WW's mouse cursor fixes

[pd]

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates...

I'm currently going through WW's original mouse cursor data and as someone has been telling me already, it's not only the ParaDrop cursor that lacks animation.
I'm currently compiling cursor lists (will update ModEnc as well) so I can tell you later what cursors are fixed in what way.

Another thing I noticed are weird cursor links.
"Heal", "TogglePower" and "NoTogglePower" for instance link to a prohibition cursor, although there are frames for all of them.
The question is whether this has to be fixed, I actually have three arguments against that:
1. You will be able to use custom attack cursors, and no, this time there aren't any limitations to custom cursors. That way, the original cursor would be obsolete.
2. The healing cursor frames aren't even mentionned in the exe... I think at WW the artists didn't talk to the coders too much, but hell, that team was screwed anyway
I wouldn't quite know how to insert the frames, a minor problem, since there's always a workaround, but still a problem...
3. I can't quite imagine this, but possibly some people are using this action for some SW, and those would be screwed up.

[Bobingabout]

IIRC, the tradition is to replace this "prohibition cursor" frame with a frame to suit your needs. it is used by healing, and IIRC also carry all logic. would be nice to use the proper heal cursor.

[Blade]

and to have the carryall able to use its own (along with changes to how it interacts with naval units so its more practically useable).

[Marshall]

I think what pd is getting at is that super weapons and normal weapons will have a new way of specifying their cursor in RP2 (?) so there is no real need or benefit from 'fixing' the internal references to mouse.sha
For example, why fix the healing cursor when the heal weapon can just be told what to use instead.

The only exception to this, as Blade pointed out, is the Carryall - the 'pickup' cursor isn't part of a weapon or a superweapon so this would either need to be fixed internally or some other new means of specifying the cursor to use.

[Nighthawk]

If a system similar to the current [MouseCursors] section is going to be used, then perhaps allowing the modder to redefine frames for existing actions in this section would solve the problem.

[pd]

I wanted to clearly separate custom cursors from the originals this time.
There's no [MouseCursors] section and there are no names for the customs, you specify them directly on the unit/SW/whatever.

Example for a SW (nuke cursor):

Code:

Cursor.Frame=319
Cursor.Count=10
Cursor.Interval=4
Cursor.MiniFrame=513
Cursor.MiniCount=1
Cursor.HotSpot=Middle,Center ;yep, words this time... (Top/Middle/Bottom), (Left/Center/Right)

The prefix varies for other things.
A unit's deploy cursor for instance might be done with DeployCursor.Frame=110, etc...

Advantages:
- no list = no hunting all over the ini, only one edit required
- overviewable due to a structured tag naming (inspired by programming languages as you might notice)

Disadvantages:
- not sure whether not having names is a disadvantage...

As for modifying the originals, it's a possibility.
WW's mouse cursor data lies in the R/W segment so it can be modified at runtime.
Maybe I should introduce a MouseCursors section after all, but rather than holding lists it holds the default mouse cursor info:
Tote.Frame=...
Tote.Count=...
etc.

Would not be a required section.
What d'you think?

[Marshall]

Sounds perfect.

[gordon-creAtive]

Sounds perfect.

[Bobingabout]

the dots don't sound like a YR rules tag... also, with it like this, would it be possible to use on an existing superweapon?

[IcySon55]

Go for it!

[Nighthawk]

Sorry to bump the topic, but I noticed something the other day when I was editing mouse.sha. Although there are heal frames in the file, they aren't all there. Only half the cursor frames are there, there are 5 in mouse.sha compared with the original 10 in TS's mouse.shp, so if you are repointing the original Heal action to those frames, you should probably take that into account.

Edit: I probably should have mentioned that with only 5 frames instead of the full 10, the cursor doesn't look right .