MAX Screenspace - Dynamic Hotbar

UPDATE: hotbar now only auto-hides when editing is locked (hotbar lock icon on the right side of the bar). When unlocked for editing, it stays on the screen.

Makes the hotbar truly dynamic by collapsing it when it's not focused, so you can use the full screenspace to navigate and click.

For the hotbar to reappear, move your mouse to the very bottom of the screen. Also re-appears automatically in turn-based mode.

For the sake of easy management of your spells and items, the hotbar only becomes dynamic when it's locked. When it's unlocked, it won't disappear.

Larian made a fantastic game here with Baldur's Gate 3. However, from my point of view, because nothing is perfect, the UI could be designed better. When you are capable of doing an immersive game with good visuals, you must also ensure you can provide very good screen space usage for your players to be able to navigate and interact with the world freely and have a full view of the surroundings when exploring.

We will take time to look at the other HUD and UI elements to try and apply the same design logic to them.

There are 3 pak versions of the mod:

10 pixels - recommended if you're not using edge scrolling, so you will have maximum screenspace and the hotbar will only appear when you move the mouse to the very bottom;

50 pixels - in between variant;

100 pixels - feels best for those who use edge scrolling.

There's also a loose files version available.

To install:

PAK version: unpack your preferred version and drag DynamicHotbar.pak into "C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods".

Loose files version: unpack and drag the Mods folder into your "\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data" folder.

Don't mix pak and loose files versions!

Remember: the hotbar only becomes dynamic when it's locked. When it's unlocked, it won't disappear.

Compatibility:

The mod is not compatible with anything that changes HotBar.xaml.

And finally, because I've got an opportunity to express myself here, as a designer, programmer, but mostly a player, I highly suggest to anyone who didn't do that already to consider another quite a good game in the same universe: Solasta. It's not AAA, so visuals are a bit worse (but still quite impressive for a tiny team), however the combat system and vertica