Arma: GUI Configuration

Introduction

Dialogs are one way to provide custom graphical user interface in your missions and allow interaction with the player aswell as they are able to run code. They are defined as classes in the description.ext file.

Notice: If you change your description.ext file while the mission is still open in the editor, you will have to reload or resave the mission before the changes will take effect. This behaviour is due to the fact the mission editor only reads the description.ext file during save/load. Eden editor will automatically update the description.ext on mission preview.

Warning: If there are syntactic errors in your description.ext file (e.g. incorrect spelling of keywords), then the game will simply return to desktop while processing the file, stating the nature and location of the error that caused it.

Most of these definitions work with numeric constants, which are presented in the following section. For readability purposes you should consider favoring them instead of the actual integers.

• Positions and dimensions (x, y, w, h) aswell as font sizes are relative to the viewport (not pixel values). Vieweport is a 4:3 area which covers the whole screen with Very Large interface size, but gets smaller with small interface sizes (and user interface gets smaller as well). See GUI Coordinates for more information
• Colors are usually defined in the following convention: { Red, Green, Blue, Alpha }, each ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 as well. To easily convert from the more standard 0-255 range, simply divide the 255 based number by 255.
• Sounds are usually defined in the following convention: { "file.ogg", volume, pitch }, Volume ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. Pitch is a floating point number ranging from 0.0 to 4.0. 2.0 doubles the pitch (makes it higher), 0.5 halfs the pitch (makes it deeper) and 1.0 is normal.

You can find a complete list of scripting related GUI functions in Category:Command Group: GUI Control.

Dialogs and Displays

In theory, there is no difference.

This document attempts to cover the genre of controls (idc's), dialogs (idd's), and displays (also idd's). It attempts to apply the same consistency as one (currently) finds in mission description.ext's, as well as configs. Specifically, config.cpp's relating to the so-called 'user ui'.

This document must be inaccurate because *everything* config-dialogs/displays/controls is at the whim of engine revisions and which flavor pizza was eaten on Friday night.

The token names used for color (purely as an example) are currently not only inconsistent across controls, they are subject to whim. Any addition to the engine's capabilities (with new control types) will (if history is the judge) produce new token names, that do exactly same as different names in other controls. color[]=, colorText[]= ActiveColor[]=ShadowColo[]= (an engine typo) =ColorActive[]=FrenchFries[]=..... all meaning the same thing (and NOT meaning the same thing, depending on the control's type)

Unfortunately, the current state of play with Arrowhead engine (and all engines prior) is that the entire caboodle is arbitrary. In terms of ui.config.cpp, most controls and most displays are hard-wired to the engine.

For config.cpp's, one of the hardest animals to deal with is the fixed-in-concrete classname definitions, aligned with matching fixed-in-concrete idd's.

Purely as an example

RscDisplaySelectIsland uses an idd of 51. Both are currently nuclear fallout shelters (hardened concrete). you can't change the name, you can't change the idd.

The engine is hard wired (with the equivalent of) createDisplay "RscDisplaySelectIsland" via various fixed-in-conrete idc's of other displays. There is no action, no eventhandler, no over-ride, which you can apply to this 'behavior'. Similarly, the engine reacts to that displays controls with hard-wired _display ctrlParent 'control' expecting the _display idd to be 51 to proceed any further. (in this case, open the editor and show the selected island's map)

There is nothing wrong with this approach. It has been the same since CWC. But, with the increasing abundance of official bis sqf scripts which specifically deal with and react to ui controls and displays (see \ca\ui\scripts). The burden of the engine dealing with this is becoming anachronistic and contrary to the flexibility that those scripts provide.

In short:

• The token names described here as general, have to be taken in context to the control/display they are used in. There can be no guarantee that they are the same for all controls, and no guarantee that they wont change. the bin\config.bin of the engine, is the ultimate umpire. It declares what this engine, expects.
• Any reference to eventHandlers and 'actions' are subject to the whim of the engine. It may, or may not, force-over-ride any action depending on display(idd) and it's control (idc)
• Any class definition may or may not be fixed in concrete. Some classnames are, some classnames are not. Which ones, depend on whether it's Monday afternoon.

Dialogs

Dialogs are parent containers for the actual controls it contains. Their definition contains several properties on the controls it contains, how the dialog can be addressed, and whether or not the player is able to continue regular movement while the dialog is shown.

They can be defined in the description.ext file or externalized to separate hpp-files, which are included in the description.ext file using the #include preprocessor directive. The latter method is generally a good idea to split a large description.ext file into several small chunks in order to keep track of what's where.

Most often, controls of a dialog are defined within the definition of the dialog itself, though it's a good practice to generalize common controls in a base definition in the global scope. See best practice for details. For simplicity we won't apply this practice in the following code examples.