I'm building a plug-in, basically taking the EV Override TC that currently exists and expanding the universe to better take advantage of all the cool new features in EVN. One of the things I am trying to do is replace the old EVO interfaces with the EVN interfaces (gonna need a new main menu screen, but I'll worry about that when I get to it).

I'm running into some problems. I can re-introduce the EVN side bar (with shield info and cargo and all that stuff) without any problems. But, when I try to bring all the other dialog screens (hailing a ship, landing on a planet, and especially the map) back to their EVN configurations... it won't work.

I can get the graphics to work, but the buttons are still at their old locations.

I'm using the EVNEW program (I play on a Windows). How do I get the buttons and so forth back to their EVN configurations? Thanks.

There are two resources that handle the size, shape, and configuration of dialogue windows, including the main screen. These are the DITL and DLOG resources. You need to copy the ones from EVN into your plug-in over the EVO ones. After that everything should show up correctly.

Gotcha.

Unfortunately, it seems that EVNEW isn't set up to edit these resources. Any suggestions? Or, if you happen to know, what file are these things located in?

As far as I know, there is no Windows editor that can handle those resources. The latest Windows alpha of Mission Computer does not seem to play with them, and EVNEW does not edit them at all. (In fact, I did not even know they existed for Windows Nova until recently because of this.) I'm not sure if these editors are something that David Arthur is working on at all with the Windows build of Mission Computer.

Even if the current Windows alpha of Mission Computer doesn't edit the DLOG and DITL resources, I believe it can at least copy and paste them into other files. Though you should check in with David Arthur first on that. If they can do as much, then you should be able to simply copy them from EVN to your plug-in.

However, I cannot seem to find either resource in any of the Nova Files on my Mac. This is exceptionally strange as I always thought it was impossible for Nova to run without these.

I'll try my hand at Mission Computer.

My secondary plan was to try and find which data file they were contained it, strip it of all other data resources (so nothing conflicts with my stuff), then drop it in the plug-in folder. I was theorizing that, if the data is still in there, it should be loaded by EVN and because it's in the plug-in folder would hopefully override the resources I can't get rid of in the main data file.

@darthkev, on 08 February 2013 - 01:12 PM, said in Interface button locations:

However, I cannot seem to find either resource in any of the Nova Files on my Mac. This is exceptionally strange as I always thought it was impossible for Nova to run without these.

Traditionally they’re in the application file itself; they’re standard Macintosh resource types that were once integral to almost all applications, rather than part of the EV plug-in architecture. I believe the Windows version (possibly also version 1.1 for Macintosh) stores them in a separate file called ‘Nova.rez’ or something of that ilk.

And there’s no requirement that a plug-in contain them. If you simply omit them from your work, the game should revert to its internal copies (again, if the application has an external resource file, that should be left intact).

The problem is that I'm working off of the EVO TC, so the files that changed the interface are buried along with all the other data like ships and weapons and so forth. I can't pick it out, or simply omit it.

(EDIT) SUCCESS! I saw the Nova.rez file that David Arthur mentioned, and although I couldn't find if anything was contained within, I figured that... IF the data I need is in there, what if I just move the file? But as it might still not override the data that I had in the EVO files, I made a copy and put it in the plug-in folder to override the stuff I was trying to get around. Seems to work! Thanks for the help!

This post has been edited by Captain Carnotaur : 10 February 2013 - 09:43 AM

@david-arthur, on 08 February 2013 - 05:46 PM, said in Interface button locations:

Traditionally they’re in the application file itself; they’re standard Macintosh resource types that were once integral to almost all applications, rather than part of the EV plug-in architecture. I believe the Windows version (possibly also version 1.1 for Macintosh) stores them in a separate file called ‘Nova.rez’ or something of that ilk.

Well, I don't see a Nova.rez file here on my Mac, but I do see a Nova-DF.rsrc file. However, it cannot be opened with MC. I can only assume they're in there but require some other application to open them.

DarthKev: Try making a copy of that file and changing its extension to .ndat - I suspect that might allow MissionComputer to open it.

That did it. Some interesting stuff in there I'd never seen before, too.

@darthkev, on 10 February 2013 - 11:35 PM, said in Interface button locations:

Some interesting stuff in there I'd never seen before, too.

Like what?
Last time I checked the Nova resource file on my PC copy of the game, it just defined some button labels.

Like this.

Yes, it contains everything that used to be in the application's resource fork - except, of course, the bits that were actual programme code, but including the things Matt put on there as a joke. (The need to change the extension comes from the fact that it's a data-fork resource file, which MissionComputer has no way of knowing without the .ndat extension.)