Add ways to disable plugin UIs clientside.

[Jdance-Media]

The Problem

Hey Nelson. My current issue with plugin UIs, especially ones that replace the vanilla UI is the fact that many of them cannot be disabled on the client. Some plugins include commands to disable these UIs, while some don't. In particular, I ran into an issue with a plugin called VoiceChatMaster, which is used on a bunch of servers and has a giant green bubble that cannot be hidden.

The main reason why disabling these overlays is important relates to screenshots. I want to be able to take screenshots of my builds on any server no matter how the custom UIs function. The [Home] button does not have the ability to hide plugin UIs.

The Solution

There are multiple routes you could take to improve quality of life for players on modded servers:

1. Add a toggle to the options menu that will make the game automatically hide plugin UIs when the [Home] key is pressed.
2. Make it default behavior for the [Home] button to hide plugin UIs no matter what.
3. Add a vanilla command to disable or enable all UIs without effecting the state of them. So, plugins can still manage them even when hidden or shown again. This would unfortunately require server owners to give players permissions to that command.

To prevent issues in custom gamemodes, you could have an additional widget flag to prevent plugin UIs from being hidden. Alternatively, you could disable the functionality if the player is put into modal by a plugin. As it is sort of hard to take screenshots while in that state.

The kana

Don't believe that it is a good idea. Just see what this random UO member has to say about the idea (they are big-brain plugin developer aswell 😉):

[SDGNelson]

Plugin UIs haven't gotten as much attention as they need. 😞

We could add a component that syncs activation with the vanilla HUD visibility. This might be usable for cheating somehow as a hotkey in a preloaded effect. 🤔

[Jdance-Media]

Oh right, you could also make it so servers have a config setting that disable clients being able to forcefully hide the UI. If you went the toggle option route.

[muertoof]

As far as I know, some plugins put additional effects on the whole screen (extra health and other vitals indicators, as well as helmet effects and other stuff). It would be wrong if these effects could be forcibly hidden without the control of the plugin or mod developer. Additional possible options could be:

• The ability to track vanilla HUD disabling through a plugin, so that developers can decide what needs to be hidden and what doesn't.
• A parameter in the effect asset that would be responsible for co-disabling together with vanilla HUD.