Author Topic: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds  (Read 4285 times)

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Offline mjn.mixael

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[Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
So.. I'm looking for hopefully a quick and easy request. I'd like to be able to do per-mission briefing backgrounds (brief.ext and 2_brief.ext) very similar to per-mission loading screens.

The idea is partially motivated in that my briefing grid has slight color that matches the system most of the campaign takes place in... buuut sometimes it's different. I'd like to change that when I need to. The other part of the idea is to use the brief background to help immerse the player in current events of the upcoming mission.
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Offline jr2

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Heh, so if the ship you're stationed on has just been hammered, maybe you could have background lit by red emergency lights?  Or similar; not sure if you could go that far or not.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Yes, you can definitely do that. I mean.. it's just a static image, but you can do a lot with a little creativity. My other ideas were if it's just a surgical strike, you only need to show just like 4 pilots in the room. If it's a big operation, fill the room up with pilots.
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Offline Goober5000

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
I'll take a look over the weekend if someone doesn't get to it first.  It seems to me that this would be very easy - just adapt the loading screen code to a different bit of interface art.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Yup, that's what I'm hoping!
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Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
At a quick glance, it should be as simple as making brief_ui_init() (missionbrief.cpp:745) load something other than Brief_filename[gr_screen.res].
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(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
I suspect we're going to get requests for this to also happen for command brief, debrief and fiction viewer soon after this feature is done. So sticking this in a separate dialog and calling with a button from mission notes might be worth considering. Probably best to keep it with the briefing editor. 
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Offline Goober5000

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Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Wait, so what's the syntax and where in the file does it go?
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Offline Goober5000

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Immediately under the $start_briefing tag, add these lines, changing filenames as needed:

Code: [Select]
$background_640: image.png
$background_1024: 2_image.png

EDIT: Might as well upload some builds.  FRED is included so that you won't lose those lines when you load/save a mission.  It doesn't currently have dialog support.
http://staff.hard-light.net/goober5000/temp/pr_327.zip
« Last Edit: August 27, 2015, 12:53:27 am by Goober5000 »

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Having played around with this a bit, I found I could definitely make use of C.Brief, Debrief as well. Kara also suggestion Fiction Viewer (which I might actually use, too... unsure). Did you set this up with that functionality in mind? I thought you mentioned that on IRC.

And if I'm being really honest, I'd use something for Select Ship/Select Weapons, too. But I might be dreamin' too big there. It's all about immersion, man!
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Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Having played around with this a bit, I found I could definitely make use of C.Brief, Debrief as well. Kara also suggestion Fiction Viewer (which I might actually use, too... unsure). Did you set this up with that functionality in mind? I thought you mentioned that on IRC.
The supporting function was made with extending it to other sections in mind, but they still need the code added to have the options available.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
What AdmiralRalwood said.  Although I realized today that I should have made the save functions in FRED extensible in the same way I made the load function in FS2.  But that's not too hard to fix.

I figured the screens would mushroom like that.  What do we have - cbrief, debrief, ship select, weapon select, fiction viewer... any others?  That's six places (counting briefings).  That really is not hard to do in the FS2 source, but it would involve a bunch of annoying FRED dialog coding.  A bit less if we use karajorma's (pretty good) idea about making it a dialog you call from Mission Notes.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
I can't think of any others since we already have loading screens. And to be fair.. the cutscene stuff still doesn't have a FRED dialog, soooooooo :p
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Offline karajorma

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
I keep meaning to add one of those. I'll see about doing it as a testbed for getting used to git. It's probably a much better one than my sprawling SEXP containers code.
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Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Goober, any chance the rest of these can make the next release? They are the only feature BtA will use that's not in the release branch. Given that we are unbelievably close to release, I'd hate to have to cut the feature or wait for the following FSO release.
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Offline m!m

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
If that's the right pull request then it's already been merged: https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/pull/327

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
Yes and no. That's just briefings. I'm hoping to get the rest (command, fiction, ship select, weapon select, debrief) too.
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Offline Yarn

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
I think I can follow Goober's changes and implement this feature for all the briefing and debriefing screens.
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Offline Goober5000

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Re: [Request] Per-Mission Briefing Backgrounds
I've got code for the rest of the features in my working branch.  If Yarn hasn't posted a PR yet, I can put the finishing touches on it and make a PR.

(I would have done this before September 3rd but I ran out of time before vacation.)