GUI Scripting: Getting System CVars

This page is part of a series. See GUI Scripting Language for overview.

Since CVars are user settings, you usually don’t want to change them in your GUI, just read them.

CVars Available Directly: HUD Related

You can scale the objects shown in TDM’s HUD display. In TDM’s main menu, under Settings/Video/Advanced/, there is the “HUD Size/Opacity” option. If you click on “Adjust” of this, a special screen is brought up (see image). This lets you adjust and preview representative HUD elements with sliders. Slider positions correspond to underlying CVar float values.

These CVars are copied into a global GUI overlay dictionary and can be read directly from there in your GUI code:

Predefined GUI:: Parameters for Heads-Up Display

CVar in console & default value	Settings slider range	Reference in .script code	Reference in GUI code	Description seen in menu tool tip
tdm_hud_opacity 0.7	0.0-1.0, step 0.1	HUD_Opacity	gui::HUD_Opacity	The opacity of the HUD GUIs. [0..1]
gui_iconSize 1.0	0.5-1.8, step 0.1	iconSize	gui::iconSize	Specifies the size of the icons used by the hud
gui_smallTextSize 1.0	0.75-1.25, step 0.05	smallTextSize	gui::smallTextSize	Specifies the text size used for inventory and weapons
gui_bigTextSize 1.0	0.5-1.8, step 0.1	bigTextSize	gui::bigTextSize	Specifies the text size of ingame notifications [like “Objective Completed”]
gui_lightgemSize 1.0	0.5-1.8, step 0.1	lightgemSize	gui::lightgemSize	Specifies the size of the lightgem
gui_barSize 1.0	0.7-1.3, step 0.1	barSize	gui::barSize	Specifies the size of the health and breath bar
gui_objectiveTextSize 1.0	0.75-1.4, step 0.1	objectiveTextSize	gui::objectiveTextSize	Specifies the size of the objectives text

This may be of particular interest if you intend to extend the HUD with your own content, appropriately scaled. For a use case for this, see the 2020 forum post by MirceaKitsune.

CVars Available Via .Script Function

Other CVars you might need can be accessed in an associated script object or other .script file, where, for example, you could create an intermediary wrapper function to call:

float GetShowHud(){
  if(sys.getcvar("g_showhud")=="1")
    return 1;
  return 0;
}

Once acquired in the script function, you can pass the value on with a GUI:: parameter if desired; see GUI Scripting: GUI:: Parameters.

Also, there is the corresponding setcvar function:

sys.setcvar("g_showhud","0");

See [elsewhere] about calling script functions from entities with GUI scripts.

For More

• A list of all CVars and their short descriptions can be found in source code Syscvar.cpp.
• Adding new Cvars, which explains
  • ways to list and change CVars from the console;
  • how to create custom CVars specific to your FM session, with scripting.
• Console Useful Controls
• Cvars in The Dark Mod