Thoughts on the DITL resource

...and how to eliminate buttons entirely

Unfortunately, I reformatted my computer, and the register app can't renew my license code (what the hell is error -1701?), so this is 100% untested due to an unregistered copy of Nova.

Now to the point of this. With new tools like MissionComputer, it is possible to gain much greater control over the order of controls in a DITL resource. Because these are not referenced by actual IDs but rather by an assigned ID based on the order they are listed in the DITL resource, deleting even one control (except the last one) will mess with every following control. This is obviously a Bad Thing. The question is: how can we delete an control from a DITL resource without interfering with the controls following it?

The answer may be simpler than we think: don't.

In theory, by changing the type of control from "user item" to, say, picture or text box, will cause the game not to fill its contents, so to speak. This will hopefully force the game to not create a button, or list, or text box, or whatever it is you want gone. There are a few questions, however, which I call upon the developers to test until Charlene changes the email assigned to my copy of Nova:

1. How will the engine respond? Will it react gracefully and simply ignore the missing button, or will it crash? Is this behavior consistent between the two versions, considering that the Windows version is known to be much more fragile regarding invalid data?
2. Assuming Nova doesn't choke, does it work? Does Nova still "fill" the control, or does it leave it? Is it even possible to "fill" a control other than a user item?
3. Assuming the control doesn't work, do keys still work? Will S still open the shipyard, O the outfitter, etc.? This really is the main point of the entire idea, and if they still work, it only serves as an alternative to an existing method (moving the control outside the window's bounds) which works identically well, or better if this method doesn't actually work.

This post has been edited by orcaloverbri9 : 27 June 2007 - 11:19 PM

I have messed around with similar experiments in Nova before and IIRC, changing the type of an item has no effect. (I was trying to add additional items or replace an existing one with something else, like a time control so you can see the time in-game).

This post has been edited by Guy : 27 June 2007 - 11:32 PM

@guy, on Jun 28 2007, 12:29 AM, said in Thoughts on the DITL resource:

I have messed around with similar experiments in Nova before and IIRC, changing the type of an item has no effect. (I was trying to add additional items or replace an existing one with something else, like a time control so you can see the time in-game).

Hmm. Ah well.