It always stays at the top on purpose. The positions are top-left, top-middle, or top-right... Meaning it is flexible and you can move it as you need for the situation, or move it to the next position quickly with a single click. At this time it only expands downwards. The new gameplay buttons are at the bottom of the screen so it can't expand or move into them.
There are three buttons on the bar, allowing you to open/close the message history, copy the white dialog text to your journal and, of course, the move position button. Give it a go... it's actually really user friendly.
Is there any chance that you might consider offering the option to move those new extra buttons to the top of the page, moving the dialogue box back to the bottom of the page?
Just to be clear how it works - here are a few screenshots:
The standard UI with the messages appearing at the bottom:
When you enter a conversation or dialogue with an NPC the conversation appears at the top and can be moved along the very top edge of the screen as indicated by the arrow, the little button indicated will toggle between three standard positions for the conversation - top left/ top middle / top right:
You can choose to have the Message History box open when in a conversation too:
As Mr2150 said, the new dialog solution was designed to fix many flaws of the current (post 2.0) dialog screen. I would have liked the old (pre 2.0) dialog back, but unfortunatelly, that was not possible. So we splitted the dialog screen in two boxes. The message log (that was previously the "old messages" area) stays in the exact place as the gameplay message log and the actual dialog is moved elsewhere - logically to the top, since message log is at the bottom. The inspiration for this solution were NWN games, where it works exactly like that. Now, I know this is a rather radical change, but it works very well, so I can only urge you to give it a try. There will likely be no going back, unless Beamdog does some substancial change to it.
I actually quite like the new dialog box position since it's much less likely to block off characters now, but is it possible to make it larger? I play without scaled interface and the box feels too small and out of the way.
I'm glad you like it - having played with it myself for approx. 25% of a game run now, I find it much easier, quicker and user friendly. Of course, I'm biased but it is a big improvement over the previous version - but it is also a change.
This mod's plan was to make use of the non-scaled interface and the extra space it afforded. However, when we tested the new changes in a scaled UI we tried to ensure that there was a compatibility still if users did prefer to use the scaled UI. So compatibility works but is not always 'as intended' if that makes sense.
Here's a screenshot of the same dialogue as before but in a scaled UI. As you can see, you wouldn't want to make it much bigger, but the good thing is you still have all the same functionality - move position, copy text to journal and open/close message log.
@Mr2150 Ehh, fair enough. I can say it's definitely an improvement over the bizarre implementation that the post-2.0 UI had and it's not hard to get used to. I'm just not fond of the massive sidebars that occur from turning scaled interface on, reminds me too much of the low-resolution vanilla BG without the widescreen mod, but I can live with the small dialog box. Still, if there was a setting I could change manually to alter the size to whatever is suitable for my resolution, that would be convenient.
There is a small issue in SoD where a couple of the NPCs use the 'small' portrait so their image becomes blurred in dialogue. It doesn't affect gameplay but it's a little jarring.
If you let me know which NPCs it is I might be able to work on a quick fix for a future release.
Also - I've made a note to look at different options for scaling the dialog in the future - the dialog you see now would be the medium option, with a smaller and a larger option a button click away.
Well I've noticed it for Skie and Hephernaan so far. All joinable NPCs are fine including Caelar and apparently Hooded Man is fine too. I get the feeling that this will mostly affect mods particularly outdated ones rather than original content but I don't see much you can do about that. And a scaling option would be great. That would solve my one issue with the new interface.
We will take a look at see if there is anything we can do about those, for sure. And yes, if an outdated mod is using a very small picture than it may be a problem but it's also possible to change that picture quite easily.
@Pecca@Mr2150 i'm holding off my next playthrough and this is one of the mods i'm constantly following. I would vote for improved compatibility with scaled UI if that is in the plans. unscaled UI always had negative psychological effect on me since i feel distanced from the gameworld, not to mention portraits (and icons) are too small.
BUT, I quickly tested ++ version and i must say i am truly impressed! I'm happy the aspect ratio of UI enables playing in scaled version (i found a bug though, mage spellbook, seems to "jump into front layer" when clicked, making it hard to click portraits or new option such as priest scroll, map, etc. i had no other mods installed), but unscaled UI also looks amazing (love the new dialog window and enlarged portraits)! I didn't think i'd ever say it, but unscaled UI became a viable option for me
would you consider making a bit bigger portraits on a main screen in unscaled UI? or their size editable, if that's possible? Not only for aesthetic reasons, for me the small portraits also make it harder to discern NPCs at a glance, as well as click on them on the go. (edit: forgot to mention status effect icons on portraits become a one-pixel joke at high resolutions) I really think that (along with other elements you mentioned) would ensure mods viability in the long run, since the monitor resolutions tend to expand, and it seems that automatic adjustment to screen resolution might become a problem over time (as was the case for high resolution with widescreen mod, pre EE era).
in any case, i'm grateful and appreciate the scale of the work done (the journal is now actually usable!) and all the details improving the user experience.
now the only thing that remains is to patiently wait for the bg2:ee version! then the world will be complete
Released a small fix (v2.11) - the "journal note" button in the dialog screen which copies the current dialog text to the journal notes now works properly.
I found a somewhat major bug - unsellable items in stores are no longer greyed/darkened out, making it difficult to tell if something's sellable or not to vendors without clicking on it.
A small update is released. Changelog 2.12: - Ground container works with quickloot properly - Unsellable items in shops are greyed - Inventory has custom greyed graphics for dead characters - Italian translation added - "My Notes" label is now in the Large Journal
Is it impossible to add images to the custom folder without having to reinstall the mod? That feels like a step back.
EDIT: Even AFTER reinstalling the mod, I can't find any of the custom portraits. However, NPC replacement portraits show up properly, so the game's checking the Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\portraits folder, but the UI is preventing the custom portraits from showing up...
It would be nice if the location of the M_BG.lua file was specified anywhere, so I could at least manually edit it in...
@Theis - Pecca has included basic instructions in the OP of this thread.
The M_BG.lua file can be found in your override directory.
Every time you add / remove portraits from the custom portraits folder you should rerun JUST that component of the setup exe. It will then include any changes to your M_BG.lua file. If you've already installed the mod then the first component also allows you to backup your existing M_BG.lua file before making those changes.
You can edit the file manually too - to provide custom descriptions and gender settings, and if you check my Portrait Picker UI mod you can find further extended instructions regarding the portraits, naming etc.
The tool is quite powerful once fully setup, and if you need further help I'm happy to help you. Just send me a message.
Edit: I sent you the instructions I wrote and if you are having further problems just reply
No way you slice or dice this, there should be an option to simply manually search through the custom portraits without having to set up certain .lua files!
I'm all for allowing people to update .lua files to have a nice and clean overview of their portraits, or have addons do that automatically, but having it be forced onto people is simply a big fat no!
Also, I've checked, and even the portraits that were in the directory before I installed Pecca's mod didn't show up, so it overall seems rather buggy.
I ended up simply uninstalling Pecca's mod entirely, make my character, export it, reinstall Pecca's mod, and import my character. Seemed a lot faster than trying to figure out this mess that was going on.
That said, once I got over the gripe of the painstakingly annoying mess related to portraits, I must say that the UI is looking sleeker than ever!
Question: What's the hand icon between Quick Save and Rest? It doesn't have a tooltip. Seems to be some kind of on/off switch?
Pecca has included instructions in the OP and when you press the custom portrait button of the mod on how to ensure your portraits are included.
If you don't register the custom portraits, then the portrait picker won't be able to find them. It's as simple as that. The portrait picker works in a different way than the default method to allow the simple scrolling and search/filter functionality. This avoids the clicking left/right one at time approach.
As per my message to you - if you don't have many portraits I am more than happy to register them for you.
For some reason, the portrait picker function is acting wonky for me as well - every time I reinstall, all my custom portraits vanish and no amount of reinstalling whether it's just that component or the whole mod fixes it. I look at the M_BG.lua file and it's completely blank. Ok... I then took a M_BG.lua file from a previous patch's game folder so that I can at least use the portraits I had before. I get a feeling something I did between uninstalling an old version and exchanging it with the latest version messed something up...
@Mr2150: Yeah, I understand that your portrait picker requires these .lua files, which is exactly why it's bad that this is a forced component of this mod. The vast majority of Pecca's UI mod makes the game more convenient and user friendly. This portrait picker does the complete opposite!
Honestly, if you cannot come up with a way to (optionally?) include custom portraits from the portraits folder, then the user friendly way here is to get rid of this particular element of the UI!
My issue was resolved. To be honest I think the necessity of updating the portrait picker is a small price to pay to not have to go back to the previous way of having to click through all your custom portraits.
@Thels - I appreciate and understand your opinion and I'm sorry you don't like this element.
Pecca decided to include the portrait picker into the mod and created the WEIDU to allow automatic registration of the portraits. In most cases this works perfectly if you follow the instructions that he provided in the OP (these can also be found by pressing the custom portrait button in game).
Once registered the portraits will appear and you only need to rerun one element of the setup any time you make a change.
It really is a simple process and I'm sorry it's not working for you. I've also sent you my extended instructions and I am still happy to help you, if you want.
I understand the portrait picker is also available as a separate mod that is all about the portrait picker itself, and that is fine. People that have a lot of portraits and like to clean them up a bit with such lists can install that, while other people that have only a limited amount of portraits can simply stay clear of it.
However, here we're talking about an entire UI mod, one that does a lot of wonderful things that also appeal to people that have only a sparse amount of portraits within their portrait folder! "Want a nice and sleek UI? Sure, but be ready to get this portrait picker, complete with all it's cumbersome annoyances, shoved down your throat!"
UI improvements should improve the end user experience, not hinder it. This particular element is a hindrance, forcing end users to go through loops to get their portraits to work. I can see how it's convenient for people that run a lot of portraits, but
You say it's a simple process. Right now, the Weidu option doesn't seem to properly work all the time, so that's not helping things, so it's hard to say if it's a simple process or not. Regardless of it being simple or not, it's a process. A process that was not required before, and is plainly annoying, considering the way Weidu works, especially how it asks you to install or uninstall all the features, before going down the list of each individual feature.
Your portrait picker is an inconvenience, plain and simple! It makes it more cumbersome for people to use the game. UI improvements should improve the user experience, not hamper it.
Are you seriously thinking it's a good idea to DEMAND users put in more work to be able to properly play the game? Don't you see that that's a totally backwards way of 'improving' the game?
Considering the regular UI is able to find my portrait just fine, your 'improvement' should somehow be able to do so as well. It could be a toggle or a button somewhere, perhaps even in the added UI options screen, but the mod must simply have some way of loading custom portraits without having to set up lua files, or it's a big step backwards, not forwards!
@Pecca: I would recommend you to highly reconsider including the portrait picker in on default. While useful as a standalone mod, it can be a major annoyance to force onto people that have no need for it!
Comments
The new gameplay buttons are at the bottom of the screen so it can't expand or move into them.
There are three buttons on the bar, allowing you to open/close the message history, copy the white dialog text to your journal and, of course, the move position button. Give it a go... it's actually really user friendly.
The standard UI with the messages appearing at the bottom:
When you enter a conversation or dialogue with an NPC the conversation appears at the top and can be moved along the very top edge of the screen as indicated by the arrow, the little button indicated will toggle between three standard positions for the conversation - top left/ top middle / top right:
You can choose to have the Message History box open when in a conversation too:
Hope this is all clear now
Now, I know this is a rather radical change, but it works very well, so I can only urge you to give it a try. There will likely be no going back, unless Beamdog does some substancial change to it.
I'm glad you like it - having played with it myself for approx. 25% of a game run now, I find it much easier, quicker and user friendly. Of course, I'm biased but it is a big improvement over the previous version - but it is also a change.
This mod's plan was to make use of the non-scaled interface and the extra space it afforded. However, when we tested the new changes in a scaled UI we tried to ensure that there was a compatibility still if users did prefer to use the scaled UI. So compatibility works but is not always 'as intended' if that makes sense.
Here's a screenshot of the same dialogue as before but in a scaled UI. As you can see, you wouldn't want to make it much bigger, but the good thing is you still have all the same functionality - move position, copy text to journal and open/close message log.
There is a small issue in SoD where a couple of the NPCs use the 'small' portrait so their image becomes blurred in dialogue. It doesn't affect gameplay but it's a little jarring.
Also - I've made a note to look at different options for scaling the dialog in the future - the dialog you see now would be the medium option, with a smaller and a larger option a button click away.
BUT, I quickly tested ++ version and i must say i am truly impressed! I'm happy the aspect ratio of UI enables playing in scaled version (i found a bug though, mage spellbook, seems to "jump into front layer" when clicked, making it hard to click portraits or new option such as priest scroll, map, etc. i had no other mods installed), but unscaled UI also looks amazing (love the new dialog window and enlarged portraits)! I didn't think i'd ever say it, but unscaled UI became a viable option for me
would you consider making a bit bigger portraits on a main screen in unscaled UI? or their size editable, if that's possible? Not only for aesthetic reasons, for me the small portraits also make it harder to discern NPCs at a glance, as well as click on them on the go. (edit: forgot to mention status effect icons on portraits become a one-pixel joke at high resolutions) I really think that (along with other elements you mentioned) would ensure mods viability in the long run, since the monitor resolutions tend to expand, and it seems that automatic adjustment to screen resolution might become a problem over time (as was the case for high resolution with widescreen mod, pre EE era).
in any case, i'm grateful and appreciate the scale of the work done (the journal is now actually usable!) and all the details improving the user experience.
now the only thing that remains is to patiently wait for the bg2:ee version! then the world will be complete
This is actually due to a change in 2.2 to 2.3 and the way the mod works with certain boxes... like greyed out boxes.
Changelog 2.12:
- Ground container works with quickloot properly
- Unsellable items in shops are greyed
- Inventory has custom greyed graphics for dead characters
- Italian translation added
- "My Notes" label is now in the Large Journal
EDIT: Even AFTER reinstalling the mod, I can't find any of the custom portraits. However, NPC replacement portraits show up properly, so the game's checking the Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\portraits folder, but the UI is preventing the custom portraits from showing up...
It would be nice if the location of the M_BG.lua file was specified anywhere, so I could at least manually edit it in...
The M_BG.lua file can be found in your override directory.
Every time you add / remove portraits from the custom portraits folder you should rerun JUST that component of the setup exe. It will then include any changes to your M_BG.lua file. If you've already installed the mod then the first component also allows you to backup your existing M_BG.lua file before making those changes.
You can edit the file manually too - to provide custom descriptions and gender settings, and if you check my Portrait Picker UI mod you can find further extended instructions regarding the portraits, naming etc.
The tool is quite powerful once fully setup, and if you need further help I'm happy to help you. Just send me a message.
Edit: I sent you the instructions I wrote and if you are having further problems just reply
I'm all for allowing people to update .lua files to have a nice and clean overview of their portraits, or have addons do that automatically, but having it be forced onto people is simply a big fat no!
Also, I've checked, and even the portraits that were in the directory before I installed Pecca's mod didn't show up, so it overall seems rather buggy.
I ended up simply uninstalling Pecca's mod entirely, make my character, export it, reinstall Pecca's mod, and import my character. Seemed a lot faster than trying to figure out this mess that was going on.
That said, once I got over the gripe of the painstakingly annoying mess related to portraits, I must say that the UI is looking sleeker than ever!
Question: What's the hand icon between Quick Save and Rest? It doesn't have a tooltip. Seems to be some kind of on/off switch?
If you don't register the custom portraits, then the portrait picker won't be able to find them. It's as simple as that. The portrait picker works in a different way than the default method to allow the simple scrolling and search/filter functionality. This avoids the clicking left/right one at time approach.
As per my message to you - if you don't have many portraits I am more than happy to register them for you.
Honestly, if you cannot come up with a way to (optionally?) include custom portraits from the portraits folder, then the user friendly way here is to get rid of this particular element of the UI!
Pecca decided to include the portrait picker into the mod and created the WEIDU to allow automatic registration of the portraits. In most cases this works perfectly if you follow the instructions that he provided in the OP (these can also be found by pressing the custom portrait button in game).
Once registered the portraits will appear and you only need to rerun one element of the setup any time you make a change.
It really is a simple process and I'm sorry it's not working for you. I've also sent you my extended instructions and I am still happy to help you, if you want.
I understand the portrait picker is also available as a separate mod that is all about the portrait picker itself, and that is fine. People that have a lot of portraits and like to clean them up a bit with such lists can install that, while other people that have only a limited amount of portraits can simply stay clear of it.
However, here we're talking about an entire UI mod, one that does a lot of wonderful things that also appeal to people that have only a sparse amount of portraits within their portrait folder! "Want a nice and sleek UI? Sure, but be ready to get this portrait picker, complete with all it's cumbersome annoyances, shoved down your throat!"
UI improvements should improve the end user experience, not hinder it. This particular element is a hindrance, forcing end users to go through loops to get their portraits to work. I can see how it's convenient for people that run a lot of portraits, but
@Mr2150: You're missing the point!
You say it's a simple process. Right now, the Weidu option doesn't seem to properly work all the time, so that's not helping things, so it's hard to say if it's a simple process or not. Regardless of it being simple or not, it's a process. A process that was not required before, and is plainly annoying, considering the way Weidu works, especially how it asks you to install or uninstall all the features, before going down the list of each individual feature.
Your portrait picker is an inconvenience, plain and simple! It makes it more cumbersome for people to use the game. UI improvements should improve the user experience, not hamper it.
Are you seriously thinking it's a good idea to DEMAND users put in more work to be able to properly play the game? Don't you see that that's a totally backwards way of 'improving' the game?
Considering the regular UI is able to find my portrait just fine, your 'improvement' should somehow be able to do so as well. It could be a toggle or a button somewhere, perhaps even in the added UI options screen, but the mod must simply have some way of loading custom portraits without having to set up lua files, or it's a big step backwards, not forwards!
@Pecca: I would recommend you to highly reconsider including the portrait picker in on default. While useful as a standalone mod, it can be a major annoyance to force onto people that have no need for it!