Configuring the UI: Main Menu

[DarN]

Configuring the UI :: Main Menu

In this, the first of a series of customization articles, I will introduce you to the Main Menu and the options available for tweaking it.
If you haven't read it yet, a useful intro to this would be "Configuring the UI".

Config file: system_config.xml

Here's the default look with the default map loop in the background:


The custom font 1 choice you see for the buttons is Ringbearer_22.

First, lets start by getting rid of the boring map loop. Enough already with the boring brown stuff!

There are several of these around. For this particular example, I'll use Menu Video Replacement Scenery. Search TESNexus for "menu video" for some other choices.

Here's how it looks after that's installed:

That's just great. Now I can't even read. That stupid UI designer didn't consider this at all!!

Thankfully I did. Time to dive into the code. Here's the section relevant to this menu:

Code

GeSHi (xml):
<!--======================================= Main Menu ======================================-->
	<!-- Main menu button text (def. 1,0,0,0,180, &false;) -->
	<_mmfont> 1 </_mmfont>
	<_mmred> 0 </_mmred>
	<_mmgreen> 0 </_mmgreen>
	<_mmblue> 0 </_mmblue>
	<_mmalpha> 180 </_mmalpha>
	<_daedric> &false; </_daedric> <!-- use daedric font for buttons until hover? -->

"_mmfont" is the entry in the ini (ie. SFontFile_1). The ini has 5 font entries, all of which you can use here. I'm leaving this at the default here though. What's the point in a custom font 1 if you can't see it I say!

The next three settings is what we need to look at to get the text readable again.

Color information will always be a mixture of RGB values, each ranging from 0 to 255. The default [0, 0, 0] is pitch black, [255, 255, 255] will be pure white.
We want to make sure the text is readable when we hover the buttons too, so let's steer away from the yellow/tan mixture if we can. (If you're using DarkUI'd DarN, that wont apply of course.)

Hm. Let's see. How 'bout something a little evil, like blood red! This of course is dead simple, as all we need to do is increase the value for the red channel, leaving the others alone. Let's set red to 150:

Code

GeSHi (xml):
<_mmred> 150 </_mmred>

And the result:


Better, but it looks a little... tame. Let's crank up the alpha.

Transparency or alpha ranges from 0 (invisible) to 255 (fully visible). We'll crank this as far as it'll go:

Code

GeSHi (xml):
<_mmalpha> 255 </_mmalpha>

Here's how that looks:


That's better, but for a truly eeveel menu we need an eeveel font.

The last piece in the Main Menu puzzle is the "_daedric" setting. I got the idea for this from a mod i used for The Game called Morrowind. I don't remember the name, but I liked the idea so much, I wanted to see it in Oblivion too. This setting (when true) uses font 4 (daedric) for the button text until you move your mouse cursor over a button, at which point it switches to using font 1.

Let's set _daedric to true:

Code

GeSHi (xml):
<_daedric> &true; </_daedric>

Eeveel menu:


That's more like it! 

Not too many settings to adjust in this one, but these things grow with each release, so watch out for changes.