This looks really useful, It will save a lot of time for people and will make this stuff that seems very daunting to newer players a lot easier.

What is with you and making the greatest things ever!

Most HUDs now have alternate files, a HUD specific option to specify alt files you want which would be renamed and replace the default on every install would be very nice.

I don't know how you'd implement it, but some way to make small changes to a file on install would be great e.g. changing a colour or font used

An option to store and switch around fonts in specific hud elements would be cool. Also enabling certain hud elements like a health cross and such would be nice as well.

Just out of curiosity, how will this affect huds like the new broesel which use custom materials?

It's basically just downloading the files and putting them in a folder, I don't see how that would affect it in any way.

I'm totally gonna do that :)

I'll do my best to port this for mac/linux after the initial release, however I'll need some people to help me with that. I am willing to install a linux vm and steam for this, but it takes 12 hours+ just to install tf2 with my connection and that's a bit too much >.>

So if any linux/mac users wanna help me do this, add me on steam, I'll talk to you when I need your help :)

I have no idea how it work on those systems.

This looks really cool, I mean really really good!

But I have noticed one thing, you seem to have lots of projects (cfg editor, hud editor, now this) but it seems you are not focusing properly on each of them or at least not finishing them. I don't want in anyway to sound like a douche or even try to control your time but It seems it would be more effective if you focused on 1 project mainly. Hope this doesn't come accross badly, I'm just trying to give my input here.

Other than that, great work! I have seen one of those hud installers before (idk where) and it was cool but only supported 1 hud I think, this one with hitsound support and everything looks really cool.

Now you could try to make it a fully featured tf2 costumization tool (which would be really neat to see) and add option for custom folder cfg backups and restore feature and also add an option to install gfx configs or change / edit configs on that program.

Anyway, great work!

didn't broesel try this a while back but it was never revealed

also remember to get permission from the hud developers and give credit

four you are the man, I've been using your HUD and cfg editor and they are amazing!

From what I can tell from the image this tool allows you to switch HUDs? If not please add this since I switch from my casting HUD to my normal HUD quite a few times and it gets annoying having to unzip (hehehe) everytime.

Other than that, the program looks great! :D

That is 100% correct. However I want to work on all these projects, which is not possible in a small period of time. I once made a tool for tf2 that let you fully customize each class, a bit like http://tf2cfg.info/ . Here's a very early screenshot of it, the whole window was filled with options, I don't have a newer screenshot.

http://puu.sh/1vDNy

I scrapped that someday and I didn't continue making tools for tf2 because I didn't have any ideas and eventually going back to video editing which I kinda gave up at that point.

Now I have lots of ideas for tools and I want to switch between project to keep it interesting. It always feels well to go "back" to 4Hud, see that it's really handy and continue to add a couple of features but right now I'm focusing on the installer and that has a reason. The installer won't need any attention after it's finished. Maybe I'll release a pre-release version that doesn't have features but at some point I can say "this project is finished!". 4Hud will take forever to develop. I have a lot of ideas that I haven't even touched, drawing over the tf2 window, caching and interpreting all files of the hud to allow autocompletion for colors/fonts, some small features like installing/uninstalling fonts, watching the file system to notice file changes that were not made my 4Script, the main menu designer and a lot more like.

Also 4Script and 4Hud only target a small amount of people and probably wont make super famous. This tool however could make me famous because it's possible that people with a large audience link to this tool because they don't want to troubleshot how to install their hud/hitsound/plugin. I enjoy making tools for "side groups" like hud editors but targeting basically the entire tf2 community has a bigger impact.

Impact is the perfect transition, it is iMp4ct who wanted to make the universal hud installer. He canceled it because he needed to work together with the hud makers which was not possible for him. My concept is not adding every hud to a list but giving every hud maker the possibility to optimize his hud for the installer and use the updater. Maintaining the huds is done by the hud makers, I don't need to do anything about that which is also the answer to this

Yes that works, you'll also be able to make a shortcut on the desktop that automatically changes your hud/checks for updates and then launches tf2!

Also thank for the positive feedback everybody :)

four, why don't you just make your own movie tool while you're at it then? Lawena has been giving me problems lately and other ones don't seem to be as useful / convenient. :D

Does someone have an idea how I could design the icon for this? Maybe something like the tf2 logo with some parts unplugged? It needs to looks good in 16x16 px as well...

You could do the tf2 logo with wires between the segments and one of them greyed out, would be different enough to tell apart if a little odd.

I'd leave it only with HUD and Hitsound options, but maybe a feature that could install and uninstall the TF.TV Spray would be great.
Also, add PVHUD, please?.

I want this

this is really cool!
i think broselHUD already has a installer for itself, but it may not be updated idk

If you check the broselhud thread, some user updated some files and fixed the red scout disguise issue in the HUD.

But to the OP:
This looks great, I change HUDs more often than I probably should, and would find this very helpful.

I just wanted to give an update on this, it'll probably take me a couple weeks to finish this project, however I'll do my best to catch every single exception and to make this as good as I can!

[Here are some infos for hud/plugin makers:
Version numbers:
This tool will allow basically any fixed point value:

"2" < "2.4"

You can use an alpha/beta prefix:

"beta 1.5" < "1.3"

And here's a screenshot:

http://puu.sh/4oEkS.png

Four, you're amazing. Seriously... holy shit.

Can't wait for this to come out.

Really looking forward to this, should help with keeping casters & streamers up to date with their plugins.

How is updating going to work, btw? RSS feed that the program checks or something else?

The creator of the hud needs to set up a file on a server containing a version number. This tool loads this file and checks if it's different from the version of the installed hud/plugin.

Example with AdvSpec:
You a file called data.txt in the root folder of your addon:

name=Advanced Spectator Plugin
desc=TF2 addon that gives players outlines.
creator=bluee
url=http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/7848
url=http://github.com/MattMcNam/advspec
version=7
[b]version_url=link to the file containing the version number
update_url=the direct download link[/b]

And then you need to keep the version file up to date of course.

I've finished this tool for the most part, only settings, an installer filetype (that opens in this tool and downloads/installs the plugin) and some minor things are left.

I'm not sure how to design the settings yet. I wanna make an dynamic extensible way for this, to give simple presets for eg. hudlayout.res crosshairs or switching between all files that start with "Scoreboard - ".

I'm thinking about a vertical list of controls like in the goat_ installer since it's easy to make and allows unlimited different controls/combination.

What settings would you like to see there?

Not sure about that last post

But are you creating an API of some sort to enable hud makers but as well plugin and other stuff to be easily ported to this program?

Would be really good as well to have a central updating hub, like if the tool checked 1 server and if that wasn't the most recent version you could download it directly

I guess you could call it an api, but it kinda works like a structuring language like html.

edit: outdated, won't work

What I'm thinking of is that eg.

[SwitchFiles("resource\ui\SpectatorGUIHealth - *", "Spectator Health")]

Will give you

http://puu.sh/4vTsH.png

in the settings. (This'll let you choose between the SpectatorGUIHealth customization files.)

I'm not sure yet how I'm gonna structure this "language".

I finished the settings system right now. I noticed tho that the update system isn't quiet finished and the shortcut feature is not yet done so I'll still need some time, also the documentation for developers is not finished.

Here is a list of the features that will be in the final version:
- One click plugin enabling/disabling
- Different plugin types (huds/vpks/hitsounds/addons) and an "something else" section.
- The tool can update plugins if it properly set up!
- You can easily script settings for your addon!
- Settings will be remembered and reapplied when updating!
- You can create shortcuts that automatically check for updates or enable/disable plugins

Looks nice, but I probably won't be using it. I use eve hud which comes with its very own nifty HUD updater and customiser. Check it out for some ideas: https://code.google.com/p/eve-tf2hud/

This looks incredible, take as much time as you need four.