Effects squished when too many. Thread - Vanilla UI Plus mod for Fallout: New Vegas

I'm not sure exactly what to post here, so I'll just quote myself from the comments:

I have another issue, which is present since the first time I downloaded this mod months ago, which is that items with too many effects get squished in a way that they didn't with the vanilla UI, which is weird because something similar used to happen in vanilla with a lot of other stuff and now that's fixed by your mod.

prnt.sc/ifbu67
prnt.sc/ifbug1
prnt.sc/ifbwp9

It's possible that the stuff that's now squished did cut off in vanilla and therefore looked acceptable, but I can't remember.

I've no clear answer on this, so I'm just submitting the idea of a scrollbar in the effects window (if it's not already there) and extending the entries dynamically based on their length. But I don't know how feasible that is.

And that's it. Thanks for your help.

Edited by: EPDGaffney

OK. You can fix the first screenshot by editing the Data\Menus\Prefabs\item_stats_display.xml file. Find the <rect name="EffectsInfo"> tag and change <_VUI+NoLabel> from 0 to 1. This will turn on a VUI+ feature that automatically hides labels for cases such as this. I'll do this myself for the new version that I plan to release in a few hours.

However there are mods that apply so many effects that even this space-saving feature won't help. Creating a scrollbar won't help either because, as you see in your screenshot, the pointer is over the Item list and therefore the mousewheel only affects the Item list. If you were to move the pointer over the effects box (that would have the scrollbar) the item would disappear.

The other screenshots are impossible to deal with on the vanilla EFF list. That's because each list item in this list is hardcoded to have a fixed height, equal to the height of every other effect. So, I could expand them to fit those huge strings, but then it would look terrible for 99% players who aren't using such mods. At some point mod authors need to understand that vanilla must be supported as it is and fit their strings into the available space.

That said, I'm still looking for a solution to this problem.

I haven't implemented the fix for the first screenshot as yet but it seems really simple. However, what concerns me more than making it look nice for me is making it look nice for any player that downloads my mod, so it's great that you're able to add it to the next release of this mod.

I saw what you meant immediately about the scrollbar and the pointer now. Must have been tired before or something.

I understand about the other screenshots. The string is "Steadier aim but deadlier enemies, +2 PER but not for Explosives or Energy Weapons" and I could swear it looked fine on vanilla, but now I'm second-guessing myself. If you come up with something, great. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do about shortening it.

Thanks.

Edit: I should clarify that my scrollbar suggestion was for the EFF list, coupled with the hope that each entry could be expanded and contracted based on the size of the string. You're saying that one size must be chosen and used for all items, so this suggestion seems to be impossible to implement, unless some code expansion comes a long that facilitates it later. But I'd rather not rely on that anyway, so I'll have to shorten it.

Edited by: EPDGaffney

Sounds great. Yes, your mod definitely won't look right in vanilla because vanilla clips any part of the effect string that goes outside the main box. VUI+ provides a 2nd line for those long effects by wrapping them instead.

I'm working on a solution right now, but I really think that it's best for your mod to make your strings look correct even without VUI+.

Agreed.

So, vanilla only allows one line, is it? Wow, that is short. I'm after shortening the strings to fit on the two lines currently provided, but I'm not sure I can do it in only one line. I'll do some tests.

The new version will provide more space. I had expected to post it a few hours ago but after your feedback I've worked on several approaches to the problem and I'm finally satisfied with one. I think I can send you a beta sample if you'd like to test your mod with it. Let me know.

I tested in vanilla just now and what I was remembering was that each entry doesn't run into the others, but you do get only the one line and then it cuts off if it goes on too long. I'm a bit torn because I'm doing a lot of stuff that doesn't normally occur in the game and the player should be aware of it, so I like the extra space Vanilla UI+ provides, but I don't know that I would want it to be a requirement for players that download my mod. Do you know about the other popular UI mods, like Darnified? Do you know how they would handle something like these long strings? I want to try to fit it into two lines maximum and then tell players they can use your mod or whatever other UI mods support two lines. I can ask over there if you're not sure.

If you're not releasing it soon, sure, a beta sample would be great. Thanks very much for that. How would you want to send it? Can you send it via this site somehow, PM me, or what?

Cheers.

Here it is: Expirebox.com

Yes, I know how Darnified works and one of the approaches I've developed was similar to Darnified's effect hover box. The problem was that when Darnified was very popular many mod authors took it for granted. It was a bad choice because when many users started going back to vanilla for several reasons (I'm proud to say that VUI+ was one of those reasons, but the most important reason was that monitors got bigger and DUI's small fonts were really difficult to read, especially on the Pip-Boy).

Anyway, I think the new extra space will fit your effect strings nicely. Let me know of your mod when you finish it!

Edited by: Axonis

What I'm asking is do these UI mods tend to give at least two lines of space in the EFF list? I'm trying to decide how to approach this as far as compatibility is concerned. One idea is to keep the specifics in the perks, maybe with a one-time message box the first time the item is added. A little inconvenient but doable for vanilla.

But I could just assume players with a modded game will have a minimum of two lines per item in the EFF list, and leave the specifics on the mod page for vanilla players, with a recommendation to use a UI mod rather than a requirement. That would just require all UI mods to afford two lines per effect, which I would imagine is likely but I really don't know. I'll have to investigate it at some point, but I don't predict this mod coming out for several months anyway, so I have time.

Thanks for the file. Already downloaded.

My mod is called Gloomy Sunday Best. It's a quest mod that is highly open-ended in terms of approaches and side-side-quests (if that's what you call them?), not a whole lot of story variation, a lot of puzzle-solving (with combat alternatives available), no quest markers, and a lot of things that don't generally exist in the game already (one of the optional fights is against an NPC with a poison that damages your carry weight and dehydration, for example). It's probably going to take a fair bit to finish, but I may be half done at this point.

Darnified provides a lot of space because it presents the effect value strings in a separate box. You have to point the mouse at the name on the list and the value appears in that box.

VUI+ provides less space but allows you to see all values next to their names. You've been credited for inspiring me to work on this at the news article. And have a reminder for me when Gloomy Sunday Best gets public, ok ?

I've tried it and it looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I think that if the string is short enough to fit comfortably in the EFF list entry, this fix will be unnecessary, but this is still a welcome change.

Thanks for the information on Darnified. I'll look around and see what other UI mods are popular. They probably all address this, as even in the vanilla game, there are items that far exceed the limits the game places on the interface (you have screenshots of some of them).

So, a bit of an off-topic question I have for a while now, which removing the E) from the prompt makes somewhat more pressing: being a UI person, do you know a way to have the name of an activator appear under an override prompt? It seems the override prompts don't let the name be displayed, and when it was all one colour, it didn't seem as glaring, at least to me, though I always wanted to fix this anyway.

For example, I have a generator that the player can look at, so my string is "Examine Generator", as opposed to the default of "Activate" on one line and "Generator" on the other. Using the default would be a bit misleading in this context, so I've overridden it. I originally thought I needed only to find a way to put a carriage return in between the words, but VUI+ dims the colour of the top word, so now I realise the 'proper' way would be to make "Examine" understood by the game as the activation prompt, and "Generator" understood as the item to be activated. This occurs all over my mod, with many items (a lot of murder mystery stuff, so you 'examine things, not 'activate' them, right?), and it would be great to have a seamless implementation.

I don't really feel I did a whole lot to deserve credit, but I'll be gracious and accept it. Thank you.

I will not forget to let you know when the mod is finally done. I appreciate that level of interest. I'm going to need play-testers for the first half when it's done, if you're interested. That may not actually be too long from now.

Thanks again. You've been immensely helpful.

I think it's impossible to use custom prompts on activators and retain their names. I think "Examine Generator" is perfectly fine and yes, my mod reduces its brightness to signify it as an action instead of a name.

Besides VUI+ and Darnified, no other UI mod attempts to deal with long effect strings.

Given that I've shortened my items' effects listings enough to fit into VUI+ and look nice, and that the vanilla game already has this problem with a few items, I think I'll handle it as I've already said, which is to make it fit for VUI+, which guarantees it fits for Darnified, and then recommend players use one of those, supplemented by some documentation I'll leave on the mod page and put in the downloaded files.

Shame about the prompt overrides, but it is what it is.

Thanks for everything.