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Mod Users
Q. Help! I can't move my windows :(
A.
- You can move all windows by going into Main Menu -> Settings -> Interface and ticking Layout Mode.
Q. How do you download and install a UI Mod?
A.
- Most mod developers provide a zip, or rar file in the downloads section of this site.
- You can browse through the Mods, and their screen shots.
- When you find one you want to try out, click the Download button.
- When it's done downloading you'll be able to open it.
- Copy the directory included in the zip to your c:\Program Files\Sony\Vanguard\VGUIAssets\Shells folder.
- Open the c:\Program Files\Sony\Vanguard\bin\vgclient.ini file in a text editor (notepad is fine).
- In the [UI] section change the shellname to "ShellName=ModFolderName" where ModFolderName is the name of the folder that was in the zip file.
- NOTE: You can only download one file every 60 seconds.
- Restart Vanguard and if anything goes wrong at this point or after a subsequent game patch, all you need to do is change the ShellName back to "default".
Q. How do you use different parts of multiple UI mods?
A.
- This takes a little more work and also depends on how the mod developer organized their windows and files. The basic steps go something like this:
- Create a new sub-folder in the Shells folder (we'll call it MyShell).
- Create a Textures sub-folder and a Windows sub-folder in the new one.
- Copy all the .tga and .xml files found in the Textures folders for each mod you want to take stuff from.
- Copy the SkinInfo.xml file from one of the mods to your MyShell folder.
- Edit the SkinInfo.xml file and find the following section <AnimationDefinitions directory="Textures"> there will be at least two of these AnimationDefinitions, one for the default textures (../Default/Textures) and one for the mod's textures.
- Add additional <AnimationDefinition filename="ModParts.xml"/> lines for each texture xml file as need for each .xml file in your Textures folder.
- Copy the all the .xml files from each of the mods Windows folders into the Windows folder in MyShell.
- Edit the Index.xml file (this is the tricky part)
- You'll need to find the <SystemWindows directory="Windows"> section. Here you will want to add the filenames for the mod parts you want to use. If any of those parts replace default windows, then you'll need to make sure the default file for those windows is commented out or removed in the <SystemWindows directory="../Default/Windows"> section. To comment out a line add a at the end of the line.
- You'll need to do the same thing now for <GameplayWindows directory="Windows">.
- You can have multiple mods versions of xml files (as long as they have different names) in the Windows folder. The only ones that get loaded are those you put into the previous two edited sections of the Index.xml file.
- Save and close everything and then edit your vgclient.ini file and change the ShellName to MyShell or whatever folder name you used.
- Start Vanguard and hope it all works... Seriously though, you will likely have some duplicate or missing windows because developers put multiple windows in each xml file. It's not their fault though, that's how the default ui is built and in some cases windows don't work if not in the same xml file as another window. If you have trouble you may need to do a bit more editing work inside each of the xml files.
Q. I set my shell= in vgclient.ini as per instructed but it still loads the default UI?
A.
- Search your entire computer for vgclient.ini, some people dont have premission to write to a file in programfiles, so it stores the real vgclient.ini etc in mydocuments. Find it there and edit that vgclient.ini file.
Q. I installed a custom UI and it worked fine until I logged back in later and it was back to the default UI. What gives?
A.
- If you crash to desktop, make sure you say "No" to the question if you want to revert back to default settings. That will set you back to the default vgclient.ini, thus the new shell= wont be there.
Q. How can I scale my UI and Fonts?
A.
- Please note: These currently do not save on relog, so you will need todo this each time you login.
- Until someone does build a UI to fit it, you can try using these slash commands in game to scale your interface to fit. As far as I know, these commands only work on individual windows (not the whole UI at once) at this time.
- FORMAT: /uidrawscale <number> Sets the overall UI scale. /uidrawscale <float> - 1 = screen resolution, warning: 0.5 is very small, 1.5 is very big.
- FORMAT: /uifontscale <number> Scales the fonts for all windows to the size specified.
- FORMAT: /uiscaleall <number> Scales the user interface and fonts to the size specified.
- FORMAT: /uiwinfontscale <number> Scales the fonts of the current window (the one your mouse is over) to the size specified.
- FORMAT: /uiwinscale <number> Scales the user interface windows to the size specified.
Mod Developers
Q. How do these .tga graphics files work?
A.
- I'm no expert on graphics, but I've been able to figure out enough to be dangerous. Perhaps someone more skilled in this area will expand on this answer.
- First, you need a program to edit the files that can handle tga files with alpha channel support. Photoshop would work if you have it. If not, then you can do like I do and use the open-source graphics editing program called Gimp. It's not as easy to work with as Photoshop but it does have most of the features and it's free.
- Next, copy one of the VgrdParts.tga and it's VgrdParts.xml files to your own Textures folder and rename them. This will give you something to start from and will make sure you have the right file format to begin with.
- Open up the tga and select everything you don't want and remove them. In Gimp it's a ctrl-K to remove graphics. You'll see a white and grey checker board pattern for parts of the tga file that are "invisible". Now you can copy elements from other tga files and paste them into your new tga file and then edit as needed.
- Now that you've got some graphics in your tga file you need to make them available to the windows to place in the UI. To do this you need to edit the associated xml file. To start from scratch, open the copied xml file and remove all of the AnimationInfo blocks. Then for each element you want to make available create a new AnimationInfo block for each like this.
Code:
<AnimationInfo name="WhiteCon">
<AnimationFrame tick="1000">
<Rect x="72" y="61" width="20" height="30" />
<TextureName>DroxParts.tga</TextureName>
<HotSpot><Point x="0" y="0" /></HotSpot>
<Offset><Point x="0" y="0" /></Offset>
</AnimationFrame>
</AnimationInfo>
- For each element change the x and y to be the upper left corner of your image part and then adjust the width and height as well.
- Before you close the xml file change the SkinAssets name to your mod name (any unique name works really).
- To reference your new image part, you'll need to concatenate the SkinAssets name with the AnimationInfo name. So if your SkinAssets is Drox and your AnimationInfo is WhiteCon, the name will be DroxWhiteCon in your windows xml files.
Q. How do I make partially transparent images within the tga file itself?
A.
- The answer is largely dependent on the graphics program and their are multiple ways within each program to accomplish this goal. Here I'll give one example approach using the Gimp graphics editor.
- The easiest way is to select your image using whatever means you like and then copy it to the clipboard (ctrl-c). Next paste it back as a new floating layer (ctrl-v). Now drag that to an empty area of your tga file but leave it selected. Switch to the gimp layers window and you'll see the floating layer at the top of the list. Most likely you'll only have it and a background layer. Select the floating layer and then use the opacity slider just above the list of layers and slide it to the left. The further to the left you go the more transparent the layer will become.
Q. How do I make a solid graphic partially transparent in the windows xml file?
A.
- To adjust the opacity (or transparency) of an image you use the globalOpacity setting. Smaller numbers make the graphic more transparent and the max value of 255 means the graphic is not transparent at all (unless the graphic in the tga file is already transparent itself). Here's an example:
Code:
<UseControl type="StaticWindow">
<StaticWindow pictureMode="true" textData="Icon">
<Rect x="4" y="3" width="34" height="34"/>
<GraphicName label="Icon" isBaseName="false">
<Name>DroxEmptySaddlebagIcon</Name>
</GraphicName>
</StaticWindow>
<Settings notifyOnLeftClick="true" globalOpacity="135"/>
</UseControl>
Q. How do I re-use a set of controls multiple times without having to copy the entire code each time I want it to appear?
A.
- This one is rather cool, even if it's not used all that often. Here's a definition for a re-usable ComponentWindow:
Code:
<ComponentWindow name="white_dot_number">
<Rect x="0" y="0" width="10" height="14"/>
<UseControl type="StaticWindow">
<StaticWindow pictureMode="true" textData="ConGraphic">
<Rect x="0" y="0" width="10" height="14"/>
<GraphicName label="ConGraphic" isBaseName="false">
<Name>White1Dot</Name>
</GraphicName>
</StaticWindow>
</UseControl>
</ComponentWindow>
- Now to use this ComponentWindow, you would reference it with the following:
Code:
<UseComponent name="white_dot_number">
<Point x="5" y="8"/>
</UseComponent>
- Note the location within your window is defined by the point x and y value in your UseComponent.
Q. How do I make a button that will toggle a window on and off or issue just about any slash command?
A.
- There are a couple ways to do it. Here's one that I've found to be the easiest to maintain.
Code:
<UseControl type="Button">
<Button type="template">
<Rect x="3" y="150" width="22" height="21"/>
<Command>/togglewindow minimap</Command>
<Template>ButtonGraphic</Template>
<GraphicName label="ButtonGraphic" isBaseName="true">
<Name>BlankBtn</Name>
</GraphicName>
</Button>
</UseControl>
<UseControl type="TextField">
<TextField fontSize="10" color="white" align="left" fontFlags="1">
<Rect x="32" y="152"
width="200" height="18"/>
<Text>MiniMap</Text>
</TextField>
</UseControl>
- As you see, the Command could be set to just about any slash command you desire.
Q. How do I make a checkbox to show if a window that I want to toggle is visible or not?
A.
- At present there is no known way to do this.
Q. How come certain windows will lose their backgrounds or not be movable, after leaving layout mode?
A.
- This is due to the window being set to layoutMovable="True" and, or, layoutFrame="true" when the window has a border and background, or is movable when not in layout mode to begin with.
- Set any layout settings to false and they should be fine.
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