Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Fineus on September 17, 2003, 04:19:20 am

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: Fineus on September 17, 2003, 04:19:20 am

In this thread:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,17486.msg335826.html#msg335826


LAW ENFORCER, mentioned his hate of command lines. I'm inclined to agree with him and that got me thinking about another option. How about this?

A separate program and .INI file. The program has a list of check boxes down one side of it with the various options that can be activated / deactivated. If two options conflict (say, cell shading and specular mapping - which don't go together) then if one was toggles then the other would be greyed out.

At the top of the program, two buttons - "Commit" and "Discard". Commit saves the changes to a .INI file and closes the program. Discard just closes the program without saving anything.

On starting up FS2, the .INI file is referenced to see what options are selected by the individual. Basically this is a nice GUI for creating the command line strings - you can keep them if you like, but the average man doesn't need to see or grasp them to be able to turn things on and off easily - and the process of turning all SCP changes on and off is only a few button clicks away (as is turning the whole lot on).

What do you guys think? Waste of time or something for the future for those who don't know to much about changing any options - let alone command line strings?

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: RandomTiger on September 17, 2003, 05:25:37 am

My launcher has some of this functionality.
It has a list of checkboxes that relate to command line options.
These options are stored and reloaded when you next load the launcher.

If someone could give me an up todate list of all the commands it would be more useful.

Would be nice to have them in a proper ini file but you'll have to find someone who's willing to program / intergate an ini parser when theres far more interesting things to do. Warning parsers are fairly boring and can cause huge problems if theres even a tiny mistake in them.

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: karajorma on September 17, 2003, 05:48:52 am

The second I saw this topic I thought RT's launcher was exactly the place this should go.

My only comment is that the important options should go at the top of the list rather than making the user scroll through all the others to get to them.

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: Fineus on September 17, 2003, 05:58:04 am

Fine by me - whats important (to me) is that it's there. I leave the details to you coding geniuses out there, heck you can break it down into menus, drop down bars and god knows what else if you really want.

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: RandomTiger on September 17, 2003, 05:58:28 am

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma

My only comment is that the important options should go at the top of the list rather than making the user scroll through all the others to get to them.

If someone gives me the list ordered by importance I;ll get onto it

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: Fineus on September 17, 2003, 06:05:08 am

Out of interest - do you guys plan on doing this as changes are made - or compiling it along with the release build every time that's finalised?

I think the second would be easier is all, certainly more straight forward than having dozens of editions with only one change made floating around...

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: J.F.K. on September 17, 2003, 06:20:42 am

:yes: Once I get my new computer, which will hopefully be able to run this beast, this will definitely be useful to me. ;)

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: bottomfan on September 17, 2003, 07:26:37 am

Quote

Originally posted by RandomTiger


If someone gives me the list ordered by importance I;ll get onto it

RT: when you get it, forward it to me would you?:D

Title: An easier way to activate / deactivate SCP changes.
Post by: Inquisitor on September 18, 2003, 08:52:45 am

bottom: how IS the new readme coming?