Alien Swarm Centered HUD fix
Posted: 24 Jul 2010, 02:46
***Update***- 2010/8/1
Great news! Hex-editing the pak01_dir.vpk is no longer necessary. Valve added the following command line option in the latest update:
Simply extract/edit your hudlayout.res file as needed, then launch the game with this command line parameter (you can set this by right click->Properties->Set Launch Options on Alien Swarm in your Steam library).
Update- Game updated right after I posted this. Grab the new replacement vpk here: (link removed)
The HUD for Alien swarm can be fixed like other Source games. Here's how. First, download these files: (links removed)
1- Navigate to the game directory. It should look like this:
..Steamsteamappscommonalien swarmswarm
2- BACK UP the pak01_dir.vpk file to a different location! (outside of the Alien Swarm directory)
3- Extract the pak01_dir.vpk from the above archive into the game folder, replacing the original file.
4- Navigate down into the Scripts subdirectory and extract the hudlayout.res file from the .zip into this folder.
5- Now it's time for a little editing. Tools needed: text editor and calculator.
Open the hudlayout.res file in your text editor. Scroll down until you find the section titled ASW_Hud_Master. A few lines down you will see this:
"xpos" "0"
"ypos" "0"
"wide" "f0"
"tall" "480"
Thanks to Downtown1 we know how Source HUDs work. They are based on a resolution of 640x480, which is a 4:3 aspect ratio. What you need to do is calculate an "xpos" value based on your resolution. I'll use mine as an example:
Calculate AR of a single monitor: 1280 / 1024 = 1.25
Calculate new xpos value: 480 * 1.25 = 600 -->This is the value you will enter in the "xpos" line:
"xpos" "600"
For some reason the minimap isn't affected by the master setting so it needs to be edited as well. Scroll up to the top of the hudlayout.res file to the ASWHudMinimap section and find this line:
"xpos" "r171"
Now ADD your calculated value to the current value. Mine:
"xpos" "r771"
Result:
Save the edits you made to the res file and launch the game.
To be addressed:
-I haven't played much with the fix yet so things may be broken/unchanged.
-Bezel managed resolutions may need tweaking. Maybe take full Horiz resolution, divide by 3, then use that as the value for single-screen Horiz. Please report results here so we can confirm a method.
[Ed] Re-thinking this, what you may need to do is add the Horiz res of one screen to the number of compensated bezel pixels as your single-screen Horizontal value. Example: 1680+100pix (for one set of bezels) = 1780.
-The vpk is hex-edited to force the engine to recognize the extracted .res file. Official updates to this file will break the HUD mod as the new vpk file will need to be hex edited again.
-More as I think of it.
Great news! Hex-editing the pak01_dir.vpk is no longer necessary. Valve added the following command line option in the latest update:
Code: Select all
-override_vpkSimply extract/edit your hudlayout.res file as needed, then launch the game with this command line parameter (you can set this by right click->Properties->Set Launch Options on Alien Swarm in your Steam library).
Update- Game updated right after I posted this. Grab the new replacement vpk here: (link removed)
The HUD for Alien swarm can be fixed like other Source games. Here's how. First, download these files: (links removed)
1- Navigate to the game directory. It should look like this:
..Steamsteamappscommonalien swarmswarm
2- BACK UP the pak01_dir.vpk file to a different location! (outside of the Alien Swarm directory)
3- Extract the pak01_dir.vpk from the above archive into the game folder, replacing the original file.
4- Navigate down into the Scripts subdirectory and extract the hudlayout.res file from the .zip into this folder.
5- Now it's time for a little editing. Tools needed: text editor and calculator.
Open the hudlayout.res file in your text editor. Scroll down until you find the section titled ASW_Hud_Master. A few lines down you will see this:
"xpos" "0"
"ypos" "0"
"wide" "f0"
"tall" "480"
Thanks to Downtown1 we know how Source HUDs work. They are based on a resolution of 640x480, which is a 4:3 aspect ratio. What you need to do is calculate an "xpos" value based on your resolution. I'll use mine as an example:
Calculate AR of a single monitor: 1280 / 1024 = 1.25
Calculate new xpos value: 480 * 1.25 = 600 -->This is the value you will enter in the "xpos" line:
"xpos" "600"
For some reason the minimap isn't affected by the master setting so it needs to be edited as well. Scroll up to the top of the hudlayout.res file to the ASWHudMinimap section and find this line:
"xpos" "r171"
Now ADD your calculated value to the current value. Mine:
"xpos" "r771"
Result:
Save the edits you made to the res file and launch the game.
To be addressed:
-I haven't played much with the fix yet so things may be broken/unchanged.
-Bezel managed resolutions may need tweaking. Maybe take full Horiz resolution, divide by 3, then use that as the value for single-screen Horiz. Please report results here so we can confirm a method.
[Ed] Re-thinking this, what you may need to do is add the Horiz res of one screen to the number of compensated bezel pixels as your single-screen Horizontal value. Example: 1680+100pix (for one set of bezels) = 1780.
-The vpk is hex-edited to force the engine to recognize the extracted .res file. Official updates to this file will break the HUD mod as the new vpk file will need to be hex edited again.
-More as I think of it.