UI

Language switching support

Use the g_language command to switch the language. You can add a setting to the menu and switch the language before the level is loaded. Switching only affects texts. Fonts, sounds, etc. - are not changed. Languages are specified here:

[string_table]
language = rus, ukr, eng

Sound support in talk.xml and carbody_new.xml

talk.xml:

  <action_sounds>
    <snd_open>interface\inv_open2</snd_open>
    <snd_close>interface\inv_open2</snd_close>
    <snd_say>interface\inv_page2</snd_say>
  </action_sounds>

carbody_new.xml:

 <action_sounds>
  <snd_open>interface\inv_open</snd_open>
  <snd_close>interface\inv_close</snd_close>
  <snd_properties>interface\inv_properties</snd_properties>
  <snd_drop_item>interface\inv_drop</snd_drop_item>
  <snd_detach_addon>interface\inv_detach_addon</snd_detach_addon>
  <snd_item_use>interface\inv_slot</snd_item_use>
 </action_sounds>

Fonts

• Revamped font system and text parser for correct UTF-8 support. Fonts with UTF-8 support can be generated using Fonts_generator. Backward compatibility with ANSI characters, UTF-8 BOM detection and other nuances are taken into account.
• Added shadows for fonts. In the future it will be necessary to think how to customize them better.
• • Fonts size adjustment is added to the menu - it will be especially useful for owners of monitors with ultra-high resolutions. The width and height of fonts can be adjusted with g_font_scale_x, g_font_scale_y commands.
• Added support for using any font sections for UI via xml & lua without having to edit the engine. For example, create [letterica18_small] font somewhere in font.ltx, and use in xml: <text font=“letterica18_small” r=“127” g=“127” b=“127”/>.
• Added export to scripts for all name fonts that are in the engine.
• Fixed the width_correction parameter of fonts, and therefore renamed it to font_width_correction
• In order not to create a bunch of font textures for different text sizes, you can create one texture of large size and reduce through config to the desired size, for example:

[ui_font_bender]
shader    = font
texture = ui\ui_font_bender ;Texture of the generated font of large size
scale_x = 0.5 ;Halve the height
scale_y = 0.5 ;Halve the width
interval = 1, 0.75 ;You can adjust the spacing between the letters on the top and side.

• Added skip_prefix = true for font sections. The engine will not require adding font_prefix (from [string_table]) to the texture name of such a font:

[ui_font_digital_16]
skip_prefix = true
shader    = font
texture   = ui\fonts\Digital52
scale_x   = 0.30
scale_y   = 0.30

Display the status of objects on the icon in the inventory

You can enable this in features section by parameter show_inv_item_condition. You need to add this into inventory_new.xml to work:

<condition_progess_bar x="3" y="1" width="29" height="4" horz="1" min="0" max="100" pos="1">
	<background x="0" y="0" width="30" height="5">
		<texture r="196" g="18" b="18" a="200">ui_mg_progress_efficiency_full</texture>
	</background>
	<progress>
		<texture>ui_mg_progress_efficiency_full</texture>
	</progress>
	<min_color r="107" g="207" b="119"/>
	<middle_color r="255" g="255" b="118"/>
	<max_color r="107" g="207" b="119"/>
</condition_progess_bar>

<cell_item_text x="0" y="0" width="35" height="16" stretch="1">
	<text x="0" y="0" width="35" height="16" font="letterica16" color="white" align="l" vert_align="t"/>
</cell_item_text>

condition_progess_bar is static status bar.

cell_item_text is a number static, items count.

Attribute width in condition_progess_bar is not important. If it is not present, the bar length will be calculated automatically, based on the cell width.

Next, for dragdrop elements you need to add the attribute condition_progress_bar="1" which will enable the display of status bars. By default, the status of weapons and armor will be shown. To show the state of other items, you need to add this into their sections:

inv_show_condition = true

Additionally added cell_sp_x and cell_sp_y attributes for dragdrop items. They set the horizontal and vertical indents after the item icon. It doesn't make sense to use them for dragdrop_bag, because the result will be somewhat unexpected for items that occupy more than one cell in any direction. The indentation is calculated for one cell and if there are more cells, the indentation will be larger. That is, if the object is three cells high, then the vertical indentation will be tripled. But for a belt, for example, you can use it.

Item status progress bars are animated. When you open the inventory, they smoothly increase to their values. You can disable animations via the animated=“0” attribute.

Examples of how to use all of this can be seen here.

Pause window before starting the game from CoP

• Added a pause after loading a safe in the style of CoP, but, unlike CoP, made entirely in the engine. It is enabled by console command keypress_on_start.
• Added support for tips when game is loading in new style.

New ways to assign icons to items

• Ability to split ui_icon_equipment.dds into different canvases. The icon_group parameter, in the item section, specifies which canvas to take the icon from. If the value of the parameter is 0, which is the default, then the standard texture ui_icon_equipment.dds is used. If the value is greater than zero, for example

icon_group = 1

ui_icon_equipment_1.dds will be used, i.e. the name of the standard texture is appended with _number.

• Support for icon_name in item section. For example:

[vodka]
icon_name = ui_icon_vodka

In this case the vodka icon will not be taken from the canvas at coordinates inv_grid_x and inv_grid_y, but will use the texture ui_icon_vodka, which should be described in one of the xml texture descriptions, like this, for example:

<ui_texture>
    <file_name>ui\ui_icons_items</file_name>
    <texture id="ui_icon_vodka" x="0" y="200" width="500" height="200" />
    ...
</ui_texture>

Display effects affecting the actor in outfit_info in inventory

You need to add into these files:

gamedata/config/ui/inventory_new.xml
gamedata/config/ui/inventory_new_16.xml

into section outfit_info new nodes:

<static_health_restore_speed x="0" y="0" width="180" height="19" complex_mode="1">
	<texture>ui_inv_icon_health_restore_speed</texture>
	<text font="letterica16" x="17" y="0" color="ui_clr_1"/>
</static_health_restore_speed>
<static_satiety_restore_speed x="0" y="0" width="180" height="19" complex_mode="1">
	<texture>ui_inv_icon_satiety_restore_speed</texture>
	<text font="letterica16" x="17" y="0" color="ui_clr_1"/>
</static_satiety_restore_speed>
<static_power_restore_speed x="0" y="0" width="180" height="19" complex_mode="1">
	<texture>ui_inv_icon_power_restore_speed</texture>
	<text font="letterica16" x="17" y="0" color="ui_clr_1"/>
</static_power_restore_speed>
<static_bleeding_restore_speed x="0" y="0" width="180" height="19" complex_mode="1">
	<texture>ui_inv_icon_bleeding_restore_speed</texture>
	<text font="letterica16" x="17" y="0" color="ui_clr_1"/>
</static_bleeding_restore_speed>
<static_radiation_restore_speed x="0" y="0" width="180" height="19" complex_mode="1">
	<texture>ui_inv_icon_radiation_restore_speed</texture>
	<text font="letterica16" x="17" y="0" color="ui_clr_1"/>
</static_radiation_restore_speed>
<static_psy_health_restore_speed x="0" y="0" width="180" height="19" complex_mode="1">
	<texture>ui_inv_icon_telepatic_immunity</texture>
	<text font="letterica16" x="17" y="0" color="ui_clr_1"/>
</static_psy_health_restore_speed>

You can find examples in these files:

gamedata/config/ui/af_params.xml
gamedata/config/ui/af_params_16.xml

Entering multiline text with CUIEditBoxEx.

Parameters are exactly the same as for CUIEditBox (XML and Lua). But it is possible to specify a height greater than one line, then the text will be automatically moved to a new line.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNksw-86L_8

To create a CUIEditBoxEx, exactly the same code as for a regular CUIEditBox is suitable. But the texture for the carpet pad must be in the format for dialogs or frames. That is, there should be 8 parts for the frame + the carpet pad itself. Example of texture from vanilla game: ui_stroketextbox.

Creating:

By Lua:

local edit_box1 = CUIEditBoxEx()

edit_box1:SetAutoDelete(true)
edit_box1:Init(120, 200, 43, 90) -- 90 - height, preferably a multiple of the font height
edit_box1:InitTexture("ui_stroketextbox")
edit_box1:SetFont(GetFontLetterica18Russian())

self:AttachChild(edit_box1)

By XML:

<edit_box x="120" y="200" width="43" height="90">
	<texture>ui_stroketextbox</texture>
	<text font="letterica18" a="255" r="200" g="255" b="200"/>
</edit_box>

Lua part:

local edit_box = xml:InitEditBoxEx("main_dialog:edit_box", dialog)

For demonstration purposes, multi-line text input has been added to the custom labels window in the DA.

New method of UI customization

• Added tools to customize UI in pixels on end-user monitor, not in 1024x768 coordinate system. This is to avoid stretched UI on wide monitors, see ( #378 ). By enabling the as_is=“1” attribute in the config, GUI elements will read coordinates in pixels of the final monitor, not in a 1024x768 grid as it was in vanilla. Therefore, the sizes and coordinates in GUI-configs will have to be corrected to look normal and fit into the screen. Most likely will have to experiment. But when you manage to get a good result by editing configs, this result will be as good for all monitors.
• The as_is attribute has been added for drag-drop items so that the inventory icons will keep the correct proportions at any screen aspect ratio.
• Also added autocalc attribute (0 or 1) for drag-drop items to control the auto-calculation of the size and number of cells. Inventory icons are auto-scaled downward if necessary to fit the number of cells in the drag-drop list as specified in its config. The dragdrop sheet is pre-filled with additional cells in width or height, until it is completely filled, if there is still free space after applying the above manipulations. The size of cells is regulated by the new attribute cell_size (default 50), the old attributes cell_width, cell_height are not used.

Other

• **Added ability for scripts to get CUIButton from CUIWindow ** Allows to do like this:

-- In this case, an accelerator is assigned to the button to exit the inventory.
local wnd      = level.get_inventory_wnd()
local btn_exit = wnd:FindChild( "exit_button" )
if btn_exit then
  local btn = btn_exit:GetButton()
  if btn then
    btn:SetAccelerator( k_inv_open )
  end
end

• Added level_changer_action callback for actor. Called before the dialog to confirm the transition to another location is shown. Can be used to change this dialog. For example:

-- Here the name of the location we are moving to is added to the confirmation.
function actor_binder:level_changer_action( obj, wnd )
  local sobj = obj:get_alife_object()
  local lc   = sobj:get_level_changer()
  local dest_vertex = lc.dest_game_vertex_id
  local dest_lname  = alife():level_name(
    game_graph():vertex( dest_vertex ):level_id()
  )
  local msg_text_wnd = wnd:FindChild( "message_box_change_level:message_text" )
  msg_text_wnd:GetCUIStatic():SetText(
    game.translate_string( dest_lname ) .. ": "
    .. game.translate_string( "level_changer_invitation" )
  )
end

• Fixed memory leak in m_callbacks. When a window is destroyed, all callbacks to it will also be cleared. Previously this did not happen, which caused a memory leak. You can also clear them by yourself by using ClearCallbacks() function.
• Added CoP format support for texture_desc texture description files. They are more convenient because you can describe a lot of textures in one file. Also autoload descriptions in the path ui\textures_descr\*.xml.
• Added smooth scroll in ui.
• Added support for rounded minimap and clock on it. Example of customization:

    <minimap rounded="1" alpha="220">
        <level_frame x="75" y="670" width="172" height="172" stretch="1" alignment="c"/>

        <background width="350" height="380" stretch="1" alignment="c">
            <texture></texture>
            <dist_text x="75" y="3" width="100" height="20">
                <text align="r" font="letterica16" color="ui_clr_1" />
            </dist_text>
        </background>

        <clock_wnd x="18" y="170" width="39" height="16" alignment="c">
            <text x="0" y="0" font="letterica16" color="ui_clr_1" align="c" vert_align="c" />
        </clock_wnd>

        <compass x="75" y="670" width="192" height="192" stretch="1" heading="1" alignment="c">
            <texture></texture>
        </compass>

        <center width="4" height="4" alignment="c" stretch="1" heading="1">>
            <texture></texture>
        </center>
    </minimap>

• Hiding/showing HUD keys can now be customized in options, as the standard NUM+/NUM- keys are not available on every keyboard.
• Hiding the HUD will now hide the entire UI, including the news window and cursor, to make it easier to take screenshots.