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About this mod
A method to add visual indications to needs from mods based on Realistic Needs and Diseases (RND).
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
iWant RND Widgets
By DaemonPrime
What?
A method to add visual indications to needs from mods based on Realistic Needs and Diseases (RND).
How?
Design philosophy
Leverage the same concepts and UI hooks used in iNeed to display current need states from RND. Deploy a lightweight script to periodically poll RND need states and update widgets while also adding code to need state change scripts to update widgets in real-time. Polling is used to ensure timely display of state information in the absence of need state change events (e.g. when configurations are changed).
In Game
Widgets will automatically begin operating and appear in the bottom right of the screen as needed. A configuration MCM is included to allow adjustment of position and other parameters. FISSES (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13956) can be used to save and load settings if present.
Load Order
Compatibility
Works with iWant RND for CACO. Should generally work with any other RND derived mod .
Why?
Because no one did it for me. Seriously, I checked on and off over the years from LE to SE and never found a suitable solution to the problem.
I have been playing Skyrim since 2011. Playing is probably a stretch, I have been modding, crashing, and learning about it’s internals since 2011. I did manage to complete a playthrough in 2018, so there’s that.
Along my journey I quickly found that food was pretty useless in the base game. I learned about RND and was hooked. Patching was a bit of an exercise but overall it added an interesting element. I used it until iNeed came along and RND went dormant. With the cool new UI elements and patchless integration it seemed like the holy grail for needs. While it is a great mod and solves a lot of problems, it didn’t give me the same feeling of depth I got from RND. After iNeed and other alternatives, I kept coming back to RND and living with text and audio updates (which I usually missed) to know when I was hungry or tired. Whenever I’d return from a Skyrim break, I’d check the latest mods and see if anything improved. RND 2.0 by CrEaToXx came along and sounded like it might be the answer but ultimately it didn’t solve the problem the way I wanted.
In the middle of 2018 I repeated my search as I was building yet another mod list. Finding nothing, this time I decided it was unlikely anyone was going to create exactly what I was looking for. I figured there must be a reason so I started digging into how on-screen elements work in Skyrim. It turns out it’s HARD, like way too hard, to get images up on the display. This explains why UI mods are relative rarities over the vast collection of Skyrim mods in the world. In fairness, once you understand it and have the right tools it not so bad, but that can really be said about most things.
Now about the right tools...I didn’t have them. It seems you need to have Adobe Flash Builder to actually make the on-screen objects...well that sucks. Necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to understand how iNeed was getting the job done so I poked around it’s innards for a bit. After loosely wrapping my brain around it, I set to work understanding how RND knows if you’re hungry. Turns out that’s a much simpler problem so then I married these two things together in code and somehow reached a working solution.
SUCCESS!!! Sort of. To get this far I had pulled apart iNeed and was using it’s UI file which I had no rights to. I didn’t have the tools (or artistic ability) to create my own UI widget. I could play with the mod in my personal install but distribution was out unless I received permission from isoku to distribute the UI file. It didn’t seem right to ask permission to use a file that serves as a key differentiator specifically to make that differentiator go away so I never made a permission inquiry. Likewise, it didn’t seem at all right to explain or even suggest how to pull the needed file out of the packed mod. With this state, I decided to play the game and shelve any thoughts of uploading it.
Following a hardware upgrade in 2020 (thanks 2600k, you served me well), I decided to reinstall Skyrim. I put together a build and ultimately built iWant RND for CACO. Now I had a way to modernize RND by getting it to support the popular Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul by kryptopyr and displaying widgets like iNeed. But wait, I can distribute the CACO update but not the widget mod, now what?
I wanted to share the mods so others could enjoy and maybe learn from it (and I in turn could learn from them), so I looked for a solution. Enter the mod
community, specifically ElSopa, who released a standalone version of the UI file I needed in November 2019. Now, by including ElSopa’s work as a dependency, I could distribute both of my mods to the community. I think this Internet thing might just work out.
UPDATE April 2020: AubeD graciously provided a widget file for this mod. The mod is now standalone.
Hopefully this narrative helps you understand what goes into building a mod and triggers an interest to make some part of the game, big or small, just a little bit better.
When?
This project was originally developed in June 2018.
Potential improvements
My other Mods
By DaemonPrime
What?
A method to add visual indications to needs from mods based on Realistic Needs and Diseases (RND).
How?
Design philosophy
Leverage the same concepts and UI hooks used in iNeed to display current need states from RND. Deploy a lightweight script to periodically poll RND need states and update widgets while also adding code to need state change scripts to update widgets in real-time. Polling is used to ensure timely display of state information in the absence of need state change events (e.g. when configurations are changed).
In Game
Widgets will automatically begin operating and appear in the bottom right of the screen as needed. A configuration MCM is included to allow adjustment of position and other parameters. FISSES (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13956) can be used to save and load settings if present.
Load Order
- RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp
- iWant RND Widgets.esp
Compatibility
Works with iWant RND for CACO. Should generally work with any other RND derived mod .
Why?
Because no one did it for me. Seriously, I checked on and off over the years from LE to SE and never found a suitable solution to the problem.
I have been playing Skyrim since 2011. Playing is probably a stretch, I have been modding, crashing, and learning about it’s internals since 2011. I did manage to complete a playthrough in 2018, so there’s that.
Along my journey I quickly found that food was pretty useless in the base game. I learned about RND and was hooked. Patching was a bit of an exercise but overall it added an interesting element. I used it until iNeed came along and RND went dormant. With the cool new UI elements and patchless integration it seemed like the holy grail for needs. While it is a great mod and solves a lot of problems, it didn’t give me the same feeling of depth I got from RND. After iNeed and other alternatives, I kept coming back to RND and living with text and audio updates (which I usually missed) to know when I was hungry or tired. Whenever I’d return from a Skyrim break, I’d check the latest mods and see if anything improved. RND 2.0 by CrEaToXx came along and sounded like it might be the answer but ultimately it didn’t solve the problem the way I wanted.
In the middle of 2018 I repeated my search as I was building yet another mod list. Finding nothing, this time I decided it was unlikely anyone was going to create exactly what I was looking for. I figured there must be a reason so I started digging into how on-screen elements work in Skyrim. It turns out it’s HARD, like way too hard, to get images up on the display. This explains why UI mods are relative rarities over the vast collection of Skyrim mods in the world. In fairness, once you understand it and have the right tools it not so bad, but that can really be said about most things.
Now about the right tools...I didn’t have them. It seems you need to have Adobe Flash Builder to actually make the on-screen objects...well that sucks. Necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to understand how iNeed was getting the job done so I poked around it’s innards for a bit. After loosely wrapping my brain around it, I set to work understanding how RND knows if you’re hungry. Turns out that’s a much simpler problem so then I married these two things together in code and somehow reached a working solution.
SUCCESS!!! Sort of. To get this far I had pulled apart iNeed and was using it’s UI file which I had no rights to. I didn’t have the tools (or artistic ability) to create my own UI widget. I could play with the mod in my personal install but distribution was out unless I received permission from isoku to distribute the UI file. It didn’t seem right to ask permission to use a file that serves as a key differentiator specifically to make that differentiator go away so I never made a permission inquiry. Likewise, it didn’t seem at all right to explain or even suggest how to pull the needed file out of the packed mod. With this state, I decided to play the game and shelve any thoughts of uploading it.
Following a hardware upgrade in 2020 (thanks 2600k, you served me well), I decided to reinstall Skyrim. I put together a build and ultimately built iWant RND for CACO. Now I had a way to modernize RND by getting it to support the popular Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul by kryptopyr and displaying widgets like iNeed. But wait, I can distribute the CACO update but not the widget mod, now what?
I wanted to share the mods so others could enjoy and maybe learn from it (and I in turn could learn from them), so I looked for a solution. Enter the mod
community, specifically ElSopa, who released a standalone version of the UI file I needed in November 2019. Now, by including ElSopa’s work as a dependency, I could distribute both of my mods to the community. I think this Internet thing might just work out.
UPDATE April 2020: AubeD graciously provided a widget file for this mod. The mod is now standalone.
Hopefully this narrative helps you understand what goes into building a mod and triggers an interest to make some part of the game, big or small, just a little bit better.
When?
This project was originally developed in June 2018.
Potential improvements
- Testing! I’ve done a fair amount, but I am one and you are many. Please test and log bugs you find.
My other Mods