PC [1.3 Tutorial] How to Add, Change or Remove borders for your ingame cursor/mouse!

[MistaAnderson]

Update: There is an ingame option for this now. No need to use this thread


Thread Updated!

Hello folks!

I couldn't see another thread detailing this before, so I'm posting to you how to do this and how it will look like.

A feature was added in 1.3.0.3 (Yes, it's available now and you should have it) that allows you to add a border around your ingame mouse cursor.

This will make it easier to see your mouse pointer ingame, given the fact that otherwise, if your mouse pointer is for example green, and you move it over a green surface, you would normally have troubles seeing it. But now you can add a border around it in any color you'd like, so you can see the pointer anywhere. You can also choose the size/thickness of said border to a certain degree.

I will explain how to do it in a second, but first, here are some examples of the changes you can make:

Spoiler: Cursor Examples

Default Pink Cursor (No border):

Pink Cursor with a modestly sized black border (Hex: 55 00 00 00):

Pink Cursor with the largest black border (Hex: FF 00 00 00):

Pink Cursor with the smallest black border (Hex: 01 00 00 00):

Pink Cursor with the largest green border (Hex: FF 00 FF 00):

Link to the previewable album of these images: http://imgur.com/a/uiD5g

I'll make a simple recipe for those of you who know your way about computers, and then a more detailed guide with color-formatted text to make it easier to read.




Simple Instructions

Now then, here's how to change these settings.

• First off, go to your Documents\My Games\Terraria folder.
• Double-click the config.json file and open it with Notepad.
• Go to the very bottom of the text file, and change:

To Enable borders, change "ThickMouseEdges": false into "ThickMouseEdges": true

To Disable borders, change "ThickMouseEdges": true into "ThickMouseEdges": false

To Change border color, change the number at the end of "ThickMouseEdgesPackedColor": 4294967295 into a compatible number of your choosing.

Three important things to know:

• Your colors must be in ABGR (Alpha-Blue-green-red) format, aka AABBGGRR
• You have to convert Hex colors into Decimal using this page: http://www.binaryconvert.com/convert_unsigned_int.html
• You have to specify Alpha for the Hex colors first, 00-FF (BEFORE you convert it to decimal, obviously)

E.g if you want a green border that is medium-thick, your Hex would be 5500FF00.
I think 33 or 55 for border Alpha is okay.




Detailed Guide


Picking the color and size of the border

In order to change the color and size of the border, you will first have to understand a little bit about colors.
Colors can be represented many ways on a computer. The two relevant ways here at Hexadecimal, and Decimal. You do not have to learn these.

Standard color picker tools online often process colors in Hexadecimal format. The game, however, prefers them in Decimal format. That means we have to convert them from Hexadecimal to Decimal.



Step 1

Go to http://www.colorpicker.com/ and pick any color you'd like. You can click on the big color bar on the right to choose what type of color you want, and adjust it more by clicking in the big square to the left of it. If you wanna fine-tune your settings, you can change the values in the numerical text fields.

Finally, when you've picked a color, look at the text field above the color area (Picture below)

( http://i.imgur.com/xGChUSf.png )

That field contains the Hexadecimal (or Hex, for short) number value of your color. We call this the Hex Color you've picked. You need to copypaste this value.


Step 2

You now need to change order of the numbers a little bit. The reason for this is that your colors are in RGB format (Red-Green-Blue order), and we're gonna be using Blue-Green-Red.
In other words, they're specified in the opposite order.

Let's assume that you have C9 0E 0F (picture above) as your color from the site.
C9 is your Red, 0E is your Green and 0F is your Blue.
Notice that every color is represented with 2 digits.

Move the number pairs around, so it becomes 0F 0E C9.

Examples
C9 0E 0F => 0F 0E C9
99 FF 00 => 00 FF 99
01 02 03 => 03 02 01



* Note: You do NOT have to change the order of your "size/thickness/alpha" value later, like you did in Step 2. Don't worry about it.



Step 3

You have picked a color, but you haven't picked how visible/large your border should be. The more visible it is, the thicker and bolder it becomes. I call it "size", but it really just means that your border is very boldened and visible.
If the border is too large, it will not be very smooth. As you can see from my example pictures, the more visible the border is, the thicker it becomes.

You have to specify a size for the border to make it work.

There are 2 ways to go about this. If you don't understand Method 1, use Method 2 instead.


Method 1

1. Specify a hexadecimal number between 00 and FF - the greater the number, the larger the border gets. We call this value the Hex Alpha. You're done, go to Step 3.

Method 2

1. Specify a number between 0 and 255. The higher, the thicker border you get.
2. Go to http://www.binaryhexconverter.com/decimal-to-hex-converter and put that number into the "Decimal Value" box.
3. Click the Convert button.
4. Now copypaste the converted value from the "Hexadecimal Value" box. We call this value the Hex Alpha.

Step 4

Add the Hex Alpha from Step 2 to the start of the Hex Color you picked earlier.
(For example, if your Hex Color was 010203 and your Hex Alpha was CC, we would make the new number CC010203. We call this the Complete Hex.)


Step 5

1. Go to http://www.binaryconvert.com/convert_unsigned_int.html
2. Put your Complete Hex into the Hexadecimal box at the bottom left.
3. Click "Convert to Decimal"
4. You should now have a new number in the Decimal box at the top. Copy-paste this number, it's your Decimal Color.

Step 6

You are now ready to change the settings for Terraria. The only number you will need is the Decimal Color. This is the number the game will use to understand what color you want.
Caution: Do not mess around with the spacing and line shifts in this document. Only replace the exact text I tell you to, and let the formatting remain the same..


Now then, here's how to change the settings for Terraria.

• First off, go to your Documents\My Games\Terraria folder.
• Double-click the config.json file and open it with Notepad.
• Go to the very bottom of the text file, and change:

To Enable borders, change "ThickMouseEdges": false into "ThickMouseEdges": true

To Disable borders, change "ThickMouseEdges": true into "ThickMouseEdges": false


To Change the border color and size, change the number at the end of "ThickMouseEdgesPackedColor": 4294967295 into whatever your Decimal Color is.
(So for example, if your Decimal Color is 1157614285, change it to "ThickMouseEdgesPackedColor": 1157614285

Now save the file, and.. you're done!




Extra Notes:

Please note that if you disable borders, they will remain disabled even if you specify a color for them. The borders will only be visible at all if you have them enabled.
Color choices are irrelevant as long as you have the border disabled.

If you want to be able to see the border, you cannot specify its size as zero.

Another source of information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Terraria/comments/3bxaw2/psa_for_anyone_who_keeps_losing_the_mouse_cursor/
(Note, I cannot guarantee its accuracy, but it looks to be correct)

 

[ThatGamer]

Cool thread! Thanks for teaching

 

[MistaAnderson]

Happy to!

Please note, I might be wrong about the ARGB format, please do correct me if so. It seems to work for me perfectly so far, though.

 

[Grimmsy]

Although they look rather ugly, they're extremely useful. It's so easy to lose the cursor in most events where so much is happening on the screen at once. Thank you!

 

[Alaron]

Thanks, this makes it a lot easier to see my cursor!
I had some trouble with it though, until I realized that double clicking to highlight things also highlighted the comma at the end of the line, which I then ended up replacing.

 

[Venus ♀✦]

This is precisely what I've been looking for! Thank you very much.

I think you may be correct about being incorrect about the way to input the colour code, however. I tried to make the border a dark greenish-blue, and ended up in-game with a dark greenish-yellow instead. On the other hand, when I reversed the hexadecimal code for the colour (that is to say, changing the normal RRGGBB order to BBGGRR; in this case, 13404D to 4D4013), I ended up with a border colour which I'm pretty sure is what I was looking for.

 

[Voyager]

will try this, I want red borders...

 

[MistaAnderson]

Thread updated! Now has the right colors, as well as an extra step for beginners to convert RGB to BGR.

 

[Linktt]

Great thread, I hope they add a way to change these in game since this is a lot of messing with things I'm not always fond of messing with.

 

[Bethany]

Found similar information in another thread and did that thing. BIG improvement!

One caveat: I had to get used to clicking with the tip of the interior part of the pointer, not the tip of the (for me, bright opaque white) border. Until I got used to it I kept clicking things — rather, thinking I was clicking things — without result.

Hm. Would anyone like a small, stand-alone program that will handle all the messy stuff for you? I could write something with a color select wheel/slider and example cursor. Maybe even show the example against several representative backgrounds.

 

[Strifin]

Thank you so much for this. I do wish they implemented an easier way of doing it in game. Thank you my friend, Thank you. o/

 

[piemansauce]

I can't open it with notepad I'm on windows 8

 

[Loltak]

Thanks, I had try but feel that the border was too larger, I had not understand that it could be changed; now I know
And that explain why the "setup number" seems to me strange if there was only colors information

 

[BlazFilip]

Thank you for such a lovely and detailed guide!

 

[Rookas]

Found similar information in another thread and did that thing. BIG improvement!

One caveat: I had to get used to clicking with the tip of the interior part of the pointer, not the tip of the (for me, bright opaque white) border. Until I got used to it I kept clicking things — rather, thinking I was clicking things — without result.

Hm. Would anyone like a small, stand-alone program that will handle all the messy stuff for you? I could write something with a color select wheel/slider and example cursor. Maybe even show the example against several representative backgrounds.

I definitely would!

 

[Bethany]

Oops, forgot to link this thread to my program thread. Here 'tis:

http://forums.terraria.org/index.ph...mizer-for-pc-and-maybe-mac.23199/#post-603600

A "first draft" is available for download from my Google Drive, for now minus the ability to write the altered file. That is, you have to copy the packed decimal number from my program and paste it into config.json yourself. Maybe I'll wire up the file save logic later today.

It's missing a few other features too, and displays more info than you actually need for this chore. Next version will have Basic and Advanced tabs so you can choose full detail or a simpler UI.

Hope this helps!

 

[Phaze]

You can actually perform the Hex -> Decimal conversion from Windows using a feature of the default calculator (calc.exe).

The key combos ALT+1-4 control different modes of the calculator, with 1 being standard and 3 being "Programmer Mode". You can select "Hex" from the left side in Programmer Mode, punch in your hex number, click "Dec" and you have your converted integer ready for insertion into the configuration file - keeping in mind the ordering of the hex numbers from steps 1 & 2.

I suppose you could also use it for determining the cursor opacity too.

 

[Khaelis]

I knew how to do this myself and I was even considering making this very guide, then I found this thread. Basically says everything I would have posted.

Thanks for making the guide for other users to use, though!

Saves me some time, too, cause I don't have to make this very same guide myself

 

[Kingkiller]

So I use the mac beta version of the game and I tried to change the border to true, but every time I open my game, it reverts it back to false. Is there any way I can fix this or is it just because its in beta for mac?

 

[MistaAnderson]

So I use the mac beta version of the game and I tried to change the border to true, but every time I open my game, it reverts it back to false. Is there any way I can fix this or is it just because its in beta for mac?

That's an interesting question. I unfortunately don't know, let's hope someone else can provide insight.