hint

1.00

LELocal

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Description

Description:

Outputs a multi-line hint message in the left upper corner of the screen (in the right upper corner in Arma). This version of hint is supposed to play a sound when hint is shown, but this varies between games and versions. Use hintSilent for soundless hint. The effect of this command is local, i.e. the hint will only show on the computer command was executed.

Groups:

Uncategorised

Syntax

Syntax:

hint text

Parameters:

text: String or Structured Text - the message to write on the screen may consist of any characters. \n indicates a line break.

Return Value:

Nothing

Examples

Example 1:

hint "Press W to move forward. \nPress S to move backwards."

outputs the following message:

Press W to move forward.
Press S to move backwards.

Known Problems: Avoid hint messages that exceed the screen, as this may lead to crashes.

Additional Information

See also:

hintChintCadethintSilentdiag_log

Notes

Report bugs on the Feedback Tracker and/or discuss them on the Arma Discord or on the Forums.
Only post proven facts here! Add Note

Notes

ArmAtec

Hint can be used with formatting like this: hint format ["Hello %1",player ]

pyro05x

To remove the hint box from the screen, pass a null string ("") to the command. hint ""

Worldeater

hint happily accepts structured text: _starL = "<img image='\ca\ui\data\debr_star.paa' align='left'/>"; _starL = _starL + _starL + _starL; _starR = "<img image='\ca\ui\data\debr_star.paa' align='right'/>"; _starR = _starR + _starR + _starR; _title = "<t color='#ff0000' size='1.2' shadow='1' shadowColor='#000000' align='center'>TITLE</t>

"; _text = "Bla bla bla bla bla..."; hint parseText (_starL + _starR + _title + _text); (Tested with 1.14, 1.15 beta and 1.16 beta)

Bottom Section

Posted on October 20, 2014 - 19:27 (UTC)

DreadedEntity

Be careful when using hints to visualize the effects of commands using the Debug Console. Hint can accept an undefined variable and neither the error nor the hint is shown, the command simply fails. Also notice how the hint command should be "hint str _o;"
for "_i" from 0 to 50 do { hint _o; }; tested in A3 1.32.127785

In a script, an "undefined variable" error will be shown as expected.

Posted on October 21, 2014 - 23:07 (UTC)

DreadedEntity

Contrary to what's written under "Examples", Arma 3 will happily display hints that far exceed screen space.
However, as hints get longer, FPS suffers tremendously.
(tested in Debug Console, A3 1.32.127785, using:
hint str ((nearestObjects [player, ["BUILDING"], 100]) - [player]); [] spawn { sleep 5; systemChat str diag_fps;}; hint str ((nearestObjects [player, ["BUILDING"], 1000]) - [player]); [] spawn { sleep 5; systemChat str diag_fps;}; Results were: 59.7015 and 5.17297, respectively. Drawing a hint even longer than this, such as nearestObjects with a radius of 10,000 or 100,000 reduces your FPS so much Arma 3 appears to crash, though it doesn't.

Unrelated: Hints will stay on screen for 30 seconds, then fade away over the course of 5 seconds. Tested with: (A3 1.32.127785)
hint "a";[] spawn{_counter = 0;while {true} do{sleep 1;_counter = _counter + 1;systemChat str _counter;};};

Posted on February 17, 2015 - 23:14 (UTC)

DreadedEntity

An open dialog will pause the 30-second hint fade timer. (A3 1.38.128937)

Posted on March 25, 2017 - 20:47 (UTC)

Feint

The hint sound is audible only when you have the music volume turned up above 0 in the audio settings. Otherwise, it seems to act the same as hintSilent.

This is important because if you are running a hint that fires at 30 fps or more, the hint will slow down machines that have the music volume turned up but won't slow down machines that have the music volume turned off.

Best practice is to use hint for an alert to the player and use hintSilent for a makeshift display of data to the player that is updated fairly often.