GUI Mod Questions

[rambleman2033]

From what I understand (and could be wrong about):

1) Images for all the GUI buttons are stored in the Mt_Commandbar.tga and Mt_Commandbar.mtd files.
2) The GUI button functions are defined in the commandbarcomponents.xml file.
3) The new GUI buttons are coded as filters, not the actual space and land tabs. So the filter buttons for Capital, Frigate, Structure, and Story are physically positioned over the top of the space tab in TR...?

How does the game define where the .tga button images are placed on the GUI?  Is it possible to add more filters for the land tab as was done for Space?  I've spent the last few days looking through files trying to trace everything before asking for help and have finally hit a wall.  I would love to know more about how this was done, what the limitations are, and why.  Thank you for your time.  I admire your (TR team's) work very much.

[Slornie]

I believe the object names in commandbarcomponents.xml directly reference bones on the GUI model (i_galactic_controls.alo as per the "i_main_commandbar" object).  The buttons (and other components) are rendered by the game in the position defined by the corresponding bone.  So for the space filters etc additional bones were added to the GUI model and then referenced by the xml objects that define the new buttons.