Some wip projects

[AndreasFSC]

 

[AndreasFSC]

I'm not entirely sure, but some thing like manufacturer logos, track maps, car displays and championship names seems to be dependent of the page name or just page for being updated. Otherwise the 'standard' picture/name will be displayed.
Sometimes it helps just adding a number after the name, like "PAGE_SELECT_CAR_VENOM2" to add a duplicated page, but sometimes it causes crashes. The "communication" between the game and the UI seems to be inconsistent many times, like they just added what they needed when it was needed. Also the layers are interesting, and I think finding out the best way to use them can probably help.

 

[Sven Hielscher]

I would agree. Some items such as the car and track display are coded and you can just change the display location. I believe some things like the density or size of display of these items can also be changed. However, it is by far not trivial and needs a lot of trial&error.

What @abrimaal did here with his UI edit for the ATCC mod shows that a lot of things are still possible. I mean it does still limit the creativity of how Simbin did their UI, but again I believe that just refining the UI or modernize it, does add so much to the game already that you can easily ignore the limitations.

EDIT: I originally wanted to add that I will have a try with some of the old rFactor UI elements, maybe they are still available in the code and can be used (like that list view of contents). We'll see!

 

[abrimaal]

Yes, I plan to update the ATCC3 UI, to adjust it to modern 16:9 display: make the buttons and logos round (not stretched), smaller fonts to fit more tracks and cars on a single screen.

I have an important question:
Is anyone using a 4:3 or 5:4 monitor today for gaming?

Now I have no internet access from my PC, there is a network problem in the town. I will read the whole topic as soon as possible. The design looks interesting, could we join forces to make the new UI quite different from the original.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Anyone of you know how to make the game do two things at the same time?
It seems like some some text output places that now use any special gizmos are not dependent on their page, but there can only be one of them that receives the text update.

I would like to include the championship name in more places, and I have made a page just for it. If I visit the page and then go to other pages and make them transparent over the name, the name will remain visible.
The problem is I have to visit the pages manually.

Gizmo="GENERIC_TEXT_ALIGN_LEFT"
{
Name="CHAMPIONSHIP_PAGE_LOADLIST_CAPTION"
AttributeSet="Font_Large"
Caption2=""

Caption1=""

Pos-w-h=(51,13,155,30)
}

I have made some experiments with
SimulateClick="...."
but it doesn't do exactly what I want. It seems to be executed too fast, before the page has been able to do it's thing.
Anyway, the experiments continue

 

[AndreasFSC]

It was easy, just added two "do_pages":

Actions="Release"
{
Do_Page="CHAMPIONSHIP_TITL"
Do_Page="CHAMPIONSHIP_PAGE_LOADLIST"

}

First the page with the title, and then the page with the content. I tried that before, but there were probably some other error that prevented it from working then. This will probably be very useful

I will share some of my findings here, maybe some of them can be useful to others too.

 

[Kenny Paton]

Bet you never find time to play.
I'm currently spending more time with GTR2 and Race 07 than my modern games, it's amazing the amount of work going into, what many people feel are yesterday's sims.

 

[Sven Hielscher]

It was easy, just added two "do_pages":

Actions="Release"
{
Do_Page="CHAMPIONSHIP_TITL"
Do_Page="CHAMPIONSHIP_PAGE_LOADLIST"

}

First the page with the title, and then the page with the content. I tried that before, but there were probably some other error that prevented it from working then. This will probably be very useful

I will share some of my findings here, maybe some of them can be useful to others too.

Good to know! Wondered myself but had no time to investigate yet. Still there are a couple of more puzzles to solve

 

[abrimaal]

Anyone of you know how to make the game do two things at the same time?

I use APP_LINKBUTTON to run an external command, but it minimizes the game. Does anybody know how to call an external file without minimizing?
APP_LINKBUTTON was originally used to open a browser link and User folder. This is why the game screen is minimized before the action.
For the game menu, there is no difference if this is a link to website, to a folder or to a file.

Gizmo="APP_LINKBUTTON"
{
NAME="JUST_A_NAME_DIFFERENT_THAN_OTHER"
CAPTION1="BIG TEXT"
CAPTION2="small text"
CAPTION3="file_to_run.bat" //file in the main game folder
Position=(x,y)
AttributeSet="Button_MainMenu"
}

Do two "Do_Page" commands really open two pages at the same time? I think that the first page must be closed before the second "Do_Page" is executed.
I remember I was trying to "do something" before EXIT_GAME and it failed.

 

[AndreasFSC]

The idea with the two Do_Pages is that it first goes to the first page and then to the second if they are in the same layer. As far as I know there are 3 layers: fullscreen, normal and modal (popups).
So if I First open one page in modal layer and then open a second page with some parts transparent, the screen will be updated with the second page drawn over the first one. So it is like two steps from one click. But I think it is possible to open multiple pages in modal layer, but the problem is it seems that only the last page is clickable.

It is also possible to go two steps back (if all pages are in the "Normal" layer):

Gizmo="APP_BUTTON_MULTILINE"
{
Name="BACKBUTTON"
Position=(24,693)
AttributeSet="Button_Back"
Caption1="GO BACK"

Actions="Release"
{
Do_Last_Page="X"
Do_Last_Page="X"
}
}

Modal pages do not count as pages in this system, they are closed

Gizmo="APP_BUTTON_MULTILINE"
{
Position=(590,345)
AttributeSet="Button_No"
Caption1="CANCEL"

Actions="Release"
{
Drop_Popups="X"
}
}

I would also be interested in running commands from the game menus (would like to build in my career simulator ), but I guess that is not possible

 

[AndreasFSC]

Bet you never find time to play.
I'm currently spending more time with GTR2 and Race 07 than my modern games, it's amazing the amount of work going into, what many people feel are yesterday's sims.

I almost never play the game. I always think I should finish the mods first and then play them one by one in order by year, but I never get there

 

[Kenny Paton]

I almost never play the game. I always think I should finish the mods first and then play them one by one in order by year, but I never get there

Seems a shame that you never get to enjoy your own work, but at least you have the satisfaction of knowing others do.

 

[GTR233]

I almost never play the game. I always think I should finish the mods first and then play them one by one in order by year, but I never get there

I know that
In fact we are more interested in building a LEGO than playing with it

 

[AndreasFSC]

The ambitious 'super career':

19?? Retro Cool / Retro Max
1986/1987 WTCC - '87
1988/1989 Battle of Sweden
1990 -
1991 -
1992 Super Touring Pre 1
1993 Super Touring Pre 2
1994 -
1995 BTCC - '95
1996 BTCC - '96
1997 BTCC - '97
1998 BTCC - '98
1999 BTCC - '99
2000 BTCC - '00
2001 BTCC - '01
2002 BTCC - '02 or ETCC 2002
2003 BTCC - '03 or STCC 2003
2004 GT - '04
2005 WTCC - '05
2006 WTCC - '06 or Mini challange
2007 WTCC - '07
2008 WTCC EXTREME or STCC '08 or Camaro Cup
2009 WTCC - '09 or GT
2010 STCC - '10 or Camaro Cup
2011 WTCC - '11 or STCC '11
2012 WTCC - '12 or TTA '12 or F1(Formula Raceroom)
2013 WTCC - '13
2014 -
2015 STCC - '15
2016 V8 Supercars or STCC '16
2017 - 2019 GT (Lamborghini Hurracan GT3?, BMW M3 GT2?, Zonda R GT?, Matech GT1?)
2020

 

[AndreasFSC]

Next interesting finding:
It is possible to set special textures for different manufacturers in the UI.
This can be useful for my Super Touring cars and other older cars if I want to have more year-specific logos, but not include them in the standard way in the mod and risk overwriting the newer standard ones for potential users.

AttributeSet="PictureMakeDisplayTop2"
{

Frame="FIRSTFRAME"
{
Pos-w-h=(0,0,120,90)
Surface="MenuArt_CarInfo_Mini.tga"
}

Frame="VOLVO"
{
Pos-w-h=(0,0,120,90)
Surface="MenuArt_CarInfo_VolvoPV.tga"
}

Frame="NISSAN"
{
Pos-w-h=(0,0,120,90)
Surface="MenuArt_CarInfo_Nissan90.tga"
}

Frame="RENAULT"
{
Pos-w-h=(0,0,120,90)
Surface="MenuArt_CarInfo_Renault90.tga"
}

}

WIP:

 

[zoner]

looks nice! A clean, modern menu system to update this ole simbin product. Looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers!

 

[AndreasFSC]

The "new" UI is primarily made for the Super Touring and BTC-T mods.
Menu images and car logos are changed to 90's versions.
Still need to change some text colors for consistency obviously.

Can't add logos for all manufacturers, but it is easy to add new ones when needed.

 

[AndreasFSC]

UI work proceeds. I think I know why the menus are in the order track > car.
I have changed to car > track, and replaced the menu progression text in top of the page, but it has led to some problems i championship mode.
Had to make some extra pages for championship so I don't get directed to track selection after car selection. That was not very hard, but I have some problems with the custom championship.
Class selection has to be included, but I haven't found any way to set destination page after that.

Gizmo="APP_CLASSGRID"
{
Name="CLASSGRID"
Position=(40,100)
Width_Height=(944, 568)
Offset_Pair=(50,50)
}

So I get directed to the standard car selection page and the track selection page again after that. Tried things like

Actions="Release"
{
Do_Page="PAGE_SELECT_CAR_VENOM"
}

and also tried to make the standard car selection page to go to different pages depending on which game mode is active, but no luck so far.
I don't know exactly how "FEATURE_" is used and if it can be used like this. It is used for some menu settings and also for different versions of the game.

#ifdef FEATURE_CHAMPIONSHIP

Gizmo="APP_BUTTON_GOTO_SETTINGS"
{
Position=(824,693)
AttributeSet="Button_Continue"
Caption1="CONTINUE2"
}

#else

Gizmo="APP_BUTTON_MULTILINE"
{
Name="GIZMO1900"
Position=(824,693)
AttributeSet="Button_Continue"
Caption1="CONTINUE"
Actions="Release"
{
Do_Page="PAGE_SELECT_TRACK_VENOM"
}

}

#endif

Wish I had some game menu "language" documentation, but I have learned a lot more now than before...

 

[Kenny Paton]

I have some problems with the custom championship

IMHO custom championship is not a big problem, it's already easy to set up and the order is not that important, once you've done it that's it.
Whereas car then track for single races would bring it into line with every other game.
You and the others who breathe new life into Race07 are to be congratulated.

 

[AndreasFSC]

It seems like these are the options for Ifdef="FEATURE_....

No "Championship"...
Custom championship seems to work well, but it feels very unprofessional to have to click past the track selection when creating a new one.
It takes away some of the 'solid' feel of the game. Don't know if it is possible to disable the "customize" button, it seems like the game creates the whole championships list.

 

[Sven Hielscher]

I can confirm that they did some nasty stuff with the UI (not just Simbin) which makes modifications a pain in the a...
Guess they had an editor but unfortunately it's not included or not anymore (there are some hints in the files and it's known from other games).
Anyway, if all gets too complicated or ugly, a good reskin of the UI alone must be enough