One Window

[Spricigo]

Sometimes a message appear on the screen informing something, be it that our antenna just got ripped-off by aeroforces, SAS disabled for lack of electric charge...anything. Mods add some more, life support supplies running low, orbital construction finished, rover arrived. But what exactly was the last one?

As a felow player puts it:

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For a long time I have wished there was a simple mod that created one window in which all the messages were displayed and saved. Getting rid of their original display and moving it into a single movable and re-sizeable window. 

We need the One Window Notification Display (OWND) 

One Window to rule them all, One Window to find them,
One Window to bring them all and in the readable log bind them

The idea is as follows (excuse-me if Im going a bit wild, just brainstorming) :

Messages got displayed in OWND, either because somehow the mod can intercept the messages ment to be displayed on screen or because other mods are coded in such way to send the notification to OWND (when present) instead of the usual 'appear briefly on screen and vanish before the player can read'

Each message may have a timestamp and a tag to help identify it, or maybe even filter when loooking for a particular kind of message. (e.g. y2d1004h30:12 [LS] Untitled Space Craf in orbit of Duna have only 3d left of supplies)

Messages will be displayed and keep (in a kind of stack/list, I suppose) and the player can chose to delete/copy or just let it there. Maybe some messages can also be used to trigger an action (e.g. open a part context menu, Switch/focus to a vessel/celestial body; open a plugin).

Just to clarify, the idea is to OWND be primarily a way for the player to read the messages that he missed because he was busy with something else or not paying atention. Any extra functionality is a bonus, not the core of the idea.

 I don't have the skill to make it a reality, what I have to offer is that idea and my gratitude.

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by Spricigo

[Alshain]

After a cursory glance at the API, I could not find an event or callback to indicate when a ScreenMessage is posted.  This may simply not be possible at this time.

Edited July 30, 2017 by Alshain

[DMagic]

Hmm, there isn't any event, but there are RectTransforms that the messages get sent to, and they are public.

So it might be possible to just redirect the messages to some RectTransform under mod control, then do something with it from there. It could be worth looking into, as I think the suggestion is a good one.

[Spricigo]

6 hours ago, Alshain said:

After a cursory glance at the API, I could not find an event or callback to indicate when a ScreenMessage is posted.  This may simply not be possible at this time.

it may be really a problem, but what about the other possibilitie?

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somehow the mod can intercept the messages ment to be displayed on screen or because other mods are coded in such way to send the notification

That secound option is more about make a "notification windown" for any other mod to use, much like for example Community Resource Pack is a set of resources for any other mod to use.

Of course the ideal is if the messages got intercepted somehow, but if that is not possible at last its a possibility.

 

[Alshain]

17 hours ago, Spricigo said:

That secound option is more about make a "notification windown" for any other mod to use, much like for example Community Resource Pack is a set of resources for any other mod to use.

Of course the ideal is if the messages got intercepted somehow, but if that is not possible at last its a possibility.

That is an option but of course it is limited to mods and then only to mods that want to use it.  But if @DMagic thinks he knows a way I'd be interested to see what comes of it.  He is much more experienced in Unity than I am.  But I too think it is a worthwhile idea for a mod.

[Spricigo]

 

Good news from the thread where the idea comes from. 

 

And the mentioned mod devs thread. 

 

[Spricigo]

And more good news:

This idea is now reality in two different mods. I think only thing left to do in this thread is to say thanks to @DMagic and @linuxgurugamer. 

And also to @Foxster. He is the one that had the idea (here). My part was just to bring it to the attention of people with skills to make it happen.

 

[Foxster]

I've tried both the mods that aim to provide the functionality. I'm hugely grateful to both mod developers for their work on this. Thank you. 

I currently have left DMagic's mod installed and it does exactly what I was looking for.