How to get briefing to show up before mission starts?

[Hoppern 10]

I'm doing my first mission, and its going quite well, however..

When I start the mission, it jumps straight into action. I want it to show the briefing screen first. I have read the briefing guide, and made a succsesfull briefing and tasks. But I want it to show up before the mission starts; the briefing comes up first, and you have to click "continue" to actually start playing.

How do I do this?

[kylania 568]

That won't happen in the Editor Preview. You need to export it to SinglePlayer/MultiPlayer Game first then try running it.

I bow to Ghost44's brilliance!

Edited August 4, 2009 by kylania

[Ghost 40]

hold SHIFT key and click preview, or press ENTER

[kylania 568]

hold SHIFT key and click preview, or press ENTER

.... holy! Had no idea that worked. SO many extra clicks for me. Thanks!!

[1508AD 10]

Ive tried holding shift it doesnt work for me, Ive also set up briefs with working tasks. When i play other peoples missions i goto briefing screen but mine start straight into action...

HELP!

[jakerod 254]

Ive tried holding shift it doesnt work for me, Ive also set up briefs with working tasks. When i play other peoples missions i goto briefing screen but mine start straight into action...

HELP!

The shift + enter thing worked for me. I don't know why it wouldn't work for you unless something is wrong with your briefing.

[1508AD 10]

my init.sqf looks like this

player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Info", "<br/>Author - Jinef<br/>Version 1.00<br/>"]];

player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Enemy forces", "<br/>Enemy forces are expected to consist of lightly armed locals mixed with trained regulars of the enemy. There are regular army aviation support and defence troops stationed at the airfield however after preliminary air strikes white flags have been seen, so we expect little resistance."]];

player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Friendly forces", "<br/>1st Platoon will be deployed on the north flank. 2nd Platoon will capture the high ground overlooking the airfield. 3rd platoon will conduct the assault on the airfield.<br/><br/>Due to a risk of mines the first phase of the operation will be conducted dismounted only, the AAVs will hold the beach."]];

player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Mission", "<br/>1st Platoon is to secure the northen flank of the island. This will be achieved by Alpha squad securing the town of Kamenyy, with Bravo and Charlie squads provding flank cover. Alpha squad will not proceed further than the limits of advance marked on your maps. 81mm mortar support is on call, however collateral damage is to be avoided at all costs."]];

player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Situation", "<br/>Prior to our landing on the main island of Chenarus, our marine task force will secure the airfield on the small island of Utes. Our company will be performing the assault with support from the MEU task force units. The island is expected to be defended only very lightly by enemy forces with support from an disgruntled population. The key to our success is to quickly assert control over the island while maintaining civilian infrastructure and dignity."]];

// Secondary Objective

tskObj2 = player createSimpleTask["Secondary: Eliminate General Likar"];

tskObj2 setSimpleTaskDescription["Let's not take any risks. We must eliminate General Likar while we have the chance", "Eliminate General Likar", "Eliminate General Likar"];

//>---------------------------------------------------------<

// Primary Objective

tskObj1 = player createSimpleTask["Destroy the Enemy Command post"];

tskObj1 setSimpleTaskDescription["Your task is to destroy the Enemy Command post", "Destroy the Command Post", "Destroy the Command post"];

player setCurrentTask tskObj1;

};

case EAST: // REDFOR briefing goes here

{

};

case RESISTANCE: // RESISTANCE/INDEPENDENT briefing goes here

{

};

case CIVILIAN: // CIVILIAN briefing goes here

{

};

};

[PhelanKA7 10]

First of all you don't put that stuff into your init.sqf. You make an sqf file called briefing.sqf and you execute it in the init.sqf with:

execVM "briefing.sqf";

Second... I don't know if you copy/pasted wrong, but it looks like you need

case WEST: //BLUFOR briefing goes here
{
***YOUR BRIEFING IN HERE***
};

case EAST: // REDFOR briefing goes here
{

};

blah blah

It looks like you left out the BLUFOR briefing beginning. To be honest you don't need all that blank alternate briefing stuff for it to work. Unless it's for Multiplayer maybe?

[1508AD 10]

I still cannot get it to work so i have uploaded my mission if someone can have a look id be greatfull

Thanks in advance

edit FIXED

Edited August 5, 2009 by 1508AD

[Mike84 1]

It worked fine when I tried it in the mp editor, but to get it to work in the sp editor (with the shift-preview trick) I had to add a briefing.html.

[PhelanKA7 10]

It worked fine when I tried it in the mp editor, but to get it to work in the sp editor (with the shift-preview trick) I had to add a briefing.html.

Really? I had to delete all the brackets and other sides' empty briefings. But also as you said, I had to add a Debriefing "Briefing.html".

Here's an example:

; ****************************************************************
; Script file for Armed Assault
; Created by: TODO: Author Name
; ****************************************************************


<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1250">

<title>Title</title>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<! -----DEBRIEFING----->
<hr>
<br>
<h2><a name="Debriefing:End1">Victory!</a></h2>
<br>
<p>
<! ------victory------>
We managed to sieze Mogilevka and also push back the counter attack!
</p>
<br>

<hr>
<br>
<h2><a name="Debriefing:End2">Defeat!</a></h2>
<br>
<p>
<! ------KIA------>
We could not defend against the rapid counter attack.
</p>
<br>

<! -----DEBRIEFING END----->

</body>
</html>

[1508AD 10]

Fixed it guys thanks, it was the briefing.html

[GTO 10]

hold SHIFT key and click preview, or press ENTER

So what exactly does that do?

[derringer 10]

What's the size limitation for custom images in briefings? I can't get any to show up.

[Mike84 1]

iirc you need the image size to be of a ratio of 1:1, and the length of both axis' should be a power of 2 (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128, 256, 512). Don't worry if that screws up the aspect ratio of your picture, in my briefing howto you can see how you can define the aspect ratio yourself.

[derringer 10]

Thanks Mike, I think the power of 2 rule is causing my problem.

[AliMag 0]

Hi,

I've made a small program to help creating simple briefings. You can find it here:

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=33891.0

Please try it and tell me what you think. (dont forget to read the readme)

Cheers

[derringer 10]

Apparently I am cursed with getting the custom images to show. Now all I'm getting is a black box where the image should be, whereas before it was nothing at all. Anyone encounter this? Could it be bit-depth? I'm using a jpg, nothing fancy.

[Coronel_Niel 10]

Derringer, use a image resizer to get it to the power of 2. Please do show us your briefing, or I cant help you from here. I use a 1024x512 image, but you can define the spec with a command. To insert a image with custom specs, use:

<img image='Image.jpg' width='256' height='128'/>

Or whatever you want it. A great tool is arma edit, this is for arma 1 but it does work in arma 2.

I think you know about the init.sqf, and arma edit creates the briefing in html form, and has its own little make-up for it.

Although, i prefer to make my own, and use that to make the overview.

.jpg is the file type needed, so no problems there.

If their is an error message, please state it. I can supply a custom mission with 1 pic and a small amount of diary entries if you want.

[Cougs 10]

Bumping an old post.

I want to put an image in my briefing - what folder/directory does it go in and can I specify that myself?

<img image='subfolder\Image.jpg' width='256' height='128'/>

Is my subfolder acceptable or is something else causing my problem?

[kylania 568]

Yup, just create the subfolder under your mission folder and put the image in there.

[puzzola 10]

This post is exactly what I was looking for.

I created the init.sqf with the string execVM "briefing.sqf";

The file briefing.sqf with diary and task (all work, mission status too).

But theese all are visible only when in game, not at startup.

Not to be untrustful, but I would like to read the briefing before jumping out of my plane :p

I saved the mission as user mission, created pbo and played in SP.

Any hint

[kylania 568]

Create a briefing.html file, even if it's empty, in your main mission folder and see if that allows the briefing to show before the game.

[puzzola 10]

Create a briefing.html file, even if it's empty, in your main mission folder and see if that allows the briefing to show before the game.

It does really work!

Thank you, I spent too much hours for this detail.

By the way, what was that for? :confused:

It's something always necessary or just a try?

[kylania 568]

The briefing.html used to be the briefing system and therefore required back in ArmA, and I guess the file requirement remained even after they moved to scripting commands rather than flat text files. :)