EQInterface Forums - How to make UI's never break.

01-14-2004, 05:20 PM

#46

Shouri

A Fire Beetle

Join Date: Feb 2003

Posts: 2

Quote:

Originally posted by Banderwyr
It would be nice for us if SOE decided to correct this obvious shortcomming in custom ui mods by giving us a free blank slate file to use...

Ummm.. But that would make sense and stuff. I've really noticed that even though SOE allows the Custom UI's, they really dont like it. IE - See what happens when they added the target indicator....where we had to actually copy the the files to the UI folder instead of it seeing them like normal..

01-14-2004, 06:16 PM	#47
mortis42 eqmods.mortis42.net Join Date: Aug 2002 Server: Rodcet Nife Posts: 552	From the way that SOE has been making the .xml files for the new windows it seem that they are moveing more away from universal graphics and more toward defining them per window. The CAW and Hotbutton windows are good examples. Instead of making universal buttons numbered 1 to 10 in the EQUI_Animations.xml file and using the same ones for each window, they defined them seperately for each window. (A_CombatButton1, A_HotButton1, etc) Adds more lines of code, and I don't know if that is good for the slower systems, but it does eliminate much of the dependencies on the EQUI_Animations.xml file. __________________ My EQUI Blog Grazzt Takish`Hiz - Human Monk ~ Tzion - Dark Elf Cleric ~ Kitashi - Vah Shir Rogue ~ Cabre - Iksar Beastlord ~ Frazzt - Froglok Wizard

01-14-2004, 06:57 PM	#48
Banderwyr A Fire Beetle Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 3	Using animations and graphics per window that needs it, is ok in theory, but there will always be a need for a global animation file. It is just more code efficient to define a graphic that will be used numerous times, only once. And of course you have to do this in a file that gets loaded as one of the first files in the includes in order for it to be truly global and work in ANY window that you want to use it in. I can see SOE getting sloppier and sloppier with their coding habits in the ui files, until eventually modders will either be locked out of the ui changes, or they make it truly custom. An example of truly custom would be: 1) Force the game to load a custom ui folder, and use that same folder name to pick up a custom include file. For exaple say I have a ui called Banderwyr, the game would look in the Banderwyr folder for a file called Banderwyr.xml and load any includes. 2) If EQUI_BuffWindow.xml exists in my Banderwyr folder, load it INSTEAD of the one defined in EQUI.xml in the default folder. (This is already done) 3) If I define A_BtnNormal anywhere in my files in the Banderwyr folder, the game should know that it is to use THAT definition INSTEAD of the one in the default files. The 3 things listead above enables us to include whatever files we want, without breaking our ui whenever they need to patch in something to the default ui. It also makes all of the files that could possibly be customized TRULY modular without excluding new and updated content that the game wants to throw at us via a patch. And lastly, it makes that modular feature work right down to the CODE, so that we can replace Animations, Templates, or whatever we want, and still allowing the default animations, and templates to load if we didn't already define that specific one. Again making it possible for new content to come in without forcing us to update our uifiles to get them to work. * I am just speculating with the above, and it is an example. Feel free to add whatever you want as more examples or ideas.*

03-22-2004, 01:03 AM	#49
A_Nolan A Snow Griffin Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 54	Make This A Sticky This post plus the eq-types and base defaults(which I thought EQ auto replaced) are the most helpful post I have found for my xml programing. It may be best for the people making complete sets but still its a step in the right direction. __________________ Yurek http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=442656 http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...tml?char=276165 WWJD (read the book and find out john 3:16)

08-03-2004, 12:00 AM	#50
smoke_sots A Treant Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 24	dun work Ok sorry to throw this in here at the end.. I cannot acces the link at the beginning of this thread.. Either it is broke or i should try a different computer.. I'll try a different computer later.

03-08-2005, 09:50 AM	#51
SolsticemoonBB A Tundra Mammoth Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 60	*dazed* Whew! Four pages of posts is too much for me to digest right now, so I'm risking redundant questions here. Please forgive me. I think I understand that the main equi file can be modified to include my own (seperate and modular) modifications. That seems simple. My current concern is that the UI I'm using customized the main Animations file, so default windows (e.g. the default bank window) display modified graphics from custom .tga files. Code: <Ui2DAnimation item="A_SquareBtnFlyby"> <Cycle>true</Cycle> <Frames> <Texture>solWindowPieces03.tga</Texture> SO... If I intend to pull out the custom references like this one, and organize them in a seperate xml file, how do I assure that EQ loads mine instead of the default? How do I avoid a duplication error because of it?

03-08-2005, 10:47 AM	#52
lcalabrese A Hill Giant Join Date: Jan 2005 Server: The Seventh Hammer Posts: 35	you can't do that exactly, but... Well, forgive me if this is a repeated answer to a possibly repeated question, but I'm currently in the middle of working on a mod and can't get to reading the other 3 pages just yet... 1a. You cannot pull this code out to a separate module because you will get an unavoidable duplicate definition error. 1b. If SOE decided to implement custom overrides on a per-definition basis and not a per-file basis, that would fix this problem, but chances are it's not gonna happen. (And even if it will, that doesn't fix the problem now) 2a. So, the way you have it written, there is no way to modularize this from the code alone. 2b. But, if you look at your modularization problem in another light, the problem actually lies in that you've created an entirely new windowpieces_03.tga file, and then told the default animation to point to the new file. The "proper" (read: friendliest towards SOE's implementation) way to do this would be to make your graphic changes in the original windowpieces_03.tga, drop that* file into your custom folder, and then use the default EQUI_Animations.xml (you don't need a new EQUI_Animations file). 2b(1). This is assuming you haven't changed the dimensions of the graphic from the original windowpieces_03.tga and your new one. I think I can safely assume this because you did a global override and (as I understand your post) didn't change other windows to compensate from a size difference. If you changed the dimensions of the texture, you're SOL from a modularization standpoint. (just my 2cp)

03-08-2005, 02:15 PM	#53
SolsticemoonBB A Tundra Mammoth Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 60	Thanks! hugs lcalabrese Thank you for addressing my questions so quickly! I think I understand your suggestion. I'll look into it.

12-30-2005, 11:42 AM	#54
waah A Bat Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 1	can we fix this? hey is there any way to fix this so it wil worki tryed it but it wont load the window

01-10-2006, 07:28 PM	#55
Kaliaila A Wooly Rhino Join Date: Jan 2003 Server: Tunare Posts: 74	Not that I've found, it's mostly due to the fact that the crappy new default UI does things differently and contrary to what SOE said originally, does break most UIs if they are based off of the old default UI. __________________ Xianzu 125 Monk Tunare Bearer of the Shackle of Tynnonium Wielder of the Whistling Fists Ascendant Apostle of the Celestial Fists

02-14-2006, 10:22 AM

#56

Kaliaila

A Wooly Rhino

Join Date: Jan 2003

Server: Tunare

Posts: 74

Update

I found the problem that was causing the UIs and this not to work, well I doubt I really found it just did something about it. The new Animations file doesn't have some of the items that the old one did and vice versa, so I just when thru and merged them using Compare It. Though being the nice kind people SOE is they randomly re arranged where in the file they had groups of items and stuck new things in wherever they felt instead of just adding on to the end of it. I did the same with the EQUI_Templates.xml file those were the only ones I changed and now I don't need to have the entire default old directory copied. I have no idea why SOE won't at least update their Animations.xml file to support both the new and the old UI, kinda stupid imo. Here's what I'm using if you want to check them over.

Attached Files

AnimationsandTemplates.zip (11.4 KB, 15 views)

02-18-2007, 04:55 PM	#57
Drakah Skinning Guru Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 1,076	My personal experience to not have interfaces break is do NOT ever, ever, ever, edit the Animations file unless you are 1000% willing to keep it updated and as well, easy to update. I have made only 1 UI that uses an animations file out of the 15(?) UI's I made, and I even cringed with doing that. However, the only thing I altered in the animations file was about the buff icons. It is too bad that info isn't in the buff window itself than to mess with an animations file. In any rate, bottom line, if you are going to make an interface, try not to touch the Animations file unless you absolutley need to. (meaning you are forced to alter a current code do to parsing than to make a new one - example: buff icon background imagery coding). __________________ Regards, Drakah shakahr.com *Remember...it is only a GAME*

02-19-2007, 11:36 AM	#58
axeion A Predatory Creeper Join Date: Jan 2004 Server: bristlebane Posts: 254	Could not agree more animations file is the 3rd raid of the ui files.Next id hazard a guess would be options window as its modified as much .After that any window piece that is displayed on screen with default only up.those can just give a error to not let the ui load it depends on the window. oddly enuff any window piece tga can be moded an will load if just them in a ui custom folder .Eq has no way to know if all the parts an alpha channels in tga files are "their" so to speek. __________________ "A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so. " Walter Lippmann

10-13-2010, 05:24 AM	#59
Torut A Ghoul Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 13	More info on the 'include' xml tag As the original link is very old and unsuprisingly broken can anyone recap the complete set of lines needed to include another xml fine in the equi.xml please.

09-29-2012, 05:34 PM	#60
shillingworth A Predatory Creeper Join Date: Dec 2002 Server: Bertoxxulous Posts: 251	The EQUI route, which is what I used myself on several UIs (many of which never got posted on eqinterface). Code: <XML ID = "EQInterfaceDefinitionLanguage"> <Composite> <!-- Grab the default EQUI.xml to avoid breaking the UI every patch --> <Include>../default/EQUI.xml</Include> <!-- Load up Eidetic's resources --> <Include>MyUI_Textures.xml</Include> <Include>MyUI_Animations.xml</Include> <Include>MyUI_Templates.xml</Include> </Composite> <Schema xmlns = "EverQuestData" xmlns:dt = "EverQuestDataTypes"/> </XML> I think an explanation is much more understandable though. The Composite tag tells EQ your going to load in some more files for it to parse. Include tags tell it the path to the file. When your UI loads the path is whatever folder your UI is inside of, so to get back out of that you must use the '../' operator which universally understood as "go back one directory". You could have it go back as many directories as you want, but it's only safe to go back as far as the EverQuest directory "../../" since you have no idea what the directory structure looks like on a user's machine beyond that and could wind up crashing EQ due to invalid file permissions trying to load stuff outside of it's directory. When EQ reads in default/EQUI.xml it'll encounter another Composite block and attempt to load every file that block tells it, as well as any other Composite blocks it finds into those files (or any other file you pull in). __________________ "Computers are like Air Conditioners, they stop working properly when you open Windows."