Customize strings with colors, blips, and other things.

[jumper]

I happened to notice that three-socks used this in his menu library, so I decided to see what else can be done. Turns out a lot of this is already well documented. Basically you can make any blip or controller button show up in a string, by using something like ~BLIP_76~, or ~PAD_RSTICK_UPDOWN~. You can also use colors from a set of presets.

Quick example:

PRINT_STRING_WITH_LITERAL_STRING_NOW("STRING", "~PAD_DPAD_UPDOWN~ ~PAD_SIXAXIS_ROLL~ test ~y~test ~r~test ~COL_NET_4~test ~COL_NET_1~test ~BLIP_76~ ~BLIP_81~", 3000, 1);

ends up looking like this:

There are a lot of these in american.gxt, but the web is a great resource. After some searching I have a pretty complete list:

Buttons

string	PS3	360		string	PS3	360		string	PS3	360
~PAD_A~				~PAD_LSTICK_ALL~				~PAD_RSTICK_ALL~
~PAD_B~				~PAD_LSTICK_UPDOWN~				~PAD_RSTICK_UPDOWN~
~PAD_X~				~PAD_LSTICK_LEFTRIGHT~				~PAD_RSTICK_LEFTRIGHT~
~PAD_Y~				~PAD_LSTICK_UP~				~PAD_RSTICK_UP~
~PAD_LB~				~PAD_LSTICK_RIGHT~				~PAD_RSTICK_RIGHT~
~PAD_LT~				~PAD_LSTICK_DOWN~				~PAD_RSTICK_DOWN~
~PAD_LSTICK_NONE~				~PAD_LSTICK_LEFT~				~PAD_RSTICK_LEFT~
~PAD_RB~				~PAD_BACK~				~PAD_START~
~PAD_RT~				~PAD_SIXAXIS_DRIVE~				~PAD_SIXAXIS_ROLL~
~PAD_RSTICK_NONE~				~PAD_SIXAXIS_PITCH~				~PAD_SIXAXIS_RELOAD~
~PAD_DPAD_ALL~				~PAD_DPAD_UP~				~PAD_UP~
~PAD_DPAD_UPDOWN~				~PAD_DPAD_DOWN~				~PAD_DOWN~
~PAD_DPAD_LEFTRIGHT~				~PAD_DPAD_LEFT~				~PAD_LEFT~
~PAD_DPAD_NONE~				~PAD_DPAD_RIGHT~				~PAD_RIGHT~

Colors

string	color		string	color		string	color
~b~	███████		~c~	███████		~g~	███████
~l~	███████		~m~	███████		~p~	███████
~r~	███████		~s~	███████		~w~	███████
~y~ (IV/TLaD)	███████		~y~ (TBoGT)	███████		~COL_NET_1~	███████
~COL_NET_2~	███████		~COL_NET_3~	███████		~COL_NET_4~	███████
~COL_NET_5~	███████		~COL_NET_6~	███████		~COL_NET_7~	███████
~COL_NET_8~	███████		~COL_NET_9~	███████		~COL_NET_10~	███████
~COL_NET_11~	███████		~COL_NET_12~	███████		~COL_NET_13~	███████
~COL_NET_14~	███████		~COL_NET_15~	███████		~COL_NET_16~	███████

Other Strings

• ~n~ inserts a line break (only works well with PRINT type natives)
• ¬ returns a cool little R* logo
• ^ returns a 5 point star
• * returns a smaller 5 point star
• ~h~ highlights, using it after ~r~ will create a slightly brighter red, to cancel the highlight use another color tag.
  so if you wanted a fully red string with one highlighted word, you would use:
  ~r~This red string has a ~h~highlighted~r~ word.
• There are also multiple ~a~, ~1~, and so on used in the game. Looking at how they are used I believe these return contents of variables in use, but I have yet to experiment with them.

Blips
(see next post, image limit reached)

Some additional notes:

• there is apparently a string limit or tag limit, notice the last blip is missing in my quick example (this blip works fine otherwise)
• all of these images have had a shadow added in photoshop, anything that is mostly white will be hard to see against white in game
• unfortunately none of these blips will be animated when used in a string, and their color cannot be updated either
• you can't use the colors without a space either preceding or following the color tag (game will crash)
• you can't use an incomplete tag like ~ or ~y (game will crash)
• there are LOTS of other tags that produce the same buttons as above, however they are control specific, not button specific, for example ~INPUT_SPRINT~ will most likely display whatever button is assigned to sprint in your control setup. Check out AMERICAN.GXT for some examples ( there is a reversed archive on Index of /GTA4 )

It's a pretty nice addition to modmanager if you tend to forget the controls for some things like I do:

Sources

• blips - http://public.sannybuilder.com/GTA4/blips/
• colors and 360 buttons - GXT (GTA 4)

[jumper]

Blips

string	Blip	Description		string	Blip	Description		string	Blip	Description
~BLIP_0~		Destination		~BLIP_1~		Destination		~BLIP_2~		Destination
~BLIP_3~		Objective		~BLIP_4~		Objective		~BLIP_5~		Objective
~BLIP_6~		Player		~BLIP_7~		North		~BLIP_8~		Waypoint
~BLIP_9~		Pistol		~BLIP_10~		Shotgun		~BLIP_11~		SMG
~BLIP_12~		Rifle		~BLIP_13~		Rocket		~BLIP_14~		Grenade
~BLIP_15~		Molotov		~BLIP_16~		Sniper		~BLIP_17~		Baseball Bat
~BLIP_18~		Knife		~BLIP_19~		Health		~BLIP_20~		Armor
~BLIP_21~		Burger Shot		~BLIP_22~		Cluckin' Bell		~BLIP_23~		Vlad
~BLIP_24~		Internet		~BLIP_25~		Manny		~BLIP_26~		Little Jacob
~BLIP_27~		Roman		~BLIP_28~		Faustin		~BLIP_29~		Safehouse
~BLIP_30~		Taxi		~BLIP_31~		Bernie		~BLIP_32~		Brucie
~BLIP_33~		Unknown Contact		~BLIP_34~		Dwayne		~BLIP_35~		Elizabeta
~BLIP_36~		Gambetti		~BLIP_37~		Jimmy Pegorino		~BLIP_38~		Derrick McReary
~BLIP_39~		Francis McReary		~BLIP_40~		Gerry McReary		~BLIP_41~		Kate McReary
~BLIP_42~		Packie McReary		~BLIP_43~		Phil Bell		~BLIP_44~		Play boy X
~BLIP_45~		Ray Boccino		~BLIP_46~		8 Ball		~BLIP_47~		Bar
~BLIP_48~		Boat Tour		~BLIP_49~		Bowling		~BLIP_50~		Clothes Shop
~BLIP_51~		Club		~BLIP_52~		Darts		~BLIP_53~		Dwayne
~BLIP_54~		Date		~BLIP_55~		Play boy X		~BLIP_56~		Helitour
~BLIP_57~		Restaurant		~BLIP_58~		Train Station		~BLIP_59~		Weapons
~BLIP_60~		Police Station		~BLIP_61~		Fire Station		~BLIP_62~		Hospital
~BLIP_63~		Male		~BLIP_64~		Female		~BLIP_65~		Finish Line
~BLIP_66~		Strip Club		~BLIP_67~		Console Game		~BLIP_68~		Cop Car
~BLIP_69~		Dimitri		~BLIP_70~		Comedy Club		~BLIP_71~		Cabaret Club
~BLIP_72~		Ransom		~BLIP_73~		Cop Chopper		~BLIP_74~		Michelle
~BLIP_75~		Pay 'n' Spray		~BLIP_76~		Assassin		~BLIP_77~		Revenge
~BLIP_78~		Deal		~BLIP_79~		Garage		~BLIP_80~		Lawyer
~BLIP_81~		Trophy		~BLIP_82~		Multiplayer Tutorial		~BLIP_83~		Station 3
~BLIP_84~		Station 8		~BLIP_85~		Station A		~BLIP_86~		Station B
~BLIP_87~		Station C		~BLIP_88~		Station E		~BLIP_89~		Station J
~BLIP_90~		Station K		~BLIP_91~		Car Wash		~BLIP_92~		United Liberty Paper
~BLIP_93~		Above		~BLIP_94~		Below

[Colt]

Loving this Jumper. So, would that mean you'd also be able to incorporate that into a mod menu?

As in where it would say... erm.. "Give yourself health" for example, you could put a little health symbol next to it?

that would be badass..

[jumper]

Yep, the smaller blips look a little weird though. I don't think you can set the colors either.

(that's ~BLIP_19~ ~BLIP_20~ and ~BLIP_62~)

[Colt]

I don't think it would matter so much if they looked weird, only if you couldn't recognize what they were.

Health, armor, and medic symbol right?

(I didn't look at the list lol, just guessing).

[jumper]

Update - everything is now in post #1 and #2

[HuN]

sweet , this is great !

thanks alot ... for i will use the info's in my futur projects

[Colt]

Thanks again Jumper I'm finding these really useful for button presses etc.

[EvilB]

good job jumper on the update i have been using these for awhile now.
also this string color ~y~ varies between episodes on gtaiv/tlad it will turn yellow text but on tbogt it will be red/pink so i think this reads a certain color config from the hud.dat or another dat.

[InTheSevens]

This thread should be stickied. Great info.