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Making a mod almost always is associated with custimizing the User Interface (UI). Basically
this means to make changes to the default game screens to get a certain look&feel for the mod.
This can be achieved in more than just one way.
Since this is all basically 2D graphics work, some graphics editor program is required. And since
uses a graphics formats of it's own (IMG/STP), some converter is required for converting graphics to IMG
| Most NHeat mods come shipped with only screen backgrounds
being changed; layouts, buttons and such is from the original game. This way of customizing UI is
fairly easy to do, and you can achieve pretty good results for the mod specific look&feel.
Buttons/options from original game that you want to skip can easily be dropped by deleting the
referring buttons from UI.RES
GroupC mod is an example for this kind of
UI customization. To work this way, you only need to have information about which screen uses what
background image. This info can be found on
the Item Listing page
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More ambitious mod makers usually go for customizing the buttons
and other items too. These are all images basically - and quite a lot - but Heat treats them in a
different way. You can achieve more individual screen designs if almost every screen item is
mod specific. The basic screen layout still is from original game, even though button editing
already offers some basic options to slightly alter screen layouts
Mods made by RJR,for example
WGTC mod, are good examples for customizing UI this way.
To customize buttons, you'll need to understand how they work, which is described
on Button Editing page. And you need to know
what button images to edit for what screen. You'll once again find that info on
Item Listing page
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| But NHeat's internal structure allows
for customizing the UI far beyond just editing images. It's possible to
have entirely individual screen layouts, even to add/skip options on certain screens.
You could even make almost every Heat screens look like another sim's UI. This
can be done by editing Heat's screen layout description files (LYT files)
Sportscar GTS mod's UI is an example for what's possible - it's design is an hommage to
ISI's SCGT game
You'll find the basic information on how to edit screen layouts on
Layout Editing page; what LYT file refers
to what screen can be found on Item Listing page
again.
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[ UI: Bascis ] |
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