The Secret World UI Tweaking Guide

The Secret World UI Tweaking Guide by Cescasa

WARNING
This post is about advanced game client configuration, and it is likely possible to break something if you are not careful what you do. If you mess around with this stuff, you do so at your own risk.

I was in a group earlier, and it really bugged me that there was way no way to move the group window (the one that shows the players). It was covering my chat window, and I really didn’t want to move the chat. Anyway, this got me to digging around through game files and playing around with things.

I found a chat command which I have not seen discussed anywhere before. (If it was, please provide a link if you have it.) The command is

Code:

/option [name] [value]

This allows you change lots of things, most of which are accessible other ways, some of which are not. If you type /option followed by an option name but no value, it will tell you the value of the option. If you type /option followed by a name and a value, it changes the value of that option.

You can type /option and press TAB to see the full list of settable options. If you want, find the file DataGuiDefaultCharPrefs.xml in your client installation folder (usually something like C:Program Files (x86)FuncomThe Secret World) to see many of these options and their default values. You can also go to %localappdata%FuncomTSWPrefs and dig through there for account and character specific options that override the defaults.

Anyways, here are a few things I learned how to do. Some of these may be doable in other ways, but I have not found another way to access these features yet.

Move Windows
You may have noticed that several UI windows don’t move. If you are like me, that is frustrating. Here is a way to move them:

1. Type /option flash_test_gui true to open the GUI debugger. This window may look a little daunting at first, but it is not that bad once you understand it. It shows the properties of all the various UI windows, such as position and scale, and allows you to edit these properties.
2. Make sure everything in the list starts with _root (ignoring the number at the beginning). If things start with _global, then press the “_root/_global” button at the top to change it.
3. Find the window you want to change. For this example, we are going to change the team window, called _root.teamgui. You can scroll the list using the mouse wheel. (You can try to figure out what each window is by its name and/or by hovering over it, which will highlight it on the screen with a white box).
4. Click a list item to delve into it, showing you the properties of that specific window. (Click the top item of the list to get back out of the item you delved into at any time.)
5. Now you can change properties. Let’s move the team window up 200 pixels. Find _root.teamgui._x and change the value to -200, then press enter. Voila, your team window has moved. (If you aren’t in a team you won’t see anything.)
6. You can now close the debugger window by pressing its Close button or by typing /option flash_test_gui false. To open it again later, you will need to type /option flash_test_gui false first (if you closed it by pressing the button), then type /option flash_test_gui true.

Note: Moving windows this way only affects your current game session. If you restart the game or reload the UI, changes made in the debugger will not be saved. It may be possible to make more permanent changes by editing your prefs file, but I have not tried it.

Display Latency and FPS
There is an option to show your network latency (lag) and FPS on screen. Simply type /option latency_window true to display it and /option latency_window false to hide it.

You can alternately show only FPS in very small print, color coded based on how good/bad it is. To do this, type /option framerate_window true to display it and /option framerate_window false to hide it. edit: aakerlind mentions you can also get this version by just pressing Ctrl+Alt+F.

Open the Chat Macro Window
There is a window that you can use for creating macros. It seems to work. To open it, type /option chat_macro_window true.

In this window, you can create, edit, and delete macros using the buttons. To play a macro, double-click it in the list. To add multiple commands to a macro while editing it, insert a newline between them by pressing Shift+Enter.

You can use any valid slash commands in a macro and they will work as if you typed them in the chat window. This could be useful for people who like to emote while they play.

Change the UI Scale
You can adjust the overall scale of all UI elements by setting the option GUIResolutionScale. A scale of 1.0 means don’t scale it at all, larger numbers scale up and smaller numbers scale down.

I recommend you first see what your scale is set at before you change it in case you want to change it back by typing /option GUIResolutionScale. To change it, type /option GUIResolutionScale <new number>. I recommend sticking to numbers in the 0.5 to 2.0 range (0.5 is tiny, and 2.0 is huge).

These are the things I have found just by playing around a bit. There is probably more to be found. (For example there appears to be a group finder window that doesn’t actually work yet, group_matchmaking_window, a window that resembles the AoC trading post window, trade_post, and a bunch of other non-functional windows.) Just thought I would share with the community in case anyone is interested. If people have others to add to this list, feel free.