My previous work: DIALOGUE HINT



In the beginning, special thanks to the SKY-UI team and the Bethesda studio. I love you all and the entire modding community forever. I fully agree with the policies of the Nexus, and would not release mod anywhere except here.


A few words about the editors that helped me a lot to create Cardmania; this Adobe Illustrator and JPEXS Free FLash Decompiller.

Now to the structure of the mod itself. Unlike Unique Tooltips - Colored Tooltips with Quality Levels and Legible Item Descriptions for SkyUI my mod does not have broken code structure integrity. The whole problem of SWF files is that their integrity can be easily broken and there will be nothing to restore. Another problem of SWF files is that an ordinary person will not be able to master all the intricacies of working with them in two days. This is a media container for the Internet and people deal with it only because of real work in the appropriate environment. The SWF file is useless by itself. It’s not a video. It’s not a sound song. You can’t do it like this, just take it open and have fun. A SWF file is not even a picture; it is a dependent piece from a large project such as a game or site .. This is all, SWF is not  anywhere else applies.

However, what is there inside? We are only interested in what Bethesda hides in its SWF containers, which, in turn, are also packed in BSA. Ordinary mortals do not understand how this is possible. Believe me, it can be even worse take a look at least at the TES-ONLINE files.

So back to our Skyrim, the whole interface in the game works on SWF files and inside on SWF there is a certain piece of 1280 x 720 video format lasting about 1-5 seconds. But this video does not work in the usual sense of playback, it always plays only one frame with the help of scripts forming in the SWF container a self-contained mini-video player showing pictures on the screen even from neighboring files. The player is always shown one frame and, in accordance with Player, switches to any of the frames in the file.

The mod that you downloaded (I hope) changes only that part of the interface that is responsible for displaying the TITLE, parameters and description of the item in the inventory, description of the magic spell and description of the shout. Using console commands, I rechecked all descriptions of standard things, spells and screams 100 times. I also checked complex mods with longer descriptions than in Skyrim, I checked Thunderchild - Epic Shouts and Immersion and my self port Colorful Magic by 184Gesu. And the official mods from the Creativity Club. All of these mods have more than a couple of words in the description of their objects, this was the essence of creating the mod, my patience snapped when Bethesda introduced to the public mods with a Dwemer horse, the descriptions were so long there that even with an increase in an ordinary lens, a daub was obtained. Unfortunately, I could not play with any of the existing mods for expanding the description field for a long time - the flaws in them, unfortunately, outweigh the advantages, although they solve many problems, creating even more problems.

A year ago, I set myself the task of learning how to work with SWF files only in order to enjoy Skyrim and not put up with outdated standards. SHOCK CONTENT! The Skyrim interface was developed with support for 4: 3 screens, which is why the usual description looks so vertical, but I do not agree to read the descriptions of 100 words with the line break of each to a new word below! REVOLT! We have suffered this for too long! And today, everyone will breathe a sigh of relief while enjoying crafting items, re-reading each description and perhaps already take a different look at Skyrim.

This introduction is completed, then the technical part with descriptions of the nuances, and most importantly, the storyboard of the entire SWF file, which is called:


Inside ItemCard.swf contains 29 frames. Numbering in the order they are written here. Sorry for the pictures with incomprehensible Russian characters, but I'm a guy from Russia and it more convenient for me.

Frame 1 - responsible for displaying an unenchanted weapon, this is the main frame and changes to it were made with the utmost accuracy; it is connected with ACTIVE-X components that are not recompiled; making changes to this frame will affect all frames in the future, now it will look like this: (screenshots are presented in 1: 1 scale, the inscription Stolen is not text, this is a vector mask located outside the working border of the vector image)


Frame 10 - carries information about the enchanted weapon, and when you want to examine your fresh enchanted weapon or find it in the game, it shows it to you like this: (see even more on the screenshots of the mod or publish your own, access is open without verification)

Frame 20 - Shows us armor without enchantment, now it looks like this:

Frame 30 - It will show you the enchantment on the armor even if you stole it a couple of minutes ago:

Frame 40 - This is a new frame by default included in the UPDATE-PATCH. You have it. Even if you did not buy the SURVIVAL mod in the creation club. It turns on only when the SURVIVAL mode is active and displays the WARMTH value, with my mod the frame looks like this:


Frame 50 - You also have a new frame by default included in the UPDATE-PATCH even if you did not buy the SURVIVAL mod in the creation club. It turns on only when the SURVIVAL mode is active and displays the WARMTH value on the armor with spells, with my mod the frame looks like this:


Frame 60 - The very shot for which I made the whole mod, the shot showing the descriptions of potions, food and scrolls, to get stolen skooma in the vastness of Skyrim turned out to be the same task, but for the sake of this screenshot I ran and looked:

Frame 70 - The display of the ingredients has been changed quite a bit, a slightly wider frame and fields for describing the effects. Easy changed. (recall, each screenshot is presented on a 1: 1 scale):

Frame 80 - Displays all items in the miscellaneous category (Lockpicks, quest items, resources for crafting). I don’t think that a large frame will be appropriate here because descriptions of objects are absent and in the name of objects it can sometimes be very long:

Frame 90 - Although the title of the book "How to Survive a Horker Attack" is not very long and does not indicate the obvious potential of my mod, however, it contains pictures! What I learned about 8 years after the release of Skyrim:

Frame 100 - In Skyrim, I managed to find only two books with descriptions and they were like notes with a map, but more and more mods appear in the Creation Club focused on reading diaries and notes, and some modders like to add descriptions to their mods settings through such small descriptions under books, now you have more useful space, but alas, it is extremely difficult to get a stolen copy:


Frame 110 - The time has come for Magic, this is how learned magic looks like with a one-time consumption of mana:

Frame 115 - Displays talents, although I have not seen talents requiring magic, nevertheless, just in case, I have fully configured it and this window has moved the price of using magic (Gear Shown) to the right place:

Frame 120 - Displays magic with constant mana costs, all elements are carefully transferred in their corners, even standard positioning errors were observed (as with all frames):

Frame 125 - Called Power_Time_Label it is similar to frame 110 but I haven’t seen it in the game so I present to you a screenshot made from the editor:

Frame 130 - A Short Description of Magic is called, I haven’t seen it in the game either, I show you a screenshot from the editor:

Frame 141 - Shows you shouts, this is how it will look now:

Frame 151 - It shows objects without descriptions, such as keys for example, keys are not marked as stolen, they can not be thrown even out of inventory:

Frame 161 - "How much? frame" it doesn’t represent any interest to me in just one word, I left it unchanged:

Frame 171 - The confirmation frame was also not changed:

Frame 181 - The charge selection frame also remained unchanged:

Frame 191 - Shows a description of the active effects.:

Frame 202 - Shows the stones of souls, here too unchanged:

Frame 212 - The enchantment has acquired a slightly longer original frame with wider margins into which the whole text fits:

Frame 213 - Enchantment Table (Weapon):

Frame 214 - Enchantment Table (Armor):

Frame 215 - In the frame for confirming the choice of charge, I allowed myself some luxury by moving the "charge line" under the description, I hope you will forgive me:

Frame 216 - One of the reasons for creating the mod was that my predecessors changed this frame, it was important for me that the frame for choosing a soul stone on the enchantment table remained original:

Frame 217 - The last frame serves as a double enchantment, or I am not good at Skyrim, I couldn’t take a screenshot like this in the editor, it has a slightly enlarged frame, obviously a field for another soul stone, it remained unchanged:

This completes the storyboard. Now a little about the versions. It makes no sense to make patches for this mod, henceforth we will call them simply versions. I carefully studied user feedback with the authors of such mods. Two major issues are constantly popping up. The first one needs a version for Frostfall and the second one needs different versions for different SKY-UI, but I decided to go ahead and made a version for which SKY-UI is not required, this version is for the usual vanilla interface, but this is not all one such version will be packed to the BSA archive and is available for download directly in the game through BETHESDA.NET.

..oh how tired i feel like Robinson on a desert island..

Day 1 We unanchored in the city of Riften, I decided to keep a diary on the work done, while the sailors snooping around the deck raising the sails and scrubbing the floor, the first frame for the description was prepared .. SURVIVAL awaits us .. adventures await us..


Day 13
The supplies from the ashore chests are over, I wonder if I can catch a monkey here .. the version for the vanilla interface looks funny..

Day 27
I'm exhausted, I'm dehydrated, the versions are currently finished ..
SSE (SKY-UI5.2) (Survivle mode supported)
SSE (VANILLA INTERFACE) (Survivle mode supported)
SSE (SKY-UI5.2) (Frostfall)
LE (SKY-UI5.1) (Frostfall)
The cover of the mod will be a screenshot from the version for Frostfall with the DeathBrand Armor:


Epilogue

My friends, I also released a mod that corrects the bottom bar of the survival mode and SkyUI.