Organizing Ancillary Images

[Vaz]

I'd test this myself, but I don't have my disc with me, but would still like to get some more done.

Is it possible to set Ancillary images in folders, simply so it's more organized?

For example, I have an ancillary here:

Ancillary	EquipMeleeOneAsrai_The_Spirit_Sword
Type		OneHandMelee
Transfereable	0
Image		EquipMeleeOneAsrai_The_Spirit_Sword.tga
Description	EquipMeleeOneAsrai_The_Spirit_Sword_desc
EffectsDescription	EquipMeleeOneAsrai_The_Spirit_Sword_effects_desc
Effect		Hitpoints		2

Can I make the image location Equip/Melee/One/Asrai/The_Spirit_Sword.tga? It would just make it far easier for me to find.

This is because I have:

Equip - Melee - Two - and 14 other races
Equip - Melee - Pair - and 14 other races
Equip - Range - Bow - and 14 other races
Equip - Range - Thrown - and 14 other races
Equip - Armour - Body and 14 other races
Equip - Armour - Shield and 14 other races
Equip - Armour - Head and 14 other races
Equip - Talismans - 14 other races
Equip - Enchanted - 14 other races
Equip - Arcane - 14 other races
Equip - Banner - 14 other races

Basically, what I'm looking to create is a branching tree so that 300 or so Ancillary pictures just for the equipment, in addition to the Titles (195 settlements x9 languages), followers (numerous amounts).

So yeah, as you can see, with around 1000 different .tga files I'd prefer to be able to keep the appearances in the folder easy to find.

[Ishan]

AFAIK .tga files for ancillaries always have a unique location i.e.
data\ui\ancillaries

[Vaz]

Yeah, I know that.

But can I branch the tree so it's not 1000's of images in one folder location? i.e data/ui/ancillaries/equip/melee/one/asrai etc?

[irishron]

TBH, I have four mods on my harddrive and I don't believe anybody has tried it, yet.

[Ishan]

@Vaz
Is your main concern is management in a single folder or just fragmentation and latency involved due to numerous files?

[irishron]

I think the second one, Ishan.

[Vaz]

No idea what the last one is, other than that it's not good. No, this is merely management for the modding side of it. I suppose those no real benefit other than that it's a more visual example to ensure I've got to work with.

Basically, 1500 Pieces of equipment images, and probably double that amount of others (titles, retinues etc), meaning that it's going to be an extremely annoying file to work with, as everything is labelled along the lines of "type"reach"hands"faction"weapon_name".

Hence, if I can create a tree starting at:

data/ui/ancillaries/equipment, branching into "range" or "melee", then "one handed", "two handed", or "paired", then one of the 15 fictions. This then leaves 10-15 weapons in each end folder, and far easier to deal with. Also, as I'm following sourced material, It'll be easier to let me know if I've placed it incorrectly.

[Ishan]

I think it's not possible coz when a mod loads the files in them are looked at their corresponding places only; if they are not there then they are picked from the .pack files.

But i get your point you want something like a semi-transparent folder that arranges the files the way u said but still all the files exist in the same path. Right?
or am i just talking nonsense.

Of thats the way u want then why not:-

Like i said earlier

Is your main concern is management in a single folder or just fragmentation and latency involved due to numerous files

Now u can create shortcut icons of the .tga files and then paste'em in the folders u want, so i think thats the most easiest to achieve it coz all those shortcuts containing folders were be in ui\ancillaries folder.

And about the files just select the numerous files and under properties>attributes>advanced>select compress. So that all these files will consume less space on your mod making slick.

[Squid]

You could try putting in subfolder and see what happens, in EDA use ./subfolder/ancillary.tga for the image location and see what happens.

[Ishan]

@Squid
Unfortunately it doesn't works i checked it right now.

After editing EDA and defining a custom location inside ancillaries folder i loaded the campaign and gave the it via console and we get a knight holding a samurai sword like pic which only appears when the pic is not it's location.

[irishron]

Then Vaz is back to 3000 pics in one folder.

[Gigantus]

I think it was a matter of one backslash too many:

this is where my tga is: ...\data\ui\ancillaries\wappen\wp_visby.tga
this is my entry in descr_ancillaries:Image wappen/wp_visby.tga

Wappen = German for Coat of Arms

[Ishan]

I think it was a matter of one backslash too many:

this is where my tga is: ...\data\ui\ancillaries\wappen\wp_visby.tga
this is my entry in descr_ancillaries:Image wappen/wp_visby.tga

Wappen = German for Coat of Arms

I did test it with something like that but in EDA i used "\" instead of "/" and thats why it didn't worked and showed weird icon.

[irishron]

Maybe I'm wrong, again.

[Squid]

Well my example wasn't totally useless then, I just didn't need the ./ at the front of the ancillary image.

[Vaz]

Ahh, thanks for the PM Gigantus. Had just clicked on the modding section when I got PMed =D.

Thanks for your time everyone, Reps around.

[Vaz]

Rather than start a new thread - quick question, is there a way to remove ancillaries through the eda? Or any other way automatically, for that matter, after a battle?

I can provide greater detail via PM if you feel you need it, but for the moment, this is something I'd prefer to keep close to my chest.

[Ishan]

Just the way we can add new ancs the same goes for it removal.
After battle yes it's possible using a post battle trigger in the CS might do the job.

[Gigantus]

You can't remove an ancillary other then through the console or script. Not possible via EDA.

[Ishan]

You can't remove an ancillary other then through the console or script. Not possible via EDA.

I don't get it Gigantus. I think we can remove it:-
Remove the entries from EDA and it's trigger in it. Remove it from export_ancillaries.txt in the text folder and from export_descr_ancillary_enums.txt file.

Or is Vaz referring to something else like removing it via script in mid-game or via console in mid game coz that's not possible.