Cormanth

Ok, I just downloaded the latest patch on the test server so I could see what we are going to be faced with tomorrow as skinners.

They added a Raid Options window 'EQUI_RaidOptionsWindow.xml'. They also changed the Raid Window. SO if any of you have started modding the raid window, you might want to hold off until after the patch. They added a few more buttons to it.

Couple of other changes:

Added to the EQUI_Animations.xml file:
<TextureInfo item = "dragitem23.tga">
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
</TextureInfo>
<TextureInfo item = "dragitem24.tga">
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
</TextureInfo>
<TextureInfo item = "dragitem25.tga">
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
</TextureInfo>

*Added under <Ui2DAnimation item = "A_DragItem">

<Texture>dragitem23.tga</Texture>
<Location>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Location>
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
<Hotspot>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Hotspot>
<Duration>1000</Duration>
</Frames>
<Frames>
<Texture>dragitem24.tga</Texture>
<Location>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Location>
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
<Hotspot>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Hotspot>
<Duration>1000</Duration>
</Frames>
<Frames>
<Texture>dragitem25.tga</Texture>
<Location>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Location>
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
<Hotspot>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Hotspot>
<Duration>1000</Duration>
</Frames>
</Ui2DAnimation>


Also, with the addition of the RaidOptionsWindow, the EQUI.xml file has changed by 1 line.

<Include>EQUI_RaidOptionsWindow.xml</Include>

Kelric

Great catch, Cormanth!


Did you happen to note what page/line those changes are on, especially the EQUI_Animations.xml changes? It'd be nice to head off a hundred broken UI posts with a quick "how-to" for folks to fix it manually.

__________________
Kelric Stormwolf

[ F.A.Q ]

Cormanth

Beginning at line 295 of EQUI_animations.xml

<TextureInfo item = "dragitem23.tga">
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
</TextureInfo>
<TextureInfo item = "dragitem24.tga">
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
</TextureInfo>
<TextureInfo item = "dragitem25.tga">
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
</TextureInfo>


Which puts the next section starting at line 4381:

<Frames>
<Texture>dragitem23.tga</Texture>
<Location>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Location>
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
<Hotspot>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Hotspot>
<Duration>1000</Duration>
</Frames>
<Frames>
<Texture>dragitem24.tga</Texture>
<Location>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Location>
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
<Hotspot>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Hotspot>
<Duration>1000</Duration>
</Frames>
<Frames>
<Texture>dragitem25.tga</Texture>
<Location>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Location>
<Size>
<CX>256</CX>
<CY>256</CY>
</Size>
<Hotspot>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</Hotspot>
<Duration>1000</Duration>
</Frames>


The first section can actually go anywhere in the file as they are just textures.

The second section, however, needs to go in it's precise location, as they are additional frames for an existing UiD2Animation.

Mind you, these line locations are only useful if you're working with a clean Animations file. Best advice would be to search for the appropriate definitions and fix it that way.

You could open your animations file and do a search for A_DragItem which is the beginning of the Animation for drag items. Then just page down to the end of that section (just before the </UiD2Animation>) and insert the additional frames.

-Cormanth

aviendha101

It seems to me that it's pretty common that players make changes to their EQUI_Animations.xml file. This poses a problem, in my opinion. While there are undoubtedly a lot of people now who know what they're doing with regards to editing XML files, there are thousands (literally!) who barely can even get a UI installed, let alone modify it every time a patch comes out.

Here's my proposed handling:

This message would be aimed at people who are CREATING mods: Don't make any changes to the GLOBAL files in the XML directory. Keep them all local to each window. Instead of editing the EQUI_Animations.xml file to get your mod doing what you want, add the additional animation stuff within the exact window itself that it will apply to. Yes, this will require some redundant code being pasted into more than one window-- but it will prevent a lot of headaches for people who are continuously finding their mods "broken" due to Verant's most recent patch.

Now, granted, there still will comes times when it's necessary to make changes to an individual window xml file, but in my opinion those opinions will be much simpler than trying to figure out what has been done to the EQUI_Animations.xml file.

As a second part of tihs proposed handling, I suggest to VERANT that they include notes in updated XML files that look something like this:

<!-- The following code was ADDED with the 10/21/02 patch -->
...
...
(added code)
...
<!-- End of ADDITION on 10/21/02 -->

or

<!-- The following code was MODIFIED with the 10/21/02 patch -->
..
..
(changes)
..
..
<!-- End of MODIFICATION on 10/21/02 -->



If we all started using some standard formats like this, it would make it so much easier on everyone. :P



I'm already working on getting all the custom additions to my EQUI_Animations.xml file moved to separate windows. I'm sick of updating it. :P And it seems apparent that Verant is not going to stop changing it (makes sense-- a global file truly should be considered a "system" file)

Ok, just my opinion. What you guys think?

__________________

Cormanth

Guess what? This has been suggested time and again in several other threads.

Another suggestion was to put your custom animations and templates in a new single file, then just include that file with your UI.

Check out this thread http://eqgui.com/showthread.php?postid=15399#post15399

And another thing... you'll never get every programmer to program something the same way. It's called 'programming style'. Like an artist, every programmer has his/her own style or way of creating their work.