Question?

[Violin88]

I am new to Zero Hour mapping, and I would just like to know how I can display a visual message on the screen to the user. When I try clicking USER > String > Display popup message box, but I can't type in my own string or browse my computer for any.

By the way, if anybody knows how to do the same for audio files, it would be greatly appreciated. I have looked everywhere, but I just don't know how to do it, lol.

Thanks! :p
Justin

[Me Myself & Pi]

Use this action in a script, (assuming you're using Zero Hour, please correct me if your using just Generals instead) "Scripting\Briefing\Show military briefing caption." (You have a maximum of 92 character, if you use any more they won't be shown on the screen.) You'll also need to choose how long (in mili-seconds) you want the caption to show, if the caption hasn't reached the other side of the screen, but you don't see the whole caption, raise the time some more. 10000 mili-seconds is really the highest you need to go.

But whatever you type will come up like this, MISSING: 'thetextyoutypedwillshowhere' in the game. There are instructions to get rid of it here: http://cncden.com/worldbuilder/wb_chapter6_stringfile.shtml

Please read that tut before continuing on or else it will be confusing.
But if you intent to play this on multiplayer, & you used MyMapName:Intro_1 for the caption name, then the other players playing will see MISSING: 'MyMapName:Intro_1' instead. So you could be completely oblivious to this because it should work right for you, but it won't for the other players. There's no way to avoid the MISSING from showing up. So for the caption name, use the caption itself.
In other words, lets say you wanted the caption, "Welcome to my map!" to show up. In the World Builder, type, "Welcome to my map!" in the military caption action. Then in the Map.str file, type:

Welcome to my map!
"Welcome to my map!"
End

This way, the other players in the multiplayer game will at least see the caption. It will look like this, "MISSING: 'Welcome to my map!'", but they'll still get the point. Most player the play custom maps a lot are used that MISSING. But after the player exits Zero Hour to his desktop, opens up Zero Hour again, & plays the map, then the captions will come up right for him.

To add your own music or sounds, download the tut on this web page, http://cncden.com/genx_utility_downloads.shtml Note, your custom music or sounds will only work for you, it won't work for other players in a multiplayer game unless the have the same music or sounds installed for their game.

[apple23]

This way, the other players in the multiplayer game will at least see the caption. It will look like this, "MISSING: 'Welcome to my map!'", but they'll still get the point. Most player the play custom maps a lot are used that MISSING.

This kind on thing was only a problem in Yuri's revenge. In generals, you can put the map.str file in the folder that your map file is in (the folder is the name of your map) and the map.str file will transfer through the online map transfer system. (the entire folder copies, not just the map)