/tg/ Station 13 - Modules - Types

modular_aphelion/modules/species_page/module.md

Species page

Module ID: SPECIES_PAGE

Description:

Replaces Character Preferences > Species with a character-select style page. The inspected species stands in a large turning specimen chamber at the top, and below it the family tabs sit over a roster of every species with search. Nothing changes the character until Select species is pressed; clicking a tile only inspects it. Everything above the inspected species' description keeps its height from species to species, so browsing never moves the page under the pointer.

  • Families and lineages. GLOB.species_page_families files each species type under a /datum/species_family, and a subtype takes its nearest listed parent's; /datum/species/proc/get_species_family() looks it up. Families give their own name, icon and order, the way quirks give their icons, and reach the page with the static preference data from /datum/preference_middleware/species_page. A species is a variant of its parent type when the page offers that parent too (Felinid of Human, Ash Walker of Lizardperson), Vox Primalis is filed with the Vox, and Kobolds with the Lizardpeople. Variants in another family, like the holiday Vampire, stand on their own there and still name their parent. The template species, bases for players' own creations (Humanoid, Anthromorph, Anthromorphic Insect, Aquatic, Synthetic Humanoid), are filed last, under Generic. The roster puts every tile on one grid of columns, and each lineage's box sits in the gaps around its tiles, at the start of its row.
  • Holiday species can be picked in character setup all year and are joinable during their holiday. /datum/species/proc/get_holiday() names the holiday that makes a species a roundstart race, mirroring check_roundstart_eligible(); jobs already refuse species that are not roundstart races, so joining needs no new check. While they wait for their holiday they are filed under the Holiday family whatever their own, and the page hides them behind a Show holiday species toggle unless their holiday is on, or the character already is one.
  • No placeholder text. Placeholder and "fill this in" descriptions and lore are left out of the page's data, and the page draws nothing in their place.
  • Specimen chamber. The inspected species turns in four directions, in uniform or without, from /datum/asset/spritesheet_batched/species_full and /datum/asset/spritesheet_batched/species_full/body, which replace the old 64x64 head sheet. Each species stands as tall as it does in the round: its dummy takes its height as one filter over the whole body, as character setup's does, and since a flatten leaves filters out, the rows the filter moves are moved in the render itself, from bands of it (species_page_height()), so Kobolds and Dwarves are short. Every MeridianOS theme dresses the chamber from its own materials, and Classic follows stock tgui. The chamber's motion pauses while the window is hidden or unfocused.
  • The character itself. While the chamber shows the character's own species, it shows the character: the drawing of the preferences preview mob that every tab of character setup shows (see the character preview module), with its height and body size, standing where a species sprite stands, its own tile on the chamber floor, scaled down only as far as parts that reach past that tile, like big ears and wings, need. It never shows the drawing for a species that has since replaced it, and the chamber's loader stays up while a newer drawing is on its way.
  • Sprites cost nothing until they are wanted. Neither sheet draws anything during init: both are drawn in one pass when either is first realized, by SSasset_loading in the lobby or by the first player to open the page, with one walk per species and outfit rather than one per facing. The preferences window no longer carries a species sheet; the page asks for the uniform sheet when it opens, and for the body sheet only once someone turns a specimen to its body. Every file reaches the client before the page hears of it: a stylesheet whose image hasn't arrived stays blank.
  • Akula (Generic) is renamed Aquatic, and Aquatic and Unathi get previews that read as themselves. The id is unchanged, so saves need no migration.

Everything the page shows about species is static: the species preference's constant data and the species page middleware's families, both in the cached preferences JSON asset (useServerPrefs()). Only the character's species and Nova Star status come from useBackend(), choosing a species is the usual set_preference act, the sheets come from the middleware's species_page_sprites act, and the character's own preview is the character preview's drawing in the window's data. Browsing, the family tabs, search and the holiday toggle are local UI state.

TG Proc/File Changes:

  • code/modules/client/preferences/species.dm: /datum/preference/choiced/species/init_possible_values() offers holiday species; /datum/preference/choiced/species/compile_constant_data() sends the species page's species, text without placeholders, family, lineage and restrictions
  • code/modules/client/preferences/middleware/species.dm: the preferences window no longer sends a species sheet, and /datum/asset/spritesheet_batched/species is commented out
  • modular_nova/modules/customization/modules/mob/living/carbon/human/species/aquatic.dm: renamed to Aquatic
  • code/modules/asset_cache/spritesheet/batched/universal_icon.dm: /proc/get_flat_uni_icon() writes each runtime icon out once instead of on every flatten, which was most of a flatten's cost, and uni_icon_facings_json() stamps one walk with each facing, so one walk serves all four. The character preview module shares these edits.
  • code/modules/asset_cache/spritesheet/batched/batched_spritesheet.dm: realize_spritesheets() lets one caller generate a sheet (generate_spritesheets()) while any other waits for it (generation_in_progress), and a consumed rust-g job's job_id is cleared, so the lobby's loader and the page asking for its sheet can't race and lose a job's result; spritesheet_concurrent_loading in code/modules/unit_tests/spritesheets.dm covers it
  • tgui/packages/tgui/interfaces/PreferencesMenu/index.tsx: the window is 40px taller while the species page shows, for two whole rows of its roster under the chamber

Modular Overrides:

  • modular_aphelion/modules/species_page/code/species_previews.dm: /datum/species/aquatic/prepare_human_for_preview(), /datum/species/unathi/prepare_human_for_preview()

Defines:

  • N/A

Included files that are not contained in this module:

  • modular_aphelion/modules/character_preview/code/: the renders use its character_preview_rows(), character_preview_flat_box() and GLOB.character_preview_facings
  • tgui/packages/tgui/interfaces/PreferencesMenu/CharacterPreferences/SpeciesRegistry/ (the page)
  • tgui/packages/tgui/interfaces/PreferencesMenu/CharacterPreferences/SpeciesPage.tsx (the old page, commented out)
  • tgui/packages/tgui/interfaces/PreferencesMenu/CharacterPreferences/index.tsx (imports the new page, and tells the window while it shows)
  • tgui/packages/tgui/interfaces/PreferencesMenu/types.ts
  • tgui/packages/tgui/interfaces/PreferencesMenu/useServerPrefs.ts
  • tgui/packages/tgui/styles/meridianos/_species.scss
  • tgui/packages/tgui/styles/meridianos/_preferences.scss (loads it)
  • tgui/packages/tgui/styles/meridianos/assets/species/cyberpunk-glyph-pylons.svg
  • tgui/packages/tgfont/icons/zaphelion-alien.svg, zaphelion-orange.svg, zaphelion-pineapple.svg
  • code/modules/unit_tests/screenshots/screenshot_humanoids__datum_species_aquatic.png, screenshot_humanoids__datum_species_unathi.png (the humanoid screenshots, with the new previews)