Author Topic: Tutorial: WeiDU SUBCOMPONENTs (new in v165)  (Read 3580 times)

Offline CamDawg

  • Infidel
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 859
  • Dreaming of a red Xmas
    • The Gibberlings Three
Tutorial: WeiDU SUBCOMPONENTs (new in v165)
« on: November 28, 2004, 09:50:29 AM »
SUBCOMPONENTs allow to group together a set of mutually exclusive mod components into a single menu-style selection. The primary purpose of SUBCOMPONENTs is to streamline mod installation and to make life easier for end users. For example, SUBCOMPONENTS are ideal if you wish to provide multiple portrait selections for an NPC mod, have several kits available to one NPC, or for changes that conflict with one another (i.e. raising an XP cap to 10 million or raising it to 20 million). We’ll use the first one—multiple portrait options—as an example.

Without SUBCOMPONENTs, the install dialogue would look something like this:

Code: [Select]
Install Component [Delainy Portrait 1 by Bob]
[Y]es, [N]o, or [Q]uit

Install Component [Delainy Portrait 2 by Fred]
[Y]es, [N]o, or [Q]uit

Install Component [Delainy Portrait 3 by Wilhelmus]
[Y]es, [N]o, or [Q]uit

The end user would need to click through the options each time. Worse, conflicting components could be installed. These problems can be limited somewhat by judicious use of predicates, but taking advantage of the SUBCOMPONENT feature yields far superior results:

Code: [Select]
Install Component [Delainy Portrait]
[N]o, [Q]uit, or choose one:
 1] Portrait 1 by Bob
 2] Portrait 2 by Fred
 3] Portrait 3 by Wilhelmus

Only one of these options can be installed at any time; re-installing and selecting a different SUBCOMPONENT will automatically uninstall the previously installed one. Setting this up is dead simple:

Code: [Select]
BEGIN ~Portrait 1 by Bob~
/* The string above is displayed in the subcomponent listing, i.e. the list with 1] 2] 3] etc. You can, of course, use TRA references instead for this and the SUBCOMPONENT string below. */
SUBCOMPONENT ~Delainy Portrait~
/* The string above is displayed as the component listing and must be the same for each SUBCOMPONENT. The tp2 code that follows is only executed if this SUBCOMPONENT is selected. */
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt1G.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIG.bmp~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt1M.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIM.bmp~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt1S.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIS.bmp~

BEGIN ~Portrait 2 by Fred~
SUBCOMPONENT ~Delainy Portrait~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt2G.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIG.bmp~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt2M.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIM.bmp~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt2S.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIS.bmp~

BEGIN ~Portrait 3 by Wilhelmus~
SUBCOMPONENT ~Delainy Portrait~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt3G.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIG.bmp~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt3M.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIM.bmp~
COPY ~Delainy/portraits/opt3S.bmp~ ~override/CDDELAIS.bmp~

Any REQUIRE_FILEs or other module requirements for the whole group should be put with the first subcomponent. If such a requirement fails, none of the subcomponents can be installed. In addition, each individual subcomponent can be guarded by its own predicate. If that predicate fails, that particular subcomponent cannot be installed.

One note about SUBCOMPONENTs and mod ordering: WeiDU will display SUBCOMPONENTs in a single grouping no matter if they fall consecutively in the tp2 or not. However, the component number (the one that gets placed in weidu.log and the one you check for in REQUIRE_COMPONENT et al) is still based on their tp2 order.

Discussion and comments can be handled in this thread.
The Gibberlings Three - Home of IE Mods

The BG2 Fixpack - All the fixes of Baldurdash, plus a few hundred more. Now available, with more fixes being added in every release.