Mod - mellowUI

[jeremyosborne]

I'm enjoying using this mod, so I thought I'd post it up for anyone, as well as open it up to comments and suggestions.

The screens demonstrate things better than I can describe them.
https://github.com/downloads/jeremyo...us_hotkeys.jpg
https://github.com/downloads/jeremyo...cterScreen.jpg
https://github.com/downloads/jeremyo...illsScreen.jpg

Working progress for this mod can be found at:

https://github.com/jeremyosborne/dinscurse-mods

Where to download: Either from this post or from the publicly available, i.e. no login required:
https://github.com/downloads/jeremyo...I_20110103.zip
If you also want the hotkeys addition, download and "install" the following file:
https://github.com/downloads/jeremyo...s_20101223.zip

To uninstall: If you happened to have used a previous mellowUI mod, make sure to delete it from your Assets directory before installing -- i.e. copying -- the new file into the Assets directory.

To install: drop the mellowUI_20110103.zip file in your assets directory of your game, which can be located in one of the following locations:
(Regular Install on Windows):
C:\Program Files\Din's Curse\Assets
(Regular Install on Windows Vista 64-bit):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Din's Curse\Assets
(Or something crazy like my computer, installed via Impulse):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Indie Games\Din's Curse\Assets

You can also install this into the new Expansion Assets folder, it doesn't make any difference.

From the readme:

mellowUI

Modifications for a mellower UI 
for the hack-n-slash RPG
Din's Curse
by Soldak Entertainment, Inc.
http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/

Play tested against:
    * version 1.010 of Din's Curse
    * Version 1.011 of Din's Curse
    * Beta release of Din's Curse: Demon war Expansion + 1.011 patch
    * Beta release of Din's Curse: Demon war Expansion + 1.012 patch

The purpose of this mod:
    1) To teach myself how to mod Din's Curse.
    2) To push the UI Heads Up Display pieces to the periphery.
    3) To remove onscreen UI buttons that I regularly use short 
       cut keys for.
    4) In general, tweaks and adjustments that let me view more of the
       game environment on my wide screen monitor (1600x900).

Caveats of this mod:
    1) This mod will probably conflict with your mod if you make any
       changes to the following mnu files in the UI folders:
       * character.mnu
       * chat.mnu
       * game.mnu
       * partyMemberN.mnu (where N is 1 through 10)
       * player.mnu
       * selectedEntity.mnu
       * skills.mnu
       * skillsSubmenu*.mnu
       I have yet to find a way to make sweeping changes to the UI
       without blatently overwritng the settings in the original assets
       folder. Consider yourself warned if you mix this mod with other
       UI changing mods.
    2) There is a known "stretch" of UI pieces that, when viewed on
       a widescreen monitor, take advantage of the IgnoreWidescreenCenter
       UI property. I have only seen UI images/textures and stat bars
       stretch, I have not seen any problem with font stretching.
       I personally prefer pushing the UI to the left and bottom edges
       of my screen and will put up with the stretch that happens.
    3) I'm selectively removing mouse over tooltips. If you are still
       getting comfortable with the controls and layout of the game,
       I do not suggest using this mod.

What this mod changes:
01/03/2011
   * Redid the skills selection (hotkey "S") screen: All three skill
     trees fit on one view. The skills were shrunk down to accomplish
     this.

12/30/2010
   * The string "XP Debt" is overlaid on top of the experience bar
     when we have XP Debt. I never could get the XP StatWidget to work
     the way I wanted it to.
   * Redid the Character view (hotkey "C") screen: all stats are
     displayed on a single screen.

12/23/2010 
   * Removed the money count from the in game screen. It's not volatile
     enough (IMHO) to display.
   * Moved the Experience and Experience debt counter right below the
     player stamina. Removed the actual widgets from the Game menu
     object and placed them in the Player menu object.
   * Moved the town attack icon to the right of the won game icon.
   * Remove most of the bottom bar UI backgrounds.
   * Push the text event control buttons farther down the screen.
   * Reposition the extra item/skill slots right above the main row
     of item/skill slots.
   * Slightly reposition the right-click skill slots.
   * Separate main (1-9) and extra use slots into their own menu
     objects/files. Allows for easier overriding of the use slots.
   
12/20/2010 
   * Prefixed all localization strings with "MellowUI".
   * Used the "addsTo" operator instead of the "overrides" operator for
     GameMenu properties added to the UISystem gdb object.
   * Slightly increased the size of the minimap.
   * Moved the Champion, Elite, etc. monster indicator to the left of
     the monster name in the selected view.

12/18/2010 
   * Fit 16 PartyMember status menus into the left hand screen margin.
     Helpful for conjurers.
   * Minify the "selected object/creature" display at the top center of
     the screen.

12/15/2010 
   * Removed many of the mouse over pop up windows.
   * Removed blinking for:
        - City saved
        - Skill points yet to spend
        - Attribute points yet to spend
        - Won Game icon (the crown icon)
    * On wide screen monitors, and somewhat on fullscreen monitors,
      pushes player and party stat bars farther to the left side of
      screen while shrinking their realestate.
    * Push the chat input bar farther down the screen, right above the
      bottom-of-the-screen UI.
    * Changed the chat prompt.
    * Moved the won game icon to the upper left, to the right of the
      player's pet stance icon.
    * Moved money and bag capacity counter out game_override.mnu and into
      the player_override.mnu file.
    * Turned right click slots into a horizontal layout, located
      right above the bag slots where the equipment status used to be.
      It's a bit ugly at the moment, but it opens up the lower right
      corner of the screen.
      The slot farthest to the left is the active slot, equivalent
      to the bottom slot in the vertical layout.
    * Removed the mini chat button, but kept the link to the hotkey
      command: enter still brings up the chat window.
    * Transposed the text event buttons into a horizontal layout located
      to the left of the chat input box. Removed the mouseover help
      on the buttons.
    * Minimap: Removed the border of the minimap. In town, this can
      make the minimap a little harder to see, but in the dungeon it
      works better in my opinion.
    * Player Stats: Removed outlines of start bars (health, power, stamina).
    * Player Stats: Smaller amount of real estate used for stats.
    * Player Stats: Stats do not display text popups when highlighted.
    * Player Stats: Stats don't blink.
    * Player Stats: Shifted stat bar items to account for the less 
      required real estate.
    * Player Stats: Removed the player name border.
    * Player Stats: Shows only player name, not title.
    * Player Stats: Left aligned player name with stats.
    * Player Stats: Removed click and mouseover commands from the stat bars.
    * Player Stats: Removed wide screen centering, positioned in upper
      left corner of wide screen monitor.
    * Player Stats: Moved the money (M:) and bag capacity (E:) to the 
      same line as the character name.
    * Player Stats: Location of player (town or dungeon level) is no
      longer displayed above the minimap, it is displayed right below
      the character name.
    * Lacky Stats: Removed outlines of health bars.
    * Lacky Stats: Pushed status boxes to the left side of screen.
    * Lacky stats: do not display text popups when highlighted.
    * Lacky stats: don't blink. For me, when death comes, it comes so 
      quickly in Din's Curse that I don't have time to react to a 
      blinking stat bar.
    * Lacky stats: Shrunk and shifted lacky stat bar items to use less 
      real estate.


Known Issues when using this mod:
    * The console command "reloadMenus" fails to resolve the
      internally referenced PartyMemberN::Container reference. If making
      changes, need to stop/restart the game to correctly reference.
    * It seems that IgnoreWidescreenCenter is not inherited in any way
      from ParentWidget relationships. Any widget that needs to be positioned
      relative to actual screen size must explicitly contain the
      IngoreWideScreenCenter property, and set the value of the prop
      to 1.


How to package and deploy the mod (assuming you don't have the 
zipped version already):
    * Package up folders into a zip file, but no other files.
    * Name the zip file whatever you want, but make sure that the
      contained folders are at the root of the zip file.
    * Place the folder in your Din's Curse/Assets directory.


Legalese:
I, Jeremy Osborne, assert that to the best of my knowledge, all 
modifications made herein are within the ground rules stated at:

http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/Mods.html

Further, to the extent that I have rights within the ground rules,
I wave all of my own rights over any modifications I make, and
make all of my modifications freely available to owners and users
of Soldak Entertainment products and anyone else legally allowed to use 
Din's Curse modifications.

[jeremyosborne]

The hotkeys addon is in the first post.

The hotkeys addon requires the mellowUI mod, mainly so things are positioned and referenced correctly. Don't try using the hotkeys addon by itself, as the menu references inside of the mods will probably not work.

Notes from the readme:

mellowUI Hotkeys

Hotkey additions to mellowUI
for the hack-n-slash RPG
Din's Curse
by Soldak Entertainment, Inc.
http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/


Play tested against:
    * version 1.010 of Din's Curse
    * Version 1.011 of Din's Curse
    * Beta release of Din's Curse: Demon war Expansion + 1.011 patch
    * Beta release of Din's Curse: Demon war Expansion + 1.012 patch
    and requires
    * mellowUI_20101223.zip or later


The purpose of this mod:
    1) To add some hardcoded hotkeys to the mellow UI interface,
       specifically for:
        * Toggling the extra set of use slots -> F11
        * Activating the extra use slots -> F1 through F10
          NOTE: The hot keys work ONLY WHEN the extra slots are
          visible on the screen.


Caveats of this mod:
    1) This mod requires the latest update of the mellowUI mod.
    2) This mod hardcodes event listeners to the Function keys F1-F11.
       If you want to use these keys for anything else, do not use
       this mod.
    3) Right now, I can only get the hotkeys for the extra item/skill
       slots to work when the slots themselves are shown on the screen.


What this mod changes:
12/23/2010
    * Overrides the UseSlotsExtra from the mellowUI mod.
    * Adds text indicating the hardcoded hot keys to the item slots.
    * Binds F1-F10 bound to the 10 extra item/skill slots.
    * Binds F11 to toggle the showing/hiding of the use slots.


How to package and deploy the mod (assuming you don't have the 
zipped version already):
    * Package up folders into a zip file, but no other files.
    * Name the zip file whatever you want, but make sure that the
      contained folders are at the root of the zip file.
    * Place the folder in your Din's Curse/Assets directory.


Legalese:
I, Jeremy Osborne, assert that to the best of my knowledge, all 
modifications made herein are within the ground rules stated at:

http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/Mods.html

Further, to the extent that I have rights within the ground rules,
I wave all of my own rights over any modifications I make, and
make all of my modifications freely available to owners and users
of Soldak Entertainment products and anyone else legally allowed to use 
Din's Curse modifications.

[jeremyosborne]

I just did an update to this minimalist UI mod. I realize that this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you are like me and you like to be able to see more in the available screen real estate, you might like this.

I had to shrink the skill tree icons down quite a bit to get them to all fit in a single menu view, but I prefer to see all three skill trees at once than have to flip between different views.

[Puce Moose]

Thanks for the work on this Jeremy; stripping out some screen clutter is a good idea. Do you happen to know if this is compatible with the demo version? I dropped that zip file in the Assets folder (which also contains assets001.zip and assets002.zip) but so far the changes have not taken hold. Do I need to start a new game, or is it likely that it's just not compatible with the demo version?

[jeremyosborne]

Originally Posted by Puce Moose

Do I need to start a new game, or is it likely that it's just not compatible with the demo version?

You know, I've never tried a mod with the demo game, and I'm not even sure mods are designed to work with the demo.

In terms of getting the mod to work with the regular distribution of the game, all I have ever needed to do is

• drop the mod in the assets folder
• if the game is currently running, stop the din's curse application
• restart din's curse

and the mod takes effect.

If you have restarted Din's Curse, there is a good chance that the demo:

• Doesn't allow for mods.
• Is based on an older version of Din's Curse (pre 1.010) that my mod doesn't work with.

[Shadow]

The demo doesn't allow mods.

[Evander]

Hi Jeremy,

I am making my own version of UI mod, something similar to yours.

Three questions:
- is this 10:07 on screen a clock? how did you managed to move it? I can't seem to find a reference to clock in any file so far.
- can I incorporate your hotkeys? They look quite awesome.
- do you have any idea if just calling in a player level to show (numbers) on regular UI is possible?

[jeremyosborne]

Hi Evander,

Feel free to use any/all of my code here:

https://github.com/jeremyosborne/dinscurse-mods

Now for your questions:

Originally Posted by Evander

- is this 10:07 on screen a clock? how did you managed to move it? I can't seem to find a reference to clock in any file so far.

It is a clock. The code that I used to move the clock around is the following is in the following file:

https://github.com/jeremyosborne/din...I/UI/clock.mnu

Just an FYI: you'll need to do what's called an "addsTo" everytime you add new UI widgets that are supposed to be on as soon as the screen comes up. Check out:

https://github.com/jeremyosborne/din...enuChanges.gdb

Originally Posted by Evander

- can I incorporate your hotkeys? They look quite awesome.

Of course. The code for the hot keys is here:

https://github.com/jeremyosborne/din...llowUI_hotkeys

Reminder: The hotkeys are hackish, hardcoded, but totally effective. I haven't been around for awhile (you know, that busy job stuff) so please check and see if Shadow hasn't updated the hotkeys. He might have added that in with some of the more current patches.

Originally Posted by Evander

- do you have any idea if just calling in a player level to show (numbers) on regular UI is possible?

Yes, I did that. The following code that I used to just get the character level as a number can be found here:

https://github.com/jeremyosborne/din...r_override.mnu

And I believe this is the block of code to make the experience level as a number appear:

Widget
{
position 175.0 255.0
size 50.0 15.0

textSource PlayerLevel
//entityType PlayerClient
//stat Normal PlayerLevel
font SmallDefault

highlightBackgroundAlpha 1.0
internalName MellowUIExperience
}

Hope this helps

[Evander]

Hi Jeremy!

Thanks for all the answers They are very helpful!

[Evander]

I'm posting in this topic, to avoid creating a new one, so these questions are to all who know the answers

My gui mod is taking shape, as you can see on these screenshots:
http://img861.imageshack.us/i/newui1.jpg/
http://img651.imageshack.us/i/newui2expanded.jpg/

However, there are some issues:
- empty UseSlots have black, non-transparent background. There seem to be no way to override that. Is this hardcoded?
- skill icons have golden borders around them. Is there a way to change that?

Also, to Jeremy:
I noticed that you use IgnoreWidescreenCenter 1 for some purposes.
I have checked this, and you can use negative numbers to move things far to the left, and coordinates bigger than 640 for moving things to the right side.

While it won't work with 4:3 displays, a 16:9 specific version of gui mod can be made