DITL, DLOG question

Right. I shouldn't even be editing those resources!

Is there code built into the game somewhere that blacks in the backgrounds of dialog boxes? I've been playing with the DITLs, assigning custom colors and PICTs, but they (mostly) don't display in-game.

p.s. 8100 nuBus Mac optimized for music software -- not going to be running Nova on this one, not any time soon. :frown:

------------------
You see a Grue.

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**
**

Very odd. The custom graphic I put into the spaceport bar displays momentarily under the pop-up from the Confed Navy cargo mission offer. When that is clicked away and the bar proper displays, the custom graphic vanishes behind black fill.

Which suggests there is something deep in the game engine doing this. I know the methodology works, as I altered some other dialog box graphics and monkeyed around changing the dialog boxes of a different program.

Okay, this must be one of those Matt Burch questions...

------------------
You see a Grue.

Only engine-defined user items work; you can't display a permenant PICT in the DITL.

You can, however, modify the appropriate background image to include your new PICT. It will display underneath the engine specified "user items", but should work otherwise. The background images are PICT IDs 85xx.

-reg

------------------
"Oh crap. I'm going to hell - I put the Bible next to Mein Kampf again."
-Her Holiness, Pope Jenne "Kirby" Hubbs

(This message has been edited by Regulus (edited 04-08-2002).)

Well, I haven't played with Nova yet and probably won't be for a while, but since you're using EV/O this'll work.

If you've ever noticed the Wormhole, Requisition Escort, and Buy a Drink buttons, which I'm sure you've had, I've found that at least Buy a Drink is actually in the game (just not functional). You can find it if you enlarge the bar DITL; I do that, then resize the bar back to its proper size. What I've successfully done is create a new button graphic for Buy a Drink (you can even change its size as long as the user item is also resized, unless you like having your picture stretched), then make that button within the dialog box so it's visible. It's useless, but neat like the news messages are.

I hope this is what you're looking for.

------------------
Mike Lee (Firebird)

Quote

Originally posted by Regulus:
**Only engine-defined user items work; you can't display a permenant PICT in the DITL.

You can, however, modify the appropriate background image to include your new PICT. It will display underneath the engine specified "user items", but should work otherwise. The background images are PICT IDs 85xx.

-reg

**

Not quite following you, sorry. There are no PICTS in the ID# series 85xx currently in the EVO files.

Tried Firebird's suggestion and it worked fine for that simpler task. I now have (or can have) a custom graphic of my own as part of the Bar. Generic, of course; no way of patching it to a specific spob! But it does add a nice custom touch.

Would be most lovely if there was such a thing as an image that appeared behind the engine specified items. So far, that has not been possible. Not even changing the window color (through adjusting the DLOG) seems to work in EVO. (Just to make sure I understood the resource, I turned all the dialog boxes of "Guru" into pastel colors.)

I may have a work-around for what I was hoping to do, however. Which is; making small buttons on large backgrounds that tile seamlessly to each other. Then in ResEdit, adjust the DITL so the custom buttons are touching. For at least the area covered by button, there will now be what appears to be a background graphic.

------------------
You see a Grue.

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
There are no PICTS in the ID# series 85xx currently in the EVO files.

Ah. I was talking about Nova. My bad.

-reg

------------------
"Oh crap. I'm going to hell - I put the Bible next to Mein Kampf again."
-Her Holiness, Pope Jenne "Kirby" Hubbs