UI System

Verification builds: 1.19.2

Summary: The UI system is having issues in a number of places. One problem is that it seems to no longer allow direct modification of hardcoded variables. The ignored parameter no longer accepts variables (gives an error)

Impact: UI does not display as intended.

Repro Steps:

when removing a specific text string from the actionbar message, the following no longer works (this is in hud_screen.json in a higher RP):

// not working: actionbar doesn't display, error - expected a string (working in previous version) 
"hud_actionbar_text/actionbar_message": { 
   "text": "($actionbar_text - 'broken')" 
},

Attempting to use another variable to modify $actionbar_text similarly fails:

// not working: actionbar displays, but messages including "broken" display unmodified 
"hud_actionbar_text/actionbar_message": { 
   "$text": "($actionbar_text - 'broken')", 
   "text": "$text" 
},

The following modification is now required for it to work, where a copy of the $actionbar_text variable is created:

// working: actionbar displays, and messages including "broken" have the "broken" string removed 
"hud_actionbar_text/actionbar_message": { 
   "$atext": "$actionbar_text", 
   "text": "($atext - 'broken')" 
}, 

The ignored parameter now does not support any variables. Attaching the following element to the root_panel displays the text "ignore test" on screen and gives the error: "Expected variable not found in ancestor tree: '$ignore'":

// not working: text displays on screen, expected variable $ignore not found (text should not display since $ignore is true) 
"ignore_test": { 
   "$ignore": true, 
   "type": "label", 
   "text": "ignore test", 
   "ignored": "$ignore" 
},

The visible parameter still works correctly with variables, and can be used in place of ignored currently. Though there may be a number of other issues with the UI system in this version that have not yet been found.

Observed Results:

The UI does not display using the old format.

Expected Results:

The UI displays in both manners

Screenshots/Videos attached: No