[SOUNDBITE] SND_POP C_TYPE_LMOUSEUP
[LABELFLAGBITON] C_BIT_LEFT
#[LABELALL] TXT_TIGER_SPIRIT
[FONT] HAETTEN_18
 [TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_UP -25 -30
[TEXTOFFSET] C_STATE_DOWN -25 -30
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_0 230 230 230
[TEXTCOLOR] C_STATE_1 0 255 0
[USERDATA] 0 3
[USERDATA] 1 2
[USERDATA] 2 1
[USERDATA] 100 MV_UITIGERSPIRIT
[CURSOR] CRSR_F16_ON

No buttonstate in the entire file. I looked and searched throughout. They have evidently changed things.

[T_Rex]

Yeah, I might've gotten the statement wrong, too. This line is what defines what graphic to use, obviously.

Code: Select all

[IMAGES] CAMP_SCENARIO_2 CAMP_SCENARIO_2GREEN CAMP_SCENARIO_2 CAMP_SCENARIO_2