Why are HUD mods not allowed?
Hi.
I really can't wrap my head around the fact that HUD scripts are checked for consistency with the server. I thought NS2 was supposed to be a moddable game. All competetive games allow for custom HUDs, yet in NS2 it's a no go. What's the UW state on this? They either don't give a damn or they have it on their TODO list, because I don't think anyone in their sense would disallow custom HUDs for a competetive game such as NS2.
Cheers.
I really can't wrap my head around the fact that HUD scripts are checked for consistency with the server. I thought NS2 was supposed to be a moddable game. All competetive games allow for custom HUDs, yet in NS2 it's a no go. What's the UW state on this? They either don't give a damn or they have it on their TODO list, because I don't think anyone in their sense would disallow custom HUDs for a competetive game such as NS2.
Cheers.
Comments
Honestly I think the risk of pink skulks was worth it, they weren't "common" and even if people had them, they still needed the skill to aim and shoot. (Yes it's an unfair advantage, but like I said I think it was WORTH it to keep the game moddable).
Patch 255 will introduce a new system to restrict modding even more, if you want to play on official Servers etc.
It is somewhere stated in the mailing list.
On the other hand:
It is up to the Server Admins to decide, if they want the players on their servers to be able to use mods or be forced to play the mods, which are active on the server...or play vanilla.
My Server, for example, allows you to use custom alien vision mods and has 3 mods installed (one of them purely an admin mod for administration and moderation).
UWE's official servers most likely never will support modded clients, unless UWE changes something.
What kind of HUD Mods are you trying to use, anyway?
Greetings,
Maxunit
And even if a Hacker finds a loophole, it most likely is getting fixed pretty fast...otherwise VAC takes care of the job, if external software is used for cheating and hacking.
there's no way this is the reason. it would be pointless to even allow it to be moddable at any point because it is a guarantee there is one person in thirty that will attempt to do something malicious. i think it's kind of silly they made the game so moddable, but didn't think it through enough to either limit it, or create a secondary version [that is limited], similar to TF2's HUD editing.
and please, the moddability in NS2 isn't 'revolutionary', other games have done more.
I, for example, wanted to create a very simple mod that places the health information closer to the center of the screen because I have trouble keeping track of my HP, I have to shift point of focus from the center of the screen to the corner in order to see it (16:9, big screen, large resolution). But I'm asking for too much... I'm just disappointed.
Data access would be restricted to whatever the game VM chose to pass to the HUD, but if all you want to do is change appearances that wouldn't be a problem. The biggest issue would be potential performance complications of having two VMs trying to render to the screen each frame.
I believe the in-game menu works like this already. Never reflected over how much opening it decreases FPS but I have noticed it game freezing.
Perhaps if not consistency checked it could already be repurposed into some sort of HUD if you can make user input pass through. Unfortunately (or hopefully depending on how you see it, since it would be a huge security hole) you probably wouldn't be able to read the values the NS2 HUD presents, but if it works without lag using bogus values at least it would prove custom, user/client selected and installed HUDs would be feasible in NS2.
It's impossible for server operators to actually white list mods that people can use, only the files that they change can be individually white listed. However then they can be changed in any way.
It is possible for the server to be running your HUD mod, than everyone in that server will be forced to use it. Or in the case of Mendasps custom HUD mod that used to work a few builds ago, generated options in the main menu for people to toggle on and off as they liked for that particular server.