Jump to content

Editing Statistics Screen Information


SKARDAVNELNATE

Recommended Posts

I created the All Inclusive Pack for Planescape: Torment and usually watch the board at GameFAQs for new bugs. The last update I released can be found at:

http://www.mediafire.com/?m0spxujmgzd

 

I'm looking into a few new ideas to add to it and I'm wondering if I can change the information that's displayed on the statistics screen. I think the part I want is GUIREC.CHU, Window 3, Control 1 which is set as the text area. Except I haven't found any information on how it determines what gets displayed there. Neither Near Infinity nor DLTCEP seem to provide much insight into this file type.

 

Do I need a different modding tool to see this?

Does it reference another file?

Does it take text from the Dialog.tlk?

 

One thing I want to do is add a display for things like Morale, Good, and Law so I can view them in-game instead looking for the variables in an editor. Any suggestions on how I can do this?

Link to comment
I think the part I want is GUIREC.CHU, Window 3, Control 1 which is set as the text area. Except I haven't found any information on how it determines what gets displayed there. Neither Near Infinity nor DLTCEP seem to provide much insight into this file type.
Did you check the IESDP? I don't know how specific it is to PST but it looks like it uses the same format as all the other IE games for CHUs.
Link to comment

it uses the same format as all the other IE games for CHUs.

Yes. This is what I expect. And it does describe what I see in Near Infinity with more detail but I still hit a roadblock.

 

A "control" has various parameters, one of which typically includes BAM files, along with cycle and frame indices to choose which frame of the BAM file to display.

That sounds like what I'm looking for. Apparently FONTDLG.BAM has all the letter symbols for displaying text. It has 255 frames and aside from ones that don't show anything each is a different letter or similar symbol. Colour #1 and Colour #3 probably determine the different colors displayed for "initials" as it's called there and main text. But that's as far as I get before again looking for something to indicate which frame is shown. If it says I just may not understand what I'm reading enough to recognize it.

Link to comment

Well I haven't done any CHU modding, but the IESDP entry seems to suggest you can set text labels. For example, if you scroll down to type 6 (label) you can set the string reference (from dialog.tlk) at offset 0xe. So you probably wouldn't want to change the StrRef for "Current State" to "Morale" (since that may screw up other places where it's used in the game) but point the offset to the "Morale" string ref. I use Inf Talker to look up such string refs quickly - DLTCEP and maybe NI can do the same.

Link to comment

the IESDP entry seems to suggest you can set text labels.

I hadn't thought of it that way so I looked at how the labels were used. They're something different from what I have in mind. I believe they relate to the character name, class, race, gender, armor, hit points, and independent stats. Things that have other displays within that window. And again I can't find anything to determine what text they display. For each one initial text is set to StrRef: 0. Either meaning it doesn't use an initial text or something else determines it. I'm confident the display I want to make changes to is the one set as TextArea. Here it lists class, level, experience, next level, current state, AC bonuses, Proficiencies, and so on to be scrolled through.

 

So you probably wouldn't want to change the StrRef for "Current State" to "Morale"

Yes, of course. I just did that to see if the Dialog.tlk was utilized by the CHU. Making a change there resulted in a change in game. To implement any changes I would need a string with the text I want and some way of directing to that StrRef. It's just the second part of that where I'm stuck. I'm also wondering about the variable. Usually it says normal under current state. However that can change to berserk, intoxicated, or anything else allowed for in the game. There must be some command that looks this information up and displays it.

Link to comment

I hacked around PST with NI and didn't have much luck either. It looked like all the labels and text in guirec.chu were set to StrRef 0 originally. Which makes me think the engine controls what is actually displayed in those fields. I even hacked around the .exe a bit with a hex editor to look for that StrRef and did find several references to its hex value, but that could be anything. Possibly it's not something you can really change short of using a disassembler and ultimately patching the .exe if you did figure it out, but don't take my word for it - maybe an IESDP guru like Avenger could say for sure. You might also take a look at another GUI mod - TutuGUI - which does patch the .exe (something I wasn't aware of previously) and also provides new .chu files.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...