Custom Game Menu

robocop

Is there a tutorial anywhere on how to edit the background of the menu screen?

I’m talking about the screen where you choose to play multiplayer over single player, adjust options, etc.

I’d just like to change the text from FREELANCER to perhaps reflect the server and name of the mod.

I searched through what I could find on custom start screens and custom menus but nothing really addresses it.

Any pointers?

Thanks,
R

J.R.

The backgrounds are the “movies” aka the “intro thn´s” in the folder: DATA\Scripts\INTRO
So you´ll have to convert and edit or simply change these for custom backgrounds…

To have a custom “headline” in the main-menu you´ll have to edit the alpha-channel in:
DATA\INTERFACE\INTRO\IMAGES\front_freelancerlogo.tga

Don´t know if I get you right but I think this is what u´re looking for.

Greetings

J.R.

robocop

Thanks for the response.

Is there a program you suggest? When I open the file up in PaintShop Pro all I see is a plain white background.

I was looking at accountselect.bmp which looks like it might fit the bill but I notice the Freelancer title isn’t the same, doesn’t have that aura effect around the letters.

Still investigating…

J.R.

I would suggest “gimp” for editing the TGAs.
Although its been a while since I worked with it and I remember it was a little bit tricky because gimp is a pretty mighty editor and has A LOT of options and tools. It took me a while to find out how to… Dont forget to make the alpha-channel visible and insert the custom headline there and make its Background transparent.
Fiddle around a bit and you´ll see by yourself what I mean…

Greetings
J.R.

robocop

That’s got it.
Thanks much for the help.

robocop

Is there anyway to delay the transition from the original title screen to the menu screen so that the title screen is displayed for a set amount of time?

Currently we have the movies disabled (an option on mod activation) and often the title screen just flashes by in less than a second before it goes straight to the options menu.

I don’t see anything in any of the ini files that would allow for a delay.

Anudder ting…
I see you were able to remove menu options. Our server is not compatible with single player so we could lose the new game and load game buttons. Can you also point me in the right direction for that?

Thanks

R

edit: whoops, found it in an old text file related to 1.1 offsets in the 101 topic. Interesting I don’t find it in the current wiki.

J.R.

If I get you right u already found the hack… but anyways here are some hacks to have a pretty simple and “user-friendly” main-menu :

# Prevent IPv6 addresses in the server list.
Freelancer.exe 1ACF6A: 40 74 63 48 51 8D 54	[ 51 8D 4C 24 20 51 8D ] 	E4 20 52 83 E9 08	[ 8C 24 C8 00 00 00    ]

Remove the “NEW GAME” and “LOAD GAME” buttons on the main menu:

Freelancer.exe 174634: E8 47 E5 EA FF 83 7C 24 50 01 77 [ C7 44 24 70 00 00 00 00 C7 44 24 ] 11 DB 05 4C 46 57 00 EB 0D [ 74 00 00 00 00 C7 44 24 78 ] 1746CA: 00 00 [ 80 3E ] 174707: 00 00 [ 80 3E ]
to move the buttons:
Go to 1E28C0 in freelancer.exe and change 0.1725f (D7 A3 30 3E) to 0.3369f (28 7E AC 3E; moves the text up) and at 1E3210, change 0.155f (52 B8 1E 3E) to 0.318f (E5 D0 A2 3E; moves the boxes up).

freelancer.exe	1628F4	48-->50 Filter out incompatible builds on server list by default

freelancer.exe 166d56 E805D5F0FF–>B801000000 = prelude to auto-select LAN or internet
freelancer.exe 166d66 8B442410–>90909090 = auto-select internet
or
freelancer.exe 166d6a 48–>90 = auto-select LAN

freelancer.exe	166c2b	75-->EB = bypass ESRB notice
```
Regarding the time that the Freelancer-Logo is displayed during startup:
I don´t know if some of our hex-Heroes want to dig into this…
Anyways:
If I get u right, the problem occours when u disable the background-movies (thn´s) ?!?
If so, my suggestion would be: better activate a "intro.thn" that shows maybe just a pitch-black screen... instead of deactivating the background completely.

Greetings
J.R

robocop

Another query, are the buttons hard coded or is there a way to change the text in the buttons?

It’d be cool if the Multiplayer button said ‘Join FLU’ instead of ‘Multiplayer’

adoxa

Menu [c]MULTIPLAYER[/c] is string 1270 (in block 80 if using ResHacker) in [c]resources.dll[/c].

I don’t think the startup screen has any specific timing - it’s only displayed while other stuff is loading. And as my JFLP jump effects attest, I’m not one to slow things down unnecessarily.

robocop

All hail Adoxa!!

Thanks Jason.
Yeah, I figure you’re right about the delay on the startup screen. I notice that when I restart FL after it’s already been running it flashes by much more quickly than if I start up FL after a fresh reboot. I expect some FL stuff is still in the memory when restarting causing it to load much more quickly.

? Offline

How about to filter also locked (passworded) servers?

adoxa

freelancer.exe	1628FA	48-->50 Filter out locked servers by default

? Offline

Works! Thanks