A UI modding adventure

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X Rebirth.

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YorrickVander
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Post by YorrickVander » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 03:58

Blimey! You are a legend, really looking forward to the end results of this work. ES, make a budget to pay the man for this? :D
X Rebirth - A Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Product

Split irritate visiting pilot with strange vocal patterns.

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werewolves?
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Post by werewolves? » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 06:54

YorrickVander wrote:Blimey! You are a legend

birdtable
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Post by birdtable » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 09:31

:D

Sparky Sparkycorp
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Post by Sparky Sparkycorp » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 10:38

:thumb_up: :) :thumb_up:

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TheRealBix
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Post by TheRealBix » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 12:35

I'm pretty sur you're feeling like this :D

[ external image ]

Really nice work. I wish I could manipulate scripts as easily as you..

Big thanks to Night Nord, you have done a really good with the decompiler..

And I still don't know why Efosoft didn't brought us proper tools :/


I'll now search for some velues to enhance and try to upgrade my mods too :)

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euclid
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Post by euclid » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 14:00

Stunning !

Keep up the good work Mad.


Cheers Euclid
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Drewgamer
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Post by Drewgamer » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 18:28

This gets me giddy.

This seems like it could definitely open up some great possibilities!
Check out my mod Crystal Rarities

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Post by jeroll3d » Mon, 21. Apr 14, 19:23

Mad is back... :lol:

good work. :)
Entusiasta da série X3! The best game.

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Post by Wana » Tue, 22. Apr 14, 00:52

This guy is simply Mad.
Glad to see you again.

Eriodas
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Post by Eriodas » Tue, 22. Apr 14, 03:56

Wow that look so cool in the video, it almost felt like X3 :P

You are my favorite XRebirth modder now. Fantastic work, and is not even completed xD

Now if we just can get rid of that radial menu... is there a possibility to add specific hotkeys to the mods we have installed like X3?

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Post by Sparky Sparkycorp » Tue, 22. Apr 14, 10:37

Eriodas wrote: Now if we just can get rid of that radial menu... is there a possibility to add specific hotkeys to the mods we have installed like X3?
I'm not its greatest supporter but since the radial menu can be accessed while manually flying and fighting (quite a good development despite its shortcomings), I think we'd need another kind of interface alongside this nice adaptation before getting rid of it.

Mad_Joker
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Post by Mad_Joker » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 09:10

Below you can find a WIP update screenshot.

Also, I am definitely planning to release a tutorial on UI modding so that others can start with it as well, but I can't promise when this will be, since I want to get my own mod's UIs done first.

And one more thing: Modding the UI is definitely cumbersome. I have no idea what the person who wrote the UIs for Egosoft thought, but it really is a pain and the structure of the required code is rather un-intuitive. Therefore I am currently developing my own small UI framework, which abstracts a lot of the not-so-nice things away. The menu in the screenshot below was made with that framework, so I'm making good progress. The framework also makes the UIs snappier, since I'm building my own menu management system, which works completely in LUA instead of jumping back and forth between LUA and the MD.

With all that being said, stay tuned for more developments, and as always, hafe vun!

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/1 ... 236655.png


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Post by vadiolive » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 09:58

OMG!

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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 10:25

Nice work, but why basically re-implement Wings from X3 as opposed to using the existing command structure in X-Rebirth?
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

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Mad_Joker
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Post by Mad_Joker » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 10:49

Roger L.S. Griffiths wrote:Nice work, but why basically re-implement Wings from X3 as opposed to using the existing command structure in X-Rebirth?
Which would be? The only command structure I'm aware of is "Add to player squad", which is highly lacking IMO.

I'm seriously asking though, since I haven't really spent that much time actually playing the game. If you have any suggestions on how the fleet management should work, please let me know.

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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 11:17

You can assign ships to "commanders" of ships/stations and build a command hierarchy from that. Essentially having squads with-in squads.

Commanders are nominally Captains (for ships), Managers (for stations), and Defence Officers (for both). I think Engineers are also considered commanders but never seen a point to assigning any ships to them personally (unless it can be used to consolidate the usage of construction drones. Architects on SCODAs are also considered commanders for the purpose of trading resources for construction.

The only problems I have noted really in Vanilla are:-
  1. You can only assign (using the vanilla UI) ships to commanders on some of the other ships (e.g. not a Taranis to another Taranis but you can assign say a Balor to a Taranis - the Vanilla rules and reasons for them wrt inter-ship command structure assignment are not 100% clear).
  2. The AI may not behave quite as expected (if you were to assign a trade ship to a captain of another trade ship you would kind of expect them to work as a team where trading is concerned).
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams

Mad_Joker
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Post by Mad_Joker » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 11:40

Well, what you are describing sounds pretty much exactly like what UFO is doing.

In UFO (so far) you would assign a ship to another ship (or rather its pilot/captain) which becomes it's commander, and which in turn can be assigned to another commander etc building a tree-like command hierarchy (just like in the real military).

I'm planning to keep this format, just the way that the hierarchies are formed will change, because the tree form is not very well representable with what the UI allows (at least I couldn't come up with a nice way).

This is how I imagine it to work: You create a fleet and select a ship (which becomes the commander). Then you can assign other ships to this fleet (which basically makes them escort their commander). You can then give this fleet orders, and one such order would be to "Escort Ship". As the target of that command, you could then choose a ship/the commander of another fleet, thereby creating the command hierarchy.

Do you agree with this approach? Any suggestions to make it better?

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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 12:13

Mad_Joker wrote:I'm planning to keep this format, just the way that the hierarchies are formed will change, because the tree form is not very well representable with what the UI allows (at least I couldn't come up with a nice way).
The Vanilla tree structure approach seems to work pretty well to me - it looks ok in both the map and "my ships/stations" views.
Mad_Joker wrote:This is how I imagine it to work: You create a fleet and select a ship (which becomes the commander). Then you can assign other ships to this fleet (which basically makes them escort their commander). You can then give this fleet orders, and one such order would be to "Escort Ship". As the target of that command, you could then choose a ship/the commander of another fleet, thereby creating the command hierarchy.

Do you agree with this approach? Any suggestions to make it better?
*shrug* If it works, it does not really matter in the grand scheme of things. I thought the Vanilla "tree" representation works fine (could do with some refinement perhaps though).
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams

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Post by Sparky Sparkycorp » Wed, 23. Apr 14, 12:21

Mad_Joker wrote: Below you can find a WIP update screenshot.

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/1 ... 236655.png
Roger L.S. Griffiths wrote:Nice work, but why basically re-implement Wings from X3 as opposed to using the existing command structure in X-Rebirth?
Since his examples demonstrates a way to achieve something that the existing command structure is incapable of (adding multiple Taranis hulls to the same unit), this is an rather odd question.
Roger L.S. Griffiths wrote: The Vanilla tree structure approach seems to work pretty well to me - it looks ok in both the map and "my ships/stations" views.
...
I thought the Vanilla "tree" representation works fine (could do with some refinement perhaps though).
Your earlier posts were about command structure. Replying above in terms of aesthetics and/or integration with existing windows doesn't address a reply to your earlier point about structure.

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