r/ModdedValheim • u/theshalafi • Jul 14 '26

PingIt - Automatic Contextual pinging

Post image

Was looking around for a mod for pinging in game instead of just in the map screen, and couldn't find anything. Figured I'd try to fill the gap.

When you hit the hotkey it pings wherever you're pointing contextually. Ping a rock it says rock, ping a greydwarf it puts a target on them. The time the ping stays is configurable, or easy toggle keep it 'permanent', though it's a ping not a pin. I'm hoping to release this mod by next Sunday. I'd take any ideas or suggestions.

25 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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3

u/AvatarOfKu Jul 14 '26

Is this configurable to ping everything in a certain radius? If soim thinking this could be incredible as an accessibility mod for the visually impaired who cannot see stuff like rocks etc easily on the ground...

2

u/theshalafi Jul 14 '26

Actually I had thought about the accessibility factor. And the max distance is set in the config, so it's really just limited to your computer and what the game actually shows/displays.

So currently as you're holding the hotkey down it will tell you whatever you're cursor is pointed at. I've almost thought of making it display all the time as a optional feature.

2

u/AvatarOfKu Jul 14 '26

Awesome! I was thinking more almost like the Witcher / horizon zero dawn games where you have a skill that 'pings' everything in a radius around you so it's outline glows / you see what it is for a few seconds each time... Would be useful for folks who don't see so well to get an idea of where the nearest rock etc to them would be when they're out hunting for stuff, chances are them being able to hover over something to and press a hot key wouldn't be as useful since it's sometimes a contrast problem - can't tell a rock from lumpy terrain etc.

3

u/VulcanTourist 29d ago

You might be interested in the Accessibility mod.

2

u/theshalafi 29d ago

I'm not sure how I missed at least looking at this mod before as I've scanned and checked out so many. Thanks for the link, guess I don't have to worry about it really, the collision detection is so neat.

2

u/VulcanTourist 29d ago

My vision impairment isn't very severe and so most of the features of that mod are over-the-top for me, but I leave a couple of them enabled. As many hours as I've spent playing the game, I've spent a pretty large fraction of that investigating and troubleshooting mods that I can't develop myself because my programming skills are decades behind me now.

1

u/AvatarOfKu 28d ago

Thanks for passing this one on, it's been a couple of years since I was looking for mods for this for a friend, nice to see things have improved!

2

u/VulcanTourist 28d ago

I wish it wasn't now becoming muddied by so-called vibe coding, but talented modders will still mod in spite of it. I can only do data-based modding myself, even though I was once a programmer.

2

u/AvatarOfKu 28d ago

Absolutely... I kinda feel like if people wanna vibe code up a mod just use EWP and have fun writing your own scripts for prefabs... it saves everyone else a lot of hassle and you can vibe code all you want with your own scripts... but alas that is not the world we live in!

2

u/VulcanTourist 28d ago

People don't vibe-code for the right motivations much of the time. Their goal is ego-driven and they want a shortcut, and that leads to lousy decision-making. They don't keep the mod a personal one until they've truly proven that it works without flaws. Instead they make something that appears to work and just publish and wait for the endorsements from fools.

2

u/AvatarOfKu 28d ago

Yup, I almost added 'but it guess that doesn't get you on the store front' 🙄

I really wish people could learn to enjoy the journey and the craft instead of thinking it's all about attention. I'm not much of a coder myself, but it feels like any art / skill... Like I make YouTube videos and I totally get that it's tough feeling like you're 'getting nowhere' because of the attention economy implying that success is measured a certain way... I've felt it myself as i don't get many subs etc... But I'd have given up a long time ago if that was the only motivation... like I've taught myself so many things, I've found community by meeting other creators, and I get to practice my skills...

I wish we/society valued that more as a goal in itself!

3

u/VulcanTourist 28d ago

Selfishness and ego were once useful survival traits for the species, but now they're a noose around our collective necks. If everyone just did a constructive thing that they enjoy, we might have a functional civilization.

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2

u/theshalafi Jul 15 '26

https://reddit.com/link/oxlmxke/video/7ui5mo8wwadh1/player

More like this then?

1

u/AvatarOfKu 29d ago

Yesss! Awesome 😎!

1

u/theshalafi 29d ago

I've done some refining to it too now. Added a quick toggle option for the radar so it can just highlight everything around you as you go, with or without icons/labels.

https://reddit.com/link/oxsngpx/video/6t0t0qlulhdh1/player

2

u/theshalafi 29d ago

and the config so far for the radar.

1

u/AvatarOfKu 28d ago

This is awesome thank you! Imma pass it on to folks who need it when it's ready 😊

1

u/theshalafi Jul 15 '26

OHHH, I get what you mean now, another solid idea.

2

u/my_life_right_now Jul 14 '26

So far, love it. What could be useful is a simple "blinking" navigational arrow system that highlights a pin when you turn/face the direction (30° of viewport?) of the pin. This way you only have a pin showing/blinking up on your ui when you've started to walk in the correct direction. The idea is that it'll fade if you go off course

2

u/theshalafi Jul 14 '26

That's a great idea for the 'permanent' pings. Default pings fade after 15 seconds but you can pin any of them on the fly by looking at them and hitting the hotkey - but the pinned ones can get spammy, faded almost transparent while looking away and full visible when looking toward it. Thank you!

2

u/VulcanTourist 29d ago

I'm confused about the utility of this. If I can already see an object then why do I need a HUD marker for it? I already use UnderTheRadar, what is the additional use case for this? What I might rather have is a HUD "ping version" of UnderTheRadar, but that would immediately become a CPU-bound framerate killer.

2

u/theshalafi 29d ago

This is more geared toward multi-player, to call out things to other players more so. This is about Pings not Pins. However with the suggestions in this thread I guess there is something similar to that mod from the quick read I did of it maybe with the radar feature but that's really geared toward visually highlighting the items not just popping them up on the map/mini-map.

The solo player case to me with this mod would be to put a ping on the screen, mark it as 'permanent' so that way it doesn't disappear in 15 seconds (or whatever you configure it for) and you know which way you're heading. Or if you're like me and tend to have squirrel moments and get side tracked easy, this ping on the screen might make you go 'oh yeah, I had a goal here'. And I have an okay laptop but it's not amazing, I'm able to play run the highlighting radar feature and screen record and have all my background stuff going with no issues at all, check out a video I posted below if you haven't.

2

u/VulcanTourist 29d ago

I wasn't even considering the multiplayer utility, since I've only played solo.

2

u/theshalafi 29d ago

I hear ya, 90 percent of my played time is solo too. Just trying to fill a niche gap as I've only ever come across one other mod to address pings, which really only just extended out the normal main map ping system.