Data View Extensions DLL

[Null 45 3,041]

DLL Plugin for SimCity 4 that extends the game's data views.

This plugin includes a modified data view UI that adds dedicated radio buttons for Moisture, Park Aura and Landmark Aura data views. The modified UI is otherwise identical to the standard Maxis UI, so it will work with existing mods that re-purpose the Maxis data view radio buttons.

The DLL also supports a Transient Aura data view, this data view is provided as an optional DAT file that replaces the Garbage Pollution data view.

Download: https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36632-data-view-extensions-dll/

Source Code: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-data-view-extensions

Differences from Cori's Park Aura Mod

This mod adds a new radio button instead of replacing the Garbage Pollution data view. The highlighted items on the Park Aura (and Landmark Aura) views are Parks/Landmarks instead of Garbage facilities.

References

See That Unused Moisture Data View for a description of how the moisture data view works.
See Cori's Park Aura mod page for a description of how the park aura data view works.

New Features for Data View Modders

Data View Sources

The DLL adds the following new data sources. The Data Source Property Value item corresponds to the numeric value of the game's "DataView: Data source" property (0x4A0B47E5).

Name	Data Source Property Value	Description
Landmark Aura	13	A data source using the game's landmark aura data.
Transient Aura	14	A data source using the game's transient aura data.

New Data View Highlight Modes

The DLL adds the following new highlight modes. The Highlight Mode Property Value item corresponds to the numeric value of the game's "DataView: Highlight mode" property (0x4A0B47E9).

Name	Highlight Mode Property Value	Description
Park	10	Buildings that have a Park Effect exemplar property are highlighted.
Landmark	11	Buildings that have a Landmark Effect exemplar property are highlighted.

System Requirements

• SimCity 4 version 641
• Windows 10 or later

The plugin may work on Windows 7 or later, but I do not have the ability to test that.

Installation

1. Close SimCity 4.
2. Copy SC4DataViewExtensions.dll and ExtendedDataViewUI.dat into the top-level of the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory or Documents/SimCity 4 directory.
3. Optionally copy z_DataView - TransientAura.dat into the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory or Documents/SimCity 4 directory.
4. Start SimCity 4.

Troubleshooting

The plugin should write a SC4DataViewExtensions.log file in the same folder as the plugin.
The log contains status information for the most recent run of the plugin.

If you would like to make voluntary contributions to support me in continuing to create more content for SimCity 4, I accept donations via PayPal: https://paypal.me/0xC0000054

Thanks to the few people who have donated to me.

Special Thanks

To @CorinaMarie for beta testing the mod and providing the Park Aura and Landmark Aura screenshots.

[Nite Owl 79]

Just to be 100% clear without having to load SC4. Does the use of this dll mean that Cori's Original Park Aura View should be removed from the Plugins folder?

My Ancient Computer takes forever to load SC4 which is why not much time has been spent therein of late, either building or checking on things like this. Finances should improve with the New Year and a Major New Computer purchase will be forthcoming if all goes according to plan.

[Kel9509 1,369]

1 hour ago, Nite Owl said:

Just to be 100% clear without having to load SC4. Does the use of this dll mean that Cori's Original Park Aura View should be removed from the Plugins folder?

I've just tested this and yes, the original Cori's Park Aura should be removed otherwise it will show up twice.  The new version of the Park Aura highlights Parks (or buildings with a Park effect) instead of Garbage, which Cori's original version highlighted.

Overall, I think this is an incredible mod.  I've always wanted to see the Landmarks effect.  Being able to see that, along with Parks, as new items is really the Holy Grail for Dataviews.  This is a great development and I'm very thankful to @Null 45 for all the hard work in implementing it!  Just incredible.

Regarding the Landmark effect: I know that some building exemplars have different Landmark properties, as there are two different exemplars for a landmark effect.  I wonder which property the dataview shows?  Both of them or only one?  As I recall, one of them isn't really a landmark property, it's slightly different.  It'll be interesting to test them out and see the difference.

For the Transient aura - what exactly is it showing?  It's a bit hard to tell.  Are the network switches showing there because I didn't see anything highlighted?

Finally, I wonder how hard it would be to add "optional" UI elements or radio-buttons, so that existing Dataview mods can use those "extra slots" instead of merely replacing others?  For instance, I've got a ton of Dataview mods:

• Cori's Park Aura - which replaced Garbage (now itself replaced with Transient Aura).
• Average Age Dataview - replacing Fire Hazard
• CO$$$ Desirability Dataview, replacing Mayor Rating
• I-HT Desirability Dataview, replacing Average Age
• R$$$ Desirability Dataview, replacing Land Value
• RCI Capacity Dataviews - replacing Desirability
• Non-RCI lots - replacing Power (so I can find those obscure ploppable lots....)

 

I miss seeing Power and Fire Hazard (and now, Garbage lots) the most, because those are actually useful whereas Land Value and Mayor Rating always shows full green so they're not as useful. If there was a way to add another row of optional dataviews into the UI, that'd be great.

And those are just the replacements. I've also got "better" Air and Water pollution Dataviews to show the difference in effect better by using different colors (most of them from StarlitBeach).

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

1 hour ago, Kel9509 said:

I miss seeing Power and Fire Hazard (and now, Garbage lots) the most, because those are actually useful whereas Land Value and Mayor Rating always shows full green so they're not as useful.

You can easily move them around you know (just like we did for that extrapolated graph). The same principle works here. Just find what hex IID the dataview button has and then change to that in the dataview exemplar.

[Kel9509 1,369]

On 12/26/2024 at 3:29 PM, CorinaMarie said:

You can easily move them around you know (just like we did for that extrapolated graph). The same principle works here. Just find what hex IID the dataview button has and then change to that in the dataview exemplar.

Oh yes, I've moved them as needed.  It's just that I think the issue is that for Dataviews, I can't just add another row to show the ones I've replaced, right?  Because the UI is hard-coded in a way that the graph mod isn't.  If I'm mistaken, then I'll try editing it to add the ones I had replaced.

Does anyone know what the Transient Aura shows?  

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

7 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

I can't just add another row to show the ones I've replaced, right?

We would need more physical room and that can be done.

The limit is the number of button hex IDs the game will recognize. As I understand it (which might not be accurately), Null has found 3 more IDs already hard coded, but not previously used by the game and can therefore utilize them by telling the UI panel those are now acceptable. So, if there could be more then it would just take some UI editing just like we have for the Building Styles making more room for new buttons once opened.

 

9 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

Does anyone know what the Transient Aura shows?

I haven't yet tested it, but I suspect that's one of the available properties which can be assigned to buildings. The most famous is the humble bus station. Plop one of those puppies and often times buildings nearby will suddenly upgrade or unbuilt zones will miraculously sprout some new development. The transient aura is ephemeral tho. The one for the bus station lasts about 6 months. (Duration and strength are set in the associated property in the building exemplar iirc.)

So, as a quick test, turn on that dataview, run time at the middle speed, and plop a bus station and see if you get a nice aura temporarily which fades over the next few months.

[Kel9509 1,369]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

So, as a quick test, turn on that dataview, run time at the middle speed, and plop a bus station and see if you get a nice aura temporarily which fades over the next few months.

That is exactly what this is.  Plopping a bus station immediately showed up with a big aura on the Transient Aura Dataview.  It'll go away after a little bit of time.

[Null 45 3,041]

6 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

The limit is the number of button hex IDs the game will recognize. As I understand it (which might not be accurately), Null has found 3 more IDs already hard coded, but not previously used by the game and can therefore utilize them by telling the UI panel those are now acceptable.

I added 3 more buttons to the top of the range that Maxis used. They had 0x5011/0x5111 as the highest value, so used 0x5012/0x5112 to 0x5014/0x5114. I then had to patch SC4's code to make it recognize the existence of the new buttons and let my code handle the click events for them.

As far as I can tell (and I may be wrong), Maxis reserved the 0x50XX and 0x51XX range for data view buttons. Each button needs matching 0x50XX and 0x51XX ids. There are also reserved button ranges for the Desirability and Traffic modes.

From looking at the UI file, Maxis uses 2 different UIs for when the data panel is expanded or collapsed. It is probably just showing or hiding the relevant UI in response to the exapnd/collapse events.

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

11 hours ago, Null 45 said:

I then had to patch SC4's code to make it recognize the existence of the new buttons and let my code handle the click events for them.

Does this mean you could continue to expand the usable range? Like if we can make the UI have more room we wouldn't have to override other views to have all we want (within those 0x50XX and 0x51XX range limits)?

 

11 hours ago, Null 45 said:

From looking at the UI file, Maxis uses 2 different UIs for when the data panel is expanded or collapsed. It is probably just showing or hiding the relevant UI in response to the expand/collapse events.

This'll be interesting. I've never tried to edit those panels.

[Null 45 3,041]

3 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Does this mean you could continue to expand the usable range?

It should. Only the Maxis developers could say what the assigned ranges are, but I would not be surprised if 0x50XX and 0x51XX are reserved from 0x00-0xFF. But I would still have to figure out what data view mode to use for those buttons.

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

9 minutes ago, Null 45 said:

I would still have to figure out what data view mode to use for those buttons.

Is this something I might understand or is it all internal code stuff?

[Null 45 3,041]

15 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Is this something I might understand or is it all internal code stuff?

When the radio button is clicked I have to tell the game which data view exemplar corresponds to that button. So it would just mean creating a new data view exemplars for each new radio button.

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

13 hours ago, Null 45 said:

Maxis uses 2 different UIs

Do you have the IIDs?

I can find three total in SimCity_1.dat:

1. 0x0B72F276 is new to RH / Deluxe, but not used in the game.
2. 0x2BC9060F is the only one active as far as I can tell.
3. 0xEA287193 is from the original pre-expansion version and also not used now.

I have all the UIs parsed out for testing and I can remove 1 and 3 with no trouble, but remove #2 and the Data View panel area is then blank in the game.

[Simizen 1,098]

22 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

We would need more physical room and that can be done.

really, if we can just add more buttons per view, like we get with the Traffic and Desirability views, I feel that'd be far better.

16 hours ago, Null 45 said:

From looking at the UI file, Maxis uses 2 different UIs for when the data panel is expanded or collapsed. It is probably just showing or hiding the relevant UI in response to the exapnd/collapse events.

and this now raises the question of whether or not this means more buttons can be added per data view? Or, am I vastly misunderstanding this?

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

9 minutes ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

really, if we can just add more buttons per view, like we get with the Traffic and Desirability views, I feel that'd be far better.

Oh, yeah. That'd we way more sophisticated if I can do it.

Ofc, it might need even more coding on Null's part for that? I've no idea yet how they do that. I'll try to look into it in the coming days. I'm certain I could do an addition like I added for the Building Styles controls, but if the side area buttons pop up is possible, I do like that much better.

[Simizen 1,098]

Awesome! Will definitely want to be kept up to date on that one.

One of the things I've had in mind for the Data Views, was to condense quite a few of them. Cause it's always bugged me how we've got 4 for pollution, when they could all share the same option.

Cause, we could easily condense:

• Air Pollution
• Water Pollution
• Garbage
• Radiation

all into a singular option just labeled Pollution. This could then free up the other options for different options as needed, and we wouldn't have to worry about most of the data views overriding others as we get them.

Spoiler

These are my ideas of how we could potentially, logically, condense all the different data views.

+ Safety (or Public Safety, or Health and Safety, or whatever fits this spot):

• Crime
• Flammability
• Health
• Resident Avg. Age

So, I added the Resident Average Age view to this list, cause it doesn't really have much of a match up with anything else. And I figured it kinda falls under Health anyway, so it wouldn't hurt to have it together with Health and the others.

+ Education:

• EQ (Education Quotient); default graph, no service rings
• Coverage; shows the service rings of each building (basically how the Education view works currently)
  • All (default)
  • Elementary
  • High
  • Private
  • College
  • Library
  • Museum

basically each of these views breaks things down to make it easier to figure out where everything is in relation to each other, cause I know it's got to be problematic for people trying to figure out which schools are in an area when there's a cluster; and more so when utilizing custom lots with different sized service areas.

+ Desirability:

possibly left alone, or merged with another option later on (see below).

+ Utiliites:

• Power
• Water
• Garbage

Garbage view in this instance would be more for the lots, but not required, given that this would likely fall under the Pollution category. But a good option for placing this if wanted.

+ Traffic:

No change, cause it's got everything it needs, and then some thanks to the NAM team (like, legitimately, it's so much easier to track everything going on in this view with the extended options).

At most, I'd request a couple tweaks to lets us view the different capacity options to see how things stack up, but that's neither a requirement nor a high priority imo).

+ Zones:

• All (default)
• Residential
• Commercial
• Industrial
• Abandoned
• Government
• Agriculture

Rearrange this as needed, but this can be helpful in spotting various lots/zones for any number of reasons. As you can see, this also merges the Abandoned Buildings data view that NAM has added to the game. This is extraordinarily helpful in spotting potential fire hazards and such (and an argument can be made that it could be thrown into the Safety views.

This one, along with the Pollution, and Moisture data views, are the reason for why I've been working out how to logically condense all the views.

+ Aura:

• Aura
• Land Value
• Mayor Rating
• Park Aura
• Desirability
• Transient
• Landmark
• Business Deals (optional)

Back in SC3K we had an aura view, but surprisingly we don't have one for SC4. Though, that's understandable given that there's many factors involved in it, and so, they've since been separated by the dev team. Here, we could easily condense them all, plus, add in all the extras that we've managed to find and setup. So, now everything can be at our fingertips for finding out how good/bad different parts of the city are.

Now, I don't know how the Landmarks view is setup currently (haven't used it yet), but, if they don't cover it, then I suggest possibly adding the various Business Deals as an option, given that things like Area 5.1, the Casino, and the Federal Prison, would all affect the way the city feels when they're planted. If these are already covered by the Landmarks view, then we're probably fine, but up to y'all if you'd like to separate this.

I also didn't originally have a generic Aura option, but then realized when writing this list just now, that it probably wouldn't hurt to have one that shows the averages of all the different Aura effects throughout the city.

+ Pollution:

• Air Pollution
• Water Pollution
• Garbage
• Radiation

As mentioned before, why should we have separate views for these filling up the menu, when these are all forms of pollution?

And, while not needed, I'm wondering if maybe we should merge my mods on these into this mod? Simply because I've never been fond of the poorly done Red to Yellow gradient the devs chose for this, and many others have been looking for better ways to visually see how bad the pollution is within their cities. If anyone's wondering on permission for merging these, and that's why it's not been done, don't worry, cause I'm 100% for it if that's what you want to do. I, or whoever, could very easily update the other files to inform everyone that they're obsolete without any issues. And I've been wanting to package them all together as a singular mod anyway, so this wouldn't be an issue for sure.

+ Moisture:

This is the new one that was found and eventually added. This was part of the reasoning for condensing the various views, simply cause it would override the Radiation view, which is fine, but can be problematic. But, coupled with NAM's Abandoned Buildings view, there's a conflict and only one will ever show up; which is another part of the reason for attempting to logically condense all these views.

+ Subway:

So, this one came up as a result of the NAM modifying the Zones view, where it will show the location of all the subway rails and stations. And while this is great, the lag is absolutely painful to deal with. And god forbid you accidentally hit the Zones view when attempting to hit Traffic or your mouse moves, or click by accident. Cause then you're waiting for it to catch up, and then waiting again for the stuff to load.

To be clear, I do not think it will actually speed things up, but sometimes I like to be able to go into the Zones view to see things, and then, I'm stuck waiting for it to load both ways, and I inevitably regret opening that view. And, yes, this is something I could adjust on the NAM installer for sure, but, I do still like to use this when dealing with the Subway network. So it's still quite useful, and as such should be given it's own view.

Of course, this would require clearance from the NAM team (and I mean the higher ups, given they're the ones who've implemented the option in the first place), because this would end up infringing on their domain a bit. While I'm sure they could be okay with giving up the Abandoned Buildings view, giving up control over the Subway view may actually be problematic on their end. But, it could also be rather beneficial, as then it'd be just a little less work involved on their end in regards to upkeep, and could help reduce the size of the mod somewhat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, there's a catch to all of this, and that is, I don't know if the game is hard coded in such a way that it requires the original 17 slots to remain at all times. Because, here, I've managed to condense it down to 9 (prior to the Moisture and Subway views [8 plus the All Off option]). With the 2 extra views, that gives us 11 in total, meaning that, if it's hard coded to have 17 options, then we'd still need 5 more. And, actually just realized, if the Desirability view is actually condensed into the suggested Aura view, then we're looking at 10 options in total.

But, if it's hard coded, we could probably extract a few views, at least until such time as we can figure out what to do with the extra views. Though, with the fact that we've got access to DLL modding, it's possible the DLL could very easily override the hard coded limit of 17, and let us only use what we need. Which would certainly make that window interesting to interact with, as it'll go from crowded to feeling empty for everyone who uses it, lol.

I also have a similar goal with the Charts and Graphs in the game, and, if it works out really well here with the Data Views, then I could probably share the notes on the Charts as well. There's a bit of overlap in the nature of things, so most of the ideas here could probably transfer quite easily.

And, I would also like to point out, that while many were condensed, you'll have seen that I've also extended a few for better access to information. And, these are ideas, as I know that attempting to implement them could be quite a bit of work. In general, the goal is to condense all the related views. Expanding on them can be done at a later date.

Also, I'm wondering if maybe we should unify the color ranges for many of these? Not required of course. But I just realized that, while we've got the colorblind options setup, if y'all wanted to add mine into the mix (you're allowed to btw, if you're looking for permission, lol), there would be a bit of a mix. Not required obviously, I'm just not sure how the rest of the community would want their data views to be. Most of the charts in the game are typically Red to Green (with a couple of exceptions), so it's possible you'd have some people wanting that to be retained. I'm sure we could establish options where you'd just swap out the appropriate files to get the proper colors as needed. If an installer or some other similar method for quickly and easily swapping out the colors is an option, I'll definitely add the other set I've been working on, into the mix. Of course, if it's just 1 or 2 people, they could easily mod it themselves, cause changing the colors doesn't seem to be too difficult from my experience (just a bit tedious, lol).

[Kel9509 1,369]

3 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

These are my ideas of how we could potentially, logically, condense all the different data views.

Even if the game didn't have some restrictions on dataviews in the executable, what you're asking for is a lot of work.  I've been interested in not only preserving the existing Maxis views, but also keeping the custom ones I've added.  So there's merit to consolidation but I don't know how to do it yet.

[Simizen 1,098]

Oh, for sure it is, that I don't doubt. The reason for sharing it though, is because I so far haven't found a way to condense anything, cause I'm not as knowledgeable in regards to the iLives reader and getting certain things to work out. Like, there's a possibility that it could be done via that app, but everything in there is still incredibly overwhelming for me to run through it, and I have no clue what I'm actually looking at most times.

And, so far, we've seen people like Cori and Null be able to expand on the options within the game, via whatever system they're using. And, currently, it does seem to be the case that it can be done through both LUA and C++, given that's what each of them are most experienced in.

If I knew enough about either, and was able to pick it apart, I'd certainly be trying myself. Would certainly still take quite a bit of time, but I would be able to produce something for it.

Currently, though, my interest is in merging the different Pollution data views, so that we can stop overriding them with all these other newer views. If that works, then we've got a prototype view to run with and can then begin condensing the other views. Granted, the thing to keep in mind is that, while what I've supplied is the most logical and reasonable setup I could think of, there's the distinct possibility that it could change (and I very much expect parts of it to change, as it would be rather surprising if it was put in as-is). So, currently it's open for discussion of how people would want the views to be condensed to.

Though, I also suspect that, once 1 set has been condensed, then it's very likely a dam break effect shortly after. Like, the biggest hurdle would be to just condense 2 or 3 views currently, then once that's been proven, duplicating it for the rest will be super quick. The parts that would take longer, would likely be the ones where I suggest expanding on the views, where the data's broken down into more manageable chunks. Cause, those would require isolating each part, and setting up a brand new view for each.

Granted, the fun part for some of these is setting them up in such a way that things aren't conflicting in some way. Like, the Desirability view is problematic, cause it's already pretty big. But when you open it, you've got a whole list of buttons on the left already for each of the different types. So, the issue here is, you can't have the options (at least if it's condensed into the suggested Aura view) on the left. But, as we see with the Traffic data views, you can have access to both left and right side buttons. So, at least in the instance of the Aura view, we could put all of their options on the right side, and then the Desirability view, could retain it's options on the left. And if I'm right about how the rest are setup, then the Aura/Desirability views should be the only set that's backwards as a result.

Plus, condensing these down to 8 or 9 options, gives us room to add (at least) 7 more, and any subviews they may have. Though, the fun part with this is, what would those be? I'm not entirely clear on what all could be added after this. Though, the fact that we ended up with Abandoned Buildings, Landmark Aura, and Transient Aura views, when I didn't even know those could've been tracked like that, means there's probably quite a few more options floating around that we might not be (fully) aware of. And, I'm sure someone's going to look at the game and say "we need [xyz] data view". Personally, I don't think we're going to be able to max out those options for a bit, but who knows what'll be added. Heck, I've even requested that the Subway view be separated, so I'm sure something else will come up with breaking things down a bit.

I think it'll be interesting to see how things develop really.

Also, I have a feeling, that if this mod is able to handle consolidating the different views into fewer groups, and allowing us access to more views, that it'll likely become another mandatory mod to run with.

[Null 45 3,041]

9 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Do you have the IIDs?

I was referring to the UI layout of 0x2BC9060F. It has 2 radio buttons for each data view.

2 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

Also, I have a feeling, that if this mod is able to handle consolidating the different views into fewer groups, and allowing us access to more views, that it'll likely become another mandatory mod to run with.

I am not sure if consolidating is possible, as SC4 is designed to have each view to map to a radio button.

[Simizen 1,098]

22 minutes ago, Null 45 said:

I am not sure if consolidating is possible, as SC4 is designed to have each view to map to a radio button.

Yeah, that's honestly what I was thinking. If it's hard coded to have no less than the 17 options we've got, then some things wouldn't be consolidated. But, the thing is, we've got some with multiple views in there. There's also the fact that the Traffic data view also didn't have everything in it in the first iteration of the game (iirc). But, what's interesting though, is the fact that we've got both the Traffic and Desirability views which have multiple views under them. So it does raise the question of being able to add sub data views.

Alternatively, maybe we can just feed it dummy views for any extras? Like, if we are able to condense them to say, half, if we still need the other half, we could potentially just feed it dummy views (can all be the same view honestly) and then just not have it do anything, lol. I mean, we could probably just tie them all to the All Off option and call it a day, lol.

But, again the issue comes from whether things are hard coded, and from what I do know of the views so far is that it's possible that it's hard coded to have no less than 17.

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

9 hours ago, Null 45 said:

I was referring to the UI layout of 0x2BC9060F. It has 2 radio buttons for each data view.

Oh! I know what that is. One is the actual circular radio button itself and then the other is a hidden rectangular box in which the text name of the data view is placed along with empty space up to just shy of the next button to the right.

This means you can click the actual button or the name to select.

So it's not for open and close of the view, but just allows two places to click for the opening.

 

9 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

So it does raise the question of being able to add sub data views.

This is the part which I can explore. In the XML code of the data views there are layers of little windows which can be open and active or closed and inactive. I'm uncertain if each needs their own IID married to internal coding out of my reach or not. They are quite complex so it'll take time before I have any idea if it's possible from the UI editing side or not.

(In the Building Styles UI, I successfully added duplicate close options by replacement button and text bar so this would be similar, but for opening and that might need underlying code at Null's level which is beyond the XML layer.)

[Simizen 1,098]

7 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

This is the part which I can explore. In the XML code of the data views there are layers of little windows which can be open and active or closed and inactive. I'm uncertain if each needs their own IID married to internal coding out of my reach or not. They are quite complex so it'll take time before I have any idea if it's possible from the UI editing side or not.

(In the Building Styles UI, I successfully added duplicate close options by replacement button and text bar so this would be similar, but for opening and that might need underlying code at Null's level which is beyond the XML layer.)

Yeah, I had a feeling it would be some hybrid thing with both of y'all looking into it.

Course, the next question now, is if the 17 option limit is truly hard coded, but I know that'll take time

[Null 45 3,041]

15 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I'm uncertain if each needs their own IID married to internal coding out of my reach or not.

They would. For each new radio button, I would need to tell SC4 it exists, and then add code to handle the button click events. The data view UI is way more complex than the building styles UI, there are over 300 items in the list of UI controls that the game handles events for.

10 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

Course, the next question now, is if the 17 option limit is truly hard coded, but I know that'll take time

I don't think that the main panel can easily fit more than the 20 buttons it already has, and moving the buttons closer together could compromise the ability to translate them.

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

On 12/30/2024 at 9:03 AM, CorinaMarie said:

In the XML code of the data views there are layers of little windows which can be open and active or closed and inactive. I'm uncertain if each needs their own IID married to internal coding out of my reach or not.

5 hours ago, Null 45 said:

They would. For each new radio button, I would need to tell SC4 it exists, and then add code to handle the button click events.

Yep. I fully understand for the radio buttons and we know you can add that code.

The part you quoted of me is about the internal UI windows than can open and close to reveal other radio buttons. What I'm saying is I don't yet know is if those little windows are completely controlled by the XML or if they, too, need underlying code at your level.

[Null 45 3,041]

3 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

The part you quoted of me is about the internal UI windows than can open and close to reveal other radio buttons. What I'm saying is I don't yet know is if those little windows are completely controlled by the XML or if they, too, need underlying code at your level.

If I am understanding the UI layout correctly, the XML UI behaves like layers that the game can turn on and off. It looks like the 3 layers on the right are:

1. Top - standard data view, with the labels and colored boxes.
2. Middle - crime data view, with the icons and labels
3. Bottom - traffic data view, the commute radio buttons.

That UI layout seems extremely complicated, and it doesn't even include however the traffic radio buttons are added on the left.

[nathkel 31]

Maybe (assuming all this can be done as you think) we can reach some community consensus on the order of the view buttons. I have never liked how illogical the list was, and if all goes well, we can put them in a more sensible order.

[CorinaMarie 29,611]

4 hours ago, nathkel said:

Maybe (assuming all this can be done as you think) we can reach some community consensus on the order of the view buttons. I have never liked how illogical the list was, and if all goes well, we can put them in a more sensible order.

Agreed.

Should it turn out to be possible, I plan to use the hidden nonsense in @Ryuu Tenno's post as a base template.