User:Maven/sandbox

This is my personal sandbox area.

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Adding a VGUI screen to a map

Create a vgui_screen with the following properties:

• Panel Name = vgui_test_screen
• Panel Width in World = 64
• Panel Height in World = 32

Height and width can be changed to whatever you need. Those values define the actual size of the screen in the world.

Creating a VGUI screen

TODO: Can .res files be zipped into a BSP? If so, much of this section needs adjusted.

VGUI screen files have a .res extension and should be placed in steamdir\SourceMods\yourmod\scripts\screens\.

1. vgui_test_screen.res is a good starting point for creating a VGUI screen file; it can be extracted from source engine.gcf at path hl2/scripts/screens/ using GCFScape.

1. The materials used in the .res file can be found in source materials.gfc. Extract the material files mentioned in the .res file to steamdir\SourceMods\moddir\materials\vgui\screens.

1. In steamdir\SourceMods\moddir\scripts create or open the text file vgui_screens.txt and add a new entry. An example would be:

"VGUI_Screens"
{
   "vgui_test_screen"
   {
       // This is our example screen
       "type"		"vgui_screen_panel"
       "pixelswide"	480
       "pixelshigh"	240
       // This must be the file you created in step 1
       "resfile"	"scripts/screens/vgui_test_screen.res"
   } 
   "teleport_countdown_screen"
   {
       "type"		"teleport_countdown_screen"
       "pixelswide"	480
       "pixelshigh"	240
       "resfile"	"scripts/screens/teleport_countdown_screen.res"
   }
}

VGUI code modifications

There is a problem with VGUI screens receiving input.

TODO: what are the effects? Is it a crash bug?

CInput::ExtraMouseSample calls g_pClientMode->CreateMove() without initializing the button flags, thus the VGui screen is updated with bad button input. Since IN_VALIDVGUIINPUT is only set from within CInput::CreateMove, the VGui screens only update when the button flags are valid.

There are two known fixes. They both involve code changes and therefore are only applicable to mods.

Fix 1

In in_buttons.h, where the other flags are defined add:

   #define IN_VALIDVGUIINPUT		    (1 << 23) //bitflag for vgui fix

next, in in_main.cpp inside method CInput::CreateMove( ... ) add:

   cmd->buttons |= IN_VALIDVGUIINPUT;

right above:

   g_pClientMode->CreateMove( input_sample_frametime, cmd );

next, in c_baseplayer.cpp inside method C_BasePlayer::CreateMove( ... ) add:

   if(pCmd->buttons & IN_VALIDVGUIINPUT)

right above:

   DetermineVguiInputMode( pCmd );

(So it only calls DetermineVguiInputMode if the buttons include our flag)

and finally, inside method C_BasePlayer::DetermineVguiInputMode( ... ) change both instances of:

   pCmd->buttons &= ~(IN_ATTACK | IN_ATTACK2);

to read:

   pCmd->buttons &= ~(IN_ATTACK | IN_ATTACK2 | IN_VALIDVGUIINPUT);

Fix 2

An alternative fix would be to add a new boolean variable to CUserCmd such as bButtonFlagsValid that can be set depending on the validity of the button flags. This would allow the structure to internally store this information for its whole lifetime while freeing up that extra button bit.

External links

• Screenshot of working panels in the mod Hostile Planet