FFXI Chat Window.
 

The FFXI chat window is really neat. It resizes its self quickly when chat is not being entered or received. So at some times the chat window is not even visible :) . Is it at all possible to make a chat window such as this?

(I do know of the option to make window invisible until chat is entered, but I don't like that you have to see all previous chat in the window.)

I should be able to make this, yes. Can you be more specific as to what it does? I've never played FFXI.

The chat lines disappear after a time, based on when they came into your chat window, so when nobody chats for a while the oldest line goes, then the next, etc., until finally there is no chat to show. DAoC has an option for this, as does AO. I gather FFXI is similar.

So basically, if a chat line is still visible after say... 30 seconds, it disappears. Also, it sounds like FFXI might have dynamic chat window sizing so it shrinks and expands vertically as the chat comes on and fades off.

I think that's what Trojake meant :)

I think that sounds like a great idea:)

If you just don't want it visible, set your chat window completely transparent but with some mouseover transparency - it will fade into view when new text comes in, then fade out again a few seconds later.

My roommate does it and it gives him a lot more viewable room on the screen :)

Unfortunately, we don't have control over individual display lines in the chat window. The game supports setting the window's opacity to a low amount or invisible, then showing up when new chat lines appear (Window opacity and mouseover opacity), but we can't extend that capability.

This would have to be something SOE would add.