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Mod: Global Icon Support 1.0

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This mod from Blackops Research & Development is a modders resource. It allows modders to add icons for units and upgrades.

Expand Full Description & Credits

File Instructions:: Author: Blackops Research & Development

Readme File:
Blackops Research & Development Presents
Global Icon Support

Before anyone gripes about another Blackops Project being posted please understand this one is actually a support tool for all mods (hence the global part) rather than something specific to Blackops.

Essentually one of the major issues with unit mods is that GPG didn't make icon support centralized so currently mods only really have three options. First is to just not include icons and deal with placeholders which is annoying but happens, Second is to use Goom's Build Icon Scripts which provide build icons but leaves alot of holes, and Third to put the icons into an SCD file in gamedata and hope it doesn't cause desync issues in multiplayer.

During trying to get 100% icon coverage for Blackops I asked DeadMG for some help rewriting an old script I was using. Quite frankly he returned it in such better shape that it lead to alot of possibilities. Together we tracked down as many of the game's references to unti Icons as I could and while I still haven't found them all we have made a serious chunk.

HOW IT WORKS:
Basically you simply turn it on. When the game starts it scans the active mods and folders within /mods/ for #######_unit.bp files (7 character limit on IDs unfortunatly) and piles both the IDs and the "/mods/modname/ path into tables.

Once that has been done anytime the game makes a check aginst the base directory if it fails to find the icon there it checks a secondary location based on the original icon path with the "/mods/modname/" part added in based on the tabled unitID. If it failes to find the icon there (meaning either the icons arn't in the right place or they haven't created any) then it defaults back to GPG's Placeholders.

Currently this mod works on the following Icons:
-Construction Icons (Icons shown in Factory/Build menus)
-Unit Select Icons (General icon shown when single or multiple units selected)
-Hover Over Unit Icons (Icon showed in unit detail popup)
-Targetting Icon (Icon shown on mousover to see what a unit is shooting at)
-Avatar Icons (Commander's Idle Icon)
-Commander Upgrades (Icons shown for commander upgrades)

MOD'S DOWNSIDE:
While this mod doesn't cause lag issues once the game is loaded it does add a noticable "Loading Time" increase at the start of the game depending on how many custom units are in play. This is because it has to map & check each new unitID for a corrisponding icon and store the locations for later use. I wouldn't call it a significant delay all things considered but this is a heads up that it is noticable.

CONFIGURING MODS TO UTILIZE THIS:
In order to get proper effects from this mod any unit mod that wishes to make use of this one needs to do the following...

1) All Icons need to be in the appropriate locations as follows
/mods/modname/textures/ui/common/icons/units/
/mods/modname/textures/ui/common/game/aeon-enhancements
/mods/modname/textures/ui/common/game/cybran-enhancements
/mods/modname/textures/ui/common/game/seraphim-enhancements
/mods/modname/textures/ui/common/game/uef-enhancements

2) All custom units must have 7 character unit IDs followed by _unit.bp or the script will ignore it.

3) While this mod should stack with Goom's system I would not recommend trying to run his scripts and this together within the same mod as Goom's scripts require the icons to be in a different location.

-----===== Credits =====-----
Exavier Macbeth
Initial Code, File Tracking, Debugging, & Tweaking

DeadMG
Core Functions & Hooking

File Name: blackopsiconsupportv10.zip		Author: Admin
File Size: 19 KB		Files Added: 9,675
Downloads: 982 (2 last week)		Author Downloads: 16,460,202 (74,239 last week)
Posted: 28.05.2009		Supporters: n/a