Improved chat hiding ✦

[Takkumii]

Seeing how @SollyBunny implementation of hiding player bubble only works with RCON I'm sharing this method

Capability to hide player chat emote and in-menu emote

Note: needs to edit controls file directly because otherwise it would be too late to make changes to it
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src/game/client/components/controls.cpp - Line 183

// update player state
if(m_pClient->m_Chat.IsActive() && g_Config.m_ClShowPlayerChat)
	m_aInputData[g_Config.m_ClDummy].m_PlayerFlags = PLAYERFLAG_CHATTING;
else if(m_pClient->m_Menus.IsActive() && g_Config.m_ClShowPlayerMenu)
	m_aInputData[g_Config.m_ClDummy].m_PlayerFlags = PLAYERFLAG_IN_MENU;

Capability to hide others chat emote and to change which emote is displayed

Note: SafeIndex is for modifying the emote shown, not necessary for hiding the chat emote
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src/game/client/components/players.cpp - Line 857

if(g_Config.m_ClShowOthersChat && (Player.m_PlayerFlags & PLAYERFLAG_CHATTING) && !m_pClient->m_aClients[ClientId].m_Afk)
{
	int SafeIndex = clamp(g_Config.m_ClChatEmoticon, 0, 15);
	int CurEmoticon = SafeIndex;

Capability to hide others in-menu emote and to change which emote is displayed

Note: SafeIndex is for modifying the emote shown, not necessary for hiding the in-menu emote
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src/game/client/components/players.cpp - Line 869

if(g_Config.m_ClShowOthersMenu && (Player.m_PlayerFlags & PLAYERFLAG_IN_MENU))
{
	int SafeIndex = clamp(g_Config.m_ClMenuEmoticon, 0, 15);
	int CurEmoticon = SafeIndex;

Required config variables

MACRO_CONFIG_INT(ClShowPlayerChat, cl_show_player_chat, 1, 0, 1, CFGFLAG_CLIENT | CFGFLAG_SAVE, "Show chat emote above your tee when chat is open");
MACRO_CONFIG_INT(ClShowOthersChat, cl_show_others_chat, 1, 0, 1, CFGFLAG_CLIENT | CFGFLAG_SAVE, "Show chat emotes above other tees when they open chat");
MACRO_CONFIG_INT(ClShowPlayerMenu, cl_show_player_menu, 1, 0, 1, CFGFLAG_CLIENT | CFGFLAG_SAVE, "Show menu emote above your tee when in menu");
MACRO_CONFIG_INT(ClShowOthersMenu, cl_show_others_menu, 1, 0, 1, CFGFLAG_CLIENT | CFGFLAG_SAVE, "Show menu emotes above other tees when they are in menu");
MACRO_CONFIG_INT(ClChatEmoticon, cl_chat_emoticon, 4, 0, 15, CFGFLAG_CLIENT | CFGFLAG_SAVE, "Emote icon used when chat is open");
MACRO_CONFIG_INT(ClMenuEmoticon, cl_menu_emoticon, 12, 0, 15, CFGFLAG_CLIENT | CFGFLAG_SAVE, "Emote icon used when in menu");

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It might be shabby but hope it helps

[SollyBunny]

What is being requested here? Showing emotes whilst chatting is already possible

[Takkumii]

Sorry, It's all crammed up there

Features:

• Being able to hide the open chat bubble for player and dummy
• Being able to hide the in-menu bubble from others who have shown in-menu bubbles
• Being able to show/hide when others are in-menu
• Being able to (mostly hide) all the other tees chat bubble
• Custom open chat bubble for everyone
• Custom in-menu bubble for everyone

Reasons:

• On releases I saw how the current implementation of hiding chat bubble only works with RCON auth so I wanted to share this
• More customization over simple things yet useful in some scenarios (hiding the in-menu / chat bubble for blocker)

Known issues:

• Having to modify the game files directly
• Also I realized that for the custom emotes there's a logic I didn't share (I need to sanitize the code first)

[Takkumii]

Here's an example of the custom chat emote

Also here's an example of how that looks in practice, I changed the default cl_chat_emoticon 4 (dots) emote to cl_chat_emoticon 0 (oop)

Edited: It seems I sent the full files which had code unrelated to this thread

[SollyBunny]

random.. emotes?

[Takkumii]

Whooops, my bad
Refer to my comment before that slip
But bare with me, do you get what I'm requesting?

[kaitlynia]

This way of implementing it is too complicated. I would prefer only being able to enable/disable, since requiring that TClient checks for a specific image for chat and menu states is a bit awkward. I don't know why you would want to customize it separately from whatever "..." would be besides maybe adjusting the opacity for that emote, which would be better.

It's confusing that show_chat and show_menu have to do with state emotes specifically and they're not part of the setting string, which I would suggest changing. Also it's not clear the difference between emote for chat being on your screen and emote for menu affecting others, which should be reflected better like tc_send_menu_state

[kaitlynia]

Menu requires its own emote and IMO should get its own issue. It is more complicated and has some additional considerations (should menu state transmission be default? do players want this? does it exist in an existing image somewhere or does it get its own file? what happens when someone has it enabled but has no custom image?)

Edit: I'll offer that I've wanted an editor state (pencil icon) for a long time, so overall I support the idea of more state transmission but we have to make sure the defaults are sensible and there's a common way to do it going forward, if the maintainers even want this level of state transmission.

[Takkumii]

This way of implementing it is too complicated. I would prefer only being able to enable/disable

Right, originally I just wanted to share my implementation of hiding the chat bubble, sorry I got carried away.

since requiring that TClient checks for a specific image for chat and menu states is a bit awkward.

Not sure what you mean but when I say custom I mean choosing from the already existing emotes and rendering them on screen

I don't know why you would want to customize it separately from whatever "..." would be besides maybe adjusting the opacity for that emote, which would be better.

Customizing the emotes shown is not really necessary, just a me-thing; I may have made the scope too big sorry I just want being able to hide chat and show when others are paused

It's confusing that show_chat and show_menu have to do with state emotes specifically and they're not part of the setting string, which I would suggest changing.

Agreed, this is just how I've done it but it probably isn't the best way

Also it's not clear the difference between emote for chat being on your screen and emote for menu affecting others, which should be reflected better like tc_send_menu_state

Seems like a perfectly good solution!

Menu requires its own emote and IMO should get its own issue.

Could be, meanwhile I think going with the zzz emote can do for now

should menu state transmission be default?

It already is and I think should be, not transmitting it may not be helpful for most player

do players want this?

I'll vouch for people I've played with and say that we do

does it exist in an existing image somewhere or does it get its own file?

I think we should just use the zzz emote since it's different from when a player is truly AFK (the eyes close and the zzz emote appears on top of their heads instead of slightly to the side like the chat does)

I'll offer that I've wanted an editor state (pencil icon) for a long time

Well I had never thought of that before, that would be cool too!

if the maintainers even want this level of state transmission

Hope they allow even if to some degree at the very least

⚠ TL;DR ⚠:
Just add the capability to hide the chat and to make an emote appear when players are in menu (spikey has it like that if that means anything)

[SollyBunny]

@kaitlynia @Takkumii Here is a list of things I think you want and some text

• Hiding chat bubbles client side
  • too niche, if you are that averse to them you can edit the asset file
  • muting players by war group is accepted and may fill this need
• Hiding chat bubbles without RCon
  it's a bit cheaty, it's RCon only as it has moderation use
• Custom emotes
  emotes are sanitized server side so we can't send custom ones
  we can however make consequeitive emotes mean a different emote
  im curious what extra emotes you want
• Custom emote wheel
  not worth unless it comes with custom emotes
• Changing the chat emote to another emote
  • can be done by editing assets
  • I don't want to send anything but chat emotes for chatting
• Emote when in menu
  • yeah definatley, I pressume we just get the player flag the same as chat
  • might even be upstreamed
• Emote when in editor
  not sure we get a flag for this