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DAMN Development Thread (formerly known as "Custom Submenus")

Started by daeley, November 12, 2007, 02:28:25 PM

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City Builder

Quote from: Warrior on October 02, 2008, 10:37:02 AM
As Daeley said remove the "\Apps" from the start in box in your shortcut properties.

Jonathan

Completely missed that post, I removed the Apps part of the shortcut and now it works properly with the DAMN folders in the games installation plugins folder instead of in the documents plugins folder.

Thanks,
When your tired of games of destruction, come to CityBuilderGames.com to discuss games of Construction!
Oh!  Thanks for the negative rep, I love you too!

Diggis

OK, I think we have a way of removing the files from the menu.  However I need some testers to verify that it doesn't break the files.  I need people who are using the DAMN to test this for me, before I start releasing how we did it.  All going well I will let you all in on the secret.  ;)

Volunteers please PM me an email address to send the files to.  I will try sort it out and email them tonight.

caronte22

I don't know if this has bene discussed in the thread already, but just to let you know.
I was having problems with the indexing script. I'm running Vista 32-bit, UAC turned on. Naturally, it bounced with an 'access denied' when trying to run it, so I ran it with admin privileges.
It didn't work either, it got stuck in a loop of 'specified folder not found'.
I edited the script and removed the loop, and found that Windows was beginning from C:\Windows\system32, so it was impossible for the script to find the folders it was looking for, so I had to edit the script again and hardcode the Simcty 4 installation route, and now it works just fine.

Luckily I had some knowledge of how Windows scripts work, but what if a common user that doesn't know about this stuff encounters this?

Diggis

Quote from: Diggis on October 06, 2008, 01:53:28 AM
OK, I think we have a way of removing the files from the menu.  However I need some testers to verify that it doesn't break the files.  I need people who are using the DAMN to test this for me, before I start releasing how we did it.  All going well I will let you all in on the secret.  ;)

Volunteers please PM me an email address to send the files to.  I will try sort it out and email them tonight.

Ummm, anyone able to do this?

daeley

Someone asked for the source for the apps I wrote, so here it is.

You'll notice it's a bit crude, but it was written a bit quick&dirty without taking much nice OO into account (PathCreator is much better, I promise).
1. Install SC4+RH
2. Install LEX (CD&DVD helps) and latest NAM + updates
3. Play the game
4. ? ? ? ?
5. Profit!

JoeST

Copperminds and Cuddleswarms

FrankU

Well, that sounds promising to a noob like me.
Mouseclicks is something I can handle, but don't make it much more complex than that!  $%Grinno$%

City Builder

I agree, simple mouse clicks to put mods into the menu system is what is needed to really get this thing moving.

I send my best wishes that it works out good.
When your tired of games of destruction, come to CityBuilderGames.com to discuss games of Construction!
Oh!  Thanks for the negative rep, I love you too!

Meastro444

#368
i am currently in the proces of creating my very first DAMN set and so far one question: do the icons need unique ID's?

i am also looking for the Lot Exemplar IID in the SC4Tool, but i can't find it  &ops
Friend of the Certified Drama Queen :)

daeley

Personally, I'd use Ilive's reader for this, it's a bit better suited for the tweaking we need here (I think... Andreas, prove me wrong?)

as for your first question:
Quotedo the icons need unique ID's?
short answer: yes
long answer: since you will be adding new icons to the game, these will need their own TGI so we can reference them from the news messages (and obviously, we need to reference them to show up). If you were using existing icons, you wouldn't need to give them a unique iid. In fact, you wouldn't need to add any textures at all. Chances are pretty small you will find good icons in the game though.
1. Install SC4+RH
2. Install LEX (CD&DVD helps) and latest NAM + updates
3. Play the game
4. ? ? ? ?
5. Profit!

Andreas

Quote from: daeley on December 28, 2008, 01:32:57 AM
Personally, I'd use Ilive's reader for this, it's a bit better suited for the tweaking we need here (I think... Andreas, prove me wrong?)

Yes, I'd say so. SC4Tool was never intended to replace the Reader, but it should only make those processes easier that are relatively complicated with the Reader, such as transit enabling or editing the properties of a building.
Andreas

Meastro444

Quote from: daeley on December 28, 2008, 01:32:57 AM
Personally, I'd use Ilive's reader for this, it's a bit better suited for the tweaking we need here (I think... Andreas, prove me wrong?)

as for your first question:short answer: yes
long answer: since you will be adding new icons to the game, these will need their own TGI so we can reference them from the news messages (and obviously, we need to reference them to show up). If you were using existing icons, you wouldn't need to give them a unique iid. In fact, you wouldn't need to add any textures at all. Chances are pretty small you will find good icons in the game though.
i am using Peg's Icons. i already have cut them to the correct size and the resulting TGI's. since i am fearly new at modding, i will have a lot of questions ;). ill request a range of ID's that i can use.

i got the excel file done except for the Lot Exemplars ID's. i found the exemplar ID's now. (something tells me not to mod in night's ;)). ill process it now as a lua.

one question though, do i have to change the GID's and IID's from the cuts.txt? i can see they are different from the original ones.
Friend of the Certified Drama Queen :)

daeley

the TGI's that come with the image cuts are randomly generated, when you insert them with the reader, it will see those TGI files and automatically assign that TGI, so you don't really have to bother.

The IID of an FSH texture are bounded by some constraints (wealth, etc.) with limits the available range for base and overlay textures seen on buildings, which is why people have to request an IID range for their own textures. These however are not textures, they're just simple PNG icons so they can use the full range of IIDs. What's more, the GID (group id) is not bounded either, so there's really no need to request a personal range. The chances of the randomizer choosing the same group and instance id for two people (or for a PNG already ingame) are astronomically small.
1. Install SC4+RH
2. Install LEX (CD&DVD helps) and latest NAM + updates
3. Play the game
4. ? ? ? ?
5. Profit!

Meastro444

#373
Yay, the reader finally read the TGI's.

I'll have this one finished tomorrow i think
. Yhanks again Dealey! ;)

Well, thought I was finished, but I ain't. Somehow the game/DAMN doesnt read it. I ran the indexer.cmd but it doesnt work.

Well, I got LUA file in there, along with the icons. the turorial said I had to get the package id and the iid correct, but what is correct? ()what() Tell me what I did wrong so i can make future sets work. I didnt know how to create a fresh new lua file, so I took the jeronij's zoo one, emptied it and reused it. The CSKBaseSet.dat is the only damn file in the DAMN menu so it shouldn't be a problem.

Attached is the CSK 2 Baseset DAMN menu, it doesnt work for me but I dont have a clue why it doesnt.
attachment removed

Thanks,

Meastro444
Friend of the Certified Drama Queen :)

daeley

Quote from: Meastro444 on December 28, 2008, 01:35:42 PM
but what is correct? ()what()

unique = correct

if you took an existing LUA file, did you change the package id and iid? Some time ago Tage discovered package id should be smaller than 0x7FFF FFFF so make sure the first digit is smaller than 7.
I'll have a look at the files

update:

your LUA doesn't have a package id, and the first line is incorrect (probably an error while copy/pasting)

local menu = DAMenu.items["linkname description IID lot exempar IID info1 text info2 text icon GID/IID hidden"]

should be

local menu = DAMenu.items["CSKBaseSet.dat"]


where CSKBaseSet.dat is the filename of the DAMN file you place in your plugins

1. Install SC4+RH
2. Install LEX (CD&DVD helps) and latest NAM + updates
3. Play the game
4. ? ? ? ?
5. Profit!

Meastro444

#375
Quote from: daeley on December 30, 2008, 05:48:01 AM
unique = correct

if you took an existing LUA file, did you change the package id and iid? Some time ago Tage discovered package id should be smaller than 0x7FFF FFFF so make sure the first digit is smaller than 7.
I'll have a look at the files

update:

your LUA doesn't have a package id, and the first line is incorrect (probably an error while copy/pasting)

local menu = DAMenu.items["linkname description IID lot exempar IID info1 text info2 text icon GID/IID hidden"]

should be

local menu = DAMenu.items["CSKBaseSet.dat"]

where CSKBaseSet.dat is the filename of the DAMN file you place in your plugins
Ok, I modified the LUA, i added a package id:
--#-package:71ae4569# -- package signature
this way it should work, but it seems the whole mod doesn't work on my computer: i installed the D.A.M.N. with only 3 D.A.M.N. menu's, ran the indexer.cmd but the menu's don't show up; only the advisor dialog with 3 icon's show up.

regards

Meastro444
Friend of the Certified Drama Queen :)

Jonathan

Where is the icon you click to open the game, is it in a dock or if you have Vista in the games explorer? Because it must be in normal explorer and when you right click it and go to properties, the Start in value must be the ...\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity folder (Sometimes shows up as C:\PROGRA~1\Maxis\SIMCIT~1\)

And it must be installed in the program files plugin folder (not the My Documents plugins folder).

Daeley, I have a request/suggestion (sorry  &ops)
Could you add functionality to be able to plop network items, that way we could have DAMN for the NAM?

Jonathan

daeley

Quote from: Warrior on January 03, 2009, 01:15:05 AM
Daeley, I have a request/suggestion (sorry  &ops)
Could you add functionality to be able to plop network items, that way we could have DAMN for the NAM?

I would have to modify the code a bit, but I think that would be possible.
1. Install SC4+RH
2. Install LEX (CD&DVD helps) and latest NAM + updates
3. Play the game
4. ? ? ? ?
5. Profit!


Meastro444

Quote from: Warrior on January 03, 2009, 01:15:05 AM
Where is the icon you click to open the game, is it in a dock or if you have Vista in the games explorer? Because it must be in normal explorer and when you right click it and go to properties, the Start in value must be the ...\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity folder (Sometimes shows up as C:\PROGRA~1\Maxis\SIMCIT~1\)

And it must be installed in the program files plugin folder (not the My Documents plugins folder).

<snip>

Jonathan
-i did modify the path correctly
-done the programfiles maxis thing.
Friend of the Certified Drama Queen :)