Menu dividers...

[RichardMH 0]

Any tutorial or something on how to make menu dividers? Or a way to organize in what way each ploppable building is being shown in the building menu?

[tungston 19]

-Cori Edit: The following is untrue so I've added strikethru.

I don't think menu dividers is a possibility.

I think the best you can do is a MML [Menu Management Lot].

There is nothing that allows you can change were the item is on the menu, or what menu it is on.

[RichardMH 0]

For Jeronji's wall textures you have menu dividers in the list.. that is what im referring to.. if I could do more of those but custom made, it would be awsome!

[tungston 19]

I don't understand what you are calling menu divivders.

[DOXXP29 5]

I ASSume he's referring to the things found sometimes by some Modders/BATters that seperate certain items or groups of items in the menu.

[RichardMH 0]

For example with Jeronij's concrete walls you can find a file that is called:

AA01 DW Cemento Menu divider 01_10ee8bfd.SC4Lot

and it is placed at the top and after that all the other files follow.. after that wall style another divider comes and so on..

what is it that makes the divider to come where it is? Is it the AA01?

[Duco 546]

I was searching for: menu divider, and found just this and a few other topics. 

Somewhere else I read about Rudeboy's menu divider, but can not find it.

My question, is there now days something like mentioned above.

Maybe an other option.

I have a bus stop that shows bright green in the menu. I can't miss it when I'm scrolling.

When I copy this bus stop 3 times, then I have 4 bright green bus stops in the menu.

Now I will give them a different order item with Ilive reader, and so I have a divider.

Before going to copy and change numbers, is there a person who did this already?  Or is there a better idea?

Thanks.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, in any case this idea should work. Menu items are grouped by their "Item Order" property, and items that share the same item order by plop cost IIRC.

I'm not sure if it would be possible to make a dummy lot that will show up as a divider icon in the menu, but doesn't have any functionality.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

This seems like a simple thing to do as it would be the same concept as the Planning Blocks I made for @MrBradB in this post. Instead of the simple, bright colors they could be toned down (or left bright), but with adding text for what the menu dividers are to say such as Buses, Trams, etc.

 

Ofc, they would be ploppable, but one would just chose to not select them. By altering the Item Order variable they would then show up in the menu wherever you'd want them and they could be made to appear in whichever menu you want.

Planning_Blocks.zip

[Duco 546]

31 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Planning Blocks

Well thanks! I've got a big Landmark menu with different sub menu's. I've tied the busstation one time, but it didn't work and I let it be.

I've never messed with menu's, only with order items, but I will give it a shot.  I let you know. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

7 minutes ago, Duco said:

I've never messed with menu's, only with order items, but I will give it a shot.  I let you know.

If you plan to use more than one of the same color in a given menu or the same color in more than one menu, you'll want to open that particular color .SC4Lot file in Reader and assign a new Instance ID so it's a separate item. Then save under a new file name. Leave the Type and Group IDs as they are.

[Duco 546]

@CorinaMarie just looking for tutorials in how to do this. I'm reading your words, while I've opened Ilivereader, but don't get it right away. I will read the tutorial first.

That the busstation didn't worked, must be because of the same ID numbers. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@Duco

I can help with this, but it'll be about 2 or 3 hours from now. In the meantime find out whatever you can yourself and if you'd want different colors or text or symbols on them we can do that too. Use your favorite image editing program such as Paint or GIMP or whatever and create them 128x128 pixels, save them as .bmp files, and I can convert them to textures for you. (I'll use my assigned texture range for the FSH files so there'd be no chance of overriding existing textures.)

From there we can then make the lot files to show up in whichever menu you want and that'd leave the Item Order for you to tweak.

[Duco 546]

@CorinaMarie, You are very kind, but I think I have all I want. Those blocks you've made are enough.

I looked at them with reader and it says I can find them in the park menu. So I give them a item number between the sub groups and I am done.

The only thing I want is those blocks appearing in the landmark menu, so I can do the same.

There is a tutorial, so first I will read and try it myself.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@Duco

Sounds good. I'll check back after I've run my errands. Just remember you'll need a copy of each one that you want to use in Landmarks if you are also using that color in Parks. That's where you need to use the TGI editor and assign a different Instance ID and also change which menu it will appear in. Save as a differently named file. Like add the word Landmark to the file name or such.

[Duco 546]

21 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

@Duco

That's where you need to use the TGI editor and assign a different Instance ID and also change which menu it will appear in. Save as a differently named file. Like add the word Landmark to the file name or such.

Yeah, I've looked in the manual and some articles on SC4devotion. I thought: bliep, bliep, bliep....

This will take some time, but I don't mind! I will see again tonight, or tomorrow. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@Duco

Not to spoil your fun searching, but here's a mini tutorial for you.

First thing I did was make a copy of my Black_e7b3f98e.SC4Lot file and named it Black_Block_Landmark.SC4Lot. Open this latter file in Reader 0.93:

Select the TGI Generator from the Tools Menu and click Generate:

Highlight one of the numbers, right click, and select Copy:

Select the TGI Editor from the Tools menu, paste that number into the Instance box then Ctrl-Click each line that has Instance 0xe7b3f98e:

^ Then click Apply.

These four should now be changed:

Click once on the 1st Exemplar in the left pane then double click the 3rd line (Exemplar Name) in the right pane:

 

In the popup rename it to something like Black Block Landmark:

^ Click the first Apply button to set that field then click the lower Apply button to set that whole variable.

Now click once on the 2nd Exemplar in the left pane and double click the Occupant Groups in the right pane. Click the 2nd entry:

^ Click the Remove button.

Next double click the remaining value and change it to 0x0000150A (for Lankmark).

^ Apply, Apply.

The whole shebang should now look like this:

^ Then Save this file. (You don't need to do Save As because we already copied and renamed it before even opening Reader since that's the safer way to go lest we forget and overwrite our original.)

In the game you'll now have a Black Block in your Landmarks menu:

And you'll still have one in your Parks menu too. (Then just alter the Item Order as you've already done before to place it wherever you like within the menu.)

Here's the completed new lot: Black_Block_Landmark.SC4Lot

Edit: Turns out I've left out several important steps to make these the best they could be. See the file comments starting here.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Me again. If you'd read my above post right after I submitted it, refresh the page. There was a mistake and I've edited it.

[Duco 546]

49 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

my above post

Alright! Thanks again!  I will look into it and thanks for just the black landmarks one, because now I can make the others myself.

Really great.

For now I'm doing something else, give it a few days and you will find a post were I will say: Yes, I did it.

[Duco 546]

@CorinaMarie, I followed your tutorial step by step and my first own block appears in the landmark menu. Wonderful. It is the finishing touch for easy searching.

Question. Reader creates a new number, so the block in the landmark menu has its own 'name' 'Id' 'number'.

Is it possible, although the changes are very small, that something in my menu has the same number? 

Again, Thanks! It works.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, Duco said:

Question. Reader creates a new number, so the block in the landmark menu has its own 'name' 'Id' 'number'.

Hmm. I'm not aware of this part. It might be a feature I've overlooked. Can you post a screenshot pointing out the changes so I can look at mine and see where that happens? The wee little bit I know about using Reader and creating lots is my hit and miss learning method. Be aware there could be holes in my logic at any point.

[Duco 546]

4 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Hmm. I'm not aware of this part

Me too, but it is purely theoretical.

Lets say: I made a lot once, gave it a number and it is number X.

Now I make a new Landmark block, randomize a number and,....it is number X, the same number --> is it in a change of 1/1000000 possible?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

4 hours ago, Duco said:

Now I make a new Landmark block, randomize a number and,....it is number X, the same number --> is it in a change of 1/1000000 possible?

Ah. I got confuzzled believing you'd created some duplicate somewhere already.

The short answer is: Yes, it is theoretically possible. The odds for a duplicate in the IID portion only are 1 in 4,294,967,296.

Edit: Scroll down to the bottom half of this Devotion Wiki entry and there's all the gory details.