1 Description
The SvS Appearance Widget (SAW) is a new feature for SvS items that gives you one or more of the following (if configured and enabled by the mod author)
- change the position of the item after placement
- change the colours (=materials) of a certain item
- change the colours (=materials) of parts of an item
- change sizes
- change an items shape (*)
- change particle effects
(*) The corresponding SAW is closed and must be opened again.
Not all options may be available for a particular item. This depends on whether it makes sense for the item in question and whether it has been configured. SAW helps prevent dozens of the same items that differ only slightly in color/material, size, and shape, which will shrink the number of admin menu items.
In addition, this system will help shorten the development time for new variations. For example, the number of buttons is dynamically created depending on the configuration of the article. Errors can be found more easily because the items in the backend have a common item template with SAW.
In SAW is included the Re-Position widget that allows you to change the position of the object AFTER placing it. You can move the object in any direction or rotate it in any axis. You can move an item a maximum of one foundation further up, down, left or right. This is where an anti-cheat system kicks in to prevent you from moving the item halfway across the map and blocking entrances from unwelcome players, for example.
2 How to access SAW
Radial menu entry to access SAW
There are two ways to access SAW.
1) 1. SAW can be accessed from the radial menu (see figure to the right), provided it is enabled for the item in question. Focus on the object, hold down E and simply click on the SvS icon.
A new widget will appear your right-hand-side to your game window.
SAW main blocks
The SAW widget (to the left) consists of two main blocks:
- orange marked re-position widget
- blue marked: appearance setup widget
If you make changes in the repositioning and these are not yet saved, the lettering of the "CLOSE" button turns gray and the lettering of the "APPLY" button turns yellow (see image on the right). The coloring serves as an indication of these unsaved changes.
You can click on the gray labeled button "CLOSE" to close the widget, but your changes will not be saved permanently in this case! That means, only you can see the changes and the item is set back to the position as before your change after restarting the server.
Coloring of "Apply" and "Close" as indicators for unsaved changes
To save the changes permanently, click on "Apply". The "Close" button will turn green again (as will the "Apply" button), indicating that your changes have now been applied.
2) 2. You can also use the admin tool "SAW Activate (Aim) as described in chapter 6.2.7) Special Items. It works similarly to the removal tools, meaning you have to "aim" at the item you want to activate the SAW from. You can do this from some feet distance.
There are two different "SAW Activate (Aim)" tools. One is for SvS-Ext and the other is for SvS2. Due to some internal restrictions you can't activate a SAW item with the respective tool of the other mod. An error message will tell you if this is the case.
With this admin tool you can activate the respective SAW even for items like cobwebs, fire etc., as long as SAW is activated for the items.
3 Re-position widget
The item name will be shown above the re-position widget.
The re-position widget itself consists of two blocks. These are marked with green and yellow (see image on the left).
Derketo statue that appears to have fallen over with the help of the re-positioning function
Re-position Widget within SAW
Green:
With the help of 6 buttons you can move your item up/down/left/right/forward/backward - each of them is represented by an arrow. With each click on one of these buttons you move your item 5 Unreal units in the indicated direction. This roughly corresponds to one tenth of the length of a foundation.
Yellow:
Directly below are the buttons for changing the rotation. The plus symbol rotates the object in the positive direction of the specified axis, the minus symbol rotates in the negative direction of the specified axis. Each click increases or decreases the degree by 5. You can also enter the offset rotation directly by entering values between -360 and 360 degrees (without the degree sign itself!). See example below.
You must select the text field with the mouse and press Enter after entering a value - otherwise your value will not be accepted. The values are rounded so that they are also divisible by 5.
The values shown are an OFFSET to your current position. They are not absolute!
Example: If you enter 45 degrees in X axis, your item will rotate for +45 degrees. If you want to set it back to 0 degrees on X axis, you need to enter -45 (current position 45 degrees - 45 degrees = 0 degrees). If you enter 0 degrees nothing will change (a rotation for 0 degrees is no rotation).
APPLY & DISCARD
All changes will be made only locally on your computer in the first step. To save them on the server, press "APPLY".
DISCARD resets the element to its original position. DISCARD therefore does NOT reset the appearance settings.
You will notice that the label of the "CLOSE" button turns gray and the label of the "APPLY" button turns yellow once you have changed your position/rotation (see previous page). This is a sign of an unsaved change. Click on "APPLY". The changes will be saved. The lettering "APPLY" will turn green again, as well as the lettering of the button "CLOSE" .
Unsaved changes will be discarded when the server (or single player game) is started! Changes that have not been saved are not visible to others.
4 Appearance setup widget
Das Widget zur Änderung des Aussehens kann aus einem oder mehreren Blöcken bestehen, um deinen Gegenstand wie unter Abschnitt 1 beschrieben zu ändern.
Just click on one of these buttons. The same colored heading of a button tells you how exactly you can change the item.
You can combine several appearance changes, e.g. change the color and change the size.
NOTE: If you change the size of an item, the item's position will be reset to its original state! The same applies to changing the shape, e.g. if you replace a T1 Derketo statue with a T2 Derketo statue.
When the shape is changed, SAW closes automatically and must be reopened manually. This is necessary for programming reasons, otherwise internal references lose their target.