This version came bigger than expected.

It was initially intended to introduce a single new feature: applying user color preferences on the menu backgrounds. The change would require to remove the greenish color cast from the backgrounds, and to apply color via UI-xml code. The latter would require some hacks such as overdriven brightness on semi-transparent textures, but it’s something I’ve been used to doing with this mod long ago.

Then I received a report from LOC, the major designer of icon HD enhancements for New Vegas, about the map markers on the Pip-Boy. Like most vanilla graphics, they don’t scale well with higher resolution textures. Fixing the problem I realized there are game settings that affect the min/max zoom of the Pip-Boy maps. I’d like to use these settings myself, so I decided to work on the scaling of the map markers and the map reticle to avoid tiny or huge sizes in non-default zooming.

For the map markers in particular, I’ve always considered their size, especially on max zoom too high. I think the most common reason for zooming is to point to a specific marker in areas that are too crowded with markers. However when you zoom in and the markers also zoom too much, it kind of defeats the purpose of zooming. So I’ve used a different scaling formula and reduce the marker size (slightly in min zoom, more in max zoom) to make it easier to point at them.

Finally, and before I managed to upload the mod due to a technical issue in ModDB, I got in a discussion with RoyBatty at the Tale of Two Wastelands discord chat. Texture preloading, used by VUI+ to improve menu loading speed, is causing stuttering and lags in Roy’s game. I cannot reproduce the problem myself and I didn’t want to remove this feature either, but since I respect Roy I decided to do something about it. So I relocated texture preloading to the Pip-Boy Stats and it still works fine with all menus, but no longer affects the HUD. Besides the potential of fixing this stuttering problem, I like this edit myself too because I prefer to limit my HUD edits to the minimum.

All in all I consider version 8.47 to be a nice improvement. Let’s have fun playing the game now.

-- Axonis

PS. By the way, this version got uploaded exactly 3 years after I moved it to ModDB. This was totally by coincidence since I planned to release it a day earlier and got delayed due to that technical issue I mentioned earlier. So, happy anniversary, and thanks ModDB :)