notum|dovvetech GUI

Notum Dovvetech is probably the oldest still actively maintained custom GUI in the history of Anarchy Online.

Its first incarnation was the Dovvetech GUI line, created by Kitao (RK3), with the last released version being 2.1 some time before 2005. Based on the Dovvetech 2.1, Misat0 (RK3) created the Notum Dovvetech variant and released v4.0 in late 2005. In the next 3.5 years Notum Dovvetech had become "the" custom GUI thanks to its efficient design and Misat0's effort to keep it up to date at all times. However, in the summer of 2009 Misat0 has apparently retired from AO while the last "official" release (4.18.1a) still had some compatibility issues.

That's when I've decided to take a closer look at GUI modding, at first only to provide a fix until the "official" update arrives so that the numerous fans of Misat0's excellent work wouldn't have to switch back to the default GUI. But then I started tweaking and modifying it, adding new features and addressing issues of various significance and kind, and Notum Dovvetech started to shape up into the v4.3 line. Out of convenience, I started to call it "ndGUI", but in spite of all the changes, at its heart it has always remained Misat0's Notum Dovvetech GUI.

In November 2009 Misat0 has made a brief appearance on the AO forums, but did not express any plans regarding the GUI nor interest in coming back to AO. So I continued work on ndGUI and to provide compatibility updates, and by the end of 2010 it reached a state which I'm inclined to consider as pretty much "finished", with no significant changes on the horizon... Unless inspiration strikes me, or you suggest some new things.

In January 2013, after already having been active on the forums for some time, Misat0 has contacted me with a new theme for ndGUI, the "notum|darktech mini HUD". At this point it's yet to be seen if there will be more to come from the original creator of Notum Dovvetech...

In May 2018, the separate AO forums have been merged into the Funcom Forums site covering all of their games. While the content of the old forums was not brought over, they are still accessible as a read only version. For reference, the old v4.3 ndGUI thread can be found here.

If you have questions, comments or requests regarding ndGUI, visit the Notum Dovvetech GUI 4.34 thread on the Funcom, Forum forum.

Features

• Clear visual style and space efficient overall design with adjusted text colour scheme
• Seven visual Themes: dovvetech, dovvetech dark, dovvetech edge, darktech, darktech mini, darktech mini HUD, darktech glass
• Super slim menubar with top/bottom and left/right positioning, floating menu, fading and main menu auto-hide mode
• SoftMenu feature offering additional buttons on the menubar with selectable functionality
• Quick Options menu providing direct access to: Lock Wear/Shortcutbar/RaidBar, Enable/Disable Inspect/Auto-AFK/Social, Show All Names
• Menus extended with functions for: PvP and Leet Pet Duel, pet control, quick visual detail and performance settings, assist macro creation
• Compact Raid Window and smaller RaidBars (optional)
• Static shortcutbar hotkey numbering and horizontal and vertical shortcutbar togglers for easier shortuctbar management

News 'n Stuff

No ndGUI update was necessary for game update 18.8.32.

No ndGUI update was necessary for game updates 18.8.30 and 18.8.31.

No ndGUI update was necessary for game update 18.8.29.

Changelog

• Compatibility update for game version 18.8.18
• Core files changed and need to be updated
• Patch package available, no customization affected

Download

Installation

Note: If you are using the new (Dx9) engine, you need to download and install the New Engine Patch after you have installed the regular Core and Theme packages.

1. Completely exit the game
2. Download both the Core Package and a Theme Package of your choice from the Download section
3. Start the AO launcher, click "Settings", then select the "GUI" tab in the Settings window
4. Type "ndGUI" (case sensitive and without the quotes) in the text field of the "Skin" frame at the top
5. Click the "Open" button next to the "Skins" line in the "Folders" frame to open the custom GUI folder, then click "OK" in the AO Settings window
6. Copy the "ndGUI" folder from both the Core and Theme package into the custom GUI folder you've just opened
7. To customize ndGUI, open the "ndGUI" folder now present in the custom GUI folder, run the Config Tool (ndGUI_Config_Tool.cmd) and make your changes

When logging in the first time with a specific character, you should open Options (F10), switch to the "Preferences" tab and verify the options in "ndGUI/Settings", and you can also configure the SoftMenu in "ndGUI/SoftMenu".

Customization

These customization options, with the exception of the fading settings, are global, affecting each character. There is no way to use per character customization.

1. Completely exit the game
2. Start the AO launcher, click "Settings", then select the "GUI" tab in the Settings window
3. Click the "Open" button next to the "Skins" line in the "Folders" frame to open the custom GUI folder, then click "Cancel" in the AO Settings window
4. Open the "ndGUI" folder in the custom GUI folder you've just opened, run the Config Tool (ndGUI_Config_Tool.cmd) and make your changes

• Control Center Layout (preview menubar / floating menu): Choose from 7 alternative Control Center layouts provided in the Core Package.
  Switching between layouts reverts Control Center based customization (eg. number bar positioning) to default so you need to (save and) reapply them.
• Raid Window Layout (preview): Switch between the standard and a compact layout.
  If you encounter size issues with the Raid Window after switching, use the "Reset / Fix Raid Window" function in Options/Preferences/ndGUI/Settings.
• RaidBar Size (preview): Switch between standard sized and smaller RaidBars.
  If you encounter size issues with the RaidBars after switching, use the "Reset / Fix RaidBars" function in Options/Preferences/ndGUI/Settings.
• Nano Icon Borders: Enable or disable the coloured borders around the nanoprogram icons.
  Switching between Themes reverts the borders to visible, so you need to turn them off again.
• Info Window Font Size: Switch between Medium (ndGUI default) or Large (game default) font size for the info window. The Medium sized font may be hard to read on higher display resolutions, so this gives you the option to easily switch to something more suitable.
• Text Colour Scheme: Switch between the Notum (current version, default), Classic Notum (v4.33 and before) or Game Default colour schemes for most places where text is displayed, eg. the info window, chat windows and certain tooltips.

With the Control Center builder, you can create your own Control Center layout.

Open the Options window (F10), switch to the "Preferences" tab, expand the "GUI" category and select "Control Center", then to turn fading...

• Off, set both the "Control center low fade" and "Control center high fade" sliders to 100%
• On, set "Control center low fade" to a low value and "Control center high fade" to a much higher value than "low fade"

Open the number bar aligner tool and follow the instructions there.

Switching between Themes

1. Completely exit the game
2. Choose and download a different Theme Package from the Download section
3. Start the AO launcher, click "Settings", then select the "GUI" tab in the Settings window
4. Click the "Open" button next to the "Skins" line in the "Folders" frame to open the custom GUI folder, then click "Cancel" in the AO Settings window
5. Copy the "ndGUI" folder from the new Theme package into the custom GUI folder you've just opened, allowing overwriting

Updating / Patching

After every game update, you need to check if ndGUI had to be updated to remain compatible. Using an outdated version can result in issues ranging from not being able to access certain game functions to causing the game to crash on startup or at a later stage.

If the News and / or the Changelog section indicates an ndGUI update, you either need to follow any special instructions there, or if there are no special instructions, perform the update by following the instructions below.

When using the new game engine, you first need to update ndGUI with the regular update package, then apply the new engine patch to update / restore the files required for the new engine version of the client.

1. Completely exit the game
2. Start the AO launcher, click "Settings", then select the "GUI" tab in the Settings window
3. Click the "Open" button next to the "Skins" line in the "Folders" frame to open the custom GUI folder, then click "Cancel" in the AO Settings window
4. Open the "ndGUI" folder in the custom GUI folder and start the Config Tool (ndGUI_Config_Tool.cmd) to see the version of the currently installed Core and Theme files
5. Go one step back/up from the "ndGUI" folder so that the file window now shows the custom GUI folder again, with the "ndGUI" folder in it and keep this window open for now
6. Compare the versions displayed by the Config Tool with the versions shown at the top of the page in the Version Info box to see which components need to be updated, then...

1. Download the up to date version of the Theme you are currently using
2. Copy the "ndGUI" folder from the updated Theme package into the custom GUI folder, allowing overwriting
3. If you had the nanoicon borders disabled, they will revert to enabled state; you have to disable them again with the Config Tool

1. • If there is a Patch package, compare the first part of its version number with the version of your currently installed Core files. If they match, it's better to download and use the Patch package.
   • If there is no Patch package, or it's not suitable for your currently installed Core package, download and use the complete Core package
2. Quit the Config Tool if it's still running
3. Copy the "ndGUI" folder from the Patch or updated Core package into the custom GUI folder, allowing overwriting
4. If you used the Core package for updating, you will have to restore any customisation you had

Uninstalling ndGUI

If you have used the compact Raid Window or small RaidBars options, you have to reset these elements to their default states on each of your characters before uninstalling ndGUI, by logging in with each of them and using the "Reset / Fix Raid Window" and "Reset / Fix RaidBars" functions in Options/Preferences/ndGUI/Settings.

1. Completely exit the game
2. Start the AO launcher, click "Settings", then select the "GUI" tab in the Settings window
3. Click the "Default" button next to the text field of the "Skin" frame at the top
4. Click the "Open" button next to the "Skins" line in the "Folders" frame to open the custom GUI folder, then click "OK" in the AO Settings window
5. Delete the "ndGUI" folder from the custom GUI folder you've just opened

• When logging in the first time with a specific character after having uninstalled ndGUI, you should open Options (F10), switch to the "Preferences" tab and verify the options in "GUI/Control Center"
• If you forgot to reset the Raid Window or RaidBars before uninstalling, you can fix the resulting problems by issuing the following chat commands on each affected character: /setoption RaidConfig false (reset Raid Window), /setoption RaidBarConfig false (reset RaidBars)