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FFXI HD Mods (xiPrime)
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-11-26 14:05:32
HD Theme for FFXI - xiPrime
Hello everyone, for the past year or so, I've been hard at work on some custom UI modding for the game. My intent when I started out was just to develop a few things here and there for personal use, but that has grown into a pretty substantial overhaul. This started out as a few personal-use tweaks to RadialArcana’s status icons and other .DAT mods, but I eventually got into it and expanded towards trying to fix up all of the dated vanilla UI the best that I can. I'm pretty happy with the state of the mods at this point, so I figure others might also appreciate this attempt to modernize the game a bit. While a few of the mods I’m sharing here replace the commonly-used ‘XIView’, I’m referring to the overall theme as ‘xiPrime’, and trying to offer each mod à la carte style to that people can easily change out only the things that they want. Presently, there are at least 3 different variants of XIView going around (Caradog, Kenshi, RA, maybe others…), and I didn’t want to further add onto the confusion.
Status / Ability Icons
First up are the icons for status effects and spells/JAs. This mod includes:
▪ ROM/0/12.DAT - Buff/Debuff icons that appear in the upper-left corner of the screen (JP version)
▪ ROM/119/57.DAT - Buff/Debuff icons that appear in the upper-left corner of the screen (English version)
▪ ROM/280/15.DAT - Spell/JA icons that appear in the menu
▪ ROM/324/95.DAT - More spell/JA icons that appear in the menu (lvl 96 SPs, which are stored in a separate place from other spell/JA icons)
▪ Also included are .png versions of the icons for compatibility with addons such as PartyBuffs and XivParty
▪ These icons are up-to-date as of this posting, and includes icons for the new Aria, Black Sanctus, and Animated statuses
▪ Descriptions have been edited for Corsair rolls to include lucky/unlucky numbers
More screenshots and details:
This icon pack is heavily inspired by RadialArcana's from this post.
Frankly, my entire endeavor to get into .DAT modding in this game is from RA's XIView variant release, and my desire to "tweak" a few things here and there (which then became much more). The 57.DAT file in my pack is based off of his, and includes some of the icons from his pack (most of which have been modified in some way). I also continued his trend of using FFXIV icons as a basis for JAs when modding 15.DAT and 95.DAT.
I also took inspiration (and a couple icons) from the Caradog/Kenshi releases of XIView ( Caradog, Kenshi). I also use recolored versions of the 'circle' icons (Ancient Circle, Holy Circle, etc.) from Jean Paul's set.
My goals for this icon pack were to:
▪ Keep the icons stylistically similar to the default game icons- the goal is to enhance the FFXI experience, not replace it.
▪ Make the icons vibrant and easily-discernable from each other, as soft subtle coloring makes it difficult to find a specific buff/debuff out of a list of 20+ in the middle of content.
▪ Keep the icons informative without having them too cluttered.
▪ Loosely maintain a consistent coloring convention throughout the pack (there are a few intentional exceptions such as pro/shell, marches, etc.):
Quote: Red - Fire / STR / Attack / Haste
Purple - Thunder / DEX / Accuracy / Crits
Orange/Yellow - Earth / VIT / Physical Defense
Green - Wind / AGI / Evasion / Ranged
Cyan - Ice / INT / Magic Attack / Fast Cast
Blue - Water / MND / Magic Defense In general, this guide should help give a rough idea of what kind of stat an icon is boosting if the icon isn't immediately recognizable.
Also, I took heavy inspiration from RadialArcana's COR roll icons. Although I made these myself, they follow the same convention of lucky number on the left face of the die and unlucky number on the right face. Also, I use the artifact headgear for each job to illustrate the associated job for the roll, and the coloring of the die itself loosely follows the color guide above.
Icon Installation Instructions
To install the pack, just copy the entire 'ROM' folder from the 'DAT Mods' directory in the attached .zip, and overwrite the 'ROM' folder in your Final Fantasy XI installation directory.
Alternatively, for those using the XIPivot addon for Windower/Ashita, the status icon files (ROM/0/12.DAT and ROM/119/57.DAT) are compatible with XIPivot, so you can use that instead to prevent overwriting system files. Unfortunately, the game loads the menu icons before XIPivot loads, so those .DATs must be replaced manually as per the above instructions.
For PartyBuffs, XIVParty, and other addons that use .png icons, the 'icons' directory from the attached .zip can be simply copied over the addon's directory, and replace the default icons there.
Status Icons Download: Link (Latest Update: 01-06-2024)
Menu/Nameplate Mods
The next mod that I wanted to release is a customization of the menu backgrounds, buttons, and namplates. For those familiar with XIView, this is the other half of that mod (with the first half being the status/menu icons). This following mod combined with the previous one is a replacement for XIView.
This mod includes:
▪ ROM/119/51.DAT - Nameplate font/icons, menu buttons, weather/day icons
▪ ROM/0/21.DAT - Menu background
The menu background is a recolored mod of the 'blue squares chocobo' background from RadialArcana's post.
As with the above mod, this is inspired heavily by RadialArcana's post on the AH forums. He found a way to increase the resolution of the nameplate text and icons that was previously not possible with XIView. My version uses some different icons, and has been updated to support the latest version of 51.DAT, providing support for the new Config/Gamepad option. There are couple important differences with my version, though, so please keep this in mind.
Mod Details:
▪ I use a different method for upscaling the nameplate icons, so it is not natively compatible with the alternate icon packs provided with different versions of XIView. I can provide some help for those of you who’d like to customize your own icons, but I don't plan to offer alternative variants of the mod (please keep in mind this is a personal-use mod that I’m sharing). The upside, though, is that this mod upscales ALL of the nameplate icons, instead of only the most commonly-used ones, as is the case in RA’s mod. This offers support for popular fan-favorite content such as Pankration, Beligerency, Brenner, and more…
▪ Secondly, and this change is important, there are no widescreen or condensed variants of the mod. I use a great plugin made by Velyn for Ashita/Windower to handle the widescreen stretching compensation.
▪ For context, the game was designed for a standard screen aspect ratio, and when playing in widescreen, the nameplates appear stretched horizontally. Other XIView mods have tried to compensate for this in a variety of ways by essentially ‘pre-stretching’ the images. This has worked well, and I am grateful for those efforts. Unfortunately, while pre-stretching looks ‘better’ on widescreen displays it still doesn’t display everything completely correctly (true to the source image files in the .DATs), it’s resolution-dependent (will look different on different widescreen aspect ratios), and pre-stretching and then re-stretching the images degrades the image quality (albeit minimally).
▪ On the other hand, a member of the community, Velyn, has developed a fantastic plugin for Ashita/Windower that eliminates all of the game’s nameplate stretching (as well as providing a ton of other nameplate customization features such as the ability to resize nameplates and hide/show nameplate contents including stars, icons, and text on the player, PCs, NPCs, etc.). The mod I’m posting keeps all of the image files in their standard resolution, and assumes that one is using Velyn’s nameplate plugin to compensate for the nameplate stretching.
▪ The advantages are that all icons/text display correctly regardless of screen resolution, and I only have to update/maintain a single version of the mod. The downside is that the plugin requires the user to use Ashita/Windower along with a 3rd party plugin. So, while the .DAT mod itself works fine, nameplate stretching compensation is not compatible with vanilla (for all the folks who play that way).
Another thing I should point out is that unfortunately Velyn seems to have disappeared. Their site where the plugin was hosted has been taken down, their Github is no longer active, and they’ve left some (all?) of the FFXI Discord channels. I am including their nameplate plugin in my download link. Previous releases of XIView have historically bundled supporting software such as ChangeTex, Tex Hammer, FFXI Icon Change, etc., so I hope bundling Velyn’s plugin with my mods is acceptable.
Updated versions of the nameplate plugin as well as it's source code are available here, so I will no longer include this file within my downloads: Link
More screenshots:
Menu / Nameplate Installation Instructions:
First download the Nameplate plugin: Link
To install the nameplate plugin (for Windower, I don't use Ashita personally so I assume it's installed like any other Ashita plugin), place the .dll in your Windower/plugins directory, and use the command in game. After loading the plugin, you can use the command to see a list of the customization commands.
To install the pack, just copy the entire 'ROM' folder from the attached .zip, and overwrite the 'ROM' folder in your Final Fantasy XI installation directory.
To get the window background to display properly, make sure to set
Quote: Config > Windows > Shared > Window Type > 8 from your in-game menu.
Menu / Nameplate Mod Download: Link (Latest Update: 06-10-2024)
Balloon Theme
Another matching theme I made is for the Balloon addon by Ghosty, which is designed to give classic Final Fantasy style dialogues. I think this makes the storyline cutscenes much more enjoyable to watch, but that's certainly a matter of personal preference.
Some screenshots of the theme in action:
The Balloon addon is available here from Ghosty's Github page
Balloon Theme Installation Instructions
First, install the Balloon addon from the above link. Then. download the attached .zip, and place the xiPrime folder in Balloon's themes directory. Load up the Balloon addon in game, and use the command Quote: //bl theme xiPrime to turn on this theme.
Balloon Theme Download: Link (Latest Update: 11-24-2023)
Cursors
I also made a custom cursor pack based on the ones by Sithel from this post.
Preview:
Alternative POL Cursors:
In the FFXI Modding Discord, atom0s posted a tool he made to extract the encrypted images from POL, and Vekien used that to dump all of the images including the cursors. I made some matching in-game cursors from those source images if anyone is interested.
Cursor Installation Instructions
Just copy all of the cursor files into your FFXI installation directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI) overwriting the cursor files in there.
Cursor Download: Link (Latest Update: 12-30-2023)
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-11-30 13:32:07
Updated the main post with the Balloon theme and cursors.
Asura.Bony
Server: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 10
By Asura.Bony 2023-11-30 17:02:12
Thank you sir :)
By Draylo 2023-11-30 17:04:02
Very cool! Thanks for this
By Ulgar 2023-12-01 08:04:53
Great stuff, cheeers. Really happy to see continued forward motion with something based on RA's, as the icons are just phenominal.
Do you find the hat/helm icons on rolls easier to identify than the three letters used in RA's icons? I plan on giving them a shot, but was concerned they may be more difficult to readily identify from the images.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-01 11:08:10
I do, personally, which is why I went out of my way to recreate them instead of just using RA's.
For example, reading the text 'Drk' and mentally translating that to 'Chaos' every time was more difficult (for me) than recognizing the Drk AF helm image as 'Chaos'. Yes, the helm icons are tiny (but imo still recognizable), but that's more of just a reminder for job bonuses- the rolls themselves are recognizable by their die colors, as has been the case for the Caradog/Kenshi XIViews. Also, while some of the icons in the pack still have text, I tried to reduce that across the set for the most part.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-01 15:25:17
This looks neat and will be trying this!
Had a few questions please.
1) I know said this is personal mod but do you foresee any continued updates? Either just maintaining it or adding more to it as you see fit?
2) The nameplate plugin has me curious but wondering how safe it is either from if SE can detect usage or possible malware?
3) I dont suppose you know if need to worry an update could completely break nameplate or not?
Thanks.
1) Yes, I foresee updates. I'm going to try to maintain it to the best of my ability if SE changes the 51.DAT to add additional UI commands (as they have with the gamepad, term filter, etc.), and adding additional status icons is easy, so I can pop those in whenever SE adds new buffs/debuffs.
The only planned update I have to the *existing* mods is to maybe eventually add a matching icon theme for the timers plugin (this would be very time-consuming, so I'm not sure when I'll get around to it) and maybe add the JP language version of the menu/nameplate mod.
Additionally, I have other things I've been working on, like a matching XivParty theme, which I'll probably release soon once I've had some time to polish it up a bit.
2) I can't promise anything, but I highly doubt that SE can detect if you're using the nameplate plugin, all of its operation should be local. I don't think it injects any packets or anything like that to the server.
As for malware, again, I can't make any promises. It's a closed-source binary file that should be treated with the same caution as any other closed-source binary file you download off the internet. If it makes you feel any better, I've run the plugin for close to a year or so without any issues. Additionally, Velyn did make the source code available on their Github page (only for the Ashita version, I don't think the updated one with Windower support had its source released), but unfortunately that Github is no longer available. Someone might have downloaded the source and have a copy lying around somewhere, but I didn't think to do that.
3) I'm sure that's technically possible and I don't have a solution to that. If there is some substantial future update that breaks the nameplate plugin support, I will either need someone else more experienced to step in and write a new/updated plugin, or I will be forced to modify my own version of the 51.DAT to incorporate pre-stretching as the other forms of XIView have.
Asura.Aerec
Server: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 11
By Asura.Aerec 2023-12-01 16:20:40
I can confirm that there is nothing to worry about #2 - People have been using it for a long time since Velyn created the plugin, as said at one time the source was open on a repo and noone had any issue with the code.
Ragnarok.Casey
Server: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 161
By Ragnarok.Casey 2023-12-01 20:15:57
at one time the source was open on a repo and noone had any issue with the code. Don't think so, Velyn only had download links to a prebuilt version in a zip AFAIK
that said running the ashita plugin through IDA didn't show anything obvious
Lakshmi.Cesil
Server: Lakshmi
Game: FFXI
Posts: 559
By Lakshmi.Cesil 2023-12-01 20:59:06
This is awesome! Thank you :)
By Lili 2023-12-02 08:51:02
Velyn only had download links to a prebuilt version in a zip AFAIK
They very briefly made the source of a previous version available on GitHub. The source of the version with windower support was never available, the one immediately before was.
Ragnarok.Casey
Server: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 161
By Ragnarok.Casey 2023-12-02 18:51:46
Oh, didn't know it ever hit github. That's good then.
By ilugmat 2023-12-03 08:55:47
Navius, if you are going to continue someone else's work you should retain the original projects name and not rebrand it as your own work entirely. You completely invalidate the huge effort that went into its creation when you change its name like this.
I know you made updates but you're still building on the majority of what someone else made and it's a sign of respect to keep the name the same.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-03 14:45:51
Navius, if you are going to continue someone else's work you should retain the original projects name and not rebrand it as your own work entirely. You completely invalidate the huge effort that went into its creation when you change its name like this.
I know you made updates but you're still building on the majority of what someone else made and it's a sign of respect to keep the name the same.
I see. Frankly, this is exactly the type of confusion that I was trying to avoid by offering an alternative name, but it seems that wasn't entirely successful. In short, this isn't just a continuation of someone else's work, and I'll try to provide a more detailed explanation with appropriate context. I appreciate you going out of your way to create an account today just to reach out to me (despite us playing on the same server), but hopefully I can clear things up.
Warning, this is a bit long, but I have a tendency to be pretty verbose, and I want to be perfectly clear about my decision, as apparently the blurb I put in the beginning of the original post was not enough:
This game has had a long history of .DAT modding, both for 2D and 3D assets. For 2D assets, there have been (and continue to be) a variety of modifications to the 119/57.DAT (status icons) and 119/51.DAT (nameplate icons and text). There used to be an active .DAT modding community with a widely available selection of custom icons and fonts for people to use. Unfortunately that site is longer available, and the community as a whole has shrunk considerably, so available mods have mostly been scattered around if folks managed to keep backups. Right now, newer mods are generally available on smaller Discord servers, forums, Nexus Mods, etc. All of these mods are generally named by their creators.
'XI View' is not a name given to the *act* of modding 119/57.DAT and 119/51.DAT. 'XI View' is the name of a *specific* combo icon pack / nameplate mod created by (I believe, someone please correct my history if I get it wrong) Wildman, Mystical, Darkshade, and possibly others a while back. Unfortunately, they left the community. However, due to the popularity of this specific pack, Caradog and Kenshi have very kindly taken to updating those mods every time an SE update breaks them.
Now if you would take a look at the currently maintained versions of 'XI View' available from either Caradog's or Kenshi's pages (linked in my original post), and compare them to what I have posted here, I'm sure you'll agree there is very little similarity. I don't believe I've used a single icon from XI View in my mod, just some inspiration for color themes and such (for instance, my March icon is blue...). Also, if you dig into 119/51.DAT between what I have posted here and XI View, the source image files, resolutions, and even the texture coordinate mappings are completely different. Saying that some of the mods I've presented here could not have been done without the hard work of the XI View team over the years is completely accurate, which is why I acknowledged my appreciation. However, I believe we can all agree that this isn't XI View, it's something different, and hopefully Caradog and Kenshi will keep the real XI View alive for years to come.
Now, this brings us to RadialArcana's mods. What he released was fantastic. However, despite what he decided to call them, his icons were *not* 'XI View', and his nameplate mod was also *not* 'XI View'. They were something very different, but he chose to re-use the name 'XI View' because it had familiarity within the community. Personally I disagree with his decision, as it (1) was piggybacking on the popularity of someone's mods by re-using their name, and (2) has caused confusion as to "which XI View are you using?" that I've seen in Discord servers and such looking for support. This confusion is further evident by the very post I'm replying to. Seeing as my mods would also be different from the others, source images would not be cross-compatible, and mine requires a whole 3rd party plugin, also calling my mod 'XI View' would considerably further compound this confusion.
Now, a significant portion of my icon pack in 119/57.DAT is largely based off of RA's source images (which were in turn taken mostly from other sources such as FFXIV). Also, while I completely made my own upscaling of the nameplate icons in 119/51.DAT (different source image structure, resolution, texture mapping, etc. - menu ustatshd primarily) to offer full HD in a way that no other mods have done before, I *did* re-use RA's upscaled font, as I feel what he made was downright perfect and I couldn't improve on it. I've done my best to give RA the credit he deserves and acknowledge which portions of this mod are based off of his. I've been upfront with the fact that this started as a mod of his files and has since evolved into something much more. If RA didn't re-use the name 'XI VIew' for his mod, then perhaps I could see the logic in naming this mod after his, but this was not the case.
Overall, this project intends to upscale, modernize, and add consistency to an inconsistently styled patchwork of UI elements in the game through the use of addon themes and .DAT modding. I simply chose to assign a name (a dumb one, but it works) to this overall theme to make it easy for the community to download and use elements that are intended to work well together. Overall, what I am releasing is much more than XI View, and while I am offering modifications to the same files that XI View modifies, this mod uses none of the resources from XI View itself, and bears virtually no similarity. Yes, if you were to download each individual mod from my post and use all of them, then this would effectively replace XI View (and then some). Alternatively, you can always do something like use 'my' icon pack with the 'XI View' nameplates/fonts based on your preferences.
In short, this is not a "new version" of XI View, so calling it XI View would be inappropriate.
[+]
By ilugmat 2023-12-03 18:10:25
Changing the name of the thing is putting your own brand on it, and effectively taking full ownership of it to everyone else. When Caradog took over Xiview for example he didn't rename it, he retained the name and just kept it updated as a service to the community. This is showing some respect to the person that put hundreds of hours into making the original project.
All you had to do was keep it called Xiview3, I don't get why you didn't just do that. This is like someone taking over Windower, and then changing the name of it and effectively erasing all the work the people who worked on it before put in. It's just rude behavior and unnecessary.
I spent 6 months and high hundreds of hours making that mod, and I don't mind anyone carrying it on but it's rude to change the name of it and I'm really surprised you don't see that. You know full well how much work I put into that and almost all of is still the same and you're implying it's not. Changing some colors, or making something more blurry does not make those graphics yours. Nor does copy and pasting most of the hex code over.
Most of the icons are still the same (and many were made from scratch), the font sheet is the same and I made that from scratch too and worked out every hex value of every character, many of the UI graphics are still the same or scaled/cut up, you didn't even make the background with the chocobo on it. I'm struggling to see anything you made in your OP image actually when you're implying otherwise.
You changed very little in the mod, and almost all of it is still the same as it was when it was XIview 3. Certainly not enough to warrant changing the name and implying it's "inspired by" and not just carrying on what someone else made.
You didn't attempt to ask me if you could do this, you didn't ask Velyn either if you could use their addon. Putting credit (this isn't a nice thing to do, you're supposed to do that when you take other peoples stuff) doesn't change the fact you should not change the name of a thing and effectively take full ownership of it in the mind of everyone else.
Most of the graphics you posted in the OP were made by me, you changed some colors or cut and paste an arrow ontop of some or whatever. Anyone that used both know they are near the same.
When I made Xiview3 I went out of my way to make sure I used nothing from previous versions, to warrant there being another version in circulation.
Again my issue is changing the name, because that is saying "this is all my work" and it's not.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-03 23:47:14
I'm sorry you feel this way about it, but I was pretty exhaustive in my last post for listing my multiple reasons why I felt it would be inappropriate for me to use the name XI View. I specifically went out of my way to call it something, anything, but that to avoid confusion with existing mods. You claim that referring to the mod as something different is 'effectively taking full ownership' or 'saying this is all my work', and I frankly disagree with your opinion.
I think it should be clear to anyone who has read any of my posts that if my intent was to take credit for someone else's hard work, I wouldn't have bent over backwards to frequently acknowledge which portions were created/inspired by others, praise their work, and link to their respective projects. I have put in my due diligence to ensure proper attributions have been made specifically so that am not giving the impression that I am claiming ownership of their hard work.
I am sorry that my specific choice to not name these mods "XI View" upsets you and gives you the impression that I am trying to take away credit from where it is due. That was never what I wanted, and I apologize if you feel this release in any way invalidates someone else's (your?) hard work. My goal was simply to share a variety of mods that I've worked on and personally enjoy with the community, no more, no less. These evolved from personal use, to shared with some friends on Discord, and then finally to the larger community in response to the most recent monthly patch update.
By ilugmat 2023-12-04 06:02:44
Lets say Aerec wanted to officially add this to Horizon (I'm not saying he would, I'm just using an example since he popped his head in here). Normally he would have to ask me, and he wouldn't cause he knows I'm anti private server.
Now he doesn't need to ask me, he can just ask you right? Cause the perception upon changing the name is that this is now yours. Even though, if I did a side by side image comparison far more is mine than what you added.
I would of been fine with anyone taking it over and updating it but changing the name is just rude behavior because it's an act of ownership, especially when I only made it last year.
However this is the internet and all right.
Muh inspired.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-04 15:21:36
I'm personally running at 1.15x scaling, and I can notice a difference in the menus, perhaps less so on the weather icons. I wouldn't say that the mods are only good for high UI scaling, but ymmv.
I'm guessing you found your solution to the font question. In short, this mod is not directly compatible with many of the source images (nameplate font included) from the original XI View or the vanilla 51.DAT, those images must first be upscaled to the newer resolution.
By jdstang 2023-12-08 03:56:00
Do you think you could provide a download with all the icons used in the menu for abilities and spells? I'm trying to match the icons in the menu to my tcrossbar addon.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-08 11:29:53
Do you think you could provide a download with all the icons used in the menu for abilities and spells? I'm trying to match the icons in the menu to my tcrossbar addon.
Sure, I can try to pull those out for you (have to extract them one at a time). Many of them (the ones that apply status effects) are included in the png folder as intrloper mentioned, and I'd highly recommend you use those images when possible (they are at the original quality). They had to be compressed a bit to import into the .DAT, and I'm not sure I have all the originals. I'll see what I can do.
If you're unfamiliar, be aware of how the game "builds" the menu icons from a few source images. For example (these screenshots are of the vanilla game icons, not the ones from my pack), if you browse 280/15.DAT with TexHammer, you'll see something like this:
The "Cure III" icon uses the 'white cure' image and the numerals from the 'misc numsx' image to form this, the final Cure III icon: ![](https://i.imgur.com/YlcRQ4c.png)
Likewise, "Curaga III" uses the base 'white curaga' image, and the numerals/star from 'misc numsx' to form this:
The first one-hours are located in a file formatted like this:
![](https://i.imgur.com/GObYUdU.png)
The second one-hours are formatted similarly, but located in 324/95.DAT.
By Moonlightagb 2023-12-08 12:06:57
Is it possible to mod the buff icon description data?
Kinda inspired to ask this question after looking at the cor rolls here... it'd be cool if for example Cor roll description said "Increases experience gained. (Lucky Roll: 5 / Unlucky Roll: 69idk)" ETC with the lucky/unlucky #s added to the end
Would be cool being able to hover over the icon desc and read the text instead of trying to look at tiny numbers with my vision lol
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-08 13:54:58
That sounds like a great idea. I don't know how to do it, but I'll try to take a look and see if I can figure it out.
[+]
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-09 19:49:58
Do you think you could provide a download with all the icons used in the menu for abilities and spells? I'm trying to match the icons in the menu to my tcrossbar addon.
Here's a pack with the spell/ability icons extracted from 280/15.DAT and 324/95.DAT: Link
Unfortunately importing the .DDS images into the .DAT and then exporting then chewed up the quality a bit, I'm sorry about that. For the spells and JAs that apply a status buff/debuff, I'd recommend you use the higher quality ones in the archive from the first post. I'll work on cleaning up the remaining icons eventually when I work on a pack for Timers.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-11 09:33:38
Yeah, they did overwrite for some reason. I just compared the files and they're identical, so I'm not sure what's up with that. It's safe to use the current version of the mod.
Bahamut.Navius
Server: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 65
By Bahamut.Navius 2023-12-30 01:11:04
I'm releasing a new update to the mods and have updated the main post with links.
Status / Ability Icons
- Added lucky/unlucky numbers as well as job associations to the descriptions for Corsair rolls as requested by Moonlightagb.
- A few small improvements to the menu icons
Menu / Nameplate Mods
- The font has been updated. It is still an upscale of the vanilla game font like RadialArcana's original, but I worked on making it a bit clearer at full resolution, and a bit more readable at smaller sizes (noticeable on buff timers, etc.). It's a subtle change, but I'm pretty happy with the result.
- New nameplate icons for master stars, monstrosity, and away message status
- Several other miscellaneous UI components have been upscaled and cleaned up.
Cursors
- Recently in the FFXI Modding Discord, someone was asking about extracting images from POL, which are encrypted. Atom0s developed and released a tool to decrypt those images, and Vekien used it to batch export all of the POL images. Among those were the POL cursors, so I used those source images to create an alternative set of in-game cursors if anyone likes them better. I think some of them are pretty cute looking.
Links to the updates are in the main post.
HD Theme for FFXI - xiPrime
Hello everyone, for the past year or so, I've been hard at work on some custom UI modding for the game. My intent when I started out was just to develop a few things here and there for personal use, but that has grown into a pretty substantial overhaul. This started out as a few personal-use tweaks to RadialArcana’s status icons and other .DAT mods, but I eventually got into it and expanded towards trying to fix up all of the dated vanilla UI the best that I can. I'm pretty happy with the state of the mods at this point, so I figure others might also appreciate this attempt to modernize the game a bit. While a few of the mods I’m sharing here replace the commonly-used ‘XIView’, I’m referring to the overall theme as ‘xiPrime’, and trying to offer each mod à la carte style to that people can easily change out only the things that they want. Presently, there are at least 3 different variants of XIView going around (Caradog, Kenshi, RA, maybe others…), and I didn’t want to further add onto the confusion.
Status / Ability Icons
First up are the icons for status effects and spells/JAs. This mod includes:
▪ ROM/0/12.DAT - Buff/Debuff icons that appear in the upper-left corner of the screen (JP version)
▪ ROM/119/57.DAT - Buff/Debuff icons that appear in the upper-left corner of the screen (English version)
▪ ROM/280/15.DAT - Spell/JA icons that appear in the menu
▪ ROM/324/95.DAT - More spell/JA icons that appear in the menu (lvl 96 SPs, which are stored in a separate place from other spell/JA icons)
▪ Also included are .png versions of the icons for compatibility with addons such as PartyBuffs and XivParty
▪ These icons are up-to-date as of this posting, and includes icons for the new Aria, Black Sanctus, and Animated statuses
▪ Descriptions have been edited for Corsair rolls to include lucky/unlucky numbers
More screenshots and details:
This icon pack is heavily inspired by RadialArcana's from this post.
Frankly, my entire endeavor to get into .DAT modding in this game is from RA's XIView variant release, and my desire to "tweak" a few things here and there (which then became much more). The 57.DAT file in my pack is based off of his, and includes some of the icons from his pack (most of which have been modified in some way). I also continued his trend of using FFXIV icons as a basis for JAs when modding 15.DAT and 95.DAT.
I also took inspiration (and a couple icons) from the Caradog/Kenshi releases of XIView ( Caradog, Kenshi). I also use recolored versions of the 'circle' icons (Ancient Circle, Holy Circle, etc.) from Jean Paul's set.
My goals for this icon pack were to:
▪ Keep the icons stylistically similar to the default game icons- the goal is to enhance the FFXI experience, not replace it.
▪ Make the icons vibrant and easily-discernable from each other, as soft subtle coloring makes it difficult to find a specific buff/debuff out of a list of 20+ in the middle of content.
▪ Keep the icons informative without having them too cluttered.
▪ Loosely maintain a consistent coloring convention throughout the pack (there are a few intentional exceptions such as pro/shell, marches, etc.):
Quote: Red - Fire / STR / Attack / Haste
Purple - Thunder / DEX / Accuracy / Crits
Orange/Yellow - Earth / VIT / Physical Defense
Green - Wind / AGI / Evasion / Ranged
Cyan - Ice / INT / Magic Attack / Fast Cast
Blue - Water / MND / Magic Defense In general, this guide should help give a rough idea of what kind of stat an icon is boosting if the icon isn't immediately recognizable.
Also, I took heavy inspiration from RadialArcana's COR roll icons. Although I made these myself, they follow the same convention of lucky number on the left face of the die and unlucky number on the right face. Also, I use the artifact headgear for each job to illustrate the associated job for the roll, and the coloring of the die itself loosely follows the color guide above.
Icon Installation Instructions
To install the pack, just copy the entire 'ROM' folder from the 'DAT Mods' directory in the attached .zip, and overwrite the 'ROM' folder in your Final Fantasy XI installation directory.
Alternatively, for those using the XIPivot addon for Windower/Ashita, the status icon files (ROM/0/12.DAT and ROM/119/57.DAT) are compatible with XIPivot, so you can use that instead to prevent overwriting system files. Unfortunately, the game loads the menu icons before XIPivot loads, so those .DATs must be replaced manually as per the above instructions.
For PartyBuffs, XIVParty, and other addons that use .png icons, the 'icons' directory from the attached .zip can be simply copied over the addon's directory, and replace the default icons there.
Status Icons Download: Link (Latest Update: 01-06-2024)
Menu/Nameplate Mods
The next mod that I wanted to release is a customization of the menu backgrounds, buttons, and namplates. For those familiar with XIView, this is the other half of that mod (with the first half being the status/menu icons). This following mod combined with the previous one is a replacement for XIView.
This mod includes:
▪ ROM/119/51.DAT - Nameplate font/icons, menu buttons, weather/day icons
▪ ROM/0/21.DAT - Menu background
The menu background is a recolored mod of the 'blue squares chocobo' background from RadialArcana's post.
As with the above mod, this is inspired heavily by RadialArcana's post on the AH forums. He found a way to increase the resolution of the nameplate text and icons that was previously not possible with XIView. My version uses some different icons, and has been updated to support the latest version of 51.DAT, providing support for the new Config/Gamepad option. There are couple important differences with my version, though, so please keep this in mind.
Mod Details:
▪ I use a different method for upscaling the nameplate icons, so it is not natively compatible with the alternate icon packs provided with different versions of XIView. I can provide some help for those of you who’d like to customize your own icons, but I don't plan to offer alternative variants of the mod (please keep in mind this is a personal-use mod that I’m sharing). The upside, though, is that this mod upscales ALL of the nameplate icons, instead of only the most commonly-used ones, as is the case in RA’s mod. This offers support for popular fan-favorite content such as Pankration, Beligerency, Brenner, and more…
▪ Secondly, and this change is important, there are no widescreen or condensed variants of the mod. I use a great plugin made by Velyn for Ashita/Windower to handle the widescreen stretching compensation.
▪ For context, the game was designed for a standard screen aspect ratio, and when playing in widescreen, the nameplates appear stretched horizontally. Other XIView mods have tried to compensate for this in a variety of ways by essentially ‘pre-stretching’ the images. This has worked well, and I am grateful for those efforts. Unfortunately, while pre-stretching looks ‘better’ on widescreen displays it still doesn’t display everything completely correctly (true to the source image files in the .DATs), it’s resolution-dependent (will look different on different widescreen aspect ratios), and pre-stretching and then re-stretching the images degrades the image quality (albeit minimally).
▪ On the other hand, a member of the community, Velyn, has developed a fantastic plugin for Ashita/Windower that eliminates all of the game’s nameplate stretching (as well as providing a ton of other nameplate customization features such as the ability to resize nameplates and hide/show nameplate contents including stars, icons, and text on the player, PCs, NPCs, etc.). The mod I’m posting keeps all of the image files in their standard resolution, and assumes that one is using Velyn’s nameplate plugin to compensate for the nameplate stretching.
▪ The advantages are that all icons/text display correctly regardless of screen resolution, and I only have to update/maintain a single version of the mod. The downside is that the plugin requires the user to use Ashita/Windower along with a 3rd party plugin. So, while the .DAT mod itself works fine, nameplate stretching compensation is not compatible with vanilla (for all the folks who play that way).
Another thing I should point out is that unfortunately Velyn seems to have disappeared. Their site where the plugin was hosted has been taken down, their Github is no longer active, and they’ve left some (all?) of the FFXI Discord channels. I am including their nameplate plugin in my download link. Previous releases of XIView have historically bundled supporting software such as ChangeTex, Tex Hammer, FFXI Icon Change, etc., so I hope bundling Velyn’s plugin with my mods is acceptable.
Updated versions of the nameplate plugin as well as it's source code are available here, so I will no longer include this file within my downloads: Link
More screenshots:
Menu / Nameplate Installation Instructions:
First download the Nameplate plugin: Link
To install the nameplate plugin (for Windower, I don't use Ashita personally so I assume it's installed like any other Ashita plugin), place the .dll in your Windower/plugins directory, and use the command in game. After loading the plugin, you can use the command to see a list of the customization commands.
To install the pack, just copy the entire 'ROM' folder from the attached .zip, and overwrite the 'ROM' folder in your Final Fantasy XI installation directory.
To get the window background to display properly, make sure to set
Quote: Config > Windows > Shared > Window Type > 8 from your in-game menu.
Menu / Nameplate Mod Download: Link (Latest Update: 06-10-2024)
Balloon Theme
Another matching theme I made is for the Balloon addon by Ghosty, which is designed to give classic Final Fantasy style dialogues. I think this makes the storyline cutscenes much more enjoyable to watch, but that's certainly a matter of personal preference.
Some screenshots of the theme in action:
The Balloon addon is available here from Ghosty's Github page
Balloon Theme Installation Instructions
First, install the Balloon addon from the above link. Then. download the attached .zip, and place the xiPrime folder in Balloon's themes directory. Load up the Balloon addon in game, and use the command Quote: //bl theme xiPrime to turn on this theme.
Balloon Theme Download: Link (Latest Update: 11-24-2023)
Cursors
I also made a custom cursor pack based on the ones by Sithel from this post.
Preview:
Alternative POL Cursors:
In the FFXI Modding Discord, atom0s posted a tool he made to extract the encrypted images from POL, and Vekien used that to dump all of the images including the cursors. I made some matching in-game cursors from those source images if anyone is interested.
Cursor Installation Instructions
Just copy all of the cursor files into your FFXI installation directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI) overwriting the cursor files in there.
Cursor Download: Link (Latest Update: 12-30-2023)
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