RH Menus

[Tropod 144]

Just firstly; For those of you with the normal SC4 game still (without RH), I would suggest you take a look at the following thread regarding the games Menus for SC4 (on the 2^nd page half-way down, there is a list of values for the Menus for SC4):

Help on Creating New Menus, Submenus Thread!

It appears that the Menus in Rush Hour have somewhat been changed (a little). The OccupantGroup values that are applicable in SC4 seem to have changed for some of the menus, therefore some OccupantGroup values are no longer valid for some of the Menus in Rush Hour. I have already seen that this may pose an issue for (some of) those old lots that people have, and those Lots on the Lot Exchange (both here and at Maxis Lot Exchange. This should not be to big a problem though). Why some of these values have been changed I do not know, perhaps for functional purposes for some of new items.

Below is a list of the OccupantGroup values (so far) for the Menus that are applicable for Rush Hour (excluding the Zones/Terrains Menus & network items such as roads/rail/avenues/pipes/subways/higways/etc. Most of these have a different property that dictates their Menu position). As with SC4, these OccupantGroup values (for the Menus for RH) are only applicable for those same lots containing a LotResourceKey property. Most of these it seems are the same, but a number of them have been changed, and some (2) of them are yet to be identified:

Roads Menu

Previously Contained the Bus Station.

????- It seems the old 0x00001301 value is no longer applicable for this menu. Whether there

[stamp 4]

this is great info, i hope we will eventually ad menus of our own!

[Tropod 144]

Well, the above posted information by myself was to bring to peoples attention about these changes really in RH. As for actually adding our own menus, I dare say the same problem exists as it did before with SC4. We just don't have enough information/access on/about the files to do this.

[ordio 0]

Hi,

First off, I wanted to thank all the modd squad's with all the modding they have been doing. I've been watching everything being done, and i'm happy to see what they have accomplished.

Second, I think i may have figured out the menus!! Forgive me if someone else knew this, but i don't recall seeing anything about menus.

Wait a sec! Is the Seaport in the Utilities menu??

Now, as you can see in the first one, i decided i wanted to see the seaport in the Utilities menu... Hmph...
In the second pic, there it is! Of course the original colors are there (for seaport), but they are there. And it is functional!

Please let me know what you think... I'm not withholding anything, and if anyone is interested, i'll do some more discoveries, as well as post how i figured it out.

[the7trumpets 10]

Wow!

 

My question:  Has this discovery led to any sort of understanding on how submenus are set up, and whether we can add new submenus?

[ordio 0]

Hi,

This is why i'm still up at 2am and i have to be up at 5:30.. ugh!

Too be honest.. No clue.... at least for me anyway. Took me about an hour to look at the UI files, and know what I needed to do to make a new menu option (well, at least a copy)...

I haven't tried adding (or inserting) a new menu item on the MAIN menu. But only on that submenu. After looking through the UI files, i do understand it more. But i don't know how to link a submenu to a selectable option (that seems to have done it itself when i copied the seaport into the utilities menu).

Adding new submenu's is something i do want to tackle... but likely tommorrow after work, which is when i'll try.

[Pkmnrulz240 11]

ordio, now you gotta' etry and find that .png file of the yellow background thing in the utilities menu and edit it so that it will extend down to the picture of

[ordio 0]

Tell ya what... I'll do two things.

I'll do what you suggested (extend it down), AND make the icons closer together.

How does that look?

[the7trumpets 10]

okay, this is great.  But how are you doing it?  And can you create entirely new menus underneath the utilities menu, instead of just moving the water structures menu there?

[Ninto 0]

This isn't that on topic but I think it's quite funny. Anyone else notice that the safety bar is going down as the fireworks are in the air?

[ordio 0]

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On 10/23/2003 10:36:35 AM the7trumpets wrote:

okay, this is great. But how are you doing it? And can you create entirely new menus underneath the utilities menu, instead of just moving the water structures menu there?

----------------

That's the thing, I don't know where it links "0xa99234a6" for the submenu seaports, and the actual seaport items.
I'm trying to see if i can create a completely new menu off either the main, or one of the submenus so that say, the RCI Plopables would be in its own menu.

I just tried to add the landscape menu into the utilities, and it shows up ok. Except because the icon for "landscape" is bigger than the other icons in "utilities", it is cut in half (looks quite funny in fact). But at least I know what I would need to do to make this work right.
Anyway, when I go to click on the landscape, it opens up the landscape menu off the main one. So somewhere there's a link which allows an opening from the main menu, but i haven't had a chance to dive into it more this morning. I will try some more this evening when i'm home from work. I will attempt at making a completely new menu off one of the submenus (say a "simtropolis menu" from the LEX or something.

Doing it is quite easy, but i'll try and explain it when i'm home from work. It has to do with UI files and all the legacy/children locations within. I may create a quick excel file to explain what each location means in the UI, but they all seem quite explanitory.

[ordio 0]

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On 10/23/2003 10:40:44 AM Ninto wrote:

This isn't that on topic but I think it's quite funny. Anyone else notice that the safety bar is going down as the fireworks are in the air?

----------------

Lol.... I found testing the menu structure on my LARGE 500K cities took forever just to load.

So i loaded up timbuktu (rh default region), and just started a city in there. Much quicker to load an empty city.

[ordio 0]

Alright!

I added a new menu icon (based on the landscape one). This menu icon has its own TGI. And there are two of them, based on the PNG TGI's.

Now... All i need to figure out is how to link to its OWN menu structure (right now, when you click on the button, it'll take you to the landscape menu up top).

[salamanda 2]

I'm going to have to plead ignorance here, but why would we need to add extra buttons? I think that SC4 already has all bases covered, and can't really think of any new categories that are particularly needed. Also, would we be able to import our own graphics into the game in the form of buttons, and if so, they would look out of place next to the original buttons, as the artwork would be different. I'm sorry if I sound really negative, but it just seems a little futile.

[otla1 0]

Ok, now I have a question.....
If you can move items from one menu to another, would it be possible to move items from god mode into the mayor menu? possibly the plant trees or animals button added somewhere?

[ordio 0]

----------------

On 10/23/2003 11:57:49 AM salamanda wrote:

I'm going to have to plead ignorance here, but why would we need to add extra buttons? I think that

SC4

already has all bases covered, and can't really think of any new categories that are particularly needed. Also, would we be able to import our own graphics into the game in the form of buttons, and if so, they would look out of place next to the original buttons, as the artwork would be different. I'm sorry if I sound really negative, but it just seems a little futile.

----------------

No, don't worry about it.

I'm doing this because I wanted to see whether or not we CAN add new menus. As it stands, i agree... We have enough menu buttons. But if we can move a few things around, and make it look better, or fuller, including adding new items like the RH Plop Modd, or a special menu button called "Sim Modds". This way they can be easier to organize. I find putting all the new LOTS and MODDS in the same parks&rec menu/landmarks menu really clutters it all up.

I'm also doing this so that I can learn how the UI works. I'm planning on changing the way a lot of the civic buildings work. What I mean is that i'd like to TYPE in the amount for the local funding (like school). Instead of doing that sliding bar all the time, i can just type in the value.
I'd also like to see if i can modd the UI to add and change a few things so that everyone gets the UI they all want. (EG: Time and Date where the DATE currently sits). I haven't gotten that far yet, but this is just the foundation of creating new menus.

Somehow Yes, we would be able to import our own graphics into the menu buttons. I figured out how to do it... Lots of manual work, but that's the way it is when something new starts out. When creating the graphics though, always use a template (a button that is similar to the original that you wish to copy, then make your changes, and save it as a new instance).

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On 10/23/2003 12:48:51 PM otla1 wrote:

Ok, now I have a question.....

If you can move items from one menu to another, would it be possible to move items from god mode into the mayor menu? possibly the plant trees or animals button added somewhere?----------------

I don't see why not. It looks simple enough...

[DarkMatter 21]

Ordio, its great that you figured out how to do this, but unless you let everyone know how, its not much help. You need to post HOW you did this, even if you don't know. Files you edited, what things you changed in them, the order you did it all in. The modd squadd knows the .dat files extremely well, and even if you don't know exactly what you did, posting the files and steps you took to accomplish these changes will help us figure out exactly how to do it. We all know you can, now we need to know the how.

[ordio 0]

Oh i'm going to... i'm just at work right now and don't have the reader in front of me to post what i did. My plan is to post it when I get home later today.

[Tropod 144]

DM:

 

Well, someone needs to create/change an easier way to edit the UI files, so that we don't have to edit them in a "Text View", it's frustrating at the best of times. The Reader displays the info in the UI files quite well into a Table/Window (but not all of it though for all the UI files, there's some stuff missing in the UI Tables/Windows that's in the plain text view that still hasn't/isn't taken into account, with the Reader). It'd be a lot more helpful if we could actually edit the info in these UI files straight from the Table/Window itself, instead of having to switch to (or use) a text view all the time, it's a real pain to do. Last time I checked with Datgen, it still handled these UI files in a plain text view. Most if not all the info/specs for the UI files are in this forum, Kary gathered the remaining last specs/info (most of it I believe) for them, so that all the items can be displayed in a Table/Window. I'm sure I've asked ilive previously for an edit function from the Table/Window itself for the UI files, but it seems to have been overlooked . Perhaps I should bribe him.........

[ordio 0]

Tropod,

I couldn't agree with you more. Everytime i tried to update a cell in the UI files, it'd change, but it wasn't actually updated. I had to go the text view to do all the changes.

Anyway, i agree we need some more changes to the UI if possible so that we can do more updates to it. This includes the hidden "onclickbtn" cell.

...Ordio

[ordio 0]

Ok... For those that want to read the first part, this is where i'll explain the UI files itself (if you don't agree, or think i have something incorrect, then please let me know). For those that already know, go onto step 2.

Step 1. UI Files.
Format for UI Files.
I'll just list the ones that some are not sure about... some of the properties are obvious (Based on the title).

EDIT: See this thread for a better explanation of the cells in the UI area.

- ROOT
-- LEGACY:
Clsid: Determines whether it is a window, button, text editor, option, bmp, slider, etc. Possible options are,
GZWinGen: I think this is to define the entire Popup Window.
GZWinTextEdit: Allows us to edit the text within that box.
GZWinText: Just a label with information.
GZWinBMP: This is a graphic file
GZWinSlider: A slider (left to right) which determines local stuff.
GZWinBtn: An actual button (like a href=image) feature.
GZWinCustom: Custom feature, not sure how to interpret this yet.
GZWinFlatRect: Just a rectangle (used to highlight around a label, box, etc)

IID: Same thing, except if the clsid is an address (which i don't know what it is), then this will explain what that is doing??
ID: The address of what action (or where) to take it.
area: Location on screen of where the text/etc will show up. 0,0 being top left, and i guess 1024x768 or 800x600 for bottom right.
fillcolor: color of the fill for the box (0,0,0), in RGB.
caption: whatever text you'd like to show up (with a WinTextEdit, the possible choice (ie: (Please enter description here)).
transparent: text/image is transparent
windows application features. Just like it sounds.
image: the Group/Instance of the image.
tiptext: the text for the popup tip
tipres: the Group/Instance in the ltext file.
btnclicksnd: The Group/Instance of what command to run when the command is clicked. (This is where i'm lost!)
---CHILDREN
---LEGACY (All same as above). It will go back and forth in this part to handle all the different UI configurations.

So, now that this part has been explained, i'll go onto step 2.

Step 2: Creating a new menu.
Example: Let's do the example above, where i copied the seaport into the utilities menu. (I'm going to assume you have an understanding of the reader...)
1. First, lets locate TGI (00000000/96a006b0/4992f764). This references the Utility menu.
2. Right click the UI file, and click Copy File.
3. Go to the "loaded dat", right click on the empty space, and click paste.
4. Next, let's locate TGI (00000000/96a006b0/e99237ff). This references the Transporation Menu.
5. Right click the UI file, and click text view.
6. Go to the bottom part on the right, and locate Legacy clsid=GZWinBtn, where the ID is 0xa99234a6. You'll know it is the right one because of the description just below this line.
7. Highlight and copy the line. Besure to copy from at the end of it. (This one is 3 lines itself).
8. Go back to your blank.dat file, right click the UI file, and select "text view".
9. Now, we want to place this new menu option at the end, so we will need to add this new legacy text after the "build sanitary" option. Now paste the entire string into the UI File (assuming you clicked on Edit, made the change, and then clicked apply).
10. Once that is done, we'll need to make it fall in the right location on the menu. Back to the "Area" field, change the values to (68,158,115,195). (I made this these values because if you look at the first 3, they show this combination. 68,8,115,45 - 68,58,115,95 - 68,108,115,145. As you can see, they increment by 50 on each one (second and fourth value).)
11. Everything else can remain the same.
12. Right click where the files are listed, and "reindex", then do it again and "Rebuild directory file".
13. Save your dat in your plugins folder, load a city, and viola! The menu utilities should show you your new menu button.

The key here is what your button will do once it is clicked. 0xa99234a6 is linked to somewhere that does this action (which i cannot find?).

I know i was asked above to increase the size of the yellow bar so that it fit correctly. All I did was locate the TGI (856ddbac/46a006b0/14215e2a) & (856ddbac/1abe787d/14215e2a), exported it, modified it so that it was extended and imported it into the blank dat). Be sure to use the SAME TGI #'s, else youll have to change the reference id of 0xe992f720 to the new TGI location. You also have to extend the area of 0xe992f720. I extended it from (0,0,110,251) to (0,0,110,351). That'll give the illusion of the longer line).

I also decided to add that new tool from above (landscaping), and will explain what i did.
1. Locate TGI (00000000/96a006b0/2bc90671). This references the MAIN menu. Go down until you find id 0x8991ee08. Same as above, copy the text into your blank.dat file.
2. Because the size of the icon is BIGGER than the regular icons, i had to customize the icon. So, i located another menu item of the same size (GI: 46a006b0, 14215e44), and exported it. Made the changes that i wanted to, and imported it back in. But, because that GI is already in use, i changed the instance to 14215e87 (which is the last menu instance used).
You will need to make two copies of the same png file. The Type and Instance #'s are the same, but the group # is 1abe787d.
3. After pasting the landscape menu in, modify the image to the new GI code (46a006b0,14215e87).
4. Same as above, change the location of this menu item to fall after the last one. (68,208,115,245).

Reindex, rebuild directory and save.

You should now have a new landscaping menu button in your utilities!
This is as far as i got with my research today. I wasn't able to figure out how to make the landscape menu come up to the right of its new location, but the selection acts as if you clicked it above.

I hope this clears up some of the UI and menu options on how it is done. If any of this is confusing, please don't hesitate to ask! I'm planning on seeing if i can change any other UI locations. Wish me luck!

EDIT: I added the menutest1.dat file that i used in testing this. This way you can see what I had done to make this work.

[DarkMatter 21]

Tropod: I have an idea for a UI editor, but its not going to be easy to implement, which is why I havn't done it yet. I've got to finish the RUL and SC4Path editors first, but I'll start on a UI editor plugin as soon as they are done. Should let you do drag-and-drop editing, basically. Its not just going to be a grid editor like Ilives, but a native UI editor with a bunch of tools and features specific to editing SC4 user interfaces.

Ordio: Thanks for the info. This will help me learn how they work better so I can write an editor.

[ordio 0]

Your welcome. I've always appreciated what you guys have done with the editor, fixing problems and so forth with sc4 + rh. I thought i'd give a bit of my time to help you guys with the UI.

Don't worry, i'm going to continue with it. There's a few things that I want to try out with the UI.

[Tropod 144]

hey hey, a break through, though a really minor one at that. I don't know why I didn't pick this up before......

 

 

 

This additional button that you see, is fully functional and seperate from any of the other Graph buttons. As with the Graph Modd, I've used correlating hex values found in LUA file FF048A3E [instance ID Mem. These hex values are listed under "game_trends" which is about a third the way down the LUA file] for the actual data being displayed in the Graph. 

I have yet to fully explore this [link], however, it seems that the Instance ID of the Graph Exemplar file must match up ["in part"] with the (Hex) ID found in the Graph UI file [this UI file being Instance ID 6BC9065A]. Of course, other adjustments were made etc to align the button/text & everything else into place. There is another UI file containing Graph data/information [EA2871AA] ; I had toyed with this UI file a little, but from what I did didn't seem to cause any changes in the game. That's not to say it has no purpose. Now if we can indeed add a few more Graph Buttons like this, the only problem it would pose I think is that we'd be restricted to the data [hex values] found in the Tuning Constants [the LUA File] and/or other Graph Exemplars, unless of course we're able to create new call functions of some sort for the various items/data in the game [which while possible, I doubt it'll happen]. Once I have this stuff together in the one file, I'll post it [later] if anyone is interested.

 

Now that aside; something a little off-topic. The actual data displayed in the Graph pic above is supposed to be, according to the Tuning Constants in the LUA file; "Residential Population", "Commercial Capacity", & "Industrial Capacity". Now the thing is, the 'R' Total does not seem to match up perfectly at all with the actual population in the game; nor does it seem to match up perfectly when cross referenced with the total from R$/$$/$$$. It seems to be out ever so slightly, & something else I've just seen/realised, is that the totals from R$/$$/$$$ don't match up either with the population in a city ???. Is there something about this game that I'm forgetting[] [heaven forbid]?  It's got me beat.

[DarkMatter 21]

Hehe....sweet! I've always wanted an RCI totals graph.

[ordio 0]

Nice find Tropod!

Looking at the LUA files, in the location you specified, there are a lot of hex values there. I wonder if the rest of the values could be added to the existing graphs. For example, "Garbage_Incinerated" doesn't show up the "Garbage" Graph. I'd be curious if that can be added? Or a separate Graph that shows all the possible "Garbage" solutions (or existing one modified).

I do recall you had modified another graph, but i forget which one... something to do with Water I think?

Anyway, is adding all the garbage values to the graph possible?

[Tropod 144]

Well, as for those other [specific] garbage items, you could just add them to the existing Garbage graph [there'd be less involved that way]. As for some of the other items, I haven't tried them all, but it should be possible to use a number of them, create new Graph Buttons/slots and add them to a New Graph selection. Only problem would be, fitting the text in along side the Graph Button in amongst those ones that are already there.

What I'm more interested in, is the link that exists between the Graph Exemplars and the UI file for them. The link for these Graphs doesn't seem that complex [though I still haven't fully explored this link really], so I wonder then if there's perhaps something [a link] between the other types of Exemplars & the UI files that exists that we're not seeing? The Dataview maps would probably be my next item of interest to see if a new button can/can't be created, as these are similar in some ways to the Graphs.

 

 

Attatched to this post is a Modd file. It contains the RCI Totals [as displayed by the pic above]. As I mentioned above though, the R total on this doesn't seem to be quite accurate. Whether I'll change it to compensate for this is something I'll have to think about [the RCI totals data is suppose to be coming straight from the city/game itself]. I have also decided to add another additional Graph item, "Extrapolation" for RCI. Now this Extropaltion is not something I fully grasp completely, but others may find it of some interest & perhaps maybe even a usefull item to use. According to the LUA file, it is R/C/I  Extrapolation Out, so I imagine that this might mean the amount of Extrapolation that is heading outward from the city, though I could be wrong [it could be the other way around actually, the way it works in the game]. It seems this Extrapolation item though is more noticeable on larger cities. Try this out though and see how you's go.

[ordio 0]

Neat!  Thanks for this Modd.

I looked at it in two of my biggest cities, with extrapolation, and i noticed the highest # that could ever show is 6000.  The only thing i can think of with extrapolation is that it corresponds with the demand (RCI bar), but that theory is shot to hell because in one of my cities, as you can see... <br>

 

But according to the extrapolation, I see this.

 

This city is straight Industrial as you can see.

 

So i dont' know what it means, but it sure is an interesting fine.

 

What I'd like to know is, if there is a way to give us the ACTUAL # (pop & jobs), instead of the graph.  I know the #'s already exist, as they do exist as the pop & jobs, but to actually see the physical #, it would be great. 

 

 

[GrampaAl 76]

I personally like all of the nice graph modds offered by Tropod.

 

If you want to see actual numbers for your city, I would suggest you download the CSX Corporate HQ from the LEX.

 

Then click on it with the standard query tool. GrampaAl will tell you the actual R$, R$$, and R$$$ numbers.

 

As far as matching up with the total population, that number is given as well.

 

As for the slight imbalance, that depends entirely on what day you view this. In fact if you leave the query open while the city is running on cheetah mode, I think you can see the numbers changing.

 

You see as the city runs, buildings are built or upgraded, and others are becoming run down, so the population numbers are almost always in a state of flux. Different areas of the city are updated at different times, and the numbers are also calculated at different times. So at any one specific time, the numbers are not all available, except for a very small city which is currently stable, then the numbers will match exactly.

 

Try it. There are other CSX lots either already on the LEX or in the planning stage which reveal various city/region statistics as well.

 

I heartily recommend all of the CS services buildings which by nature provide services.

 

Of course all of the buildings are designed to be helpful to the gamer in same way.

 

ps: Always read the Cert files which come with each lot, as they reveal a lot about the lot itself.

 

Good luck

[El Effe 5]

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On 10/26/2003 6:04:43 PM Tropod wrote:

Well, as for those other [specific] garbage items, you could just add them to the existing Garbage graph [there'd be less involved that way]. As for some of the other items, I haven't tried them all, but it should be possible to use a number of them, create new Graph Buttons/slots and add them to a New Graph selection. Only problem would be, fitting the text in along side the Graph Button in amongst those ones that are already there.

What I'm more interested in, is the link that exists between the Graph Exemplars and the UI file for them. The link for these Graphs doesn't seem that complex [though I still haven't fully explored this link really], so I wonder then if there's perhaps something [a link] between the other types of Exemplars & the UI files that exists that we're not seeing? The Dataview maps would probably be my next item of interest to see if a new button can/can't be created, as these are similar in some ways to the Graphs.

Attatched to this post is a Modd file. It contains the

RCI

Totals [as displayed by the pic above]. As I mentioned above though, the R total on this doesn't seem to be quite accurate. Whether I'll change it to compensate for this is something I'll have to think about [the

RCI

totals data is suppose to be coming straight from the city/game itself]. I have also decided to add another additional Graph item, 'Extrapolation' for

RCI

. Now this Extropaltion is not something I fully grasp completely, but others may find it of some interest & perhaps maybe even a usefull item to use. According to the LUA file, it is R/C/I Extrapolation Out, so I imagine that this might mean the amount of Extrapolation that is heading outward from the city, though I could be wrong [it could be the other way around actually, the way it works in the game]. It seems this Extrapolation item though is more noticeable on larger cities. Try this out though and see how you's go.

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In my game the Modd overides the Water Polution results. Also it seems that the Extrapolation doesn't do anything regardless of the size of my cities.