STYLES

Stored in styles.ddf or in the DDFSTYLE data lump

Styles.ddf allows you to define the background colour/image and text font/colour/scaling information (and sounds too) for various parts of EDGE's user interface.

Each entry describes a section of the UI and consists of a unique name, enclosed in square brackets, followed by a series of commands that define the "style" to use. To modify one of the default styles EDGE uses you must use the appropriate hard-coded entry name:

  • MENU
  • MAIN_MENU
  • CHOOSE_SKILL
  • CHOOSE_EPISODE
  • LOAD_SAVE_MENU
  • OPTIONS
  • STATS
  • CONSOLE
  • INTERLEVEL_TEXT
  • CAST_SCREEN
  • MESSAGES
  • IMPORTANT_MESSAGES
  • EXIT_SCREEN
  • RTS_TIP
  • AUTOMAP
  • HOST_NETGAME

Note that RTS_TIP is limited to allow only the TEXT.FONT command: other stuff like text size, colour etc. depends on the RTS tip slot definition.



BACKGROUND COMMANDS

The following is a list of the commands that are accepted by BACKGROUND:

COMMANDTYPEEXPLANATION
BACKGROUND.COLOUR[hex] Specify a colour directly without needing any lumps.
Example: BACKGROUND.COLOUR = #FF9030; //Orange
BACKGROUND.IMAGE[image name] The image to show behind any text.
BACKGROUND.TRANSLUCENCY[percentage] The percentage of translucency. 0% is invisible, while 100% is visible.
BACKGROUND.ASPECT[float] Adjusts the width of the image. 1 is normal, 0.5 makes for tall and skinny, 2.0 makes for obese.
BACKGROUND.SCALE[float] Stretches or shrinks the total size (width and height) of the image. 1 is normal perspective, 0.5 will make image half normal size. Used when you wish to use a larger and more detailed image than normal DOOM.
SPECIAL[special] A comma separated list of special flags. See below.


TEXT, ALT, TITLE, HELP, HEADER or SELECTED COMMANDS

The following is a list of the commands that can be used after the ".": i.e. TEXT.FONT:

COMMANDTYPEEXPLANATION
.COLOURMAP[colourmap] Used to remap text colours. The value is a reference to an entry in colmap.ddf. Examples: 'TEXT_RED', 'TEXT_LT_BLUE', 'ALLWHITE'.
.FONT[font name] The font(defined in DDFFONTS) to use for the text.
.TRANSLUCENCY[percentage] The percentage of translucency. 0% is invisible, while 100% is visible.
.ASPECT[float] Adjusts the width of the text. 1 is normal, 0.5 makes for tall and skinny, 2.0 makes for obese.
.SCALE[float] Stretches or shrinks the total size (width and height) of the text. 1 is normal perspective, 0.5 will make image half normal size. Used when you wish to use a larger and more detailed image than normal DOOM.
.X_OFFSET[float] Can be used to offset text-based menus
.Y_OFFSET[float] Can be used to offset text-based menus


Specific COMMANDS for Menu items

The following is a list of the commands can be used to change ECs Menus

COMMANDTYPEEXPLANATION
ENTRY_ALIGNMENT[string] Used to set text/image alignment for menu item names. The value can be: 'LEFT', 'CENTER' or 'RIGHT'.
CURSOR.POSITION[string] Used to determine cursor position relative to menu item. The value can be: 'LEFT', 'CENTER', 'RIGHT' or 'BOTH'.
"BOTH" will drawn the cursor in both LEFT/RIGHT positions. Defaults to "LEFT".
CURSOR.BORDER [boolean] Only has an effect when the cursor position is set to CENTER. Will scale up to the dimensions of the tallest menu item. Good for highlights/frames/border style cursors.
CURSOR.TRANSLUCENCY[percentage] The percentage of translucency. 0% is invisible, while 100% is visible.
CURSOR.IMAGE[image name] The image to use instead of the default for this menu's cursor.
CURSOR.STRING[string] If present, will use these characters from the style's font as the cursor instead of an image.
CURSOR.SCALING[boolean] Will set whether or not the cursor scales proportionally to menu item heights. Defaults to true.
 

  SPECIALS

These allow some control over the ways the image is used.

SPECIALEXPLANATION
TILED Background image should tile (otherwise covers whole area).
TILED_NOSCALE Background image should tile (1:1 pixels)
NO_STRETCH_FULLSCREEN Background image will NOT be stretched to fill the screen
CURSOR_RIGHT Menu cursor will be drawn on the right side of menu entries


   

EXAMPLES

The following is an example of an RTS_MENU style entry:

[MENU3]
BACKGROUND.IMAGE="WNTPSTR2";//background image
BACKGROUND.TRANSLUCENCY=100%; //solid image

//TITLE controls the question part of the RTS menu
TITLE.FONT="DOOM";
TITLE.COLOURMAP="TEXT_YELLOW";
TITLE.SCALE=1.1; //make the text a bit bigger

//TEXT controls the menu options
TEXT.FONT="VERDANA";
TEXT.COLOURMAP="TEXT_GREEN";
TEXT.SCALE=0.9;//make the text a bit smaller

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DDF docs written by Andy Baker and Ziggy Gnarly, with updates by Andrew Apted, Andy Brewood and Luke Brennan.
Problems with the docs, errors and comments should be directed to the EDGE team.

© EDGE Team 1998 - 2023.