Modding Cities XL Interface Principles The game interfaces are created using Scaleform, which allows us to take Flash 8 files and use the as game interface. However, in order to optimise performance, a lot of the flash is actually loading image files, usually .dds files. The interface is found in \Data\Interface In this directory are : \Bits \Cfg \DDSTexture \Fonts \Icons \Panels \Screens \Video Now, first the easiest folders and work our way up : Video and Fonts contain any videos and the game fonts. “Screens” describe the game screens : The intro, the main menu, the main game view, and so on. These are described using LUA files. Usually these have OnOpen() and OnClose() functions that are called when the screens are initialised. A screen can show one or several Panels (which are stored in the Panels directory), these Panels are usually started in the OnOpen function of the screen, using a call like this : Interface:OpenPanel("SOMEPANELNAME") Now, Panels have 2 files : ● A gfx file, which is the export of the Flash file (and Actionscript) generated by the scaleform exporter ● A .lua file which is used as “glue” between the interface and the code. So for instance in Data\Interface\Panels\Planet there is
Transcript
Modding Cities XL
Interface Principles The game interfaces are created using Scaleform, which allows us to take Flash 8 files and use
the as game interface. However, in order to optimise performance, a lot of the flash is actually
loading image files, usually .dds files.
The interface is found in \Data\Interface
In this directory are :
\Bits
\Cfg
\DDSTexture
\Fonts
\Icons
\Panels
\Screens
\Video
Now, first the easiest folders and work our way up : Video and Fonts contain any videos and the
game fonts.
“Screens” describe the game screens : The intro, the main menu, the main game view, and so
on. These are described using LUA files. Usually these have OnOpen() and OnClose() functions
that are called when the screens are initialised.
A screen can show one or several Panels (which are stored in the Panels directory), these
Panels are usually started in the OnOpen function of the screen, using a call like this :
Interface:OpenPanel("SOMEPANELNAME")
Now, Panels have 2 files :
● A gfx file, which is the export of the Flash file (and Actionscript) generated by the
scaleform exporter
● A .lua file which is used as “glue” between the interface and the code.
So for instance in Data\Interface\Panels\Planet there is
● Planet.gfx
● Planet.lua
Now, here is the start of the S_PLANET.lua screen file :.
S_PLANET = {}
function S_PLANET:OnOpen()
InterfaceMgr.CurrentScreen ="PLANET"
PLANET:HideRessourceLayer()
Interface:OpenPanel("PLANET")
PLANET:OnPanelOpen()
PLANET:Init()
Interface:OpenPanel("PLANET")is what opens and shows the Planet.gfx file, and the
other PLANET:functionName() calls are functions in Planet.lua that are being called when the
S_PLANET screen is being opened.
For each of these Panel files, there is the possibility to define a function that will be called when
the game loop is called. This function is of the form PANELNAME:OnUpdate(). However for a
lot of these functions, there is simply a call to the main interface loop manager, called
InterfaceMgr, which manages the different processes going on in the interface. For instance, for
Planet.lua, the OnUpdate function is as follows :
function PLANET:OnUpdate()
InterfaceMgr:UpdateInPlanet()
end
Incidentally, that is also where the InterfaceMgr.CurrentScreen ="PLANET" comes
from, it is telling InterfaceMgr what state the game is in.
You won’t find InterfaceMgr in the main Interface directory, it is in fact in the script directory
(Data\Design\Script) in the Interface sub-directory.
Panels can load up smaller files which are also Flash / Scaleform exports, these smaller
elements are called “Bits” and are in the Bits subdirectory of the main Interface directory.
These are usually called something like _Bits_PaneName.gfx
In general these are smaller panels that serve a specific purpose or are not the main screen
panel.
For instance, in the Planet.gfx panel, we load in :
_Bits_FindCities.gfx (the “search cities” pane)
_Bits_MapFilter.gfx (the map selection pane)
_Bits_MyCities.gfx (the list of my cities)
and so on.
Each of these (Panels & Bits) can load in dds files. These files are to be found in
Data\Interface\DDSTexture
The files are DDS files, either DXT1a or DXT5 format.
The button files are in
Data\Interface\DDSTexture\Buttons
Media Reports
“Media reports” are what we call the text appearing to the top in the center of the screen
showing the status of the city.
These reports are generated by a set of LUA files (in \Data\Design\Scripts\MediaReports)
Building description files (.class)
Al the buildings in the game as described using a xml type file with a “.class” extension.
Putting buildings in the game : The construction
menu, buildings, and tags
When starting up, the game parses all the .class files in the buildings directory
(Data\Design\Buildings) and adds them to the game, in the construction menu.
Where the buildings appear in the construction menu depends on how the building has been
tagged : the construction menu is in fact a search engine, where each button is a tag and the
buildings that appear are those that have the corresponding tags.
At the root of the game there is a Tags.cfg file (in XML type format), which is where the tags are
defined.
There are mainly 3 different types of tags :
● Functional tags, that describe what kind of building this is in the game simulation (e.g.
Residence)
● Size tags, which describe in which size category the building fits (T1, T2, T3, T3)
● Wealth tags, mostly for residences and industries
Other tags you will encounter
● “MS18” - we used MSxx verionning tags to mark buildings that were compliant with the
latest version of the code, and this was the last version. Buildings must be tagged with
this to appear in the game
● “Deprecated” - this is used to remove the building from the construction menu, without
having to delete the .class file which will corrupt any saved cities that contained this
building
● “GemCity” - at one point we were working on other types of gameplay (Ski resort, beach
resort) but we never got round to finishing them. These other gameplays had specific
tags, and this tag is used to identifiy this building as not being part of these other side
gameplays.
● “PRIVATE” used to identify buildings that are a part of the City’s budget, or not
If you open this file, you will see that some tags have children, and in the same way, the
construction menu has sub categories, for instance “Factory” is a child of “Industry”.
When adding a tag to a building with a tag, you will usually want to add all the parent tags too,
because the construction menu works by drilling down functional categories (so in this case the
menu allows you first to select “Industry”, and then “Factory”, so as both are selected in the
menu the building needs to have both tabs to be seen).
This rule is for functional tags (what the building does) and does not apply to wealth and size
tags.
A .class file in detail
Here is a sample file for a building in the game, you can find it in full in the annex. I’ll walk you
