Sub-menus are now possible!!!

[SimRabbit123 6]

You gotta check it out, here

I hope to see some pictures and possibly a release soon.

What do you think?

[Tropod 144]

I think to much, that's my problem .

Deep down I have always liked to believe that it is possible, personally going to extreme lengths to even do so, but hadn't found a way (well, not that I hadn't, just hadn't found a way to get it to work). Think I'll wait though before I comment on it .

[Haljackey 17,260]

Wow, thats excellent news!

-The only question is if this works, will we still have to press TAB all the time to select a puzzle piece or can we just select it from the sub-menu? (EX: NAM elevated road puzzle pieces)

[Godzillaman 21]

EA will shut them down.

Nah...This is remarkable. Hope it works...and hope to god we can create our own menu's.

[Somebody 12]

i couldnt see the pics, do i have to be registered to their site. im using firefox. this would be very helpful for my landmarks menu lol

[GoaSkin 2]

I am studying actually the assembler code of the game to find out how to add new standard IDs - meaning to find out if there are unused submenukeys and/or occupant groups that are handled by menu classes (button IDs in the UIs) that are also unknown.

Well... there isn't any hidden occupant group or submenukey but two empty CLSIDs for new tertiary menus in the traffic menus.

I found also out what changes on the binary are necessary to implement new menus. But I don't know how to make use of it.

Does any body know how to strip out symbols of an EXE and link them to a DLL? That makes enhancing the assembler code quite easier.

[Jazzmaster 716]

That'd be so awesome! I'm reading the tutorial the second they make one!

-Yoshiisland

[GoaSkin 2]

same posted on SC4D... I will explain a little bit about the submenu mechanisms in the game. At first, there are three menu levels:

primary menus: first menu instance (f.e. godmode, mayor and mysim)

secondary menus: submenus right beside the primaries (buildings, terrain tools)

tertiary menus: everything that contains tools or buildings as scrollable lists of icons

Implemented in the game is one additional secondary menu called fences menu. I have not figured out yet if it is possible to make use of it. But to get more space for buildings, the tertiary menu algotitm is more interesting.

Bound to the button click event of any UI button ID, the following function is called:

cSC4View3DWin::HandleButtonActivated(cIGZWin*, cGZMessage&)

The first parameter contains the address of the parent game window and the second a structure of delivered parameters (here there only may interest us the CLSID set in the UI the button links to). Because UI button IDs have very different functions from submenus over game speed to sound settings, the function checks the function this button belongs to. It forces different function calls referenced by the button ID. If a tertiary menu should be opened that only can contain buildings (identified by an occupant group), the function

cSC4View3DWin::CreateBuildingMenu(unsigned long, std::set,std::allocator > \
const&, std::set, \
std::allocator > const&, unsigned long, long)

is called and anyhow, the necessary parameters are either transmitted staticly or as result of a function call. For example the valid occupant groups for that menu are delivered here. This function identifies additional information from the building exemplars and finally calls

cSC4View3DWin::InvokeTertiaryMenu(unsigned long, cIGZWin*, \
unsigned long, cISC4WinCatalogView*, unsigned long, cSC4View3DWin::CatalogState*)

The final function illustrates (paints) the menu widget. For special menus where tools are allowed (networks, zones or other functions), the button handling function calls a META function first. For example, there are:

cSC4View3DWin::DoTransportMenu(cIGZWin*, cGZMessage&)
cSC4View3DWin::DoZoningMenu(cIGZWin*, cGZMessage&)

These functions assign SubMenuKeys for tool exemplars (used in non-building item exemplars to identify the menu to be placed in...) to the button-IDs and link buttons in the secondary menus that directly call a game function instead of a item list to their destination functions. These functions do some extra steps for these special menus and call at last CreateBuildingMenu too.

Well... theoretically it is easy to understand what extra assembler instructions in the EXE make as many submenus as we want possible. The bad side is that I have no idea how to replace existing objects with enhanced versions (or how to knock out a single symbol into a working DLL).

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Interesting stuff!  Best of luck to you. 

[Jersey_17011 0]

And There Was Much Rejoicing...

=]