This hasn't been bumped in a while, and there are newer versions of gui replacements on the vault, but someone asked about something specific in IRC today. I was bored, and this was a bit more of a challenge to figure out than I expected, but...
If you are interested in changing the transparency of the IG chat windows (or even color/image behind it), this might be of interest to you. It goes in your override folder (or wherever else you toss custom stuff), and there are 3 model files in the archive. 1 for each of the left, right and main (combined) chat backgrounds, so you can even change them independently.
Chat Background Override Files
Screenshot of it in action in the Auction Hall - With that annoying light floor!!!
I haven't tested it much yet, so if there are any problems, just delete the files from override (and tell me, so I can make it better).
The technical details, and how to adjust them yourselves:
The .mdl files are just decompiled ascii text (so plain old text files), that you can edit in whatever you want. I added comments so you could find where to tweak things, and the section below is in each file:
Code: Select all
# This is the background image file.
bitmap black
# This sets transparency of the image.
# 0 = total transparency.
# 1 = opaque (solid).
# Values between for partial results.
alpha 0.85
I had to use the "black" texture (a .tga, or .dds that the game uses), instead of the default "gui_ig_main" one, since that has its own alpha channel, so changes in the model alpha do very little to it. You can experiment with any other texture the game uses, or even add a new one to override, but it only uses a few pixels to stretch out, so a plain color/gradient might be best. Most people will only want to change the "alpha" number there. As the comments say, 0 makes it totally transparent, 1 is solid black (or whatever texture you use), and numbers in-between make it more or less translucent. It might be backwards from what some would think though, since 0.75 would be 75% solid, while 0.25 is 25% solid (near transparent).
So if you think I made them too dark, just lower the "alpha 0.85" value to something like "alpha 0.7", or whatever you prefer. Tweak away, save it, then load up any mod to test it. Remember you can "split" and "combine" the chat windows by right clicking the top bar of one IG, to test all 3.
I hope this is useful to someone besides me!
*edits*
I thought about including the chat input line and quickbar files, but they use textures that are already being overriden with other gui modifications. Way too many potential problems if I start messing with other overrides here like that. In fact, if you already have these files in override from some other gui enhancement thing, don't overwrite them unless you want these instead.
Also, I updated the files in the download with the ones from HotU, since I used earlier ones the first time, so if you grabbed it before seeing this, just re-download it, and use the new files instead. The old ones don't break anything, but newer is better, right? My way of avoiding more technical jargon.
