Opacity of text box?

[lotrbfme222]

Why can we not adjust the opacity of the text box? Due to the textbox's background, 1/3 of the screen cannot be viewed during the game. Is there any possibility to change the opacity?

[Quetz]

Not in-game... but you can mod it.

Explore the game's files, enter the 'game' directory, and create a file called "textbox.rpy". Edit this file with notepad, and copy the following into it:

default persistent.textboxOpacity = 1.0

init 5:
    $ persistent.textboxOpacity = 0.5

    screen say(who, what):
        style_prefix "say"
        window:
            id "window"
            background Transform(style.window.background, alpha=persistent.textboxOpacity)
            if who is not None:
                window:
                    id "namebox"
                    style "namebox"
                    text who id "who"
            text what id "what"
        if not renpy.variant("small"):
            add SideImage() xalign 0.0 yalign 1.0

This code overwrites the game's code on how the textbox is presented, and sets its opacity to 0.5.
If you want it even lower, you can change the 4th line to any value between 0.0 and 1.0 With 0.0 being entirely transparent, and 1.0 being the default.

If you start the game and decide to change this value afterward, you have to restart the game for it to take effect.

[lotrbfme222]

Thanks for the explanation, but unfortunately, it doesn't work on my PC. Let me explain to you what I've done.

I created a *txt file under the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Returning To Mia\game and named this *txt file as "textbox.rpy". I opened it in notepad and pasted the codes as you mentioned above. But nothing changed.

Shouldn't I define this "textbox.rpy" file somewhere? How does the game realize it?

[Quetz]

It sounds to me like you did everything right.
The game automatically loads every *.rpy file in the game folder when it starts, so initialization isn't necessary.

In the game-folder, do you have a textbox.rpyc file? This would mean that textbox.rpy was loaded in correctly. If textbox.rpyc doesn't exist, can you open textbox.rpy again with notepad, pick "save as", and make sure it's not saved as textbox.rpy.txt ?
And, to remove any doubt of the code working, can you change the 4th line to say 0.0 instead of 0.5?

I'll doublecheck things on my end as well, and get back to you.

[Quetz]

To double-check if the code worked, I've deleted all my save files and started an entirely new game. The textbox was immediately more transparent, except when inputting text (eg writing the MC's name).
Seeing that it works on an entirely new game means it should work for an existing game as well.

A screenshot: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3374613323

[lotrbfme222]

Originally posted by Quetz:

It sounds to me like you did everything right.
The game automatically loads every *.rpy file in the game folder when it starts, so initialization isn't necessary.

In the game-folder, do you have a textbox.rpyc file? This would mean that textbox.rpy was loaded in correctly. If textbox.rpyc doesn't exist, can you open textbox.rpy again with notepad, pick "save as", and make sure it's not saved as textbox.rpy.txt ?
And, to remove any doubt of the code working, can you change the 4th line to say 0.0 instead of 0.5?

I'll doublecheck things on my end as well, and get back to you.

As you said, it has been saved as *txt file. But as you suggest, I used "save as", then it has changed to *rpy file. It works now, thanks a lot :)

[Quetz]

That's great news! Enjoy!

[Caught Stealing an F]

Thanks for this. I have mine set at 0 and see the test fine. Why do they even put these textboxes* in the games if they really aren't needed? *Probably just to purposely obstruct the view of the scenes.

[Quetz]

Personally, I need a textbox, or a font with at least 2px of border to comfortably make out text against bright backgrounds. You're right though, most of the time the textbox isn't necessary.