Changing default appearance of Manual menu during scene changes/dialogue

heyitsjayy

Hello AC community!

First, using AC 1.73.8, and Unity 2021.1.7f1, and all menus are made in Unity UI.

In my game, there's an Inventory open button menu in the top-left corner set to "During Gameplay". The "During Gameplay" option works great -- as it's a menu open icon that never changes.

Also, there's a "map" open menu in the top-right corner, which is set to "Manual". Clicking the icon opens a map menu which "changes" a few times during the course of the game. "Manual" is good since it needs more control on when it changes.

For example, a mobile phone icon shows a map on a mobile phone in some parts. Then in some places if the mobile phone doesn't get service, a paper map is needed. So a paper / physical map icon sometimes shows in that same top-right corner.

Here's a screenshot showing the two menus in the top corners:
https://imgur.com/a/nYIfCKP

It appears the default behavior for any menus set to "Manual" is to become "greyed out" (slightly transparent) when switching between scenes, and during dialogue.

Question: Is there a way to change that default behavior so that "Manual" menus can turn off visibility completely/right away as a scene changes, then turn the visibility completely back on after a new scene opens, for example? (like what happens to menus set to "During Gameplay")

Mainly wondering since it looks a bit inconsistent to have the Inventory icon in the top-left be completely transparent, and have the Map icon in the top-right semi-transparent during these occasions. Example screenshot:
https://imgur.com/a/g6t0UMS

Understandably, I know that the Map menu can manually be turned Off / On before and after every scene changes, etc. by using the Menu: Change state Action, as menus with a "Manual" appear type are controlled via Actions.

Just wondering if there's something that would handle that more universally across the game, as I'd like to avoid having to use "Menu: Change state" for every scene transition. Also the Map menu would still appear semi-transparent during dialogue.

Been working with ideas on how to solve this for a while. And haven't come across any other related threads here yet.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

ChrisIceBox

It's not the menu itself that's turning transparent, it's the Button itself - caused by Button component's default "Disabled" colour. If you want it to be fully invisible when not clickable, reduce this colour's alpha channel to zero.

Do also know that it's still possible to control when a "During Gameplay" menu is displayed by locking it. If a Menu is locked, it will not turn on even when its "Appear type" condition is met. Another approach would be to have this menu set to show during gameplay, and then lock/unlock it when you wish for it to be shown in a more general sense (i.e. when the phone service is unavailable).