[WIP] ToEE Front-End X 5.0 Progress Report

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

UPDATE: Uploaded Release Candidate 3. Implemented AjiTae's windowed mode screen resolution hack. Performed some more font tweaks (should look good now on both Windows and Linux).

- Agetian

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

1. Just go to your ToEE root directory and delete these files:

ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll
Interop.IWshRuntimeLibrary.dll
TFE-X-linux
TFE-X-repair.exe
TFE-X-repair.txt
TFE-X.jpg

2. No. Just put everything in per Ag's instructions (only 3 files actually, only one of which anyone will use) and double-click the executable and you're good to go.

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

@ Gehennis: Yeah, Gaear's completely right, and I'd also like to add that the new front-end and the old one are 100% mutually compatible as far as the core module formats go, so you can use them pretty interchangeably if necessary (say, you could even revert to the old front-end after using the new one without having to reinstall the game - you probably wouldn't want to, though, unless you have issues with the new front-end, which you shouldn't). The new front-end is able to use all old game installations that used the previous front-end without having to reinstall anything, it's compatible with all the old module packages (say, you can install Co8 3.0.4 using the new front-end) and is able to immediately utilize new features on old installations (e.g. the windowed mode widescreen hack becomes immediately available). The old front-end is forward compatible with the new one but, of course, is unable to utilize some of the new features that the new front-end has (so, it won't be able to switch portrait packs or use the windowed mode resolution hack). But it'll still be able to change the active module and launch the game in its own, old-front-end way). Hope it helps and hope you enjoy using the new front-end!

@ Gaear: Let me know if you had a chance to take a look at the updated interface, I tried to implement everything you've requested by way of suggestions and I think it looks much better now!

- Agetian

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

Yeah, I just now tried it Ag - all looks good.

How does the windowed mode hack work? Do you get to choose resolution etc.?

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

@ Gaear: Great, glad to hear you like it! The windowed mode resolution hack auto-applies depending on whichever resolution is chosen in the Game Resolution submenu in case "Windowed Mode" is turned on. Conversely, it's auto-disabled if "Windowed Mode" is turned off.

- Agetian

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

UPDATE: Updated to Release Candidate 4. Fixed a bug that caused the windowed mode widescreen hack not to be fully auto-disabled when Windowed Mode was turned off.

- Agetian

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

Okay, I have developed some issues with AjiTae's windowed mode hack version of TFE-X 4 from yesterday. At this point I haven't updated to release candidate 4, and I haven't fiddled any of the .dll stuff AjiTae posted above.

Note that I never entered windowed mode - this simply applies to running TFE-X with the original hack. There are some bad things with this, but also, surprisingly, some good things.

Firstly, upon loading a game or arriving on a new map, parties are now properly centered in widescreen resolutions. I'm using 1680 x 1050, and previously, the party was always situated at the top left of the screen upon loading/map change - what would be the center of a vanilla resolution game of 1024 x 768 or thereabouts. I was able to change audio to reflect the stereo soundfield properly for widescreen/higher res, but never video. Anyway, this is a good thing.

Second, the console is now stretched across the entirety of the screen. I don't really care about this because it's not a game feature that regular players are supposed to see as it were, so it doesn't need to look pretty for the masses, particularly if it's necessary to keep the landing point thing.

Here we see both things in action.



Third, as AjiTae alluded to above, the scrollbars get messed up in three locations that I can see: the regular character UI inventory screen, the skills screen, and the feats screen. I didn't look at a caster to see if the spells screen was affected.

Here's skills and feats in action.





This is a bad thing, although it may not matter for the regular inventory screen because that scrollbar doesn't scroll anyway and is thus useless. We could simply make it transparent if we had to.

Lastly, the issue of dialog and dice roll screen hovertext where if you hover over the little icons above the shuttle box on the bottom right, the hovertext appears way over on the left, is resolved. I didn't get a screen of this, sorry, but this is also a good thing.

So, what parts of this can be preserved while scrapping others? Hopefully exactly the stuff we want to keep.

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

Starting with RC4 the windowed mode reshack will neither auto-apply without windowed mode being on nor keep being enabled once it gets turned off, so you should stop having any issues with it once you update to the latest TFE-X RC. Yep, the current incarnation of the hack seems to have its upsides and downsides, I'm ready to update the TFE-X implementation in any way necessary as AjiTae figures out the ways to improve it. Will now look into the previously posted AjiTae's comment.

- Agetian

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

@ AjiTae: if it's not too difficult for you, can you please post your updated patch in the following form:

0xADDRESS: old new

(old -> the original value at that location, new -> your updated one)
I'm afraid I'm getting a bit lost in the code and I can inadvertently patch the wrong location or something. For instance, the original code at location 0x1D6313 for me shows all NOPs (0x90) - not sure if that's the actual place I'm supposed to patch or not... :\

EDIT: Indeed I must be doing the wrong thing because I tried applying the patch mentioned above to the best of my ability and the scrollbars were still messed up for me, so I must have patched the wrong place or something. Please provide a full patch in the form described above.

EDIT 2: I seemingly got the latest patch from Aji'Tae straight but it seems like it gets rid of the good points Gaear outlined above in addition to getting rid of the bad one (the UI scrollbars getting messed up), so I'm a bit reluctant to include that version of the patch into the code yet, it seems to be no better than just reverting the reshack completely like the current version of TFE-X (RC4) does, at least as long as I understood and patched everything correctly.

- Agetian

 

Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

Thanks a lot for your effort, AjiTae! :thumbsup: Let me know if you have progress with it, I'll include the best version of the patch that you can come up with - and sure, if it proves to be impossible to do, then I can update the code with the latest revision of the patch (since you consider it to be the better implementation).

- Agetian