Got bored... so I decided to alter MSTS's GUI...

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 7:46 pm

... And it works

.

<See images later in this topic (page 3) due to a small problem I had>

jolly · Post by **jolly** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 7:49 pm

Looking very good Ben!

Very funky design!

Post by **martinhodgson** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 8:41 pm

Cool, it looks nicer than the MS version

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 8:58 pm

I'm going to try to give MSTS an entire make over

, not just that screen. I've also modified the loco details screen too, so now it has a slightly wider description box, but I'm not happy with it so I didn't post a screenshot.

Hymek · Post by **Hymek** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 9:53 pm

WOW, looks amazing!

jdjonny · Post by **jdjonny** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 10:13 pm

does this mean we'll have funky new error boxes as well then?

JDJonny

petermakosch · Post by **petermakosch** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 10:37 pm

you are going to make this avaliable for download arnt you?

Timcourt1 · Post by **Timcourt1** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 10:55 pm

I could think of a few new ones for RE...rebuild track database for one - could change that to "Hose your entire route ...50 50 chance!!!"

Then "place your bets now please" whilst its rebuilding!

(sorry- poor attempt at Humour)

These look grand though

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:50 pm

petermakosch wrote:you are going to make this avaliable for download arnt you?

Hopefully

rwaceyw · Post by **rwaceyw** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:52 pm

How about one in full LMS colours for the Kettle fans

.

David.

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:52 pm

jdjonny wrote:does this mean we'll have funky new error boxes as well then?

JDJonny

,The nearest I can change is the yellow dialogs, like the pause menu or the dialog that pops up when you exit. IT would be good to be able to change those error popups though

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:56 pm

I just had an idea! How about 'MSTS Themes' or something like that? someone could write a program (I could if no-one else wants to

) that can switch between themes, and the themes would be stored in another folder in the main MSTS folder. I think it would be a good idea, but the only probelm is, would anyone else be making any new GUIs for MSTS?

Anyway, better get working on the other screens and controls etc.

rwaceyw · Post by **rwaceyw** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:57 pm

If I knew how, I'd do the Big 4, and a BR one

.

David.

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sun Nov 02, 2003 12:16 am

It's pretty straight forward. Just back to old .ace modifying in the GUI Folder. All the control (widget) .ace files are in the SHARED folder, and the screen .ace files are in the SCREENS folder (obviously). Once you've made your graphics replacing the old ones, it's just down to text editing to move them anywhere on the screen. To do this, open up any .dat file in the WIDGETS folder. In this case I modified the activity.dat file. There are quite a lot of comments to help you, though what I do is take a screenshot of the screen you want to modify, and make sure you're editing the right control by finding the top left corner of the control and match it to the TrGUI_Region_Area.

Here's what it looks like:

Code: Select all

Skip ( ********* SCREEN TITLE ********* )
TrGUI_Region
(
  TrGUI_Region_Name    ( activityscrtitle )
  TrGUI_Region_Parent  ( activity )
  TrGUI_Region_Area    ( 363 20 425 46 )
  TrGUI_Region_Cursor  ( arrow_cur )
  TrGUI_Region_TextArea  ( 0 0 420 46 )
  TrGUI_Region_Font    ( 0 220 220 220 )
  TrGUI_Region_Shadow_Font ( 1 0 0 0 5 5 420 41 )
  TrGUI_Text_Pos       ( "LCENTRE" )
  TrGUI_Region_Text    ( 0 )
)

TrGUI_Region_Name ( activityscrtitle ) - This is the control's ID, used by MSTS

TrGUI_Region_Parent ( activity ) - This is the parent of it - in this case it is the 'activity' screen

TrGUI_Region_Area ( 363 20 425 46 ) - This is the X Y W H. X and Y are the location, W and H are the width and height of the control

TrGUI_Region_Cursor ( arrow_cur ) - This is the cursor displayed when you put your mouse over the control

TrGUI_Region_TextArea ( 0 0 420 46 ) - Not all controls will have this, this is the area of the control where the text is displayed, again it is the X Y W H. Make sure that the text area does not go over the area's border, or MSTS will get an error.

TrGUI_Region_Font ( 0 220 220 220 ) - The first number is the font, and the last 3 are the colours (R G B). go to the GUI fodler and open up gui_fnts.dat for a list of fonts.

TrGUI_Region_Shadow_Font ( 1 0 0 0 5 5 420 41 ) - Not for all controls, this is the shadow text that appears behind the orgional text. I think the first number is the font, the next 3 are the R G and B and the last 4 are the X Y W H of the shadow area.

TrGUI_Text_Pos ( "LCENTRE" ) - I think this gives the text 'left justification' and centres it vertically (UK spelling - I thought it was american

).

TrGUI_Region_Text ( 0 ) - Don't know

, possibly some sort of dummy text value so MSTS can change the text according to the language it's in.

Anyway, I hope this helps anyone wanting to make an improved GUI for MSTS

. (Is it just at my end, or are people getting 'php critical errors?')

SteelixB · Post by **SteelixB** » Sun Nov 02, 2003 12:29 am

forgot to mention, when you select 'explore route' a little green background appears on the right with text showing the current selected route. Well what could I do with that image if I have a blue background and have no need for it? well I used it as an overlay at the bottom right to cover up the activity description box and add an area for the 'details' button. The image automatically disappeares when you select an activity.