I made replacement Action Bar textures, but I need help with LUA.

[Zinival]

I made some replacement textures for the action bar. I don't know anything about LUA yet, so I have no idea how to get them in the game properly.

I read this thread, Replace Texture Throughout UI and the Writing your first addon tutorial. I tried to follow them, but I'm just not understanding it.

Here is exactly what I put in the .lua file.

CleanActionBar = {}
CleanActionBar.name = "CleanActionBar"
 
    local function Addon_Loaded(eventCode, addOnName)
        if (addOnName == "CleanActionBar") then
            RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_down.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanabilityframe_down.dds")
            RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_up.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanabilityframe_up.dds")
            RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/ability_keybindbg.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanability_keybindbg.dds")
            RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/ultimatemeter_frame64.dds.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanultimatemeter_frame64.dds.dds")
        end
    end
     
     EVENT_MANAGER:RegisterForEvent("CleanActionBar", EVENT_ADD_ON_LOADED, Addon_Loaded)

With that, the texture replacements work, but there's no way to disable the addon once it's installed. If I disable it in the addon menu the textures from my addon still show up. What am I missing to make it work properly?

I'd really appreciate some help with this. I have some nice, pretty Action Bar textures that I'd love to share. They look great with other UI mods, and as far as I'm aware there are no other Action Bar textures available yet.

Any help or explanation would be most welcome! Please help me.

[Ayantir]

Lot of texture systems are only refreshed whn game restart. So reloading UI won't help you here.

But you can add a slash command or a control panel to restore the initial values (I don't know if it will work in fact ..)


To do this, you can alter a bit your code like this : I didn't tested it because not very fan of texture redirection ..

local ADDON_NAME = "CleanActionBar"
local needToChange = true
 
local function ChangeTextures()
 
    if needToChange then
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_down.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanabilityframe_down.dds")
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_up.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanabilityframe_up.dds")
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/ability_keybindbg.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanability_keybindbg.dds")
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/ultimatemeter_frame64.dds.dds", "CleanActionBar/textures/cleanultimatemeter_frame64.dds.dds")
    else
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_down.dds", "esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_down.dds")
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_up.dds", "esoui/art/actionbar/abilityframe64_up.dds")
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/ability_keybindbg.dds", "esoui/art/actionbar/ability_keybindbg.dds")
        RedirectTexture("esoui/art/actionbar/ultimatemeter_frame64.dds.dds", "esoui/art/actionbar/ultimatemeter_frame64.dds.dds")
    end
    
    needToChange = not needToChange
    
end
 
local function OnAddonLoaded(_, addOnName)
 
    if addOnName == ADDON_NAME then
        SLASH_COMMANDS["/cleanactionbar"] = ChangeTextures
        ChangeTextures()
    end
    
end
 
EVENT_MANAGER:RegisterForEvent(ADDON_NAME, EVENT_ADD_ON_LOADED, OnAddonLoaded)

[Zinival]

Your code works! Thank you so much for your reply. I really appreciate your help and explanation.

Disabling the mod completely still requires a game restart, but that seems like it might be unavoidable? The slash command is a nice workaround for people that want to disable the textures without restarting.

I have two follow-up questions if you don't mind.

1. May I use your lua code in my addon if I give you credit for it?

2. You said you're not a fan of texture redirection. Is there an alternative way to do it? I can't figure out how to "replace" the textures instead of "redirect" them. If you could tell me how to do that I'd be very grateful.

Thanks again.

[Baertram]

Replacing them at the action bar does not make any sense as the bar will be updated after each new skill placed there, sometimes if skills are used and if you change the bars from weapon set 1 to 2 and backwards.

So a redirect might be the best option here.

For other textures where a replacement makes sense:

-Download the addon Zgoo
-Use it ingame, place mouse over a control where you want to find the texture, write

/zgoo mouse

into the chat and press return key
-> As alternative go to the keyboard key settings and specify a keybind for "Zgoo mouse" and use this keybind then ("Numpad 0" is a good one imo)
-Zgoo will open and show you the control below your mosue
The name of the current control will be written at the entry ":GetName()", e.g. ZO_PlayerInventoryMenubarButton1
-Find the texture of this control by opening the :GetChildren() function and see the controls that are children of the current control.
-Select the one named "Image" or "Texture" or simlar, where the type CT_TEXTURE is writtne behind in light blue color.

The selected texture name is the red tetx in front of the CT_TEXTURE, e.g.
ZO_PlayerInventoryMenubarButton1Image
-Press the "+" in front of it to see the controls info of that texture.
-At the function entry :GetTextureFileName() you'll see the .dds file of that texture control

Via ZO_PlayerInventoryMenubarButton1Image:SetTexture(pathToDDSFileName) you're able to set a new dds file to it.

[Zinival]

Thanks Baertram! The information you gave is very helpful.

I was struggling to figure out how to work with textures in this game, so I greatly appreciate the detailed instructions you wrote out for me.

Since you seem to think redirect is the best option for the action bar, and I got it working currrently (with Ayantir's help), then I'll probably stick with that.

Thanks very much.

[Baertram]

If you were just trying to remove the action bar borders around the skills, the addon author blakbird had written this small addon attached in the past to achieve the goal.
Hope it still works and you can look at the code.

It does not use the redirectTexture method but another approach.

[Zinival]

I actually made new border textures that I want to use, so I'm not trying to remove them.

Still, I might be able to use part of that code to do what I want to do. The comments in it are very helpful for explaining what the code does. It's so nice when people add comments to the code for noobs like me!

Thank you again. I appreciate you taking the time to help me figure this stuff out.