SFC Q3 Updates

Encrypt

2011-06-14T01:54:00.001-05:00

Got the basic one running now. Will have to add 8 bit support and transparency support.

Encoder

2011-06-13T17:42:00.001-05:00

Got a base level Encoder done. It takes a BMP and turns it into a compressed image for the Q3.

Almost

2011-06-13T06:36:00.001-05:00

Well, got most of the RLE done. Just a couple more little things to go.

Should be able to get the new splash page for SFC:CE done today. Shhh.

RLE

2011-06-13T02:40:00.001-05:00

Gawd, how did I do the RLE encoding the first.time I programmed it almost a year and a half ago. Grrr, couldn't get back off my dead machine.

Test

2011-05-11T06:49:00.001-05:00

Test post

my bad

2011-05-06T16:41:00.001-05:00

Well, they do it the same. Had a minor brain fart and was looking for the assets in a stupid way, used FCA_ when should have used just FCA some of the assets use FCA as the end of the name, other it has an appended ending that uses the underscore

something I didn't expect

2011-05-05T01:23:00.003-05:00

They have a difference in how they show the ships between OP and EAW. I had figured they would have used all the same data section. But it seems they use a smaller set of pieces.

So back to a sector editor and dig and find out how many chunks are used for each ship, at the short glance I took it looks like they don't use any other race specific pieces, just the original ones for the base race. Will know more in a few hours as I did through the Q3 and some other files I have.

whats done so far

2011-05-02T04:46:00.002-05:00

Just a little on what I have been doing, but haven't really posted about.

As I am a programmer from way back (and my skills are still that old) alot of what I have been doing is getting caught up in tech. I was a good DOS/CLI programmer back in the '80s but 20 years of not programming really takes a toll on your skills.

So back then I didn't have to wprry about buttons or graphic interfaces much. Thus alot of what I have been working on is getting down how to do that. I have really hated the windows way of doing alot of it, disliked every GUI package I have tried (about five so far). So have been working on my own GUI package.

I have had about 6 iterations of programs since the Q3 image one, but as they are very boring looking, and each one has looked the same (just changing and adding how the buttons and such are worked), I haven't had alot to say about it. But each of those steps included alot of web searching and reading to get alittle more knowledge on this stuff.

But now I am at the step of getting a dynamic GUI part done. So we can pick a shield image and drag it to the right spot on the ship UI. I haven't gotten an image I can drag yet, but soon (hopefully soon).

I am going to start to build the actual editor base now, and work on some of the layout of the buttons and such, basicly up the right side, choice of race for the editing, and on the bottom will be the palette of shields and hardpoints to add to the images. Click on one, and it will be dropped in the top corner, you then drag it where you want it. (the plan at least)

Well, more later.

got basic functors

2011-05-01T16:26:00.002-05:00

Alright, got the basic functors running so I can attack a function to a button. It will evolve into scripting attached later.

Now to fight with my vector problems (or come up with a new way of doing a dynamic set). Make a few button icons, add an image manager that will use both the Q3 and bmp images and I might be close.

Amt Gard

2011-04-24T20:13:00.003-05:00

Took a needed break today, and almost broke myself. Did some fighting with a local group and pounded on each other with foam padded swords and such. Pulled a few muscles (haven't done alot of action in the last few years). Will kill going to work tonight.

wow, sorry for the time

2011-04-24T15:59:00.002-05:00

Flood time is now almost over here. River is starting to go back down. Only about 30 feet more to drop. (river is normally about 15-18 feet deep, got to almost 50 this year, third highest, and four below the flood that took out my town) Wasn't really any danger to my area, but around us highways were under water and messes up the normal life for awhile.

Now, still working on an editor, had so many ideas, they sprang out more and it bogged down. But back to working on it, got a few buttons in the UI working. now to get images for them. Also working on getting a font that will work in the UI (graphic systems just don't like the old printf function).

I have been looking in to adding the actual SFC fonts into the editor, so working on the functions that will use those. (would also mean maybe an editor later that would make the fonts).

I also decided to hardcode alot of this editor. I was working on a design that would be able to edit ships, the other UI elements, throw in a ship and fighter editor function to round it out (see why it bogged down). So it will expand to that as I work on it (maybe even throw in an editor for campaigns so you don't have to run through a billion gl files).

but ship UI is where I am heading. Got it so I can put buttons out, and images. Now working on the movable images, and a good way to store what is being done so it is organized in memory so writing it out will be easier.

then will need a small utility to link the output of this editor to the Q3 itself. The head guys want control over what goes into the Q3 so we can have a standardized file. This way we can also QC what is being added and put the stamp of approval on it.

I have alot to learn yet, before major edits of the game ui might be changed and added (like new weapons and systems from the UI stand point, but it is coming along).

starting up a UI class structure

2011-03-31T02:02:00.002-05:00

running how to run the UI for an editor in my head. So starting on building a class hierarchy to control it. I haven't liked any of the premade ones I have come across, they are not transferable to different projects very well. They all want to take over the whole program, and dictate how you do you program under them.

I want one that will be a simple add-on to the SDL framework, that works under it, not take over the whole thing. So working on a simple base class that all other elements will come from, and a control that will display and check what input was done. Then react to that input. It is going to be a semi-persistant immediate mode GUI. It will follow the IMGUI style, but with some persistance but without a complicated callback system.

Instead of the normal IMGUI where the program checks and reacts right away to the input as it draws out the GUI, it will run through all the GUI elements, then do a direct call on the element that has the focus. Doing this so I can have drag-n-drop. If everything stayed in one place a standard IMGUI would work fine.

Still hate, but better

2011-03-29T01:56:00.001-05:00

Still have my strong dislike for vectors (and alot of STL in general). But found out what was the problem. It just didn't like the way I defined it (location of the define). Got past that part, now on to other weirdness.

Still hate vectors

2011-03-28T16:44:00.002-05:00

Some reason just one of the vectors I am working with, says it is multiple defined. I can't find it as it is only defined in one .h file, and only referenced in the corresponding .cpp file. No one else knows of it.

Grrrrr.

Off to read some docs, and maybe redo the bad boy in a different way. (maybe write my own vector, no not really).

aarrrghhhh

2011-03-28T04:59:00.000-05:00

I HATE frak'n vectors.

Got to love free flow programming. . . AKA

2011-03-28T02:52:00.002-05:00

spaghetti code. Not sure how I want to do the listing of UI elements as they will be held in memory for display and manipulation. So just hacking out a few ideas and see how they stick. Will have to neaten it up after(if) it works.

sorry, forgot the BB codes

2011-03-25T22:20:00.003-05:00

Got used to my Hot and Spicy site that you just have to drop a link into and it becomes a hot link.

imageflip_zip

step one done

2011-03-25T22:06:00.002-05:00

Actually step one.something is done. Got image on screen, and a small program that will walk through all images in the Q3 files (in theory it will work on all of the SFC series Q3's. But I only supported some of the formats the Q3 could have an image in, but I think it is the only ones used in all the games).

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20159469/imageflip_zip

grab it here, put it in a directory with a Q3 file and run it. Any key will walk you through the images, but backspace will walk backwards through them.

Remeber grab it while it is hot, it is on gamefront so when the downloads slow, it will get dropped off. So not sure how long it will really be here.

back to an old nemesis

2011-03-25T02:02:00.002-05:00

STL stuff is still a major weakness of mine. Hacking around a stupid vector of pointers to assets, and trying to get data back out of it. GRRRR

We got clipping

2011-03-23T05:02:00.001-05:00

Okay, my break is over, and I got the clipping working right. Now the image can show up anywhere on the screen and be alright. Not sure if it will work right if I run it off the end, but not going to worry about that right now.

part way there

2011-03-23T04:43:00.002-05:00

Okay, it shows the image now. But have to figure out why it doesn't like to be moved out of the top corner. It has to do with the clipping zone, but not sure why. It shouldn't crash, it should just clip the image if it doesn't match the clip area.

Progress

2011-03-23T03:51:00.002-05:00

Well, working on my function that didn't draw the image for me. I must be making progress, it now crashes the program.

So Far

2011-03-21T04:29:00.002-05:00

Well, the weekend is over and I spent some time writing code to display an image. Was doing some conversion on the code and making it call correctly. Then I ran it, and it displayed, well, a blank screen.

Hmmm, going back to an earlier function that did work, and modifying the one I converted over the weekend to see if I can get one to display the image. It was rather disappointing. But ever forward.

working on step one

2011-03-18T19:20:00.002-05:00

about half way done with step one. Relearning how to do things in SDL and all. Sad when I times I am saying, hmmm, I knew this. And it has only been about a year or so.

Gaaa more strangeness

2011-03-16T23:55:00.002-05:00

Well, more odditites on the Development machine.

It locked out after an update, it seemed. So four more installs of XP on the machine and we might be stable. Seems odd, but installing the drivers for the motherboard from the disk I got with it seems to make it unstable now. Worked for years before, now install the drivers, system locks out.

But it seems stable, but I haven't moved back onto that machine yet. It now has XP and two versions of Linux on it. Will be interesting to see how compiling on different OSs work out. I program using Code::Blocks and use SDL so in theory my code should work on both sides of my machine.

Now for the actual update.

I have stepped back on what I have been doing as I set up a project that was to big for me to work on and beyond my skills (and knowledge) at the moment. Working on the editor for adding new Ship UI's to the game, and in the future changing the other UI parts of the game.

So first step I am working on a small program that will take the image files and just display them to the screen. No translation to other formats, right from the Q3 image file format. This is step one.

Step two, work on making my buttons work, then add moving images (the click on and move image thingie). This will allow the picking up of elements and putting them on the ship where needed.

Then work on adding Windows that hold the images that you need to use to add on the ship. Step three.

So this is where I am right now. Sorry so slow on updating here, been working on learning on alot of the Q3 stuff and other parts of the game. Details on that, sadly can't be talked about right now. But maybe I can put out some spoilers as I work on the UI editing parts with screen shots down the road.

But first on to step one, going to start tonight on that.

GUI, GUI, my kingdom for a GUI

2011-02-27T11:54:00.002-06:00

trying to get to the next step but as has been stated before, I am not a GUI type programmer. All my training has been for the CLI. So I am very fuzzy and hardpressed to make a nice GUI interface to change anything in the Q3. Looking into some options. Reading on QT4, I hate generic windows stuff but might have to step that way also. Problem I have is that every GUI solution I have found wants to take full control of the App by having the base derived from one of their classes. I am going to also look into IMGUI alittle more but with that I have to write it all myself (as it is more a concept then a library to use)

Part ways back

2011-02-20T14:45:00.001-06:00

Got my old development machine running again. But it has a few problems to work out yet. One of which is getting my VC6 set up for compiling code right. Still working on that part.

Linking

2011-02-18T01:51:00.002-06:00

Still working on how the UI links with the game itself. They have the messages, but it goes into other structures and calls and things. This will take some tracking on how the calls route so we can copy it for new things.

Messages from the other side.

2011-02-16T17:19:00.002-06:00

It will take little work to get the messages down also. The Q3 when you click on something, builds messages that is sent through an internal routing system to where it needs to go to tell a function to run, or to collect data needed to be displayed. It is a fairly large system, but it will crack in the near future (and be printed on paper to lay it's soul out for me to digest) mwuahha-ha-ha-ha.

QUIL

2011-02-16T05:00:00.002-06:00

I was hoping QUIL would be a nicer thing, but it looks like an assembler style opcode so far. Will have to write out the code and a dump of the interpreter to see how it reads it. Then see if we really will need this stuff, or if a Lua script would be better to embed in the game so we can make easier changes.

I am hoping for the Lua actually, it has other uses I hope for, including changing weapons and other parts so they fire Lua scripts so we can make it tighter in the code side, and easier to add new things. (farther down the road, sort of a pipe dream).

Right now the main thing is to get the QUIL figured out so we can add in new functions to the UI. So many things OP had that EAW doesn't so much, much to add back in .

grrr, again

2011-02-14T18:21:00.001-06:00

Was working at seeing what was needed to add plasma bolts to the game. I need alittle more study to add them. But will work on seeing what would be needed to add a panel for special sensors (besides some artwork that is).

The main thing is to see how it all works together so more can be added. The QUIL code stuff sucks still. It seems to be an op-code based language but I don't have the context yet (have to work through the interpreter and see how it loads and goes through it to get the formating and that sucks big ones). I am hoping that in general as we add new stuff that is similar to items already in the game, or copies of parts from OP, SFC3, or the original SFC I can just steal the QUIL from them and just reuse it.

moving along.

2011-02-14T14:27:00.003-06:00

Step I am working on is how does the Q3 link with the structures in the program? How is data passed, how to make it work so we can add in new functions. Like Special Sensors, or some things I have in mind also.

Still Sick

2011-02-11T04:40:00.002-06:00

Well, still coughing my butt off and feeling crappy in general. But slowly working through a few things. Rethinking how I wanted the editor to run (again). Will probably have to do a long sit down this week end and finalize it in my mind. But will work on a specific editor for the ship UI's while hacking down the final plan. (as the ship UI's is a big thing that will be needed)

Will have to look at how the UI's look in EAW (has been years since I played that one), and see what will be needed to make look right. Might spend my time intergrating the images from OP back into EAW.

Also the stuff I have been working on does work on the SFC3 Q3 file also, so might be able to get that look in the game also. May have to talk to a few people on where this should be heading.

argh

2011-02-10T05:37:00.000-06:00

Today will be a sick day, dang it. So probably not much will get done besides some sleep.

Still Plugging

2011-02-09T22:30:00.003-06:00

Okay, got it so they will write out the assets in a normal format. Will add other write commands in alittle bit to make it fit my intergrating format so we can have people edit the Q3 in pieces and have a central location to put it all back together.

I have it so it wrote out all the assets for the images, now to get alittle utility written to pack that with the images, rewrite the asset numbers, and make a reference table.

The a utility to walk the Q3 pulling out the trees of assets for each section (the named parts that are the scenes). Then probably pack the trees together logically so they can be edited together. (e.q. all tactical UI for Klingon would be either grouped into one file, or grouped in a subfolder)

first not so done

2011-02-09T00:21:00.003-06:00

Okay, little error(s) in the stuff I done. Nothing big overall. Had the wrong int size for the asset type (simple fix, just change it). But the second one I can't figure out yet. When getting the size of a string that should be 0, I get one. Not sure why.

*edit*
odd, I was putting in a NULL if the string was blank so it would be initialized at least. Seems that if you don't have any characters in the string, it counts the '\0' as a character. So that is fixed (at least in one location, have to change it each place I did that stupid thing).

first is done

2011-02-08T04:49:00.001-06:00

Okay, all assets are updated to work correctly. Now on to the disassemble of the Q3 into bite sized pieces. (and hoping to get over whatever is making me ill right now, grrr)

finishing up first part.

2011-02-07T16:36:00.002-06:00

going through and adding the code to mark each asset correctly when written out. The read code checks the asset type, but doesn't save it anywhere. So adding in alittle code to put back in the asset type in the file when writting to disk. It is simply putting in a little code at the beginning of each base asset but alittle digging for it.

After that then I will start on the code to rip the Q3's apart. Then on one that will put it back together so I can see if the Q3 still works after the take apart and rebuild. If all goes well, then I have to learn some more graphics coding to get the editor running.

Will see where this heads off into.

Slow weekend

2011-02-07T04:18:00.002-06:00

Well, not as far as I wanted, but weeked was brothers daughters b-day party (three day pool party), was sick (somewhat), and spent way to much time working on some syntactic sugar that just wouldn't sweeten up for me (so will continue with some ugly code).

So far got almost all the functions neater now and almost done with the mSave functions so it will write out to a file properly. Next is to start putting together some of the code to tear apart the Q3 into bitesized chunks for working on it. First is to pull all the images and assets that point to them into one file as a master that all the others will reference. This will be messy going, but once done it will make the editing easier for how I picture doing it.

Rework of editor idea and such

2011-02-04T01:20:00.002-06:00

Okay. Have been thinking on how would be best to edit a file that has in the ten's of thousand assets in it. I have decided to make a slight modification to the Q3 general format to allow me to pull apart the whole file and make subfiles of each tree of assets. They will all reference a central image file.

This way I can have a file that would be each ship UI in the game and hold all the information needed for that specific UI. The references to the central image file will be by image number and not by specific offsets as in the Q3 right now. This will allow images to change without having to worry about all the offsets of all images after it. Since when you write out a full intergrated Q3 file for use it will simply figure the offsets on the fly and insert them into the file as it is written out.

I am still kicking around an idea of a fully stand alone update format that can be integrated into the Q3 from stand alone editors that can be handed out to developers (like FoaS to make the UI's) These files would hold the new images in themselves, but reference the main image file for the images that are used in multiple UI's (like the image of a weapon point, or the shields).

This would allow the community to make updates to the Q3 with the stand alone editors and submit them. Then we can review them, make sure they look good and integrate them into the Q3 with minimum problems.

A full editor that can change anything in the whole Q3 will be worked on also, but will not be released to the general people (the first one might not also, have to kick the idea around to those in charge but who knows.) I am going to jump on modifying my reading and writing code to handle this edition to the data. This will mainly add the extra information to the parts needed and write a second set of read and write functions that use the different data so it will work.

The editor will be nasty to work with to start as I am learning the programming stuff needed to work with SDL/graphics and such as I go along. So start crude, and refine as I go along and learn more.

I am hoping to get the main functions modified before the weekend is over. This also might allow me to pull the Q3's of SFC, SFC:EAW, and SFC:OP apart and put together a new Q3 file using parts of each (with a probable need of updating images from the older stuff).

On to coding. . . .

wow.

2011-02-03T03:03:00.001-06:00

Going back into using SDL and doing some graphics. I have forgot a bit of this. But it shall come back to me as I move forward. Hopefully.

found flash

2011-02-02T02:47:00.001-06:00

I found my flash drive that has all the Q3 work I had done so far, so no need to try and necro my old computer yet. Going to copy it over and work on the graphics again. Then back to the fun of trying to get an editor started. This will be slow as I have never made a graphical editor before, only CLI ones.

step one

2011-02-01T07:04:00.000-06:00

Well, got the base done now. Can load in all the assets. Have to revive the dead machine long anough to pull some files off it. That way I can get the graphic stuff. But then again a rewrite might be in order.

way to long

2011-01-31T06:39:00.000-06:00

Well, still have a dead machine but back to work on this baby. I am on my fifth or so incarnation of how to read in the Q3 stuff. I am halfway through again and making sure it works with the EAW Q3. End of this week should have the reading in done. Then will have to work again on display. Then moving pieces/editing.

Power Supply go poof

2010-09-02T07:06:00.002-05:00

Well, wouldn't you know it, as I start to get going on things. My power supply on my desktop glitched. One of it's fans are dead, and it overheated on me. Not sure how bad it damaged it. But with it heating up now, it is not usable for development. I have all my programming IDE's up on that machine, so it kind of bites.

Will probably migrate stuff over to the wives laptop (argh, a Vista machine).

So the anouncement of a teaser was a teaser in itself. (as it delays everything for awhile) Hope things will work out alittle faster so I can get going on this again. Should be able to.

Little bit

2010-08-29T17:23:00.002-05:00

Okay got it so it will load up an image and hold it on screen. Also can pull up an asset by name. It doesn't all show up yet, but I can open the startup.q3, index it, then pull up the opening asset by name.

It still has to get the code added to make the ui buttons function at least to the amount that you highlight when going over them. Then will add in a scripting language (lua) to make the buttons do something. (mainly just make the quit button quit. But also have the buttons that pull up other sub menu's actually do that.

This is the first step to getting a personal UI system that will read the whole Q3. As I get to know how the buttons work I will get a better feel for the UI system in general. If I ever get to read the code this should have given me a good foundation to work with it.

My scripting language will be Lua not QUIL as I have no access yet to how QUIL actually works or looks like. But off to bed, have to work in a few hours. Night all.

Oh, after I get this up and running my son wants me to make a teaser, so maybe next week sometime I shall do that.

A funny thing about memory

2010-08-29T10:31:00.002-05:00

It is strange to go back over old code. To see what you were thinking at a specific spot in time. It is like a snapshot of a mindset. You can see how muddy the waters were, how much you have learned or forgotten from that point.

I am going back over some code that was in a folder Q3. (this under dev-c++, I was using three different compilers as I was working on this before). I was using the Setup.q3 from the CD. The initial install menu that comes up. I have to rework some of the code, but it loads all of it into memory and gets it ready to use for running the menu (without the actual function of installing). It will take alittle getting neatened up, and a few major changes on function but I hope to get a running simulation of that Q3 interface by tonight. Then it would be abit more work to expand out to make it work with the normal Q3. (will have to write UI scripts then)

Well, back to diddling.

a little time away

2010-08-28T22:42:00.002-05:00

Well, was working on the plans of a sailboat I am going to be building over the next year or so. So took some time working over plans that were designed back in 1880's Picked one out so ready on that part.

Also have been going back over old code I have written. I have forgotten abit of how to do SDL and OpenGL over the summer. So gettting back in the swing of it. I need to know this so I can write the editor. I am hoping to get back up to speed in not to long a time. Got to get a program started that will load a Q3 image and then move it around on screen with a mouse. Then will work on getting it to do more. Baby steps.

newlife?

2010-08-12T07:10:00.002-05:00

With anouncement on Dynaverse that maybe the development of SFC might start again, I have alittle more hope now.

So far I have been walking through the UI of the Mirak, getting about one little piece done a day. Still working on the top of the combat UI, did helm, engineering, science so far.

I am wondering if the combat interface is set in size from the images it uses, or the images are set by the size allocated by the interface. Logic says the first. If this is true, it might be possible to set up the side interface to be larger for higher resolutions. Will be looking into this as I move along.

working through assets

2010-08-09T08:15:00.003-05:00

mapping out the asset trees now so I know what will change what. I want to get down how the UI runs, before making much in changes to it. So far found something like 180 major layout assets (combination of ones that just hold the buttons for general use, and radio button ones).

Each of these hold usually 3 or more other assets (buttons, images). With each button holding around 3 images each. So to totally change the Mirak UI, will take hundreds of images (mostly the buttons because each, have a normal, selected, and highlighted image) As I figure out each section, I will see about posting the images that work with it, first will be the helm controls.

so far.

2010-08-05T07:38:00.002-05:00

Had a great idea last night, but checking it out today nixed it. I was thinking it might have been possible to add new races into the game after I get the hang of the race UI stuff. But from my research since I got back home, they use an enumerated type in the source for races, it is held in race.h (source code stuff so can't see it). So I was alittle let down this morning.

Bright side tho. I have gone through the 322 pages of the Mirak UI Q3 stuff. Took notes on the major assets (the ones that layout the basis of the screens, and hold the more detailed stuff in it). Now to go back through all 322 pages maybe two more times. Then match the assets to the images (find out how many images total are needed to change the UI). Then try and get it into a format so someone might be able to redo the UI's. Good thing is that every race has the UI done the same. So done once, it will work for all the races in case some tweaking is needed to images.

Rant first.

2010-08-05T07:32:00.002-05:00

A little rant, I got most out of my system at work last night. But I just have to say, I have little faith in leadership in XC. Been waiting forever for an update to see if ever SFC is going to be worked on. Or if it is to just be scrapped as Frey seems to like STO alot now.

Going into year two since the announcement of SFC4 being worked on and seems not a thing has been done. I understand that leader doesn't want to be in charge of the project, but if no one is stepping up, please just announce that it is on hold. Someone should be at least going through the source to get it ready for when something might be done.

I had offered to help out (twice). Work on organizing and documenting the code. So much could be done faster if only some of the "precious" code would find itself in willing hands. I could be a half year or more ahead of where I am now.

We need server code working, games running, or what is the use of doing anything for the game.

Ah, better.

more and more

2010-07-29T07:31:00.001-05:00

still going through the pages of information and trying to sort it out into a nice layout for me to work with. yea.

Images

2010-07-25T15:18:00.002-05:00

Going back through the images my first image puller did. Boy they are not that great. Will have to write the translator of images to go both ways to make better ones. I had one that translated from Q3 to BMP, but was done when I didn't fully understand the format. I have one that goes from 8bit BMP to Q3 (but has to have the BMP use a specific color table). Now to put them together, let the 8bit image use any 8bit table (grayscale tho), and then also a 16 bit color version (or 24 bit that only uses 16 number of colors). The 16 bit images use a 555 color format but I still don't understand how an image is figured out since they have no way of letting you know what format the colors are saved in on a BMP.

Then expand out to use other formats for the source images to Q3. Adding more shouldn't be that hard after the first code goes down.

Wow part two

2010-07-24T19:42:00.003-05:00

Okay, I think I have all Mirak stuff pulled aside, including ships and such. 345 pages of stuff (not including the actual image data). Will be going through slowly and putting together the tree's for how it works, then checking what images are used so they can be replaced. 'Tis alittle biger then I thought it would be.

Wow

2010-07-24T15:58:00.002-05:00

Page count is growing on how many is used for the Mirak UI. Went an bought some more ink to print out more of the pages. The more I look it just keeps going. Should have it mapped out in the next two days, then will look at what is needed to add the new images. Also might have found the part that controls the boarding parties stuff and see what is up with that.

The fun way to work

2010-07-21T06:46:00.002-05:00

As I go through and get the UI stuff out for the Mirak, I thought I might discuss the process of doing it. As I don't have any specific tools for working on the Q3, it is a fun little path to wonder.

First, I had extracted all the images from the file, with a so-so program I wrote. I didn't have the full format down at that time so some images are alittle funky. So for the Mirak UI, I started looking through all the images looking to see if I can find an image from the combat UI for the Mirak. I didn't find one as I paged through the few thousand images, but came across a Lyran image for the movement control (the one at the top of the UI). So I took note of the offset of the image, then opened up my sector editor (I love my sector editor) and did a search for the offset numbers. This would give me the asset that points to the image.

I then take the asset number off the image pointer, and do a search for a reference to that asset number (this is usually a search backwards through the file). When found, this will be the asset I need. Since this one is the Lyran and not the Mirak, I look at what it was named. It was LL_A3_HELM. So now I have the name for that part of the UI. The game uses the first two letters for the race, so for the Mirak it is ZZ_A3_HELM (yes, Mirak use ZZ since they are the Kzinti). So then I do a search for the new name of ZZ_A3_HELM. As the Q3 usually groups like parts togeather, I start looking down from there and when I don't see any references to ZZ anymore I cut the file off and print it out (I need to see it in copy to work on it as I can look at multiple pages at once this way)

Then I will build a table of what names and asset numbers are used for the UI (referencing back to the folder of images to see what each image being referenced is). After I get this table put togeather, then I will be able to change the images to new ones. By converting the images to the Q3 format, then manually coping chunks of the file to insert the new images at the end of the images in the Q3 (change the reference to where the images end and the assets start). Then edit every image asset so it points to the new images I just put in. (again by hand in the sector editor). If all goes well, after this is done, the Mirak will have a new interface. Might have to tweek some of the kerning on the font to make sure it fits in the spaces (kerning is the spacing on the font, you can move each phrase pixil by pixil up,down,right,or left as needed). Probably will end up with about a hundred things to change, but not sure yet. Have sixteen pages printed out and it isn't the whole Mirak interface yet.

Well, that is the fun I go through to do this, just to let you know why it takes alittle time.

A new start

2010-07-19T18:09:00.002-05:00

Now to lay out some direction.

First, what is known about the Q3.

I understand how the images are saved, they made a special format because Q3 seems to have been started in pre-directX times and they have written their own blitter function (how you put an image on the screen). This function doesn't support different screen sizes and just copies pixel for pixel. This means that as you increase screen resolution the images get smaller (as everyone has seen when playing with your screen size).

I have all the asset types broken out, but don't have an understanding of all the parts. Without the ability to view the source code, some parts will probably not ever be figured out (but I have alot of it down). Maybe someday.

The way that the UI runs is in QUIL (Quicksilver U.I. Language), so no new functionality can be added just moved and the images changed around. But ship UI's can be added as the way it is looked for is by searching the Q3 file for names that are gotten from the Shiplist.txt file. So yea, I can add a ship UI to the game (just haven't automated the process yet, and do it with a sector editor).

I can usually fix small errors in the Q3, have fixed an error with the Lyrans using fusion beams. Not sure where it is on the net now, Bonk made an updater that you just had to run and it would fix the Q3 file so Lyrans ran properly.

Two other errors have been brought up to me, an error with the Mirak that the speed bar doesn't work properly and hit and run raids (or something with the security guys have to read it again). Will work on these two as I can.

What I am doing.

I am to get the UI editor done sometime this year (programming skills is holding back quick development).

I am working on a text file based Q3 that will compile into the normal Q3. This will help in editing the file, for fixing errors and adding new ships. It will allow us to make a single text file for a new ship, then run the compiler and add it into the game. It is a work in progress, but an important one in the long run.

I am going to dig in the game and see if they have any parts of the old crew stuff still in the game. I am thinking they might have just cut out the button that let you access it, since fully removing it would take more work to remove the interlinking of how crew woked. So I am thinking they might have just put it in the background. It is a guess, and as time permits I will see if I can find any trace of it.

Someday, if I ever get access to the source, I hope to be able to add new functions to the game and it's UI. Not planning on much of this yet as I don't think the access part will happen and is a waste of thinking.

Kzinti UI

2010-07-18T16:13:00.000-05:00

Still working on pulling the Kzinti UI elements out so they can be changed to a nicer looking UI. Sadly I am not an artist so once they are pulled, not sure how quick a new UI will be done.

A dead end

2010-07-18T15:42:00.000-05:00

Was looking at finding where the Q3 data was to do the fleet formation stuff. Figured if I found it I could use the information to set other sideline information on wide format screens. Now even tho I found the images, I can't find the Q3 code that uses it so it must be hard coded in the game (which is why it works with the wide screen formats and the rest of the Q3 doesn't. It was a bummer moment.