1. How do you change the hotkey of a button?

2. How do you change the distance between the unit and its shadow?

1. You change them with TBLPad. The string format is like "m<1>Build <3>M<1>arine<0>" (It not really like that it was just an example)
the lowercase m at the very beggining indicated the key that will be the hotkey.

2. It depends on which unit but all of the shadows (or most of them) are controlled via iscript. They are just underlays of certain grps displayed under the unit. (the grps that are blue colored shapes of units).
In most of the cases the shadows are called by the op code "imgul" followed by the GRP number and the coordinates. (that is if I'm not mistaken in the coordinate-grp order)

All that you'll need to do is change strings with TBLPad for the first one and hunt the shadow for the second one and change the coordinates to whatever you wish.

i explain it a bit more:

first of all the hotkey [here: m]
then the code <1> to show those letters behind in the light-blue color
<3> just colors the hotkey-letter to yellow, here the M after the M you have to re-code the <1>
the <0> has to be the last displayed letter, otherwise it'll crash the game as soon as you move your mouse above the unit-icon [here above the marine icon]

hints:
You should notice which hotkey-letters are already in use for that building/unit
for example: if you have made the hotkey for a bat to m, and didn't changed the one for Marine, just a marine will be trained if you press M.... but if you have removed the marine-icon and then press M the abt will be build

to change strings in a mod you first have to extract the stat_txt.tbl from your stardat.mpq [or google it^^]
change the strings inside via using tblpad [from shadowflare, nice prog btw^^] then use winMPQ, open your mod-exe, then add the stat_txt.tbl with "rez\" infront [ rez\ is also the path inside of stardat.mpq, so filter all rez\ datas to find it easier ]

there are local ID's ... each ID stands for an other language, sorry, don't know what ID is what language


-edit-

to your second question I can't give you some adive, but just so you know:
shadows of units are automatly created, so you have NOT to edit the shadows of them [you can't anyway; there aren't shadow.grp's for units ]
building's shadows has to drawn by yourself.... these are saved under paths like this:
unit\terran\brshdw.grp [i'm not sure if that is a correct one ]
these shadows are shown blue in draw-programms like "The Gimp2"; use exactly that color to draw the shadow....

I'm just wondering why blizzard hasn't used the same shadow-creator like in units?? It's very annoying to create them because you have to be good in remembering building-forms, or just copy the building, paste it in the shadow box, then create the shadows in there, and remove the building again


GL HF with creating mods and becoming a successfull modder

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 22 2008, 12:07 pm by DeVouReR.

Actually for the string part you are only half correct DeVouReR. The first "<1>" in your example does not say that the text following it is light blue, read this.

i know that the first <1> enable the "displaying" option.... the <0> closes it.... he don't need the professional details, because he is a beginner, k?

Professional? You think that is so much harder to understand that he shouldn't know it? You are just setting him up for more problems and questions because you gave false and/or incomplete information.

TBL's aren't hard to understand how they work...don't hold back details.

it's not hard, for displayed strings on buttons, it's always:

hotkey<display tag>String<0>

All the additional tags inside are just colorization tags, very much the same as those in map strings. Normally it really is just to Identify the hotkey used...although mods sometimes have it like this:

(using marine as an example)
m<1>Build Marine (M)<0>
(or it could be)
m<1>Build Marine (<3>M<1>)<0>

it's all about knowing what hex-tags do what where...

Some units do have shadow grp's...it's air units that you can cheat on. Ground units need their own shadows.

...

Let's put it this way, when you ask for help, do you expect a well-made, correct and proffesional answer from us or would you like us to answer your questions with wrong information only because you're a begginer?

To expand a bit more with the modding application of strings is that the new modder fad is to describe what the unit/building is and does with the string.

Just like in those fancy mods that explain what a unit named "rocket launcher" does.

The string format is like:
m<1>Build <3>M<1>arine<10> Marine is the most basic infantry unit. With their gauss rifles they can shoot fire rapidly<0>

The <10> is a new line. But you don't have to use the <10> you can just press enter on the string editing box in TBLpad and it will automatically read it as a new line tag.

Uh... what? That's what the shad files are for. Only air units, generally, don't have shadow grps - they simply use a palette-shifted underlay of the base unit sprite set a number of pixels low. And what do you mean by "automatly created"?
...
Which, of course, means that the shadows for any non-air units will look funny if you do move them down, since you'll have a gap between the bottom of a unit and its shadow.
Hey, that kinda stuff's pretty standard for anyone that does much graphic editing, anyways. =P I'm assuming that by "shadow box" you're speaking in the context of editing a building's shad file...

Actually, I believe only flying buildings don't have grps. I could be wrong though but I remember having this conversation with Farty.

Some air units just don't have shadows. I've seen it myself. I can't name one of thsoe, however, because I know I might be wrong. I think the Corsair is one of those, however.

thx guys....

oh and devourer, i feel kinda offended....

I actually had modding experience back in 2005 when Memgraft was still around... and I know how to use IceCC, Firegraft, and Retrogrp....

so i am definately not a beginner....

ok sorry... didn't know... well but all I have posted was right, and you dont need to know the very specific details... I think there may are some well known modder who don't care why that works like that....
I just have offerd you my help :l

That modder should die, especially considering the very nature of modding.

Good for you.
But giving a man a fish will only feed him once.

-

At this point, I can't really help much since you've already been helped.

But hey, here's something you probably knew (or just in case you didn't):
All ground-anything have custom/their own GRP shadows (or something of the sort). I believe most air units and other flying buildings use their own graphics in a "shadow" palette.

Actually no not everything was correct:

If you had read the link i provided you would know that is not what it does.


It doesn't matter what you think, you are trying to help someone right now, and help people down the line with the same problem, so you should give a full correct answer. Its like if someone asks "Whats 2+2?" and you say "It's 4, but you dont have to know what the + means"

Scourge, GRP File = 1 = zerg\avenger.grp
Scourge Shadow, GRP File = 1 = zerg\avenger.grp.
The shadow image.dat entries for air units are, with no exception I can think of off the top of my head, always just the original grps, but with palette set to shadow, rather than standard. And just to be sure, I checked Queen, Mutalisk, Guardian, Devourer, Overlord - none of them use shadow grps. I suppose the files might exist, but if they do, they're unused.