BASIC. Briefing to show at beginning of mission.

[bascule42 10]

I know...search an ye shall find. Some good threads on this, but as usual, either the OP, or the replies, assume knowledge of key bits of info that elude me.

All I would like to do, is get my briefing to show up before the mission starts. Simple.

Here are the threads Ive tried to find this info from:

Basic Briefing How To

mk_taskHint: from ofpec

and this thread...

How to get briefing to show up before mission starts (I thought that one would provide a good clue :o )

I say again: I would like to get my briefing to show up before the mission starts. Simple. :)

I can create tasks, diary notes etc...that's not a problem.

Thanks in advance.

[imustkill 0]

Put the briefing in a script file and save it. Create an init.sqf and call on that script file to run. Please note that the briefing will not show up automatically if you Preview it straight out of the Editor. Therefore, you'll have to export your mission to either your Singleplayer or Multiplayer missions to get it to work as you intend.

[walker 0]

Hi Bascule42

If you mean you you want to see the briefing before the mission is downloaded, common sense will tell you that is physicly not possible. You can not read a book until you pick it up. Even reading the cover requires you at least select it.

So when you say before the missions starts, I presume you mean at the briefing screen?

I presume you are aware this is not possible in the editor? Which may be your problem. You have to save the mission to pbo format and load it first. If you are wanting to test it first to see it and you are interupted by the AI all fighting and stuff you can freeze time by putting in a temporary trigger set to true instead of this and using setAccTime:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setAccTime

in the activation put setAccTime set the coefficient of time to a number a lot less than 1; so say 0.0001

Remember to remove the trigger or set it to false instead of true when you want to run the mission.

Here are a couple of briefing editors that may help you:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=85066&highlight=briefing+editor

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6797

Kind regards walker

[bascule42 10]

Thanks for the replies guys. Much appreciated, still couldn't get it to work though :o. Exported to single/multiplayer,holding shift and clicking preview in the editor. Nothing.

However, the info you guys provided me with led me to a briefing example to download. I tried it, run it, there it was, briefing at the beginning of the mission! The only thing different with my briefings and the example, (apart from the fact the fact the example looked a lot tidier!), was the addition of the old .html briefing file. Since it just said basically: You Win, You Lose. I copied it to my own mission folder, and bugger me it worked. Got the briefing showing up before the mission starts.

So that seemed to be my problem. I didn't change nothing in my briefing, just the addition of the briefing.html.

What I don't understand though, is why. Why does the mission need the old ofp style .html briefing when all it is used for is debriefing? It shouldn't be the case. I'd have thought that the briefing .sqf would be all you need to display the map and briefing screen before the mission starts...bit of a puzzler that.

EDIT: Interestingly, my soldiers load out was defaulted to carry a silenced pistol at the start, which it was doing. Now, with the briefing screen showing up, it had reverted to its primary weapon. Curious.

Edited August 31, 2009 by Bascule42
weapon swap mystery

[Padjur 10]

What save it to a PBO? Can't preview your briefing from the Editor? Why?

If I use preview from the editor I can see my briefing perfectly well. I create my Briefing sqf, I put in my init.sqf,

[] execVM "Briefing.sqf";

hit preview select one of the roles in the multiplayer setup, click ok and it loads into the briefing screen . It takes a moment or two to load, click notes and its there. The only thing I make sure of is that I call the briefing.sqf first in the init file.

holding shift and clicking preview in the editor

doesn't work for me either, I preview using the above method. HTML is not needed in ARMA2 except for the debriefing at the end. I don't use an HTML at all and I can see the Briefing. Edited August 31, 2009 by Padjur
Updating preview method

[imustkill 0]

EDIT: Oops, too many Firefox tabs...

Admin can delete this post.

[bascule42 10]

I don't use an HTML at all and I can see the Briefing.

Mmmm...thing is, I didn't change a thing in my briefing, just added the .html

Could be one of those little quirks that make ArmA2 what it is. :rolleyes:

=====================================================

I do have another question, kind of related to the OP. How do I get a picture and description to show on the mission select screen?

[Padjur 10]

In the briefing.sqf put

player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Info", "<br/>Blah Blah<br/><br/><img image='NameOfPicture.jpg' width='200' height='200'/><br/><br/>Blah Blah"]];

(put what ever text you want instead of blah)

Put the picture file in the missions file. the tricky bit is getting the picture file the right size as the game alters it when its loaded. But for example you could size the picture file as 256x256 or 512x512 to start with.

N.B

I don't know why you should have to use an HTML document mate for your briefing to work, as it is not required. As I say my works perfect without.

sorry I do now its needed in single player mission's

Edited September 4, 2009 by Padjur

[bascule42 10]

Once again...thanks padjur. All working! :)

[Cool Breeze-ICON 10]

Hi Padjur,

I am using your code with a jpg (179x256) and all I get is a black picture frame where the picture should be. Not sure why the picture is not being displayed, can you help?

[IndeedPete 1038]

Maybe a wrong resolution? I use 1024x1024 jpgs and they are all working.

[kylania 568]

Hi Padjur,

I am using your code with a jpg (179x256) and all I get is a black picture frame where the picture should be. Not sure why the picture is not being displayed, can you help?

As Pete said, your picture would have to be 256x256 to show up.

[bascule42 10]

Also, Ive found the pictures don't show up in preview mode. Or if you SHIFT+Click Preview....they only showed up when exported to scenarios.

[Padjur 10]

hmmm I use the multiplayer editor not the single player editor so I didn't know that for single player you need an HTML document to load the briefing before the game starts (just read a post by kylania about that). Its not the same for multiplayer so I don't know the answer. My methods are for the muliplayer only. :confused: why they should be different god only knows.

Its like I said in my post the picture file sizes 256x256 or 512x512 work for me.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Padjur
grammar

[Cool Breeze-ICON 10]

Thanks Guys,

I have corrected my jpg file to 256 x 256 not 179 x 256 and it works fine.

I take it that arma only recognise jpg's that have equal width and height???

Another question, what is the colour of the briefing screen background, and don't say green - LOL. I want to match my logo background so that it blends in and only shows the logo.

Edited September 3, 2009 by Cool Breeze-ICON

[Inkompetent 0]

I take it that arma only recognise jpg's that have equal width and height???

I don't think that's the case. However each side MUST be a power of 2, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc. Otherwise the engine won't accept the file.

Edited September 3, 2009 by Inkompetent

[Padjur 10]

@ Inkompetent that's useful info, it doesn't make that very clear in the wiki, thanks.

[EMSI 960]

@Padjur: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/TexView_2_Manual

Note: All input textures must have resolution 2^x / 2^y (e.g. 16 / 16, 32 / 32, 64 / 64, 256 /256). The largest texture size commonly supported by graphics cards and BI's game engines is 2048x2048, in future graphics textures 4096x4096 or even larger could be possible and it is already supported in TexView 2.

[Padjur 10]

@ EMSI thanks. Can BI tools be used in Arma2 though? I was getting my info from the http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Overview_Picture page, it was the only thing I could find on images. In fact I can't find anything in the wiki about Arma2 briefings yet but maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. :)

[Cool Breeze-ICON 10]

Hi Guys,

Another question, what is the colour of the briefing screen background, and don't say green - LOL. I want to match my logo background so that it blends in and only shows the logo.

Thanks

[kylania 568]

The briefing background color varies depending on what's behind it since it's semi-transparent.

It's basically a Dark Green.

Against White Background: RGB: 63, 73, 56

Against Ground Background: RGB: 54, 64, 44

Against Sea Zoomed out (lighter) Background: RGB: 57, 70, 54

Against Sea Zoomed in (darker) Background: RGB: 54, 66, 50

[Cool Breeze-ICON 10]

Hi Kylania,

I have just learnt that I need to make the background transparent i.e. on alpha layer and save as a PAA file. I'm using a free imaging editor called GIMP2 and and will convert to PAA using TexView2.

Thanks

[King Geezer 10]

I had the same issue with the briefing not showing after export to SP menu. Added the brieifng.html and all started working correctly.

The briefing.html file we're adding would be better named 'debrief.html'. The information it holds does relate to victory conditions.

Thanks for the info from all other contributors, it helped out a lot.

Sometimes searching forums is like playing the early text based adventure games - you spend hours trying to find the right word or phrase that helps you reach a resolution.

[r.flagg 11]

Hi. I did a search on here for 'mk_taskHint', and only found this thread.

I'm trying to find that little tool, and the download for it doesn't seem to be working over at it's source;

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=33768.0

(I've registered at their forums, but still awaiting the confirmation email)

Does anyone happen to have another source for that helpful little tool? Thanks!