(FIXED 9.0) Sir Nukes Mod Support APIs

NO MENUS REGISTERED BUG HAS BEEN FIXED!!!!!

Sir Nukes you are free to use this to update Mod Support APIs and I will take this down with no protest once Mod Support APIs is updated

X4 Mod Support APIs

This is a collection of APIs developed to ease mod creation in a variety of ways. Components include:

Lua Loader API

- Support for loading lua files

- Note: not necessary as of X4 7. 5, but kept for legacy support of older mods.

Simple Menu API

- Create custom menus

Interact Menu API

- Add new context menu commands

Named Pipes API

- Inter-process two-way communication

- Build for Windows OS

- Requires protected UI mode be disabled

Hotkey API (uses pipes)

- Create new hotkeys

Time API (uses pipes)

- Real-time delays

(Sir Nukes Legacy Mod Support API) Primary development is on github:

https://github.com/bvbohnen/x4-projects/tree/master/extensions/sn_mod_support_apis

(Sir Nukes Legacy Mod Support API) Extended documentation on api usage:

https://github.com/bvbohnen/x4-projects/tree/master/extensions/sn_mod_support_apis/documentation

Latest releases (Sir Nukes Legacy Mod Support API):

https://github.com/bvbohnen/x4-projects/releases

This mod has two parts:

1) The X4 extension includes all x4 plugins that other mods can call, and is necessary for any dependencies.

2) An optional external program acts as a host for the named pipes api, and supports the hotkey api.  This is Windows-only for now, and needs to run in the background while X4 is open to support any hotkey mods (or other mods using the named pipes).  A Python source code version can also be obtained from github and run directly by users with Python installed.  See github documentation for version and package requirements for running from source.

FIXED BUGS: See the MOD_SUPPORT_APIS_COMPLETE_BUG_COMPENDIUM.md in the files for the full list

The following bugs are what causes the NO MENUS REGISTERED bug:

-Savegame Load Options Menu Disappearance: Simple Menu API.

• []What it causes: Loading a saved game mid-session caused all registered mod option submenus to permanently disappear from the in-game Extensions menu because the registration cue only fired on the initial engine startup. (NO MENUS REGISTERED BUG!!!!)[/]

  []The fix: Added

  <event_game_loaded/> and

  <event_game_started/> triggers to

  Reset_On_Lua_Reload alongside defensive blackboard cleanup so menus re-register cleanly on every save load.[/]

- Submenu ID Conflict Crash on Reload (Simple Menu API) (ALSO NO MENUS REGISTERED BUG)

• []What it causes: When mods re-registered their options menus after a reload,

  menu. Register_Options_Menu threw a fatal Lua exception (

  "Submenu id conflicts with prior registered id"), crashing menu generation.[/]

  []The fix: Replaced the hard error with an idempotent table update (

  custom_menu_specs = args), allowing mods to safely update their menus without crashing the game.[/]

-  ipairs(nil) Fatal Command Loop Crash (Simple Menu API) (ALSO NO MENUS REGISTERED BUG!!!!)

• []What it causes: If the player's

  $simple_menu_args blackboard was empty or returned nil, iterating over it with

  ipairs threw

  bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil), permanently freezing Simple Menu command processing.[/]

  []The fix: Added defensive

  type(args_list) == "table" checks and wrapped argument retrieval in

  pcall so the command queue recovers gracefully when empty.[/]

Outdated Catalog Shadowing (ext_01.cat / ext_01.dat) (ALSO NO MENUS REGISTERED BUG, THIS ONE WAS THE BIG ONE!!!!)

[]What it causes: Precompiled 2019 catalog files shadowed the mod's loose scripts, preventing any bug fixes, modern Lua improvements, or XML updates from taking effect in the game engine.[/]

[*]The fix: Permanently removed the legacy catalog archives so Egosoft's virtual file system directly loads the hardened