How I Learned To Customize My UI's Chat Window

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by NameAlreadyInUse, Mar 13, 2019.

  1. NameAlreadyInUse #CactusGate

    First, thanks to Leigo and Ssdar in this thread and Baldur in the bug thread for your insight into customizing the UI! I have always been hesitant to use custom UI's because of the maintenance: the potential need to update UI files separately anytime the game gets updated, and the need to rely on the custom UI developer to update their files.

    I like the new Chat Tabs functionality, but the space-wasting was just terrible enough that I decided this was a good time to figure out the whole EQ UI customization stuff.

    I ended up with something similar to what others already created and shared, but a little different:

    [IMG]

    Things I learned:
    • If you go completely borderless, you lose the ability to resize. But you can remove a lot of the borders for a cleaner look.
    • You need to add a couple lines of XML if you want to be able to move the window after removing the TitleBar (thanks Ssdar).
    • You do not want to edit the default UI files (they are replaced when you restart the game). Instead, create a new folder to store your custom files.
    • /loadskin is the command to load your UI changes.
    The basic steps are:
    1. Create a new folder in C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest\uifiles\ to store your custom files (next to the existing "default" folder).
    2. Copy the files you want to change from the "default" folder. Alternatively, you could copy files from one of the many existing custom UIs.
    3. Make changes to the files in your custom folder.
    4. Use the command /loadskin <optional folder name> to load your customized UI (specified by your custom folder name) or to reload the default UI.
    Here are the changes I made to EQUI_ChatContainerWindow.xml (changed, added):

    <TabBox item="CCW_ChatWindows">
    <TopAnchorOffset>1</TopAnchorOffset>
    ...
    <Screen item="ChatContainerWindow">
    <Style_Titlebar>false</Style_Titlebar>
    <Style_ClientMovable>true</Style_ClientMovable>

    The added lines add a 1px grab-able bar at the top, making the window moveable without a true TitleBar.

    Here are the changes I made to EQUI_ChatWindow.xml (changed):

    <STMLbox item="CW_ChatOutput">
    <Style_Border>false</Style_Border>
    ...
    <Screen item="ChatWindow">
    <Style_Border>false</Style_Border>

    I hope this helps anybody else who wants to dabble in UI customization without needing to rely on somebody else to keep the UI files updated and compatible with game changes. But, after seeing how simple the process is, I am actually a lot more likely to use the ones that others have built!

    Thanks, UI Customizers!