Nick Thomas
786d261f98
To do this, MENU and SUBMENU are split into two types (at last), and a Widget type is introduced. This should allow lots of code to be removed at some point.
283 lines
9.0 KiB
Markdown
283 lines
9.0 KiB
Markdown
# *.mnu
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These files appear to be the UI definitions for Chaos Gate. Some relate to
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system menus, other to in-game menus. Their names are hardcoded into the
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`WH40K.exe` binary. Each has a `.obj` file associated with it.
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It's an ASCII-formatted text file with a 12-line header, followed by a number
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of descriptor records.
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Here's the top of `MainGame.mnu`:
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```
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MainGame.obj
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BACKGROUND COLOR 0..255..-1 trans : 0
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HYPERTEXT COLOR 0..255 : 120
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FONT TYPE 0..5 : 10
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wh40k_12
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basfnt12
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wh40k_47
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wh40k_12_red
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wh40k_12_blue
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wh40k_12_green
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wh40k_12_yellow
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NULL
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```
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The first line of the header is a `.obj` file containing sprites we want to
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display on-screen. We see entries further down have a `SPRITEID`, which must
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reference entries in that file.
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In `SaveGame.mnu`, we can see multiple `.obj` files can be referenced.
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There are then 3 lines that seem to be fixed descriptor names with values
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that vary. Is this font colour, perhaps? Unsure.
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Next is a variable-length list of font names, referencing files in the `Fonts`
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directory.
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Finally, there's a list of records that specify the menu itself. Truncated
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contents of `SaveGame.mnu`:
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```
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#rem..........Background
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MENUID : 1
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MENUTYPE : 0
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MOVEABLE : 0
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ACTIVE : 1
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SPRITEID : 0
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ACCELERATOR: 0
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DRAW TYPE : 0
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SHARE : -1
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X-CORD : -1
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Y-CORD : -1
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DESC :
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*
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#rem..........MAIN BACKGROUND
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MENUID : 2
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MENUTYPE : 45
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MOVEABLE : 0
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ACTIVE : 1
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SPRITEID : 0
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ACCELERATOR: 0
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DRAW TYPE : 0
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SHARE : -1
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X-CORD : -1
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Y-CORD : -1
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DESC :
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#rem.......... MAIN BACKGROUND
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SUBMENUID : 1
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SUBMENUTYPE: 31
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FONTTYPE : 20
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ACTIVE : 0
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SPRITEID : -1
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ACCELERATOR: 0
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DRAW TYPE : 0
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SHARE : 0
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SOUNDTYPE : 0
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DESC :
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*
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#rem..........Chat List Box Menu
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MENUID : 21
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MENUTYPE : 1
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MOVEABLE : 0
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ACTIVE : 1
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SPRITEID : 764
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ACCELERATOR: 0
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DRAW TYPE : 0
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SHARE : -1
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X-CORD : -1
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Y-CORD : -1
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DESC :
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[...]
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*
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~
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```
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We start processing these as soon as we see `MENUID`, I suppose. Each toplevel
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item is `*`-delimited, and the list is terminated with `~`.
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Each menu has a list of parameters:
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| Name | Examples | Purpose |
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|---------|----------|---------|
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| `MENUID`| `1`, `2`, `3` | Maybe linking between menus? |
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| `MENUTYPE` | `0`, `1`, `2`, `3`, `45`, `300` | ? |
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| `MOVEABLE` | `0` | Unimplemented functionality? |
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| `ACTIVE` | `0`, `1`, `1,0` | ? |
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| `SPRITEID` | `-1`, `0`, `123`, `16,-1,1` | Select from `.obj` file? |
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| `ACCELERATOR` | | ? |
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| `DRAW TYPE` | | ? |
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| `SHARE` | | ? |
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| `X-CORD` | `-1`, `0`, `200` | X coordinate to draw at |
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| `Y-CORD` | `-1`, `0`, `200` | Y coordinate to draw at |
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| `FONTTYPE` | | Choose a font from the above? |
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| `SOUNDTYPE` | | ? |
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| `DESC` | `CHARACTER SELECT`, `51005` | Text, or reference to `Data/USEng.dta` |
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Submenus also show a couple of unique values:
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| Name | Examples | Purpose |
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|---------------|---------------|---------------|
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| `SUBMENUID` | `1`, `2`, `3` | As `MENUID` |
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| `SUBMENUTYPE` | `0`, `1`, `2` | As `MENUTYPE` |
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It seems .mnu files can also include other files, which have the extension
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`.mni` (presumably for "Menu include"). Examples:
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```
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*
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$GenDialog.mni
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$GenLoad.mni
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```
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It looks like we just interpolate the named file into the text when we come
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across one of these lines.
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The `MENUID` in `GenDialog` and `GenLoad` is a 2-element list, like `1000,1`
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or `2000,2`. The second number corresponds to the offset in the list of object
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files.
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## `MENUTYPE`
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Here's the full list of values for `MENUTYPE`:
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| Value | Meaning |
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| ----- | ------------ |
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| 0 | `Background` |
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| 1 | `Menu` |
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| 2 | `DragMenu` |
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| 3 | `RadioMenu` ??? - only seen in `LevelPly` and `LoadGame` around select-one items |
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| 45 | `MainBackground` ??? - only seen in `MainGame` and `MainGameChaos` |
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| 300 | `Dialogue` |
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The `MENUTYPE` acts as a logical grouping of a set of objects onscreen, and
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gives strong hints about how to handle their children.
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## `SUBMENUTYPE`
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The types seem to refer to different types of UI widget. Here's a list of unique
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values:
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| Value | Meaning |
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|-------|---------|
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| 3 | `Button` |
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| 30 | `DoorHotspot1` |
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| 31 | `DoorHotspot2` |
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| 40 | `LineKbd` |
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| 41 | `LineBriefing` |
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| 45 | `Thumb` |
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| 50 | `InvokeButton` |
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| 60 | `DoorHotspot3` |
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| 61 | `Overlay` |
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| 70 | `Hypertext` |
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| 91 | `Checkbox` |
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| 100 | `EditBox` |
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| 110 | `InventorySelect` |
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| 120 | `RadioButton` |
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| 200 | `DropdownButton` |
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| 205 | `ComboBoxItem` |
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| 220 | `AnimationSample` |
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| 221 | `AnimationHover` |
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| 228 | `MainButton` |
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| 232 | `Slider` |
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| 233 | `StatusBar` |
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| 400 | `ListBoxUp` |
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| 405 | `ListBoxDown` |
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`400`, `405`, and `45`, can all accept 4 values for `SUBMENUTYPE` in a
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comma-separated list. These records combine to form a `TListBox` control, with a
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number of visible slots that act as a viewport. There is a draggable vertical
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slider (the "thumb") to show where in the full list the viewport is, and up +
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down buttons to move the position of the thumb by one, so it's feasible that
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these values tell us about the available steps.
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Here are the values in `Briefing.mnu`:
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```
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#rem..........List Box Menu
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MENUTYPE : 1 # List Box Menu
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SUBMENUTYPE: 400,22,22,13 # Scroll Up
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SUBMENUTYPE: 405,22,22,13 # Scroll Down
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SUBMENUTYPE: 45, 14,15,13 # Thumb
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```
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There are 13 elements in this listbox, which sorts out the fourth number (but
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what is it used for?). The other two need more investigation.
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## Positioning
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The X-CORD and Y-CORD values would seem to be related, to this, but they are
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universally set to 0 or -1.
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Far more important are the XOffset and YOffset values for each sprite in the
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associated .obj files. Taking these into account is enough to draw `Options.mnu`
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successfully, for instance:
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However, it's *not* sufficient to put all the items for `MainGame.mnu` in the
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right place.
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## Animation
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This seems to be done by choosing a different sprite to draw every N ticks. They
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are laid out sequentially, but I don't yet know how to animate them. It's likely
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to be the same approach as used for other obj files.
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Looking at Main.mnu, it points at the object fail Main.obj. This has 118
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sprites, which can be described as follows:
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| Start | Count | Desc |
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| ------ | ----- | ---- |
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| 0 | 1 | Background image |
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| 1 | 3 | New game button: base, pressed, disabled |
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| 4 | 3 | Load game button: base, pressed, disabled |
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| 7 | 3 | Multiplayer button: base, pressed, disabled |
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| 10 | 3 | Settings button: base, pressed, disabled |
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| 13 | 3 | Quit button: base, pressed, disabled |
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| 16 | 20 | New game button: 20 animation frames |
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| 36 | 20 | Load game button: 20 animation frames |
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| 56 | 20 | Multiplayer button: 20 animation frames |
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| 76 | 20 | Settings button: 20 animation frames |
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| 96 | 20 | Quit button: 20 animation frames |
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| 116 | 1 | Section of background ("Menu title") |
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| 117 | 1 | Version hotspot |
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So we have 5 buttons with very similar characteristics, but at different sprite
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offsets, and two distinct ranges per button, plus some others. Here's some
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attributes plucked from `Main.mnu`:
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| Name | (SUB)MENUTYPE | "Active" | "SPRITEID" | "DRAW TYPE" | "SHARE" |
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| ---------- | ------------- | -------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------- |
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| Background | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
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| Start menu | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | -1 |
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| New game | 228 | 1,0 | 16,-1,1 | 20 | 1 |
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| Load game | 228 | 1,0 | 36,-1,4 | 20 | 4 |
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| MP game | 228 | 1,0 | 56,-1,7 | 20 | 7 |
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| Options | 228 | 1,0 | 76,-1,10 | 20 | 10 |
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| Quit | 228 | 1,0 | 96,-1,13 | 20 | 13 |
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| Menu title | 61 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 116 |
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| V hotspot | 61 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 117 |
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The buttons, menu title and version hotspot are submenus of the start menu.
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### `ACTIVE`
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There are only 4 values seen across all menus: `0`, `1`, `1,0`, `102` and `1,1`.
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Perhaps this represents possible states?
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### Sprite selection
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For the background (`MENUTYPE: 1`), this points simply at the sprite index in
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the object file. For the start menu, it's `-1` (no sprite, I assume). For the
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menu title and version hotspot (`MENUTYPE: 61`, it's `-1` too.
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For the buttons, it's a list pointing to the start of the 20 animated frames,
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`-1`, then the start of the 3 static frames.
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`DRAW TYPE` is the number of animated frames. We only use the animated frames
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when the button is focused. `SHARE` repeats the start of the static frames, and
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is the only place they're found for the menu title and version hotspot.
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