[TEC] Mod Tools, HowTo

[maerean_m]

This is from a technical PM. I encourage you ask your questions on the forum, rather than on PMs because
1. the others will also see the answer and may benefit from it
2. it's a better use of my time, because people have similar questions so I don't have to write the same answer multiple times. Plus I may forget some details on the 3rd time I answer the same question. And I can answer more distinct questions in the same time rather than answering the same questions over and over.
3. I have subscribed to this thread so I receive emails when you ask something. So it's just like a PM, only better

Some questions about entries in the page .ini files:

what are the possible values for these and what do they do?

Color=0xFFFFFF00 (ARGB or RGBA or ?)
Materials=1 (# of materials - associated with Mat x?)
Display=0;No stretch - what are all possible values here and what do they do
Mat 0=data/menu/gui/layout/dialsfdb.dds - figured this one out
MatFlags=0x9 - what are all possible values here and what do they do
TexFmt=0x0 - what are all possible values here and what do they do
Drag=false - item is draggable?
BmpState=1 - what are all the possible values are what do they do?
NeedFocus=true - purpose is?
SelOne=false - ??
IdGroup=0 - ??
StatesColors=0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF - what are the different states? What does each value above represent?


how can I debug scripts in real time? When I have the game loaded I can run the script manager and see my scripts. But how can I change them, save them, and have the game reload them while playing the game (thus testing changes)?

Hello

* Please stop changing the ini files by hand. That was the only way to create UI mods for SH4. Now we have given you the Menu Editor. Use it.
* the colors use the RGBA format
* matflags: 1 for transparency and 8 for bilinear filtering
* MatFlags=0x29 is 0x20 + 0x08 + 0x01. I don't know by heart what 0x20 means, i'll have to look into the DirectX headers. But it's not a value you normally encounter.
* menus use a system that resembles the CSS used in web development, e.g. you create a set of appearance properties (specific for texts, buttons, listboxes) and apply that style for any number of menu items. So StatesColors should usualy be set by means of style sheets (from the Menu Editor). As a bonus, style sheets can be changes while the game is running (very useful for list-boxes that only get filled with content at run-time, e.g. the Combat Log in the bottom right corner of the HUD). The style sheets themselves are stored in the Silent Hunter 5\data\Menu\StyleSheets\German.shss file.
* the FocusableMenuItem (button, check box, radio button) has 4 states: Disabled, Normal, Mouse Over, Pressed. So those are the colors for the 4 states.
* Drag, BmpState, NeedFocus, SelOne - were used in SH3 and are now obsolete (and hard-coded). The SH5 way is to use python scripting to implement your design (good examples can be found in scripts we wrote for the HUD, Navigation map and the Character dialog (the big .py files in data\Scripts\Menu)).

* While on patrol, open the script manager and click on a script from the tree on the left. Do your changes to the script code you see on the right and press the ApplyChanges button. That's it.
* There's a button called ViewGlobals to let you see the variables that the script is working with and see the exposed properties for those variables.
* The script manager has some useful features like text-auto-complete, jump-to-function-definition, find-text and go-to-line-number.
* Also, there's a tab called Class Definitions to see all the classes exported to the python scripts containing the inheritance tree, description, nested types, properties, methods and events.

Mihai

[Heretic]

Thanks for all your help maerean_m, I have a few questions on crew scripting.

1. Can the in-game script manager be used for crew scripts? I looked through it briefly, but didn't see anything I recognized.

2. For Wp:IsCharacterPosture(x) values are A,B,C, etc. What do these represent?

3. I can't get Wp:IsCrewState(B_STATIONS) to ever return true. Setting battle stations in the game doesn't seem to set the trigger.

4. Looking thru animation_info.txt, it appears I should be able to offset an animation. Is that correct? Nothing happens when I add an entry to it.

Thanks!

[idl0r]

hey guys,

maybe i'm just blind but.. i don't find a script console or script debugging stuff.

i found a "Console" key in Commands.cfg but that doesn't work..
so now i need a way to debug some python stuff.
any hints?

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by urfisch

i already tried to load it into goblin, but it says there are actors missing...dlls. where can i find them

Have you configured the root dir of the game in the editor? Go into Tools->Options and set the game's home dir up, as in the 'big' post above:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...4&postcount=33

From that post:

* [very important]setting up the GoblinEditor means typing the folder where the sh5.exe is located in the ActorsDirectory property in the Tools\Options window (e.g. K:\Games\Silent Hunter 5). The actors are the .act files in the SilentHunter5 folder and are the ones holding the code for all the controllers.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by maerean_m

* Please stop changing the ini files by hand. That was the only way to create UI mods for SH4. Now we have given you the Menu Editor. Use it.

Can you give me a manual that explains what everything on that application does and how to use it?
I'm having problems placing items where I want them with the editor. I fire up the editor, move the item on the screen to the location I want and press save changes. Now in the editor it's placed exactly where I want it. But when I fire up the game to check the change the item isn't where it's supposed to be. What gives?

Can the tools be made independent of the game launcher? I need to be able to test changes NOW, not when Ubi finally decides to get their servers working again. So far today I haven't been able to do anything with any of my mods because I can't access the game due to 'you need an internet connection' or 'invalid username/password' or whatever other reason. This is beyond absurd and totally unacceptable.

[bigboywooly]

Any tutorial for the mission editor ?
Can we edit the nodes
How about editing the node startpoints like Kiel where I guess you need to add the names of new groups for them to work

Thanx in advance

[Therion_Prime]

Has anyone figured out how the waypoint editor in the goblin editor works?

The textboxes are all empty after loading GR2s, even merged ones that contain waypoint info.

[Drifter]

Originally Posted by jimimadrid

This do not work for me. WindowsXP Prof. I do not get the menu by right click.

I only get the "Do you want to activate Menu Editor?" Question at start.

jimimadrid, the script menus cannot be accessed by minimizing the game during play. You must re-size the game resolution to be smaller than your desktop. Plus, the game option has to be set to 'windowed mode'. Then the script menus will show in-game. Hope this helps you.

[urfisch]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Have you configured the root dir of the game in the editor? Go into Tools->Options and set the game's home dir up, as in the 'big' post above:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...4&postcount=33

From that post:

yes, i got that. now everything works...but the dat files are damaged, when adding new controller entries - after loading them again.

take a look here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...00&postcount=5

[Heretic]

I found this documentation on using various tools to edit GR2 files. I know very little about 3d modeling, so I don't know how much of this is of any use. I thought I'd post it here so that more knowledgable folks can provide some input as to it's usefullness.

http://gr2decode.altervista.org/docs.html
also this one
http://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/...f=14,36458,,10

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by Heretic

I found this documentation on using various tools to edit GR2 files.
http://gr2decode.altervista.org/docs.html

With the tool from that site, it is possible to extract 3D data from GR2 and inport it into 3DSMax. The other way round from Max to GR2 should work with the Neverwinter Nights 2 Mod tools

Here I tried to get the La Pallice model into 3DSMax


BTW:
Good job devs , the La Pallice harbour layout now looks as near as in real life, although by today's time because in the 40's the harbor was a little different, but that could be possibly modded

[gutted]

Taskbar menu items are all greyed out.

Im in windowed mode, have the main.cfg stuff enabled in MyDocuments/SH5 and i'm not trying while at a loading screen (tried at main menu, and while on patrol). I'm using XP32-bit. what did i miss?

I'm trying to get at the Script Manager.

[Heretic]

I've been using Granny Viewer to look at the crew models and animations. Very quick and useful. When loading the character objects, it'll display all of the meshes in one big blob, so you need to use the 'hide all meshes' command and then pick the ones you want.

[voidster]

ive been trying to tinker (just tinker..nothing major) around with the VIIA's stats. On a bad day i just want to go out and well..sink stuff..(a lot..heh) so ive been tinkering with a hex editor on the .sim files to increase the ships speed. Well ive been told the goblin editor is better ..and much easier to use.

So far i cant get to work properly. Ive pointed the goblin editor where my actor dll's are (my main sh5 directory ) and when i try to load up the sim file for editing ..it informs me it cannot find many actor dll's and refuses to load. Am i missing something big here? this all new to me and ..im having a lot of trouble following this information provided. id appreciate any helps or thumps on the skull to get me thinking properly

Try loading the *.gr2 file instead. It should load all children. However, i have no idea of editing anything there.