Minimal HUD mod

[Davinci]

Thanks, Davinci. Those data rows are already gone from my gui.csv. I only have about 300 rows left, none that could be placing those 4 buttons. It's weird...

I think that that is where the problem is, if You delete those lines the Game will "Load" the default lines.

The Game is designed to Edit the lines of your choose while still Loading the Lines that haven't been changed.

Add those lines back into your Mod, and then "Edit" out those "Four Entries" in "Column T" and in " Column V"

Now, this is Only a guess on My part, so it might work, and it might not work. But it is still worth trying.

davinci

[Interlocutor]

Hmmm. Hadn't thought of that, thanks.

I'll try it tomorrow. About to shut down the PC for the night and relax B) ...

[Interlocutor]

Okay, back to work on this.

Saddletank - Yes, one can make the compass, or indeed any of the graphics, transparent. Below is a screenshot of the current state of the "Minimal HUD" mod with the compass "transparency setting" adjusted to 100 out of 255, where a setting of zero would be invisible, and 255 would be fully opaque, the stock setting.

I haven't yet edited out the range & target info in the upper left, but I'll do that today. As for the various bits of unit info, for now I'm going with most of it, but I agree with your observation that much of it could well be eliminated. I find I do like to see it superimposed on the battlefield, rather than having to go to the OOB screen, but others might not.

Which brings me to a question for you and Davinci, since you two have been very helpful with this project. Do you think others might be interested in this mod? I suspect that I'm in a very small minority in my desire to play without the toolbar in what I might call "extreme HITS mode" . I'd be happy to produce "custom" variants of this kind of thing for those who might want, say, a non-transparent compass, or no unit info in the HUD, or some such, so long as there weren't hundreds of variants :blink: . Let me know what you think.

Davinci - The thing you pointed out to me, about the game "loading default lines" in gui.csv, is intriguing. Where does the game get these default lines? Can that source be edited?

At any rate, I'm now going to fix Saddletank's "radar" issue in the mod, then try your suggestion about copying those rows back into gui.csv and zeroing out specific cells rather than deleting entire rows, as I'd done so far.

This is fun!

The attachment MinimalHUD01.jpg is no longer available

[Davinci]

Do you think others might be interested in this mod?

I would concentrate on getting it the way that you like and or want it, and if someone else wanted it after that you can always post it.

Davinci - The thing you pointed out to me, about the game "loading default lines" in gui.csv, is intriguing. Where does the game get these default lines? Can that source be edited?

As far as I know, they are "HardCoded" into the game. I think that this is why the Game will work without a "Logistics's -Folder" being Installed.
The old way or the previous game didn't have this feature, which meant that too many of the wrong edits could crash the game. This way is much better, the "Modded" files don't affect the other files.

At any rate, I'm now going to fix Saddletank's "radar" issue in the mod.

If you mean the Yellow-Display in the top left hand corner, I keep mine on so that I can monitor the FPS in the game.

This is fun!

Welcome to Modding - The ability to spend eight hours modding something only to spend ten hours un-doing everything that you Modded.

davinci

[Saddletank]

The radar is just a toggle in the games main options screen. Just uncheck the box.

As DV says, get the mod working how you like it and if there is interest, post it up. I like the idea of a completely uncluttered screen very much but also prefer toolbar buttons to hotkeys for many game functions so it wouldn't work for me and I think it'd be rude for a community member to ask another to make a mod like this that fits their specific preferences.

[Interlocutor]

The "Minimal HUD" mod is now at the point where I'm happy with it, thanks to the advice and encouragement offered by Davinci and Saddletank.

Davinci - I've not been able to get rid of the tooltips for those four furshlugginger buttons, but they're pretty unobtrusive, so for now at least, I'll just live with them.

Saddletank - I'd completely forgotten that the "radar" you mentioned was controlled by an options toggle . I guess I can stop puzzling about how to "fix" it...

And you haven't asked me to make a mod for you. I'm offering to do it, both as a learning tool for myself, and as a fun exercise. Let me know if you're interested.

[Davinci]

Davinci - I've not been able to get rid of the tooltips for those four furshlugginger buttons, but they're pretty unobtrusive, so for now at least, I'll just live with them.

Depending on which side you are playing you might have to edit both sets of lines....
GUI_CS_Friendly
GUI_US_Friendly
Those are the only lines that I can see that calls those four buttons to be displayed.

And you haven't asked me to make a mod for you. I'm offering to do it, both as a learning tool for myself, and as a fun exercise. Let me know if you're interested.

I think that "Tank" was saying that it would be "Rude" if a forum Member asked "You" or anyone for that matter to make a "Personal Mod" that not too many others would enjoy!

Most of the Members that comment in the "Modifications Section" are probably Modders!

davinci

[Interlocutor]

Davinci - That did it! When I first tested your suggestion about those four tooltips the other day, I changed only the Union set, then started a scenario as a Confederate.

Today, after your latest advice, I did both, and voila! No more tooltips! Again, thanks very much for your help with this project.

I hope I didn't offend Saddletank by persisting with my offer to do a Saddletank-specific "minimal HUD" for him. I'm just grateful to him for his interest and encouragement. Also, as I understand it we can each play in MP with entirely different HUD setups, so no one else would be required to use the same HUD any individual player chose to use.

Anyway, my "buttonless" minimal HUD is now done to my satisfaction, thanks to you & Saddletank. If there's interest from others, I'd be happy to make it available. How would I do that?

[Davinci]

I did both, and voila! No more tooltips!

Great, Modding does get sort of tricky at times but if you keep at it eventually you will overcome almost any problem that you encounter.

If there's interest from others, I'd be happy to make it available. How would I do that?

Well, since you are the one that started this Topic you can change the Topic's Name to something like "Minimal Toolbar Mod - Available" or something similar.

Then "Edit" the "First Post" to include a picture of the Mod so that everyone doesn't have to read the all of the comments.

You could also include a picture in the first post.

Since the only two files that are in the Mod are the "gui.csv" and the "guitext.csv" you would make a folder called "Logistics" and then Drag both of those files into it.

Then Create another Folder and call it "Minimal Hud" and then drag the "Logistics " folder that you just created into it.

Then, Zip or Compress it and include it at the bottom of the first post since it won't be that large

*** The only downside to this is that you have edited the "gui.csv" file so anyone using this Mod can't use another Mod that has that file included with it, since it might make some of those buttons reappear.

But, Modding is all about "Giving and Taking".....

davinci

[Interlocutor]

Thanks, Davinci.

Actually, the mod changes five files. Plus, I also made changes to "keyboard.csv".

It has a "Graphics/ToolBar" folder which contains modified versions of "buttons.dds" and of "toolbar.dds".

Then in the "Logistics" folder, it contains not only the modified versions of "gui.csv" and "guitext.csv", but of "courier.csv" as well. I used MTG's version of "courier.csv" as my starting point, and simply added four more commands to it, things that were formerly useable only via toolbar buttons.

I've been playtesting the mod, and using MTG's "Couriers and Maps" mod along with it, with "Minimal HUD" lower in the "Modifications" list so that it loads last. Everything has worked fine, even though "Couriers and Maps" also edits both "courier.csv" and "gui.csv".

The changes I made to "keyboard.csv" were mostly to include certain commands on the keyboard, since the mod won't allow access to any toolbar buttons. I've also included a modified "Keyboard Controls" jpeg file to illustrate and describe the additional keys.

I'll be playtesting some more over the next week or so. If all seems well, I'll follow the process you described and make it available to any others who might want to try it. I've written a fairly comprehensive "Intro.txt" file to accompany the mod as well.

Thanks again for all your help!