Announcment [ Working on portable status bar tutorial. ]

[N.O.S 4]

Well, seeing every struggle to learn how to make a nice looking status bar I took it upon myself to dive into the matter.

Thanks to the jerks who said "We don't share code", assuming there code is something one can't replicate. So, I am replicating it, in my own way, and once I am done I am going to be doing a tutorial on how to properly design, and implement, a exile status bar.

What you can expect when it is complete.

A document explaining the design and implementation of a  status bar, with a graphic background, user defined icons for each element, and a some-what decent explanation on the horrible formatting method we use to make it work and to have it display in your server.

I would like to thank CRE4MPIE for their amazing work who gave me the foundation to work with in order to make this document.

ETA: 1 Week

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So, in other words, I am sick of people hoarding knowledge. Exile, is shared code, Arma, is shared code. You are not special, your code is not groundbreaking. Good luck.

[WolfkillArcadia 758]

I appreciate your honesty on the matter. I also wish you luck on your endeavors. But I will make a few comments towards the matter. 

2 hours ago, N.O.S said:

So, in other words, I am sick of people hoarding knowledge. Exile, is shared code, Arma, is shared code. You are not special, your code is not groundbreaking. Good luck.

I can kinda agree and disagree with your words. You are right that Exile and Arma is "shared code", and the ArmA community is very much open to sharing code with each other. However, there is a bit of tug-o-war going on with scripts and code, especially with a mod like Exile. 

There are a few reasons, that I see, why people are "hoarding" knowledge, and frankly, I can agree with one of them.
One, communities want something unique. I hear this all the time, "we are X community, boasting some unique code so players come to play on our servers". This works as that the popular communities out there, not naming names, gained a lot of popularity because of unique features. This comes with a downfall because if, let's say that code is released publicly, their server is no different than 90% of the servers out there. That causes a "code lockdown" where a community isn't going to release the code because then they lose some of their player base. Don't get me wrong, I'm aware there are other reasons why players stay on a server. 

Two, and this I can agree with, that there are plenty of people out there that LOVE to take code and claim it for themselves. As a developer, especially for a community, this causes a lot of annoyances. You spend hours/days/weeks/months working on code only for someone to take it and claim it for their own inside their community. That makes you not want to give your code out anymore. This has been happening for a very long time, and it's become a norm to just join a server, download the mission file and then cherry pick scripts out. Especially with the "status-bar" crap. 

Three, the community. Try releasing a script to a community. Something that you've spent a lot of time and effort on. /rant/ Only for "thanks." or even better (this is my favorite quote from someone in a different community) "Why did this sorry shithead waste their time writing this script? They could've spent the time volunteering in Africa doing something that matters.". /end rant/ Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people out there who honestly appreciate the work you put in, and they are the ones that make it worthwhile, but there are a lot of people out there who think "free" means "I'm ENTITLED to free and immediate support, as well as, everything else.". 

Spend a few months out there with those hitting you a lot and you will realize why "hoarding" happens in a community. Or it could be that I'm just jaded, who knows. I, personally, have no issues with releasing the scripts that I made to the public, but there are times that I've wanted to shut it all down. I'm sure there are plenty of developers out there that wanted to do that as well. 

Just an FYI:
This above is just what I've seen over the few communities I've worked scripts and used scripts from. I'm aware that not every community/person is like this.

 

Now to the helpful part:

Status-bars have to be constantly on the screen, so to help you on your way, "RscTitles" will be your friend. The status - bars I've seen use while loops to update the values on the screen, however, it would be interesting to see if using Exile's threading system, if it would be faster / more efficient. If not, definitely spawn your code because it needs to be on another thread all together. 
The backgrounds/icons are .paa files which are just ArmA's image files. You can convert .png, .targa, and I think .jpg into .paa using Arma tools. RscPicture will be your holding box for that .paa file. 

If you do need some help, feel free to PM me and I will try to help. Again, good luck and it will be interesting to see the outcome. 

[N.O.S 4]

Quote

Two, and this I can agree with, that there are plenty of people out there that LOVE to take code and claim it for themselves. As a developer, especially for a community, this causes a lot of annoyances. You spend hours/days/weeks/months working on code only for someone to take it and claim it for their own inside their community. That makes you not want to give your code out anymore. This has been happening for a very long time, and it's become a norm to just join a server, download the mission file and then cherry pick scripts out. Especially with the "status-bar" crap. 

Three, the community. Try releasing a script to a community. Something that you've spent a lot of time and effort on. /rant/ Only for "thanks." or even better (this is my favorite quote from someone in a different community) "Why did this sorry shithead waste their time writing this script? They could've spent the time volunteering in Africa doing something that matters.". /end rant/ Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people out there who honestly appreciate the work you put in, and they are the ones that make it worthwhile, but there are a lot of people out there who think "free" means "I'm ENTITLED to free and immediate support, as well as, everything else.". 

You took the words right from me man, honestly. It is sad, we can't just all be like "Yeah, this guy did really good work on X script", we can't because we do not live in a perfect world. I understand not wanting to release good code, but some people do get a bit extreme, even to the point of A. Refusing to answer questions in regards to scripting things, or B. Which has happened to me time and time again (thankful my C++ background keeps me on the right path) people PURPOSELY dishing out wrong info in order to make it harder for you to learn.

I am SUPER interested in trying to make something that really lives inside exile, I am however likely going with the spawn method, similar to most epoch / wasteland scripts. My goal with this project is to learn it enough to teach it