[General] Cannot Edit Game Interface

[sentrywiz]

Hi all.

For some reason, the epic map I am making doesn't save my game interface changes. When I try to replace the text in Agility, Strength, Intelligence, Damage and Armor fields with my custom ones, not only do they not display in-game but when I close the editor all the changes I've made are deleted. (note, I do save the map)

I have lot of imports in the map so I'm wondering if anything conflicts with the Game Interface like custom font, models, skins, spells, icons...

 

[GIMLI_2]

I have lot of imports in the map so I'm wondering if anything conflicts with the Game Interface like custom font, models, skins, spells, icons...

i dont think thats the case, maybe you used some symbols like a comma, which cuts off the rest of the text.

 

[sentrywiz]

i dont think thats the case, maybe you used some symbols like a comma, which cuts off the rest of the text.

No its not that. I tried with only text, no color codes and it still didn't work.

It doesn't explain why my changes aren't saved when I re-open the map.

 

[GIMLI_2]

i had the same problem sometime, and i think i fixed it, but i dont know how i did that. maybe i can figure it out and tell it you tomorrow

 

[sentrywiz]

i had the same problem sometime, and i think i fixed it, but i dont know how i did that. maybe i can figure it out and tell it you tomorrow

Sounds good. I think its something with imports, maybe the font? Because I import a file to change the fonts of stuff.

 

[Zeatherann]

That is your issue, as the font change is registered in the text file that changing the interface also saves. You can't have two files of the same name. I'd manually export and import the interface file after you're done working on the map to manually add the font changes.

 

[sentrywiz]

That is your issue, as the font change is registered in the text file that changing the interface also saves. You can't have two files of the same name. I'd manually export and import the interface file after you're done working on the map to manually add the font changes.

So you're saying I should export the font files, work on my map and when I'm done just put it back in?

 

[WaterKnight]

Export the war3mapSkin.txt, where you have set the font options, then delete it from the imports so you can make your changes in the World Editor, save, open the map with an mpq editor, export the war3mapSkin.txt again under another name, merge the lines of the two exported files (pay attention to the classification in [] brackets, dunno if you can have them doubly), reimport the result.

Alternatively edit the UI\SkinMetaData.slk, so you can display the fields for the font changes within the editor. Then you do not need the custom war3mapSkin.txt import.

 

[Zeatherann]

Thank you for further explaining the issue WaterKnight.

 

[sentrywiz]

Export the war3mapSkin.txt, where you have set the font options, then delete it from the imports so you can make your changes in the World Editor, save, open the map with an mpq editor, export the war3mapSkin.txt again under another name, merge the lines of the two exported files (pay attention to the classification in [] brackets, dunno if you can have them doubly), reimport the result.

Alternatively edit the UI\SkinMetaData.slk, so you can display the fields for the font changes within the editor. Then you do not need the custom war3mapSkin.txt import.

This is really good explanation but I don't understand a couple of things:

First where is this UI\SkinMetaData.slk? Is it a file, option? And how can I edit it?

Second, I don't use NewGen version of the editor ... I am not sure what mpq editor is anyway.

Can you simply tell me what to insert into the war3mapSkin.txt? Since its a text file.

EDIT: I downloaded mpq editor and opened the map in it.

The war3mapSkin.txt exported through mpq and the one I had contained the exactly same text, there was nothing added with mpq:

war3mapSkin.txt

[CustomSkin]
ChatFont=SF Atarian System.ttf
EscMenuTextFont=SF Atarian System.ttf
TextTagFont=SF Atarian System.ttf
InfoPanelTextFont=SF Atarian System.ttf
MessageFont=SF Atarian System.ttf
MasterFont=SF Atarian System.ttf

Also there is no export in mpq editor. Do you mean extract?

 

[WaterKnight]

The latest SkinMetaData.slk is in the War3Patch.mpq. Since this mpq contains no listfile, see here.

Do not edit wc3's own mpqs. But you can extract the file and put it in your wc3 directory Warcraft III\UI\SkinMetaData.slk (create the UI folder if it does not exist yet). The next time you run the editor, it will use this file path with priority.

There are different mpq editors, I do not see much difference between the terms "export" and "extract".

The map can only have one war3mapSkin.txt at a time. You could not save changes in the Interface Editor because the spot was already taken by your imported file. So the Interface Editor-version does not exist within the map archive yet. You have to delete the current war3mapSkin.txt, preferably using the Import Manager of the World Editor because imports are listed in the war3map.imp too, then make changes in the Interface Editor, save the map and finally reopen it with the mpq editor to see the new war3mapSkin.txt.

I recommend the solution with the modified SkinMetaData.slk though since you'd have to repeat the other procedure everytime when you want another change.

 

[sentrywiz]

The latest SkinMetaData.slk is in the War3Patch.mpq. Since this mpq contains no listfile, see here.

Do not edit wc3's own mpqs. But you can extract the file and put it in your wc3 directory Warcraft III\UI\SkinMetaData.slk (create the UI folder if it does not exist yet). The next time you run the editor, it will use this file path with priority.

There are different mpq editors, I do not see much difference between the terms "export" and "extract".

The map can only have one war3mapSkin.txt at a time. You could not save changes in the Interface Editor because the spot was already taken by your imported file. So the Interface Editor-version does not exist within the map archive yet. You have to delete the current war3mapSkin.txt, preferably using the Import Manager of the World Editor because imports are listed in the war3map.imp too, then make changes in the Interface Editor, save the map and finally reopen it with the mpq editor to see the new war3mapSkin.txt.

I recommend the solution with the modified SkinMetaData.slk though since you'd have to repeat the other procedure everytime when you want another change.

Didn't knew that war3 had such a complex procedure to add a custom font with a game interface changed. Thanks for your elaboration on this. +rep

I'll try the UI skindata solurion, but I want to ask: can't I import a war3skin file that has all of the options in the game interface changed? Like a big text file with all the changes I want including font and changed text attributes?

 

[WaterKnight]

What is complex? It was simply not planned to expose the font fields to the World Editor. You can also easily crash the game with invalid fonts/information, maybe that's why.

Of course you can assemble your war3mapSkin.txt however you want. But I do not presume you want to look up what fields there are (by checking the different UI files for instance), risking that you make syntax errors or typos in the identifiers and reimport the file into the map everytime.

 

[sentrywiz]

What is complex? It was simply not planned to expose the font fields to the World Editor. You can also easily crash the game with invalid fonts/information, maybe that's why.

Of course you can assemble your war3mapSkin.txt however you want. But I do not presume you want to look up what fields there are (by checking the different UI files for instance), risking that you make syntax errors or typos in the identifiers and reimport the file into the map everytime.

The font field would just one other thing. There are so many things that are exposed in the world editor that could potentially crash the map anyway. There is no room for errors with wc3, it either works or it doesn't.

Well I had to re-read what you wrote, because I've never used a mpq editor or tangled with wc3Skin files. So I guess the easier solution to me is the one with the mpq editor, because now I finally understand what you mean:

- I remove the war3skin, edit via Game Interface and that creates a new war3skin that I cannot see until I open it in mpq editor
- Then I can extract that file and add the font changes I want and import that new file

I think that's right.