Matrix Games Forums

Hi guys, I'm just cross-posting some useful stuff for all of you who are doing this fantastic job on DB Viewer images:

The viewer supports up to seven photos: one main photo that scales with the size of the window, and two rows of three smaller photos. The db viewer will auto-detect the number of photos available and position them accordingly. The db viewer will look for files named as follows:

<type>_<id>.jpg (as earlier, for the main photo)
<type>_<id>_t1.jpg (thumbnail 1, optional)
<type>_<id>_t2.jpg (ditto)
<type>_<id>_t3.jpg (etc)
<type>_<id>_t4.jpg
<type>_<id>_t5.jpg
<type>_<id>_t6.jpg

So ship with ID# 276, thumbnail photo #2 would be named Ship_276_t2.jpg etc etc.

In addition, I strongly recommend that you also make a description file where you credit the photo source. For the sake of fair usage, credits, etc etc. E.g.:

Photo 1: <Blablah>
Photo 2: <Blablah>
Photo 3: <Blablah>
Photo 4: <Blablah>
etc

Those photos that are public domain etc should just say 'Public Domain' or 'Internet' or something similar.

Here's a quick screenshot showing how the DB Viewer will look with all seven photos in place.





Four photos:

Fantastic stuff!

Uber cool option to add several photos for each platform. I'm currently working on Finland military picture pack. Still scanning and collect photos from several sources. This will take some time...

Really great!

But actually I'm looking for a condensed look, where I can have both eye candy and the main unit data on the first page. Something like that was (accidentally?) possible with the beta versions viewer using smaller images. See build 430 example below.

The thumbnails are great, but if I don't have a main picture then thumbnails are not displayed at all, so placing just a XXXX_t1.jpg does not work.
I tried with a 0 byte main picture, but the viewer then displays an empty frame stretched to window size.

How about a <type>_<id>_l1.jpg and <type>_<id>_r1.jpg thumbnail?
As top-left and top-right adjusted, non-scaling thumbnails, inline in the General Description text? [:)]

That looks brilliant.

Oki doki, gimme a few days and I'll see what I can come up with. Having a third category of photos types might not be such a bad idea.

Currently busy kicking out the updated db and doing the speed/altitude stuff. Also have another couple DB Viewer mods to do, will bundle this one with those.

I like the look of the previous build. However, the eye candy is important. How about something with hotlinks to additional pictures? Additionally, some systems, like SAMs really have multiple parts: Launcher, acquisition radar, etc. Possibly 2 versions of viewers: One for single element systems, that hotlinks to the eye candy, and one with multiple photos for SAMs?

hej Ragnar
any progress on this?
thanks.

Sorry, have spent all my Command time on Speed/Altitude settings. Have bundled several DB Viewer to-do items and will get started on these very very soon.

Thanks for the bump [8D]

...at last!

The Database Viewer will now also handle inlined photos as you suggested - up to four in total, 200 px in size.

The photos will have to be named as follows:

<type>_<id>_i1.jpg (inlined photo 1, optional)
<type>_<id>_i2.jpg (ditto)
<type>_<id>_i3.jpg (etc)
<type>_<id>_i4.jpg

Thanks again for your fantastic effort guys [:D]

That is not working for me!! (at least)

Build 489 ,DB404 or DB405

sample files:
Ship_673
Ship_673_i1
Ship_673_i2
Ship_673_i3
Ship_673_i4

same problem in B490

inline photo did not appear!, is there any thing I missed?

I noticed you have a file like this..._ix...as your second file. Ragner had it as his first. Just a stab in the dark.

Will be included in B491 [8D]

Indented (inline in description text) DB picture are back, since b498.
The below pic was taken with b501.
Thanks Ragnar!

!! From Ragnar: Please note that the indented photos are part of the text element so also requires a description file to be present.