Introduction

By HeliJunkie

Dialogs are used to show the player information at the screen. There are two diffrent types possible:

Dialog with userinteraction

The dialog is show to the user. Whilethe user interacts with the Dialog, he cant move or shoot. Thats because the mouse movements now moves a mousepointer over the screen.

The most popular dialog I think is the map-view. While in map, you can't move or shoot.

Dialogs without userinteraction

This type of dialog allows the player moving on (but it can be disabled). This type mostly used with cutscenes. Because the player is able to move on, no userinteraction (with a mouse) is possible.

Even if you dont know it, the HUD is a type of a dialog too. You will also know the hint-dialog (hints, that are displayed at the left upper corner). While seeing this dialog type, you can move.

Defining Dialogs

Dialogs are defined in a file called "description.ext". This file extends (.ext) the default arma config for a mission. It's also called the mission config.

Within these file you have to define everything for your dialog with all your controls. Controls can be the background, images, buttons, text, lists and more.

Dialog Constants

To specify the type of the control, you have to set an attribute calles "type" to a unique number, so the game engine knows wich type of control you want to display. For us humans, its easier to hold text in mind rather than some numbers. So its a "best practise" to use a list of constants. Constants are like variables. They have a name and a value. Each time u write down the name in the definition, its been replaced by its value at runtime. The value of the constant can't be change at runtime. 

To define a consant in the "description.ext" you have to type a line like that:

#define ConstantName ConstantValue

Example

#define PlayerName HeliJunkie
#define PlayerAge 333