Is there a way to reposition some of the in-sim UI elements for 32:9 displays such as comms/GCI/messages?

[Mr_Blastman]

DCS is great on 32:9 ultrawide displays, with added immersion that one who simmed in the 1980s only dreamt of.  There's only one minor flaw with the way DCS implements this:  the comms/GCI/AWACs messages and interaction box are stuck on the far right side of the screen, near the edge.  For a normal 16:9 monitor this is fine, but for a 32:9 monitor that is 49 inches in diagonal... these messages appear at the edge of our field of view and to read them requires turning our head.  If we are flying 550 knots at treetop level, this could cause us to crash!

Here's an example of what this looks like.  Pay attention to the location of the little grey box, and imagine how far we have to turn our heads to read.  You my have to fullsize this to see on a normal monitor.

 

Could we have a way to reposition these UI elements?  Maybe there already is one in a config file?

 

 

[MadKreator]

8 hours ago, Mr_Blastman said:

DCS is great on 32:9 ultrawide displays, with added immersion that one who simmed in the 1980s only dreamt of.  There's only one minor flaw with the way DCS implements this:  the comms/GCI/AWACs messages and interaction box are stuck on the far right side of the screen, near the edge.  For a normal 16:9 monitor this is fine, but for a 32:9 monitor that is 49 inches in diagonal... these messages appear at the edge of our field of view and to read them requires turning our head.  If we are flying 550 knots at treetop level, this could cause us to crash!

Here's an example of what this looks like.  Pay attention to the location of the little grey box, and imagine how far we have to turn our heads to read.  You my have to fullsize this to see on a normal monitor.

 

Could we have a way to reposition these UI elements?  Maybe there already is one in a config file?

 

 

for the comm menu: <drive:>/eagle dynamics/dcs world/scripts/UI/RadioCommandDialogPanel/CommandDialogsPanel.lua
edit line 182 as follows in the pics. ( one pic(3rd) is default, the other(1st) is the way I edit it on my screen now) I had a 49"er previous and just adjusted to suit. take note of the exact wording, spacing and character changes from the way it is by default... I made an ovgme mod out of it so I don;t have to re-do it every update or repair.

 

Edited October 23, 2024 by MadKreator

[Mr_Blastman]

18 hours ago, MadKreator said:

for the comm menu: <drive:>/eagle dynamics/dcs world/scripts/UI/RadioCommandDialogPanel/CommandDialogsPanel.lua
edit line 182 as follows in the pics. ( one pic(3rd) is default, the other(1st) is the way I edit it on my screen now) I had a 49"er previous and just adjusted to suit. take note of the exact wording, spacing and character changes from the way it is by default... I made an ovgme mod out of it so I don;t have to re-do it every update or repair.

 

 

Interesting... Those seem to be Y values, however.  How do I move the position to the left on the X axis?

[MadKreator]

5 hours ago, Mr_Blastman said:

Interesting... Those seem to be Y values, however.  How do I move the position to the left on the X axis?

In the 1st pic, the first number moves it left that many pixels, the second moves it down. In this odd case 0,0 is the top right of the screen not the top left. So mine offset 1300 pixels to the left and 300 pixels down. 

Edited October 24, 2024 by MadKreator

[MadKreator]

here it is at 1600 , 400

 

[Mr_Blastman]

On 10/23/2024 at 10:28 PM, MadKreator said:

In the 1st pic, the first number moves it left that many pixels, the second moves it down. In this odd case 0,0 is the top right of the screen not the top left. So mine offset 1300 pixels to the left and 300 pixels down. 

 

 

Excellent.  So that fixes the input dialogue box, thank you.    Now the remaining issue is the game/server messages, how do I move them?  Here is an example where you can see them on the far right:

 

Edited November 5, 2024 by Mr_Blastman

[Mr_Blastman]

Edit!!!!

 

I did it!!!!!!!!!

Haha!

 

So the two files that need to be edited for 32:9 and 21:9 users to get both the Command Interface and the Server/Game Messages centered in the screen are:

gameMessages.lua - for game/server messages, edit Line 54, use some math to figure out the 16:9 area of your 32:9 screen, divide the X axis by 1/2, then set that number close to that value, so in my case 5120x1440 = 5120 / 2 = 2560 for a 16:9 screen, then 2560 / 2 = 1280 for 1/2 that, so my Line 54 reads: 

"local offsetLeft    = 1300"  (exclude the quotes)

 

 

The second file, as mentioned above, is:

 

CommandDialogsPanel.lua

Line 182: do the same formula as above, and on mine now reads:

 

"window:setBounds(screenWidth - menuWidth - 1300, 0, menuWidth, height)"   (exclude quotes again)

 

Formatting is important!

 

Both of these files are located in the X:/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/Scripts/UI

with the second, CommandDialogsPanel.lua, being X:/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/Scripts/UI/RadioCommandDialogPanel

 

 

X: being an arbitrary value for whatever hard drive or mount point of your drive.

These files have to be updated after every patch.  Back them up after editing and either make a batch file to replace or do so yourself, manually.

 

 

Thanks to MadKreator for pointing me in the right direction.  Thank you Sir.

 

 

[MadKreator]

1 hour ago, Mr_Blastman said:

Edit!!!!

 

I did it!!!!!!!!!

Haha!

 

So the two files that need to be edited for 32:9 and 21:9 users to get both the Command Interface and the Server/Game Messages centered in the screen are:

gameMessages.lua - for game/server messages, edit Line 54, use some math to figure out the 16:9 area of your 32:9 screen, divide the X axis by 1/2, then set that number close to that value, so in my case 5120x1440 = 5120 / 2 = 2560 for a 16:9 screen, then 2560 / 2 = 1280 for 1/2 that, so my Line 54 reads: 

"local offsetLeft    = 1300"  (exclude the quotes)

 

 

The second file, as mentioned above, is:

 

CommandDialogsPanel.lua

Line 182: do the same formula as above, and on mine now reads:

 

"window:setBounds(screenWidth - menuWidth - 1300, 0, menuWidth, height)"   (exclude quotes again)

 

Formatting is important!

 

Both of these files are located in the X:/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/Scripts/UI

with the second, CommandDialogsPanel.lua, being X:/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/Scripts/UI/RadioCommandDialogPanel

 

 

X: being an arbitrary value for whatever hard drive or mount point of your drive.

These files have to be updated after every patch.  Back them up after editing and either make a batch file to replace or do so yourself, manually.

 

 

Thanks to MadKreator for pointing me in the right direction.  Thank you Sir.

 

 

Good to know on the other message boxes! I wasn’t sure how to do them, so thank you, friend !

[Mr_Blastman]

Yep, looks really great now. 

 

Also, thank you to ED for coding DCS so well, and with strong, easy to understand structure that is coherent.

 

Edited November 5, 2024 by Mr_Blastman

[Pendragon]

Does anyone know if these changes break IC in multiplayer?

[MadKreator]

On 11/26/2024 at 4:07 AM, Pendragon said:

Does anyone know if these changes break IC in multiplayer?

Comms menu doesn’t. Kneeboard adjusting does. Not sure about controls indicator. I think the message boxes are safe too.