Chat appearance default off¶
Chat background opacity, text shadow and optional timestamps on received lines. Messages you send are never read or changed.
- Identifier
chat- Default
- Off
- HUD element
- No
- Sends anything
- No
What it does¶
Three independent changes to how chat looks on your screen.
Background opacity. Vanilla draws a dark rectangle behind every chat line. The module scales that rectangle's transparency: 100% is vanilla, 0% removes it. The fade-out of old lines still works, because the module scales whatever transparency vanilla asked for.
Text shadow. With the setting off, chat text is drawn without the vanilla drop shadow.
Timestamps. With the setting on, each newly received chat line is prefixed with your computer's local time in grey, for example [14:05] or [14:05:09]. The prefix is added once, when the message arrives, so lines that were already in chat keep the form they arrived in. On 1.8.9 the action bar (the text above the hotbar) is excluded.
Settings¶
| Setting | Identifier | Type | Range or options | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Background opacity | background-opacity |
Whole number | 0% to 100% | 100% | 100% is the vanilla chat background; 0% removes it. |
| Text shadow | text-shadow |
On or off | On | Draw chat text with the vanilla drop shadow. | |
| Timestamps | timestamps |
On or off | Off | Prefix new chat lines with your local time. | |
| Timestamp format | timestamp-format |
Choice | HH:mm · HH:mm:ss | HH:mm | How the time is written. |
With every setting at its default, switching the module on changes nothing visible. The time is always written in 24-hour form. The module has no HUD element and does not appear in the HUD editor.
What it reads¶
Received chat messages, through Forge's chat-received event, and the two draw calls inside the chat's draw method.
What it writes¶
The transparency of the chat line background, the shadow flag of the chat text draw, and an optional local-time prefix on received lines. All of it is local to your screen.
Outgoing chat is never touched¶
There is no hook on the send path anywhere in Xol. Messages and commands you type are not read, changed, delayed or logged by the client. A timestamp is never added to anything you send, and nobody else sees your timestamps.
The draw-side change is one of the client's two mixins. Both of its redirects pass straight through while the module is off, so with Chat appearance off the chat is drawn exactly as vanilla draws it.
Multiplayer¶
Display only. Changes how received chat is drawn on your screen and can prefix it with your local time. Messages you send are not touched, and nothing extra is sent.
See the module review table for every module side by side.