Multiple non-conflicting mods

[Marshall]

Looking good. See attached.

On the subject of graphical contributions, is anyone any good at making icons? I've created a few icons for Launch Base but I'm not really happy with any of them.

[Renegade]

God damnit. The gradient is butchered again. I sure hope it's your screenshots doing this. I'm not gonna go below 256 colors.

RE: Icons - what did you have in mind?

Edit: I did something out of boredom...originally, it said "LB" in Yuri sign style, but the resizing mostly destroyed the experience. Theoretically, there are 64, 32 and 16px versions inside the .ico, but Windows would only let me select the 64px one.

If you don't like it, no big deal...I just had that idea, it was doable quickly, so I did it.

The attached .rar includes only the .ico, since .ico isn't in the file type whitelist. For comparison, I attached the source full-size png...so you can see how much detail was lost...
Maybe you can use it for something else.

[Bobingabout]

that logo is very "Yuri is master!"ish.

[Marshall]

Not sure what you mean about the gradient still being butchered - to me it now looks the same in PSP and Launch Base. I think it's just the controls on top that may distract from the look.

I'll take a look at the icon when I get home from work - thanks!

[Marshall]

New feature:
Skip EA Logo Video
With this option enabled, iff the mod you are playing has not included it's own video then Launch Base will provide a blank video so that the logo will be skipped.

Attached is a screenshot of Launch Base with the options menu open.
This also shows Renegade's LB icon resized - I think it looks better than anything I've made so it's what I'm going to use, at least for now, unless anyone has any other submissions...

[Renegade]

"Silly IPB Questions"...love it

Anyway, both my .ico and my .png have transparent backgrounds...so where does the white come from?

[Marshall]

I added the white instead of transparent because that allowed me to resample the large image instead of resizing it. This makes the edges smoother. Besides, a dark 'LB' on a dark title bar would not be very easy to see.

The silly IPB questions:
"The video you have selected is not recognised as being for the same mod version that you are about to launch. This video is likely to exhibit unusual behaviour, little or no action, and possibly Internal Errors. It is strongly recommended that you do not play this video. Are you sure that you want to play this video?" [Yes/No]
> Yes
"You have pressed No." [Yes/No]
> No
"I'm almost positive you did." [Yes/No]
> No
:User is sure, allow video to be played.

If anyone has any questions or suggestions at this stage then please feel free to post.

[Bobingabout]

i have a question. what videos?

[Marshall]

If you're referring to my last post, the scripted game videos that YR is capable of recording and playing back. The neccessary command line switches and organisation of the (.ipb) files is handled by Launch Base.

[Marshall]

Whilst I'm waiting for the DLL I've been making Launch Base more robust with better handling of third-party interference and its own Internal Error system (just in case any errors crop up, not that I expect they will).

The following is the only potential issue I can see at the moment:
LB Plugins can easily be overwritten by third party files and Launch Base wouldn't know. Users of non-LB mods will need to check that the mod/plugin they are installing won't overwrite any LB Plugins.
However, that isn't much different to how things work now. I anticipate most if not all plugins will be made available in Launch Base (I hope exclusively) so this isn't much of an issue.

Any residual mod files from non-LB mods in the RA2 directory shouldn't pose a problem, as Launch Base will temporarily remove them, and then restore them after YR closes (provided Persistant Mods is turned off - this is essential for non-LB mod users).

[Marshall]

SKIN CHANGES

As there is now going to be some RA2 support in Launch Base I needed a way of indicating which mods would launch RA2 and which mods would launch YR.

I have decided to go with including an icon on the launch button. I am combining this with rudimentary skinnable buttons.

The buttons will work much like the ones in XCC Mod Launcher (i.e. they have a standard button border - only the middle of the button can be skinned).

A skin does not have to include button images, as default ones will be used instead.

One limitation (at least for now) is that there will only be one image specified. Disabled buttons will be greyed and may look out of place on some skins.

The "Launch Mod", "Install Plugin" and "Uninstall Plugin" buttons have two different images associated with them - a Red Alert 2 version and a Yuri's Revenge version.

Attached to this post is a zip file containing some example images that show how the skinnable buttons work. This is mainly for Renegade in case he wants to add skinned buttons to his skin - the zip includes an image of part of Renegade's existing skin.


And finally, there is one other change to the skins. The "..." button that opens a dialog to select your FA2 folder will now be a flat image embedded in the tab2 skin. If the tab does not include an image for this button then the button will be invisible.

@Renegade, if you have the time and inclination to update your skin (especially with regard to the last part of the above info) I would be most grateful!

[Modder666]

Triple post FTW...

Good ideas on the RA2 support, Marshall. I do believe this will be quite the program when it's released...

[Marshall]

Triple post FTW...

Given that my posts are usually some days apart, on different subtopics, and in what is essentially a news thread, I think I can be forgiven.

Good ideas on the RA2 support, Marshall. I do believe this will be quite the program when it's released...

Thank you. I hope it will be well received.

[Renegade]

As usual, screenshots would be nice to see the outcome.

My [...] button is nudged 2px down to better fit the design, but as long as people aim for the button center and not the lowest two rows, that should be no problem.

P.S.: I'd have whacked Marsh already if I considered his successive posts a violation of the rules. The significant delay between his posts is the key factor.

[Marshall]

Nice.

Although the tab2 button seems a bit low. I should have included an example image that shows where the user can click.
Attached are some shots that show most of the button configurations, as well as the example image that I didn't include before.