Front end¶

The screens the game shows outside a mission: the main menu, the pilots, the settings, the briefings and the rest. interface.cpp holds them, and GenILib's interf.cpp runs them.

Unverified: the files of the code between the two files' known code (0x004282C6 to 0x004296A0, Source files). interface_run and the front end's start-up run the screens, so OpenReliant puts them with GenILib's interf.cpp; the main menu and its drawing are one of the game's screens rather than what runs them, so they go with interface.cpp.

In OpenReliant¶

genilib/interf.zig runs the screens (interface_run) and opens what they draw with. game/interface/ holds the screens: the front end's screen and pointer in canvas.zig, the main menu in main_menu.zig, GAME OPTIONS in game_options.zig, the settings screen in settings.zig, the mods screen in mod_manager.zig, the pilot roster in pilot_roster.zig, the saved games in saved_games.zig, and the YES or NO dialog and the box saying a save failed in dialog.zig. The picture behind the screens is matmanager.Background (game/matmanager.zig). The loading screens are in game/xtrabits/loading.zig.

OpenReliant opens in the front end unless --mission names a mission. The pilot roster's START GAME, or a game its LOAD GAME loads, leads into the Reliant's rooms (The Reliant's rooms). A mission the front end or the rooms start flies at once, after the music's fade and the hangar's movie but for INSTANT ACTION's and the simulator pod's (The simulator pod). As a mission of the campaign ends, OpenReliant plays the landing or a chapter's end (Movies), and the campaign goes on to the next mission's briefing, or turns to the restart screen (After a mission). INSTANT ACTION's goes back to the main menu.

Ported so far: the screen loop, the main menu, QUIT's dialog, INSTANT ACTION, GAME OPTIONS (GAME OPTIONS), the audio, the controls and the video, on OpenReliant's settings screen (The settings screen), the mods screen (The mods screen), the pilot roster with SET GAME DIFFICULTY, the saved games (The saved games), the Reliant's rooms with a new pilot's induction, the news report and the in-game options, the briefing (Briefing), the loading screens, the intro and the transitions between the screens ported, the movies around a mission (Movies), and the restart screen. Not yet:

• The multiplayer screens: MULTI PLAYER stays on the main menu (#404).
• The movies between the screens not yet ported, which come with their screens (Movies).

Fix: a screen takes no press until the button held as it was entered comes up. The movie between two screens gives the press that chose the second time to end; where the transitions are off, the game lets it go on to what lies under the pointer on the new screen.

Improvements, each marked so in the code:

• The game switches the display to 640 by 480 for the front end. OpenReliant keeps the window as it is, and draws the front end as large as fits in it, centred, so that it keeps its shape.
• A screen's background picture is scaled to the screen's height, keeping its proportions, and centred horizontally, where the original stretches it over the screen. The original pictures, which are 4:3, cover the screen the same way, and a wider picture from a mod extends past the sides to fill a wider window (Modding).
• The pointer is where the system's is over the window, rather than DirectInput's movements added up.
• The mouse's wheel scrolls the lists, the saved games' and the controls', three rows a notch, as the system scrolls text by default; the game reads no wheel.
• OpenReliant's version is written, dimmed, in the window's bottom right corner, as the pause menu writes it (Pause menu): on the front end's screens, the loading screens and the in-game options over the Reliant's rooms (The Reliant's rooms), though not in the rooms themselves.

The screens¶

interface_run (0x004289D0) runs the screen whose number interface_screen (0x0051DAC4) holds, each until it returns nonzero. A screen that leads to another sets the number and returns 0. Between screens the render hook (sr + 0x88) is 0x0043E730.

Any other number returns 3. Unknown: what selects screen 8: WinMain plays the landing itself. What interface_run returns tells WinMain what to do:

Start-up¶

interface_init (0x004288E0) reads bank_stdsmp from stdsmp.fat, and opens three fonts: handel.fnt (interface_font_handel), interface\optfnt.fnt (interface_font_large) and interface\smlfnt2.fnt (interface_font_small). It makes interface_text_remap (0x00520284), 0xFF for level 0 and each level 1 to 15 itself.

Text¶

The front end writes with hud_text and hud_text_wrapped through interface_text_remap, ramped by interface_palette_ramp (0x004287C0), the front end's copy of hud_palette_ramp (Pause menu): entries 1 to 15 of VFX's global palette, a ramp of a 0xRRGGBB colour at palette_ramp_brightness. Level 16, which a few glyphs of the fonts use in their first column, reads past the table into the low byte of dialog_button (0x00520294): -1, clear, while no dialog's button is under the pointer, and otherwise palette entry 0 or 1. Fix: OpenReliant leaves it clear.

Improvement: the menu text is drawn with outline fonts at the window's resolution (the built-in Newtown, or a font from a mod), with the bitmap fonts' layout and a black outline like the original text (Outline fonts). --bitmap-fonts, --original and the OUTLINE FONTS setting (Video) draw the bitmap fonts instead.

Improvement: with the crisp filter, the default, a bitmap font's text is drawn at the window's size as VFX writes it: each of a glyph's pixels an opaque square in the grey of its level, eased into the next over a pixel of the frame, so that the letters keep the fonts' own shapes and greys and the dark edge their faint pixels give them, crisp, at any size, where a glyph magnified as it stands comes out soft (Renderer). --original draws them as they stand, bilinearly.

The pointer¶

interface_pointer_update (0x004360D0), once a pass of a screen's loop:

• DirectInput's movement moves interface_pointer_x and interface_pointer_y (0x00520274, 0x00520270), which stay on the screen.
• interface_pointer_ticks (0x0051DABC) runs on by the ticks since the last call, back to 0 once it reaches 64. The pointer is shape 1 + ticks / 4 of the screen's set: 16 shapes, 4 ticks each.
• interface_pointer_down (0x0051DA0C) is whether the left button is down; 0x0051D9D4 whether the right is.

The pointer stays on the screen, but its shape stands off its point by the offset its sprite gives: the front end's arrow (frontend.spr) 2 right and 2 down, and the rooms' straight arrow (vrgfx.spr's shape 12) 19 right and 6 down. At the right and bottom edges the shape reaches past the screen, where the game's screen cuts it off. OpenReliant fits the screen into a window of any size, so it cuts the pointer at the screen's edges the same way, rather than showing it beside the screen (canvas.Canvas.onScreen).

A screen chooses what lies under the pointer while the left button is down, rather than as it goes down. interface_hit (0x0043EB30) finds the first of a list of rectangles, each four shorts (corner and size), that holds the pointer, the edges left out.

The main menu¶

main_menu (0x00428B60) shows interface\sl_splash2.tga behind itself (background_set) and reads interface\frontend.spr (interface_shapes, 0x0051D60C, which holds the shown screen's shapes), which it frees as it leaves. Each screen sets its background and shapes up so before its loop draws its first frame, after the transition movie that led to it; OpenReliant enters a screen before it draws it (Interface.enterShown). It starts the pointer at (320, 200), music\New_Pensive.wav at 127 where no music is playing, and a new campaign (campaign_new). OpenReliant flies each mission of a campaign from the variables the campaign's last mission left, and a mission outside a campaign from a new campaign's (Script VM).

Its items are main_menu_hotspots (0x004E5B90), six shorts each: the corner and size where the pointer finds the item, what choosing it returns, and the shape a panel shows lit. The buttons' shape, 24, goes unused: the drawing lights them with shape 0x1C.

Each pass of its loop:

1. Escape asks whether to quit.
2. The next letter of POTATO typed with Control moves the developers' code on; the last sets developer_mode (0x005D5641) until the game quits. With it set, the developers' keys follow.
3. The pointer, and the item under it (main_menu_item, 0x0051D544). With the left button down over an item, the click plays, sound 11 of bank_stdsmp at 127, panned to the middle. QUIT asks whether to quit, and the others lead where the table says, SINGLE PLAYER, MULTI PLAYER and GAME OPTIONS after a transition movie (0x004AB6E0).

interface_confirm asks whether to quit, with Do you really want to Quit? (string 0x374). YES returns 3.

INSTANT ACTION (0x0042905B to 0x004290E4) flies mission 29 in ship type 2 in the simulator: simulator (0x0057E044) set, and the game's mode (simulator_mode, 0x00524FE4) 2, which the loading screen names "Preparing for Instant Action", as it names mode 1, the Reliant's simulator's training, "Calibrating Simulator". The music fades, the loadout's ship is type 2, and the mission starts again for as long as the pause menu's RESTART asks (mission_restart); then mission_number and the pilot's kills go back to what they were, and the main menu comes back.

In the simulator the wingmen's keys go unheard (Controls), the display's clock counts the script's countdown down (Display), the player's ship is armed by loadout tier 0 where the script replenishes it (ReplenishWeapons), and the wing takes no pilots from the roster.

OpenReliant flies mission 29 so, RESTART starting it again as for any mission, and comes back to the main menu as it ends.

Improvement: while the mods' scripts have registered game modes, OpenReliant adds GAME MODES to the menu: a button like QUIT's and INSTANT ACTION's, at (40, 441), 20 by 15, with its label to its right. It opens the game modes screen (The game modes screen).

The developers' keys¶

With developer_mode set:

• A number key types a digit of mission_number: after one digit it adds a second, after two it starts again.
• Enter with Shift flies the mission without its briefing, in ship type 0, as Shift with F1 does (skip_briefing).
• Enter with Control leads to the mission's briefing from the loadout on (briefing_from_loadout, Briefing), in ship type 0 and the campaign's tier 0, and from there back to the main menu.
• Shift with F1 to F10, F11 or F12 flies it without its briefing, in ship type 0 to 11.

Drawing¶

main_menu_draw (0x004291C0), the render hook:

1. The panels' labels, two lines each, centred, in interface_font_large: SINGLE PLAYER at (116, 340) and (116, 356), MULTI PLAYER at (320, 340) and (320, 356), GAME OPTIONS at (524, 340) and (524, 356).
2. In interface_font_small: QUIT to the right of (360, 439), INSTANT ACTION to the left of (296, 439).
3. Shape 0x1B at (332, 441) and at (300, 441), the two buttons.
4. The item under the pointer: a panel's lit shape at its corner, with its labels again in gold, or shape 0x1C in the button's place.
5. The dialogs (interface_confirm_draw, interface_message_draw).
6. The pointer.
7. With developer_mode set, M and mission_number at (5, 5) in red, in font_01.fnt.

The shapes take the palette of their block's set: the pointer's the first, the lit panels' block 0x11, the buttons' block 0x16.

GAME OPTIONS¶

game_options (0x0042A620), screen 1, which the main menu's GAME OPTIONS opens after interface\main2opt.bik, shows interface\main2opt.tga behind itself, and reads interface\frntend4.spr. Its items, in the order interface_hit tries them:

An item acts while the left button is down over it. Escape leads to the main menu, as MAIN MENU does.

Its drawing (game_options_draw, 0x0042AFB0), the render hook:

1. The buttons, shape 0x1B at (292, 421), (324, 421), (292, 441) and (324, 441).
2. The item under the pointer (roster_item, 0x00520130): an icon's lit shape, 0x13 at (35, 155), 0x14 at (202, 160) or 0x15 at (392, 161), or shape 0x1C on a button. Its label is written white, then in blue again with the others, so it stays blue.
3. In blue, SELECT AN OPTION (0x108) centred on (320, 95), and the icons' labels, AUDIO (0x109), CONTROL DEVICES (0x10A) and VIDEO (0x10B), centred on (133, 319), (320, 319) and (511, 319), in interface_font_large; ABOUT STARLANCER (0x10C) to the left of (288, 420), MAIN MENU (0xBB) to the left of (288, 440) and QUIT (0xBC) from (353, 440), in interface_font_small; MODS from (353, 420) in the same font.
4. The about box, where it is up, the dialogs, then the pointer.

Improvement: ABOUT STARLANCER is ABOUT OPENRELIANT, as in the in-game options. MODS is a button of OpenReliant's, right of it as QUIT is right of MAIN MENU.

The settings screen¶

OpenReliant shows one settings screen where the game has a screen for each setting's kind: GAME OPTIONS' and the in-game options' AUDIO, CONTROL DEVICES and VIDEO (screens 3, 16 and 15), and the pause menu's audio, controls and video (Pause menu). It is laid out on the front end's screen as the game's are, with their buttons and their shapes: interface\frntend5.spr, the audio and video screens' set, which holds the controls screen's widgets too, its buttons in a smoother palette than screen 16's own. A tab for each kind stands in place of their titles, in interface_font_large, each above its icon's column in GAME OPTIONS: AUDIO (0x109) centred on (133, 95), CONTROL DEVICES (0x10A) on (320, 95) and VIDEO (0x10B) on (511, 95), the shown tab's white, the one under the pointer gold, the others blue. A click on a label shows its tab; leaving the controls ends a row's wait. Each menu's AUDIO, CONTROL DEVICES and VIDEO open the screen on that tab, as F1 does in flight on the controls.

The buttons are shape 0x28, 0x29 under the pointer, with their labels in interface_font_small, blue, white under the pointer: OK (0x316) at (299, 422), to the left of (292, 421); MAIN MENU (0xBB) at (299, 443), to the left of (292, 442); RESET DEFAULTS (0x183) at (329, 422), from (357, 421); CANCEL CHANGES (0x5A9) at (329, 443), from (357, 442). The pointer finds OK and MAIN MENU 120 by 15 from x 199, and the other two 100 by 15 from x 329, each at its shape's height. RESET DEFAULTS and CANCEL CHANGES act on the tab shown; leaving writes every tab's settings, the controls only where they are not what the file gives already (Controls). A click acts once, until the button comes up, but for the list's arrows and the audio's knobs.

Improvement: the screen is OpenReliant's own design, built from the game's screens: one screen with tabs, the same from the front end, the Reliant's rooms and the pause menu, where the game has a screen for each kind, and the pause menu has screens of its own.

Audio¶

The audio is audio_screen (0x0042DAB0), screen 3, which draws with audio_screen_draw (0x0042E2E0). Opening, it keeps the four volumes for CANCEL CHANGES, and the 3D provider (sound_3d_provider, 0x005D5630).

A knob held follows the pointer, 4 pixels to its left, from x 313 to 488, while the button is down over it, and its volume is its place over its travel, 0 to 127; the music's and the master volume change as it moves (AIL_set_stream_volume). Letting go of the sound effects' knob plays stdsmp.fat's sound 14 at its volume, in the middle. The game's 3D SOUND steps back and on through its 3D providers (sound_3d_reopen, 0x0042E2B0): NONE (0x1B3, Miles's own), Aureal A3D Interactive (TM) (0x2F2), Creative Labs EAX (TM) (0x2F1) and Software 3D Audio - RSX (0x416), passing over any that won't open, and keeps the one chosen as [Sound] 3DProvider. RESET TO DEFAULT (0x112) sets the volumes to their defaults, the speech and the master volume at 127 and the effects and the music at 80, and the provider to NONE, and writes them at once; CANCEL CHANGES puts back what the screen opened with. Leaving writes the volumes to [Sound].

Improvements:

• Every volume changes as its knob moves, where the game changes the effects' and the speech's as the screen is left.
• The volume is the knob's place over its travel exactly, where the game multiplies by its rounded reciprocal (0x004DC6A4).
• 3D SOUND chooses how OpenAL Soft renders the 3D sounds (Sound in OpenReliant): AUTOMATIC, by the output, HEADPHONES, with HRTF, or SPEAKERS, where the game's chooses one of Miles's providers, which OpenReliant has none of. REVERB and COMPRESSOR, OpenReliant's own words, turn the reverbs and the master bus's compressor on and off, from the box at (45, 349) and (45, 373). They change the sound at once, and are written to [OpenReliant] (Configuration). With the software Miles of --original, 3D SOUND and REVERB, OpenAL Soft's, are dimmed.
• RESET DEFAULTS and CANCEL CHANGES set OpenReliant's options too.

Controls¶

The controls are controls_screen (0x0042B690), screen 16, which draws with controls_screen_draw (0x0042CD30). Opening, it reads the bindings again from default.txt and starlancer.ini over it (key_config_defaults, load_key_config; Controls), keeps the settings and the 74 bindings for CANCEL CHANGES, and shows the list from its top.

A binding is written SHIFT + K (0x311), CONTROL + K (0x312) or K, then AND (0x545) JOY n (0x32C) for a joystick button, numbered from 0 as the file numbers it. Alt is never written. What can't be used is dimmed to half: FORCE FEEDBACK but from a joystick that has it, steering, and HAT ENABLE and JOYSTICK ROLL but while the joystick steers. INVERT PITCH is ticked while pitch is as the stick has it, JoystickInvert 1.

• A check box, or a controller, changes where it can be used, and its KeyConfig entry is written at once (0x0042BBB4 to 0x0042BF8C). JOYSTICK ROLL is TwistEnable.
• An arrow scrolls the list a row, and again each 5 ticks while it is held (0x0042BD09).
• The list and a conflict's question write the keys by the names the keyboard's layout gives them (Key names).
• A click on an action's row clears its binding, and the row waits: each pass, the first of the 89 keys of key_names pressed alone, with Shift or with Ctrl is taken, then the lowest joystick button down, which holds the screen until it comes up. Taking one doesn't end the wait: a row takes a key and a button, and a later key replaces the first. A key or a button another action holds asks first (control_binding_find, 0x0042C5F0), with "K", "SHIFT + K", "CONTROL + K" or "JOY n", then This Key is already assigned to (0x5AF) and the action, then Redefine Anyway? (0x5B0), a line each: YES takes it from that action, NO puts the waiting row's binding back, the row waiting on. Escape, Shift, Ctrl and Alt on their own, the lock keys, Pause and Print Screen are not among the keys, so none of them can be bound.
• A click on another action's row, or on nothing, ends the wait, the old binding back where the row took nothing. A click on a divider puts the old binding back so, but leaves the row waiting; a click on a check box, a controller, a button or an arrow leaves it waiting as it is.
• Escape asks Would you like to save your changes before leaving this screen? (0x5AB) where a binding has changed; NO reads the settings and the bindings again from the file. Escape, OK and MAIN MENU then write the bindings (save_key_config, 0x0042C630).
• RESET DEFAULTS sets the defaults, from default.txt (key_config_defaults; Controls), and writes them at once; CANCEL CHANGES puts back what the screen opened with.

Fixes:

• The game leaves out of the search for a key's holder the action at the key's place in key_names (0x0042C119), where it means the waiting row's, so that pressing again the key a row has just taken asks whether to take it from the row itself, and YES leaves the row without it. OpenReliant leaves out the waiting row's action.
• A key taken without the question counts as a change, which Escape asks about, as a button and a key taken from another action do; the game asks only after those.
• Leaving the screen, by Escape, OK or MAIN MENU, while a row waits having taken nothing puts its binding back; the game writes the action unbound.

Improvements:

• PRIMARY CONTROLLER offers MOUSE, Controller 2, which steers by the mouse (Controls). The game has its case (0x0042BF15) and its string, but neither a place nor a label, so only the file sets it.
• JOYSTICK is followed by the joystick's name, in capitals, cut short where it would reach the check boxes.
• A row waiting with nothing taken shows PRESS (0x5AE, the string the game's training prompts write), where the game leaves it blank.
• Escape while a row waits only ends the wait, as a click on nothing does; the game leaves the screen.
• Up and Down scroll the list as its arrows do while no row waits, and the mouse's wheel scrolls it; the game scrolls it by its arrows alone.

Video¶

The video is video_screen (0x0042E9B0), screen 15, which draws with video_screen_draw (0x0042F440). Opening, it keeps what CANCEL CHANGES puts back: the display's mode, the device, the details, the light maps, the view and the transitions (0x0042EA41 on), and the brightness. Its eight rows stand 37 apart from y 129, each label to the left of x 280 and its value from x 352, in interface_font_small, blue:

A row with choices has the arrows' box, shape 0x2E, 33 by 26, a pixel above it at x 301; the pointer finds its halves 12 by 23 from x 301 and 318 (video_items, 0x004E76F0), lit under the pointer with 0x2F and 0x30. A row that is on or off has a box, shape 0x1A, two pixels below it at x 311, ticked with 0x1B. The brightness's knob, shape 0x2C, slides from x 347 at 0.5 to 522 at 2 (video_brightness_knob, 0x004E7778), over its track, shape 0x2D, every 45 from x 347 until 572, 10 below the knob's top. The buttons are the controls screen's.

• An arrow steps its row's choice back or on, round from the last to the first. A view the game doesn't know steps on to the first, and back by one. TEXTURE DETAIL steps between Tdetail 0, LOW, and 1, HIGH, and shows a file's 2 as LOW (0x0042ED4F on, 0x0042F83C); GRAPHIC DETAIL steps round Gdetail 0 to 2, LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH; LIGHT MAPS turns Lmaps on and off.
• DEFAULT VIEW and VR TRANSITIONS take effect at once, and are written to [Device] View and Transitions at once (0x0042EE3F, 0x0042EFC9 on).
• The knob held follows the pointer, 4 pixels to its left, and the brightness, 0.5 and its place over its travel times 1.5, sets the display's gamma ramp at once (sr + 0x54): srd3d.dll's set_gamma (0x10005270) sets each of the ramp's 256 levels to its share of the way up, at its power 1 over the brightness, the same for red, green and blue. The device has a gamma ramp, which sets bit 0 of sr + 0x38, where its primary surface takes one (DDCAPS2_PRIMARYGAMMA, 0x10005204); without one, the brightness is hidden.
• Leaving by Escape, OK or MAIN MENU writes the brightness to [Device] gamma, in hundredths (0x0042F2B3, 0x0042F0AF), and starts the renderer again where the mode, the device, the details or the light maps changed, which writes them to [Device] (0x004A8716 on).
• RESET TO DEFAULT (0x112) sets the defaults at 0x004E5BF4: the first mode of the second device, the details LOW, the light maps off, the view from the cockpit and the transitions on, and the brightness's knob in the middle of its track.
• DEFAULT VIEW sets the camera's cockpit mode too, as the pause menu's video screen does (Pause menu).

OpenReliant's VIDEO tab holds OpenReliant's graphics options above the game's rows. Its rows keep the game's columns 20 to the right, each label to the left of x 300, its arrows' box at x 321 and its value from x 372, and stand 30 apart, their arrows' boxes 4 apart. The tab keeps 9 pixels between the tabs' labels, GRAPHICS, the pane and the rows below it:

GRAPHICS sets every graphics option at once: its arrows flip between ORIGINAL, the original's look as --original gives it, and MODERN, OpenReliant's, every improvement on. It shows CUSTOM once an option differs from both, and from CUSTOM its arrow on sets ORIGINAL and its arrow back MODERN. ORIGINAL also brings back, from the next start, the original's way with everything the tab has no row for, as --original does, but for the sound, which stays as the AUDIO tab has it (Configuration).

The pane holds the options, a row each: the game's TEXTURE DETAIL, GRAPHIC DETAIL and LIGHT MAPS, then PER-PIXEL LIGHTING, LINEAR LIGHT, MATERIALS, SHADOWS (OFF, LOW or HIGH), COCKPIT SHADOWS, SHOT LIGHTS (EVERY SHOT or LATEST TWO), REAL LIGHTS, BLOOM, DITHER, TEXTURE FILTER (ORIGINAL, TRILINEAR or CRISP), ANTI-ALIASING (OFF, or 2, 4 or 8 SAMPLES a pixel, as many as the GPU offers), COLOR DEPTH (32-BIT or 16-BIT), SMOOTH MOTION, OUTLINE FONTS and MOD EFFECTS. MOD EFFECTS turns the mods' shaders on and off: their post effects and their surface and lighting functions at once (Post effects), and their replacements for OpenReliant's shaders from the next start, and changes at once; GRAPHICS' presets leave it as it is. Its arrows scroll it a row, and again each 5 ticks while one is held, and Up, Down and the mouse's wheel scroll it as they scroll the controls' list. A row is dimmed, and can't be changed, where its option has no effect: SHADOWS and MATERIALS without PER-PIXEL LIGHTING, COCKPIT SHADOWS without the shadows, and LINEAR LIGHT in 16-bit colour.

The options change the picture at once and are written to [OpenReliant] at once, but for ORIGINAL's base, the game's three details, REAL LIGHTS, which the models are built with, LINEAR LIGHT and COLOR DEPTH, which change the GPU's formats, and OUTLINE FONTS, which take effect at the next start: while one of them differs from what the game runs with, RESTART TO APPLY stands beside GRAPHICS. The details are written to [Device], as the game's renderer writes them, Tdetail 0 to 2 for LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH, Gdetail 0 to 2, and Lmaps 1 or 0: TEXTURE DETAIL caps the textures' sides at 128 or 256 (Texture cache); GRAPHIC DETAIL sets how many bits the explosions keep flying, how far the shields' levels reach, how fine the gates' tunnels are, how many rocks the Ice Field has, the loadout's ships' level of detail while they move, and the levels of detail's divisor, which OpenReliant holds at 1.5, 2 or 3 (game.main.detailDivisor); LIGHT MAPS draws the models' second passes (Rendering). GRAPHICS' presets leave them at their highest.

OpenReliant's own rows below change at once, as the driver applies them, and are written to [OpenReliant] (Configuration): RESOLUTION steps through NATIVE, the window's own size, and 75, 50 and 25 percent of it, each as tall as the front end's 480 rows or more; FULL SCREEN fills the display, as Alt and Enter do; VSYNC waits for the display; FRAME RATE LIMIT steps through DISPLAY, the display's rate where vsync is off, 30, 60, 120, 144 and 240 frames a second, and NONE.

RESET DEFAULTS sets the game's defaults and OpenReliant's, MODERN among them, and CANCEL CHANGES puts back what the tab opened with.

Fixes:

• RESET DEFAULTS and CANCEL CHANGES set the view and the transitions, and write them. The game shows them set, but takes RESET DEFAULTS' view only where OK or MAIN MENU start the renderer again, its transitions never, and writes neither; and CANCEL CHANGES leaves the game, and the file, with the view and the transitions chosen since.
• RESET DEFAULTS sets the brightness 1. The game puts the knob in the middle of its track, which is 1.25, beside setting the file's value to 100.

Improvements:

• RESOLUTION chooses the size the frames are drawn at, which the window shows scaled, where the game's chooses the display's mode. FULL SCREEN, VSYNC and FRAME RATE LIMIT are OpenReliant's own, and so are GRAPHICS, its presets and the options in the pane but the game's three details.
• TEXTURE DETAIL cycles through all three values in the file, LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH. The original screen only switches between the first two, which it calls LOW and HIGH, and shows the file's highest value as LOW. HIGH sets no size limit, where the original limits textures to 2048, which none of the original textures reach, so a mod's picture keeps its full size. A file without Tdetail uses HIGH, where the original uses 1.
• The brightness is the knob's place over its travel exactly, where the game multiplies by a rounded reciprocal (0x004DC6A4).
• The settings change at once, where the game starts its renderer again to change the mode.

Not ported: 3D RENDER MODE, which OpenReliant has no Direct3D devices for.

The mods screen¶

Improvement: the original can't load mods. GAME OPTIONS' MODS button opens OpenReliant's mods screen (mod_manager.zig, #497) after interface\optfade.bik, on the settings screen's shapes and background (interface\frntend5.spr, interface\optfade.tga), laid out as its controls tab is:

• MODS, in white, centred on (320, 95), where the settings screen has its tabs.
• A framed list of the mods in the mods folder, from (45, 136), 324 by 250, with nine rows 26 pixels apart. Each row is a check box, ticked while the mod is on, and the mod's name and version from its manifest, or its folder name if it has none. The chosen row's name is white, a mod that is off is dim. The lists' arrows right of the frame scroll it, as the mouse wheel and the Up and Down keys do.
• A framed panel from (401, 136), 195 by 250, with the chosen mod's name, version, author, description, the number of files it replaces or adds and of scripts it has, and its page.
• A gold box of up and down arrows (shape 0x2A, lit with 0x2B and 0x27) at the foot of the gap between the frames, which moves the chosen mod up or down the order.
• The settings screen's buttons: OK and MAIN MENU in the left column, and in the right column REFRESH, where RESET DEFAULTS stands on the settings screen, and CANCEL CHANGES. REFRESH reads the mods folder again, to find mods added or removed since OpenReliant started, and keeps the chosen mod chosen. CANCEL CHANGES puts the mods back as they were when the screen opened, or at the last REFRESH. OK and Escape end the screen, back to GAME OPTIONS.
• OPTIONS, in the foot of the panel, where the chosen mod's scripts offer a page of options (The mod's options). It is a button of the settings screen's shapes (0x28, lit 0x29) with its label right of it.
• RESTART TO APPLY, in gold over the right frame, while the mods that are on, in their order, differ from the ones OpenReliant started with.

Each change is written to starlancer.ini at once, in the section [OpenReliantMods] (Load order), and takes effect at the next start. A mod whose folder name can't be a key of the settings file (it has an equals sign, starts with a bracket or has spaces at either end) stays on, in name order after the mods the list names. The screen lists at most 255 mods. It stays shut with --no-mods.

Not ported: a mod's thumbnail and its conflicts (#497).

The mod's options¶

Improvement: the original can't load mods. OPTIONS on the mods screen opens the page of options the chosen mod's scripts declare (mod_options.zig, settings.zig, #597), at once and with no movie, on the same shapes and background as the mods screen. It is laid out as the VIDEO tab's graphics list is (Video):

• The page's title in white, centred on (320, 95), as the mods screen has MODS.
• A framed list from (45, 136), as tall as its rows, up to eight, 30 pixels apart, with the list's arrows right of it. Each row ends its label at x 300. A toggle is a check box, and a choice or a number is an arrows box with its value written beside it: a choice's label, or the number written out. A choice steps round from the last to the first; a number steps by its step and stops at its ends. A slider is the audio tab's slider (Audio), from where a check box stands, with a knob that slides 135 pixels rather than 175 so that its value fits beside it. The knob held follows the pointer, even off the row, until the button is up, and sets the number on its steps. A text is its line in a box from where the arrows stand, 234 by 18. A click in the box starts typing it, in white with a cursor that blinks as a saved game's name's does; Enter or a click elsewhere keeps it, and the click goes on to what it is on; Escape puts it back. A heading is its label alone, in white from 35 pixels inside the frame, which the pointer passes over.
• The settings screen's buttons: OK and MAIN MENU in the left column, and RESET DEFAULTS and CANCEL CHANGES in the right. RESET DEFAULTS sets every option to its default, CANCEL CHANGES to what it was when the page opened. OK and Escape go back to the mods screen as it was left, keeping the chosen mod and what REFRESH found.
• While the pointer is on a row, the option's description under the list, in the small font, blue, centred.

Each change is kept at once in the mod's storage, and told to the scripting (Options). An option that is the same as it was isn't set again.

Not ported: changing the options from the pause menu in a game (#600).

The game modes screen¶

Improvement: the original has no game modes but its campaign, INSTANT ACTION and multiplayer. GAME MODES on the main menu opens OpenReliant's game modes screen (game_modes.zig, #560), which lists the game modes the mods' scripts register (Menus, game modes and campaigns). It has the mods screen's shapes, background and layout (The mods screen):

• GAME MODES, in white, centred on (320, 95).
• The list of the modes in the left frame, by their labels, with the lists' arrows.
• The chosen mode in the right frame: its label, the mod it comes from, its missions (how many, and whether it loops, or for a campaign the mission it carries on from), and its description.
• PLAY, where the settings screen has OK, which starts the chosen mode, and MAIN MENU. Escape goes back to the main menu.

A mode's missions are flown as INSTANT ACTION's is, one after the other. Where the mode names a briefing, the front end shows its screen 103 before each mission, with the mods screen's background: the mod's screen stands in for it, and flies the mission or goes back to the main menu. Without a briefing, or once its script has stopped, the mission follows at once.

Mods' screens can also stand in for the front end's own screens (interf.Scripted): the front end then draws the screen's background, the mod's screen over it, and the pointer on top, and goes where the mod's screen asks.

The dialogs¶

interface_confirm (0x0042AA80) reads quit.spr (dialog_shapes) and asks a question, a string or dialog_text for -1, until Escape, which answers NO, or a click on YES or NO (dialog_buttons, 0x004E5CB8: (286, 269) and (326, 269), 25 by 16), answered once the button comes up. It returns true for YES. While it is up (dialog_open), the screen's render hook draws it (interface_confirm_draw, 0x0042AB60):

1. The box, shape 6 at (114, 177).
2. The buttons, shape 3, the one under the pointer shape 4.
3. The question, centred on (320, 208) in lines at most 400 wide, 14 apart, at most 10: a string in interface_font_large, dialog_text in interface_font_small.
4. YES to the left of (282, 263), NO to the right of (354, 263), in interface_font_large.

interface_message_draw (0x0042ADE0) draws the front end's other dialog, a message with OK, while 0x0051D7D8 is set.

interface_box (0x00435C60) frames a box on the screen: its top and left edges in 0x00A7FF, its right and bottom in 0x005785, each a pixel short of the corner the other starts from, and a second frame a pixel inside in 0x0086CD.

The pilot roster¶

pilot_roster (0x00430490), screen 12, which SINGLE PLAYER leads to, shows interface\main2sin.tga behind itself and reads interface\frntend2.spr (interface_shapes), which it frees as it leaves. Its render hook is pilot_roster_draw (0x00430C60). As it starts, the pilot is male (pilot_female, 0x00562F16), the call sign is typed afresh (0x0052019C) with the characters typed so far let go (typed_keys_clear, 0x004AADA0), its cursor shows (0x0052016C), and the list of call signs is closed (0x005202B8). While the roster is up (0x005D6088), the window's procedure refuses the characters a file's name can't hold, \/:*?<>|" (0x0050954C), since the call sign names the pilot's saved games.

Its items, in the order interface_hit tries them:

Each pass of its loop:

1. Escape leads to the main menu, as MAIN MENU does.
2. The cursor turns on or off once 25 ticks have passed since it last did (0x00520164).
3. Enter, or the keypad's Enter, ends the typing. So does the left button down anywhere but on the call sign. The pilot's profile takes the call sign as the pilot's name (0x00562CFC) and is written (profile_save), and callsign_add puts the call sign in the list.
4. While the list is open, its ten rows stand down from (400, 223), each 136 by 20 and 25 below the last, and cover START GAME and LOAD GAME. With the left button down over a row, its call sign becomes the pilot's and the profile's name, the profile is written, the list closes, and the loop waits for the button to come up.
5. With the left button down over an item, what the table says.

pilot_roster_draw types the call sign (call_sign, 0x00562DCC, 32 bytes), one character each frame while it is typed (text_entry_step, 0x004812F0): a backspace takes the last character off, and any other goes on where the call sign stays narrower than 125 pixels in interface_font_small.

The call signs¶

callsign_list (0x005D5E8C) holds the call signs of the last ten pilots, 50 bytes each, which starlancer.ini keeps as name00 to name09 under [CallsignList]. Every place is a row of the list, an empty one too (callsign_count, 0x00595D98). As the game starts, WinMain reads them (callsigns_load, 0x004AAE00), the first PLAYER (string 0xBF) where the file has none, and writes them straight back (callsigns_save, 0x004AAEE0, which then reads them again).

callsign_add (0x00430B80) leaves a call sign the list holds as it is. Another goes in the first empty place, or, once the list is full, in the last, the rest moved up a place and the first let go; then the list is saved.

SET GAME DIFFICULTY¶

START GAME puts up difficulty_dialog (0x00430300) over the roster (0x0051D534) and sets the difficulty (0x00562F14) to medium. Its two arrows, at (253, 222) and (270, 222), each 16 by 26, step the difficulty down and up, going round; START at (276, 269) and BACK at (338, 269), each 25 by 16, close it. A press acts once, until the button comes up. Escape and BACK go back to the roster, the difficulty as the arrows left it. START ends the roster: it frees the shapes, starts a new campaign (campaign_new), resets the campaign's wingmen's pilots (0x0049CD20), and returns 1.

Drawing¶

pilot_roster_draw, the render hook:

1. The pilot chosen, lit: shape 19 at (34, 114) for the male pilot, shape 20 at (200, 114) for the female.
2. In blue, in interface_font_large: SELECT PILOT (string 0xB7) centred on (217, 105), CALL SIGN (Alpha 2) (0xB8) from (396, 168), START GAME (0xB9) from (433, 247) and LOAD GAME (0xBA) from (433, 298); in interface_font_small, MAIN MENU (0xBB) to the left of (288, 440) and QUIT (0xBC) from (353, 440).
3. The call sign's frame, interface_box at (398, 192), 140 by 28, and the call sign from (402, 197) in interface_font_small, white while it is typed and blue once it isn't. While it is typed and its cursor shows, _ follows it in blue, at 200 down.
4. The list's arrow, shape 24 at (543, 200), or shape 25 under the pointer; the large buttons, shape 22 at (398, 249) and (398, 300), and the small ones, shape 26 at (292, 441) and (324, 441).
5. The button under the pointer lit, shape 23 or 27, with its label again in white.
6. The list, where it is open: each row framed by interface_box at (398, 221 + 25 × row), 140 by 24, wiped black from (400, 223 + 25 × row) to (536, 243 + 25 × row), and its call sign from (404, 225 + 25 × row) in white, in interface_font_small.
7. SET GAME DIFFICULTY, where it is up: its box, shape 34 at (114, 177); the arrows, shape 30 at (253, 222), with the one under the pointer lit, shape 31 there or shape 32 at (270, 222); the buttons, shape 26 at (276, 269) and (338, 269), shape 27 under the pointer. Then in blue, in interface_font_large: SET GAME DIFFICULTY (0x2A6) centred on (320, 185), EASY, MEDIUM or HARD (0x2A7, 0x11C, 0x2A8) from (289, 222), BACK (0xF7) from (370, 264), and START (0x14A) to the left of (268, 264).
8. QUIT's dialog, where it is up, and the pointer.

What the missions take¶

The pilot's sex and the difficulty are what the missions take from the roster: the radio says the pilot's own lines in the female voice for a female pilot (Radio), and the difficulty scales damage (Destruction). Both start at 0 as the game starts: male, and easy until SET GAME DIFFICULTY sets it, so INSTANT ACTION, chosen first, is flown on easy. The call sign names the pilot's profile and saved games.

OpenReliant keeps what the roster sets in Interface.pilot, which flies every mission the front end starts. --difficulty sets the difficulty the game starts with. As the game starts, campaign_new reads the pilot's profile, profile.bin (the 0xD0 bytes at 0x00562CF8), whose name becomes the call sign (profile_load, 0x00475390); where the game's folder has none, it makes one under the name PLAYER and leaves the call sign empty.

Not ported:

• Writing the pilot's profile, as the roster changes the call sign, as a campaign starts without one, and as each mission starts (#74, #301). OpenReliant reads the call sign from the profile the game's folder has.

Fixes:

• The game copies a call sign into the list, the profile's name or the call sign whatever its length; OpenReliant keeps what fits.
• The call sign's typing goes on adding characters while the call sign stays narrow enough, whatever room its buffer has, which a call sign of narrow characters overruns; OpenReliant stops at the buffer's end.

The saved games¶

saved_games (0x00431730), screen 13, lists the pilot's saved games, to load one or to save the game as one (Saved games); saved_games_saving (0x0051D5F4) picks which. The pilot roster's LOAD GAME opens it to load, after interface\sinfade.bik, over interface\sinfade.tga; the in-game options' SAVE and LOAD open it over the Reliant's rooms and the briefing's loadout, after interface\igofade.bik, over interface\igoptfad.tga (The in-game options). It reads interface\frntend2.spr and draws with saved_games_draw (0x00432480). As it starts, loading, the autosave is selected where there is one; the typed name is empty, and the saves are found (saved_games_scan, 0x004315C0): the call sign's, from slot 0 on, up to the first file missing, so that without the autosave nothing is listed.

Each pass, Escape leaves, and Down and Up scroll the list a row while held, where it holds more than ten. A press acts on the pass it is first seen, but for the arrows', which scroll a row each pass it is held. Rows never light under the pointer; a click on a row selects it, and a second click on the row selected loads it, or, saving, starts typing its name. Saving, the autosave can't be selected. LOAD GAME loads the row selected, and waits for the button to come up. The name typed takes 18 characters at most, and its cursor turns every 25 ticks; Enter, or a click on OK, saves the game under it in the slot selected. NEW SAVE GAME, once a visit, saves the game in the slot after the last found, named Empty Save Game (0x179), selects it with the game's rank and level, loads it back, and starts typing its name from Empty Save Game; leaving without saving removes it. A save that fails puts up a box saying so (save_error_dialog, 0x0042A870), which OK closes. There is no DELETE, and no question before a save goes over another.

Fixes:

• Where NEW SAVE GAME fails, leaving removes nothing; the game removes whatever file its buffer names. With every slot taken, NEW SAVE GAME does nothing, where the game saves over the restart point's file.
• A name taken from a save is kept to the typed name's room, and a listed name to the list's, where the game copies either whatever its length. A rank or a level past the game's names is taken as the highest.
• A file with no SAVE form is listed with no name, pilot or mission, where the game shows what its buffers held.

Improvement: the day's and the month's names in the date are English, where the game takes the system's language's.

Not ported: what the multiplayer games do with the saved games: the co-op host's load, the multiplayer debriefing's save, and a load sent to the other players (#475).

Backgrounds¶

background_set (0x00494B50) shows a picture behind the frames, loading it with background_load (0x00494A70) unless background_name (0x00588744) is it already, case aside. background_load reads the TGA and hands it to the device (sr + 0x50), or runs background_hook (0x00588740) in its place where one is set.

The loading screens show one too (The loading screens).

The loading screens¶

The game shows a loading screen as its renderer starts and before each attempt at a mission: a picture over the whole screen, and a line of its strings centred across it, the line's top 40 pixels above the screen's foot (loading_line_draw, 0x004AB2B0). The line is in interface\optfnt.fnt, drawn through the last of text_ramps (0x005955A0), which maps the font's levels onto the greys at the top of the renderer's palette, up to white.

• As the renderer starts, renderer_load (0x004AB4B0) shows interface\splash.tga alone, then with LOADING (string 0x32A) before each part of the game it loads after the ships' stats: the particles, the backdrop and the nebula, the attachments' models, the engine glows, the guns, the missiles, the shields, the ejection, the AI and the pilots' stats (loading_step, 0x004AB470), running the message pump each time.
• Before each attempt at a mission, mission_load (0x004AD0A0) shows interface\sl_splash.tga, sl_splash800.tga or sl_splash1024.tga, one picture at three sizes, by the screen's width, alone (loading_screen, 0x004AB3F0). Once it has set the renderer, the textures and the display up again, it adds a line by the simulator's mode (simulator_mode): PREPARING FOR LAUNCH (string 0xE2) for none, Calibrating Simulator (0x14B) for the Reliant's simulator's training, and Preparing for Instant Action (0x289) for any other. In a network session each player's name follows down the left, 18 pixels apart, with READY beside it once the player is ready (loading_players_draw, 0x004AB300).

OpenReliant shows both as it draws the front end: laid out as the game lays them out on a screen 640 by 480, as large as fits in the window. It shows the start-up's LOADING before each of a few parts it loads. It sets the renderer and the textures up once, as it starts, so the mission's two frames follow each other at once. Meanwhile the system's events wait for the loop.

Not ported: the players' names in a network session (#404).

Improvements:

• Before a mission OpenReliant shows the largest picture, sl_splash1024.tga, whatever the window's width. --original picks it by the width, as the game does.
• OpenReliant's version is written in the window's corner, as on the front end's screens.