Need some help on building a Main Menu.

[Gigafrost]

Greetings... I was wondering if i can get some help in learning how to create custom menus and buttons for RA2? Kind of simular to what you guys did for DSL and its previous versions. I'd really appreciate it.
 
P.S. I think I also placed this thread in the wrong section... Apologies.

[DuckRA2]

I know how to make different backgrounds for the main menu, bot lab and team hq, Ill try to find the GIB file that allows you to do that

[Madiaba]

Gig, here's what I do know you can do:
-reskin buttons and surrounding peripherals (as Duck mentioned)
-sometimes you can add a button to activate/command; but this depends upon the gib.
 
On my "Custom Practice" arena, Trov and I hacked through the gib/python coding to make additional buttons to operate the mean 'Vista Killer-Computer' in the corner under the ramp (which activate and set power levels).
We then decided to try to make another button in the bot lab so that there could be 2 different practice arenas to choose from for testing one's bot,... but we could not make another button work cause the exe did/would not recognize it. And other than a few addresses, we had no schematic to know how everything was linked either.
But there is a way to randomly change the lab's test/practice arena into other arenas besides the original 'practice arena'. It could be any other arena you want (as long as the cams line up ok). If you wanted several arenas, then they could only be random, and not User chosen.
 
So to answer your question about 'additional' buttons/menus, I would say it depends where you want one, and to do what...
 
..

[DuckRA2]

Gig, here's what I do know you can do:
-reskin buttons and surrounding peripherals (as Duck mentioned)
..

not just reskinning, making a seperate background for each menu (I want to say each level or room but that just doesn't sound right)

[Trovaner]

I'd be willing to show you how to add buttons and other moving/stationary graphics using .gibs but as Madiaba said, it might not be easy to make them do something. I think it really depends on what you want to add. Anyways, if I can be of any help, feel free to contact me on MSN.

[DuckRA2]

to make seperate backgrounds for menus, just make another bmp of the cement_background size that you want to be seen, for example keep the one in the bot lab and change the main menu one, you would do this in the mainmenu.gib


[Image]
_Tiling false
_Filename \common\yourbackgroundname.bmp
_BufferWidth 0 0 0 0



used to be


[Image]
_Tiling false
_Filename \common\cement_background.bmp
_BufferWidth 0 0 0 0

[Clickbeetle]

Basically it's just recognizing the images, then moving them around and/or changing them.

For an example, this is the Options button on the DSL main menu (in mainmenu.gib).

[Group]  (Most images are embedded in groups.  Think like tables in HTML.)
ReportedPos 0.5 1 1.08 1
Alignment 34
AspectSetting 0
AspectRatio 0
PassMouse true
Notes
Name common buts
ID -1
Position 0.5 1 1.08 1  (This is the position of the group.  Usually this is what you need to edit to move the images.  The first and third numbers are the x,y positions, and the second and fourth numbers are either 0 or 1.  0 means the position is a pixel number, and 1 means it is a percentage of the screen size (or group if it is nested in another group))
Size 398 0 64 0  (This is the area of the group.  Nothing in the group outside this area will be visible.  The format is just like the Position.)
Visible true
ChildOrder 4
ClipMode 1
NumChildren 1
[Group]  (Another nested group.  You need to pay attention to groups so you edit the right positions.)
ReportedPos 0 0 0 0
Alignment 0
AspectSetting 0
AspectRatio 0
PassMouse true
Notes
Name gray grp
ID -1
Position 0 0 0 0
Size 396 0 60 0
Visible true
ChildOrder -1
ClipMode 1
NumChildren 8
[Caption]
Caption true 0
Widget true
[Border]
Width 0
Inner 0 0 0 0
Outer 0 0 0 0
Widget true
[Button]
RepeatRate 0
RepeatDelay 0.4
OnClick false
StateImage 0 true 0
StateImage 1 true 1
StateImage 2 true 2
StateImage 3 true 3  (There are four images associated with buttons that are used when the mouse hovers, when the button is clicked, and when it is enabled/disabled.)
PassMouse true
Notes click to bring up options dialog
Name Options button
ID -1
Position 0 0 4 0  (Here are the button's position and size within the group.)
Size 147 0 60 0
Visible true
ChildOrder -1
ClipMode 1
NumChildren 4
[Image]
_Tiling false
_Filename .\mainmenu\b_options.tga  (If no filename is specified, the image will just be a solid-color box.  This is used to make the orange highlights on the DSL main menu.)
_BufferWidth 0 0 0 0
_Size 147 0 60 0  (The image size should be the same as the button.)
_Alpha true  (This needs to be true if you're using tga's with transparency.)
_Filtering 0
_ForeColor 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9  (The first three numbers are the percent of red, green, and blue in the image.  1,1,1 will make it appear normal.  The last number is the opacity.)
_Name
_Position 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1
Name
ID -1
Position 0 0 0 0
Size 1 1 1 1
Visible true
ChildOrder 0
ClipMode 0
NumChildren 0
[Image]
and so on...

[man manu]

You want to build a me?

[Gigafrost]

Oh OK. Thanks guy for the help. I was asking this because I'm basically trying to create a brand new menu that's different than the standard one. I'm mostly referring to the menu that DSL had which consisted of all those gears and parts (the first DSL I think), and if possible, a new practice arena.
 
@Mad- Now that you mention it, would it be possible to create a set of buttons for each arena? Maybe not, but I was wondering if in the practice arena, you would be able to switch to different arenas by a click of a button.

@Click- OK I'll look into it, thanks.