Tutorial 2: Hello, Screen

Built on MrxTutorialManager.ShowMessage, already confirmed working by live testing elsewhere on this wiki (see Snippets) — this page slows down to introduce it as a deliberate first step instead of a grab-bag entry.

Tutorial 1 got a line of text into a log file only you ever look at. This time, the message shows up in the game itself — the same way the game’s own “you’re low on fuel” or “you’re swimming” hints do, because it’s reusing that exact same system.

The code

Create scripts/OnKey/hello_screen.lua:

local KEYVAL = "insert"  -- must be in the first 10 lines

import("MrxTutorialManager")
MrxTutorialManager.ShowMessage("Hello from my mod!")

Load into a level and press Insert. Your text appears on-screen in the same popup widget the game’s built-in tutorial hints use, complete with its usual notification sound and a generic book icon:

[Image placeholder — ../img/helloscreenmessage.png] Screenshot of the in-game tutorial-hint popup showing the custom text “Hello from my mod!” with the default book icon, wherever the player character happens to be standing.

Clearing it

Unlike the log file, this message doesn’t disappear on its own — there’s no auto-hide timer. Create a second script, scripts/OnKey/hello_screen_hide.lua, bound to a different key:

local KEYVAL = "delete"  -- deliberately different from hello_screen.lua's "insert"

import("MrxTutorialManager")
MrxTutorialManager.HideMessage()

Press Insert, confirm the message appears, then press Delete and confirm it goes away.

What’s actually happening

import("MrxTutorialManager") pulls in a resident module — you’ll see exactly why that line is needed, and what breaks without it, in Tutorial 5. ShowMessage(sMessage) and HideMessage() are two of that module’s functions: one displays a message in the standard tutorial-hint widget, the other clears whatever’s currently showing in it. Nothing about the widget is actually specific to “tutorials” — it’s a generic on-screen message box that the game’s own tutorial system happens to be the first thing to use.

Try it yourself

• Show two different messages back to back (press Insert, edit the text in the file, save, press Insert again) — does the second message replace the first, or stack on top of it?
• Both functions take extra, optional arguments — ShowMessage(sMessage, bDontNetSync, sIdentifierName) and HideMessage(bDontNetSync, sIdentifierName). Try giving your message an identifier tag (a third argument, a string like "mytest"), then call HideMessage() with no arguments at all — does it still clear? Compare your result against the confirmed answer in Snippets.
• Delete the import("MrxTutorialManager") line and press Insert again. Open your log file (you know how, from Tutorial 1) and read the error. Keep that error in mind — Tutorial 5 is entirely about it.

Where this comes from

• Snippets: Show a custom HUD message — the full confirmed writeup, including the identifier-tag behavior and a note on why you can’t pick a different icon.
• Glossary: import("Name")

Next: Tutorial 3: Reading Before Writing — every tutorial so far has told the game to do something. Time to ask it a question instead.