Hiya, a few people have requested a tutorial on how to use the Soldat Interface Maker, so I decided to make one :)
Well, for starters, click the New Interface button (top left).
It will then prompt you for a name for your interface.
This will then basically load the current Soldat interface (what's in your Interface-gfx folder), and save all of the images into a folder of the new name, something like
C:\Soldat\Custom-Interfaces\HappyInterface
The bulk of your interface making will take place outside of the interface maker.
You will need some form of paint program to edit the images (even MSpaint will do... providing you're not M lol)
So, make some sexy graphics, shove 'em in your interface folder, and then hit the Reload Images button.
You will end up updating the graphics a lot, so get used to pressing that button lol
Now look around at the interface maker. The buttons at the top, well you already know what they do.
First off, before we continue, it is not very good to work in a solid white environment, as generally the background in Soldat isn't white, and some things can be harder to see.
So, a little up from the bottom right of the screen there is a little setting called Background (white, gray, black).
Set it to gray, this is often the best background colour to work with.
Now I'll tell you what all the things do, starting from the top.
At the top, we have the Alpha setting. This will change the transparency of the entire interface.
Unfortunately you cannot set Alpha levels for individual components :(
Next, you have the Interface Element selector. This is used... to select different interface elements ^_^
As a test, select Health Icon (selected by default).
Now left-click in the middle of your screen.
You'll note how the outside of the health bar, and the health icon are now near where you clicked.
Try draging the mouse around. Note how it follows as you do.
Next, the Visible setting is fairly obvious, however it has an unexpected effect.
When you un-tick it, the currently selected object (in this case the Health Icon) disappears.
Although this was fairly obvious, you'll also note that the Health Amount (health bar) also disappeared.
This is because they are linked. eg. you wouldn't really want a health icon if you didn't have a health bar :P
So too are the Ammo Amount and Icon, the Jet Amount and Icon, and Fire Amount and Icon.
On that note, the Ammo/Reload Amount and the Ammo text elements also have a strange link (almost like a bug actually lol).
You cannot make the Ammo Text (number of bullets) invisible, it's always there. And you can't change it's colour either. The only thing you can change is it's position on the screen.
Quickly jumping back down to the bottom again.
There is a slider there called the Test Slider.
It changes the stats of health, vest, ammo, reload, jets, and grenades.
Right for more, left for less. You'll want to use this for the following settings.
Now onto the style :)
Which is also linked similar to the visibility.
eg. whether you change the Health Icon, or the Health Amount, they will both change the exact same thing.
The style changes how your Soldat's stats are displayed.
Text - Instead of a bard, with graphics, you get text. Simple, but you cannot change the colour. It's white :P
Horizontal - Standard bars, grow and shrink horizontally as your health/ammo/jets increase and decrease.
Vertical - Instead of horizontally, they grow and shrink vertically.
There is one problem here, and that is the Ammo Amount does not function correctly when it's vertical...
However, considering the next thing I'm about to show you, you should never really need the vertical setting =)
The magical Rotation setting. This is great, as it can add some nice variety to interfaces.
It's in degrees, going anti-clockwise, defaulting to 0/360.
Note that when at 360, you cannot just go up a notch back to 0 or 1, you have to go all the way back ^^
The rotation works for most elements, so have a play :)
Also, it's not linked. So, for example, the Health Amount and Health Icon have to be changed seperately if needed.
And other than the mouse coordinates right at the bottom (from 0,0 to 639,479), that's about it!
As said earlier, the main part of your interface will need to be created in a paint/drawing application.
Also, keep in mind that if you use the Interface maker to design an interface, then only registered users can use your interface.
And a tip:
One handy thing that most people tend to overlook is that a BMP's size can be changed to above it's default.
eg. For my Cabbage interface (which did not use the interface maker), I found that the ammo symbol was too close to the ammo text, and so I did this to the following files:
health.bmp
[IMAGE]
ammo.bmp
[IMAGE]
Which resulted in this:
[IMAGE]
Well, for starters, click the New Interface button (top left).
It will then prompt you for a name for your interface.
This will then basically load the current Soldat interface (what's in your Interface-gfx folder), and save all of the images into a folder of the new name, something like
C:\Soldat\Custom-Interfaces\HappyInterface
The bulk of your interface making will take place outside of the interface maker.
You will need some form of paint program to edit the images (even MSpaint will do... providing you're not M lol)
So, make some sexy graphics, shove 'em in your interface folder, and then hit the Reload Images button.
You will end up updating the graphics a lot, so get used to pressing that button lol
Now look around at the interface maker. The buttons at the top, well you already know what they do.
First off, before we continue, it is not very good to work in a solid white environment, as generally the background in Soldat isn't white, and some things can be harder to see.
So, a little up from the bottom right of the screen there is a little setting called Background (white, gray, black).
Set it to gray, this is often the best background colour to work with.
Now I'll tell you what all the things do, starting from the top.
At the top, we have the Alpha setting. This will change the transparency of the entire interface.
Unfortunately you cannot set Alpha levels for individual components :(
Next, you have the Interface Element selector. This is used... to select different interface elements ^_^
As a test, select Health Icon (selected by default).
Now left-click in the middle of your screen.
You'll note how the outside of the health bar, and the health icon are now near where you clicked.
Try draging the mouse around. Note how it follows as you do.
Next, the Visible setting is fairly obvious, however it has an unexpected effect.
When you un-tick it, the currently selected object (in this case the Health Icon) disappears.
Although this was fairly obvious, you'll also note that the Health Amount (health bar) also disappeared.
This is because they are linked. eg. you wouldn't really want a health icon if you didn't have a health bar :P
So too are the Ammo Amount and Icon, the Jet Amount and Icon, and Fire Amount and Icon.
On that note, the Ammo/Reload Amount and the Ammo text elements also have a strange link (almost like a bug actually lol).
You cannot make the Ammo Text (number of bullets) invisible, it's always there. And you can't change it's colour either. The only thing you can change is it's position on the screen.
Quickly jumping back down to the bottom again.
There is a slider there called the Test Slider.
It changes the stats of health, vest, ammo, reload, jets, and grenades.
Right for more, left for less. You'll want to use this for the following settings.
Now onto the style :)
Which is also linked similar to the visibility.
eg. whether you change the Health Icon, or the Health Amount, they will both change the exact same thing.
The style changes how your Soldat's stats are displayed.
Text - Instead of a bard, with graphics, you get text. Simple, but you cannot change the colour. It's white :P
Horizontal - Standard bars, grow and shrink horizontally as your health/ammo/jets increase and decrease.
Vertical - Instead of horizontally, they grow and shrink vertically.
There is one problem here, and that is the Ammo Amount does not function correctly when it's vertical...
However, considering the next thing I'm about to show you, you should never really need the vertical setting =)
The magical Rotation setting. This is great, as it can add some nice variety to interfaces.
It's in degrees, going anti-clockwise, defaulting to 0/360.
Note that when at 360, you cannot just go up a notch back to 0 or 1, you have to go all the way back ^^
The rotation works for most elements, so have a play :)
Also, it's not linked. So, for example, the Health Amount and Health Icon have to be changed seperately if needed.
And other than the mouse coordinates right at the bottom (from 0,0 to 639,479), that's about it!
As said earlier, the main part of your interface will need to be created in a paint/drawing application.
Also, keep in mind that if you use the Interface maker to design an interface, then only registered users can use your interface.
And a tip:
One handy thing that most people tend to overlook is that a BMP's size can be changed to above it's default.
eg. For my Cabbage interface (which did not use the interface maker), I found that the ammo symbol was too close to the ammo text, and so I did this to the following files:
health.bmp
[IMAGE]
![[IMAGE]](http://soldatforum.dnagames.net/data/NightCabbage/2003922103246_health.bmp){kind=link}
ammo.bmp
[IMAGE]
![[IMAGE]](http://soldatforum.dnagames.net/data/NightCabbage/200392210337_ammo.bmp){kind=link}
Which resulted in this:
[IMAGE]
![[IMAGE]](http://www.angelfire.com/sd2/nightcabbage/Cabbage11.jpg){kind=link}
![[IMAGE]](http://soldatforum.dnagames.net/data/NightCabbage/2003102812435_health.bmp){kind=link}
![[IMAGE]](images/icon_paperclip.gif){kind=link}
![[IMAGE]](http://soldatforum.dnagames.net/data/NightCabbage/200310281414_screenshot5.jpg){kind=link}