exui -
this is a extenal app(s) that can create transparent windows to represent in-game ui elements.
goal is to externalize the ingame ui to take advantage of rapid prototyping with game-agnostic designs. the design is decoupled to 2 apps; api provider(exui-api) and the window manager (exui-wpf).
the api provider has a basic configuration which uses to crawl the running game memory and serves the values with a local websocket.
the window manager reads these variables to feed to the templates(ui elements).
"templates" are just ui elements that are compiled and stored in a folder. window manager automaticaly loads them to app and makes it available to open.
.end user just needs the compiled stuff.
approach advantages:
- the design is game and ui agnostic. you can just change the api provider config to read nfsmw rpm value instead of nfsu2. prolly works for other games too.
- windows are wpf which is modern, very fast, lightweight and quite flexible for freedom.
disadvantages:
- "templates" must be compiled to dll. it means the source must be trusted.
- while creating the visual design is easy, compiling them still requires somewhat programming literacy (installing sdk and setting up dotnet project. I still dont have a tutorial.)
- it doesn't work with fullscreen.
the state of the project is quite wip. i only created 2 templates so far for testing in nfsu2. you can check out github if you have a bit of knowledge:
- https://github.com/clod44/exui-api
- https://github.com/clod44/exui-wpf
my templates:
- https://github.com/clod44/ExuiTimer
- https://github.com/clod44/ExuiSpeedometer
I'm uploading here the simple folder structure ready to use (only the compiled files). extract the folder and launch the "exui-api", then "exui-wpf", then enable the templates to see them. currently the project is kidn of setup for nfsu2 tho. idk. source (and compiled files) are in the relevant github repos as well. if you have any knowledge and interest for this approach to any game, feel free to contribute, fork, pull, rewrite, create your own, tickle my balls whatever.
