Book Icons

Alternate book icons, so it is clearer when you have read a book. Inspired by this post on the forums.

Features

The “already read book” icon is now a check mark, and it is a semi translucent green color.

It is also possible to change the “unread book” icon (but not its color). Khzmusik did not do this, because in his opinion it made the UI confusing.

How It Works

Open controls.xml, and look at this entry in the item_stack node:

<sprite depth="8" name="itemtypeicon" width="24" height="24" sprite="ui_game_symbol_{itemtypeicon}" pos="2,-2" foregroundlayer="true" visible="{hasitemtypeicon}" color="{itemtypeicontint}" />

Now, match up the variables (in {}) with these properties in the “schematicMaster” item in items.xml:

<property name="ItemTypeIcon" value="book"/>
<property name="AltItemTypeIcon" value="book_read"/>

There’s a list of ui_game_symbol_{x} TGA files in the XML.txt file.

Putting it all together, he found the ui_game_symbol_check.tga filename, stripped out the “ui_game_symbol_” prefix, and used it as the value of the “AltItemTypeIcon” property.

Looking in the code, he also discovered a property with the name “AltItemTypeIconColor”. It can accept an RGB or RGBa color, and this color will be used for the alternate icon tint. So, he added that property, and used a semi-translucent green color.

Modifying

You can also change the icon for unread books, by specifying a new value for the “ItemTypeIcon” value.

However, he tried that, and IMHO it just made the UI confusing. It was not apparent that you were looking at a schematic, unread or not.

If that is not your opinion, uncomment the relevant code in this mod’s items.xml file. The icon in that code is the “add” image (a plus sign), but you can add any icon you like.

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any way to change the color of the unread book icon.

Technical Details

This mod uses XPath to modify XML files, and does not require SDX or DMT. It should be compatible with EAC. It does not contain any new assets (such as images or models). Servers should automatically push the XML modifications to their clients, so separate client installation should not be necessary.

Starting a new game should not be necessary, but is always recommended just in case.

Download

The forum topic of the mod is here.

Credits: Khzmusik