[blind player]overcoming/working with the addon manager

[valmorian1234]

Hello, I am totally blind and giving ESO a go. I understand that the game is not fully accessible in its vanilla state, and addon options for accessibility are likely to be limited. I am having an issue with the addon manager, though. It isn't accessible via narration like the menus, and neither via keyboard nor controller. I have an OCR tool in my screen reader that allows me to click on portions of text and attempt to interact with them, but it's a bit limited and can't register a checkbox in OCR form. There is no sound when I try clicking on an addon title to enable it, and I don't see any controls that are different when I go into controls. I can't see large portions of the addon manager screen, though, which is normal for OCRing most games.
Is there any way to interact with it via keyboard/controller/chat interface? Are there any files I could mod to enable/auto-enable addons? I'd like to overcome this issue both for my current attempt and any future attempts at the game The addon manager seems important and depending on how it is set by default not having access to it might be an issue I can't overcome and it'd be good to know this early on. Thank you all for any help/advice you are able to give

[Sharlikran]

Unfortunately the current download manager can't help download the modification and anything required for it to function. The mod manager also doesn't enable the mod and its dependencies automatically.

[Baertram]

Hi Valmorian,

About your OCR: I had tested another OCR, as Croshy (another visibly impaired player contacted me about addon help with accessibility features) and he was using a version that was able to detect checkboxes and read them out properly. But you somehow needed to manipulate the OCR settings to always scan some special rectangle of the screen to e.g. read out loud the chat, or some ESO windows.
Not sure about the addon manager, how exactly he handles that, but maybe he can provide you hints.
I've asked him how he does it at the addon manager.

His OCR reader was "NVDA Screen reader" (Java based): Download NVDA Screen reader
Downside: Enabling this NVDA will make Minion 3 addon manager not load properly anymore! So you cannot enable both at the same time as it seems or you need to disable NVDA in total (unload, not only minimize it) and then start Minion3 afterwards.

Within NVDA you can use a NVDA key + R (where NVDA key is a keybind that you can setup in the NVDA settings. Default NVDA is the INSERT key).
At firs installation the NVDA setup asks you which key you want to use as KVDA key (similar to the WIN key as modifier in Windows).
NVDA + R scans the screen for text (OCR) and you hear a "Recognition running" and then it reads to you "Results document" and with UP and DOWN key it will read from UP to down and lef to right the on screen texts and you can choose to enable it via ENTER (return) key then.
The problem is: There is no sound or reader feedback if the enable/disable had worked or not! We recognized that you often had to press the RETUR key more than once



Back to your ingame addon manager problem:
Unfortunately the addon manager, at the moment, is nothing that ZOs supports in accessibility mode's menu reader.
The ingame addon manager cannot use any keyboard / controller / chat things so far, it only uses mouse input to enable/disable the addons.
If you enable other addons which change the addon manager they still only provide keybindings like Disabled all/Enable all.
But enabling a single addon via keyboard is not supported there.

We got addons like "Addon Selector" which can help you to build profiles/packs and save them, so you can enable them from a dropdown UI control. But even this is mouse controlled and there is no easy "Load by keybind".
I'm currently working on "Addon Selector" and might be able to add some kind of accessibility helper there so you can get the current addon name below the mouse narrated to you.
But I did not really start with it and it might need a while to get started and finish.
-> With "Addon Selector" enabled you can at least use the chat slash command /addons to open the addon manager already!

The problem is: How do you enable this if you cannot see what you do and cannot get there to do so I recommand to have 1 friend help you here to install this addo "Addon Selector" at least so you can use the /addons slash command in chat in the future AND also click on teh whole line of the addon name, instead of only the very small checkbox controls, to enable/disable the addons.
And I'll work on a way to narrate you the addon names as you move the mouse above them.
Addon Selector also provided an addon search so you can jump directly to addons with that name/containing that portion searched string in the name.


Manipulating files outside of the game (logout first!)
But there might be help for you "outside of the game", if the game client is not loaded!
One can manipulate the file live/AddOnSettings.txt (same folder as live/AddOns where the addons are instaleld to, but 1 folder level above).
In this file you will find the Server name in front of the character name for specific characters/toons of you at that server.
Server names are e.g. NA Megaserver or EU Megaserver
And one entry #Default for "all characters".

Addon and library names are listed below these headlines with AddonNameExampleHere 1, or instead of 1 0
Where 1 means enabled and 0 means disabled.
You can logout and then manipulate this file accordinly to your needs.
Then login and choose the character you modified (or all chars if you modified the Default entry) and the addons should load that way.

Example

#Default FCOUltimateSound 0 Recharge 0 AF_SiegeAllianceFIlters 0 #NA Megaserver-Brummbär Bärenfreund FCOUltimateSound 1 #EU Megaserver-Baertram Bärenfreund FCOUltimateSound 0 Recharge 1

This means that by default (for all servers and chars)
FCOUltimateSound is OFF
Recharge is OFF
AF_SiegeAllianceFilters is OFF

But for the server NA Megaserver and the character Brummbär Bärenfreund
FCOUltimateSound is ON
All others are handled by he Default entry

And for the server EU Megaserver and the character Baertram Bärenfreund
FCOUltimateSound is OFF
Recharge is ON
All others are handled by he Default entry



But important: You need to know which dependencies the addons need to be able to run!
Each addon can depend on other addons or libraries, like LibAddonMenu-2.0 for the settings menu.
This is named in the description of the addons (or at least should be).

If you do not enable those in the AddOnSettings.txt too, your addons will not be enabled ingame, as the "depend on them"


Other accessibility / helping addons
For the ingame addon manager there exists anoher addon helping with the automatic enabling of dependencies:
Votans Addon List
But that will again only work for the addon manager as you "click" on 1 addon -> dependencies will be enabled too.
And there again is no way to make that automatically work, by changing the AddOnSettings.txt file outside of the game.



I have worked on the addon FCOAccessibility for visibily impaired playrs, together with Croshy of this forum:
Download FCO Accessibility
It might help you a bit ingame to find enemies and see if you are running against walls etc.
And the description provides links to other addons helping you while playing in accessibility mode too.


AddOn settings menu (LibAddonMenu) with accessibility screen reader support
I also created a patched version of LibAddonMenu-2.0 which will read the settings menu of addons to you.
It's beta state and not officially released but I hope it can help you too, so here is the link for it:
Download LibAddonMenu-2.0 r34 - With Accessibility narration of settings options


All the best and ask if you need more help.

[Baertram]

Originally Posted by Sharlikran Unfortunately the current download manager can't help download the modification and anything required for it to function. The mod manager also doesn't enable the mod and its dependencies automatically.

Just to clarify the answer: This relates to the addon manager "Minion" used to download and install the addons, not the ingame addon manager inside the game.

[valmorian1234]

thank you for all of this I do have your accessibility mod as someone linked it to me in the discord I also just downloaded the libPatch and the getting the addons you suggested. I was hoping my usersettings.txt was the answer but it doesn't have any addons listed in it at the moment I am going to try fiddling with it and see how it all goes if I can get some of the addons to show up in the settings as an example or even at all if not I could try writing the important ones like the addon selector and fco accessibility by hand. I wonder perhaps how hard it would be to have something write addons for you in the file in there current state what ever that is then people could just change the 0s to 1s. Anyway, thank you very much for all your hard work I can't really thank you enough this is so wonderful the work you've done.

[valmorian1234]

slight issue i was looking at my usersettings.txt and I don't see the server info or my char name in there could you paste a little more of what that part of the file looks like? I did finally find server stuff at the bottom but without any addons on already I don't know where to put them. I did try clicking on several but they are not in the file so I guess it didn't work.

[Baertram]

It's not the UserSettings.txt!

It's the same folder but the AddOnSettings.txt file!

The file will be created after first login to the game and after choosing a character and login to the ingaem world, as far as I remember.


After talking to Croshy he also created a OneDrive link with the addons and libraries he uses, for accessibility, and the libraries (dependencies) so you can download the whole addns folder and put them into your
c:\users\your windows username\
folder.

Here is the link for you guys:
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%...A8341E8780C731
The last update date is shown at the link's OneDrive folder name now, in order to see if there have been any changes to the package, or not!

Croshy will update it with the newest versions here and there, if there were any updates.


If you download this and copy the "Copy this into ..." folder contents of that folder to your c:\users\your windows username\ folder, overwriting the addons that you already got there, you will have some addons like

AddonSelector
FCO Accessibility
Potion Warner
LibAddonMenu
WaypointIt
and others

You need to login the once and go to the ingaem world, then logout!

After that you can then change the file live/AddOnSettings.txt and switch the entry for "Addon Selector" to 1 at the #Default entry.
And "Votans Addon Menu" should be enabled with 1 too so your libraries/dependencies will be automatically enabled once you click on addons.

That way you should, after next login, have the way to type
/addons
into the chat to open the addon manager with that.

And then hopefully NVDA or oher OCR tools can help you for the moment to find the addons and enable them.
And you can click the addon names then too instead of only the small checkboxs, to enable or disable them.

[valmorian1234]

thank you very much this list is absolutely wonderful I've seen some of these advertised but hadn't looked through lists yet. Eso seems to have some trouble writing to my addons file even after reentering the game I still only have
#Version 101038
#AddOnsEnabled 1
i do have it and steam running in administrator mode. my eso is saving to one drive for some reason but I saw others online saying that wasn't an issue for them could you provide examples of some of the addons and how they should look? I guess it goes at the end of the file? .
I have tried some addon clicking but either my clicking was unsucsessfull or it's not saving when everything closes.
thank you again and the other player for your help

[Baertram]

If OneDrive is enabled it can be that ESO is not liking that and your addons addon manager is empty ingame as it does not detect ANY addon installed :-(
I guess you need a seeing friend to validate that for you.
You'd have to disable OneDrive's "save my documents" to make ESO detect it properly again.


You can also take a screenshot ingame and look at the top right corner what folder is shown there, but as you cannot see it that's no way to detect the correct addons folder for you


AddOnSettings.txt
If the file is not updated it's either blocked by your Antivirus (Microsoft Defender e.g.) and you need to whitelist/allow it and eso64.exe to have access to the users/Elder Scrolls Online folder + subfolders.

If addons are found in your live/AddOns folder:
The file needs entries like this for example

#Default 
<addonFolder name> 1

Where <addonFolder name> must be the exact name of the folder in live/AddOns, for example "FCOAccesibility" or "LibAddonMenu-2.0"

The #Default entry should work for ALL of your toons/characters then.

Here is an example file with the header version, the addons enabled, and 2 example addons (2 addons, 2 libraries) enabled for all toons/characters

#Version 101038
#AcknowledgedOutOfDateAddonsVersion 101038
#AddOnsEnabled 1
#Default
AddonSelector 1
FCOAccesibility 1
LibAddonMenu-2.0 1
LibDialog 1

You can copy that and add the other addon names below.
But with these addons enabled (AddonSelector, LibDialog, LibAddonMenu) it should at least help you to open the Addon's manager via the chat command /addons

[valmorian1234]

I gave it a go when I tried '/addons,' but it says 'invalid command.' 'Help' does load the help screen, so at least I know that I was in the right place. I don't see anything new in my addon settings. I've reinstalled ESO and removed OneDrive and edited my registry so that my folders are correctly pointed and made sure it saves to my regular Documents folder. Now, my addons file looks like this:
#Version 101038
#AddOnsEnabled 1
#Default
LibDialog 1
FCOAccesibility 1
AddonSelector 1
LibAddonMenu-2.0 1
I made a screenshot of my addons menu thanks to the shortcut hotkey. Here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wfwnz4aax...65736.png?dl=0
I was going to upload it, but it's too big. I put it in Dropbox. Maybe it will help solve some of this issue. Let me know if there's anything else that might help.
Minion is harder to use. I can use NVDA to navigate the client, but I can't easily tell how much it's doing. Even looking at the log, it doesn't seem to be doing much when I go down my list of addons. It says updating, and the progress bars normally get stuck at 0%. Sometimes a few will go to 100, but generally, it doesn't do much even with auto-update enabled. I'm not sure if this affects what I'm dealing with with ESO, so I figured I'd ask.
Before I reinstalled ESO again, I added a few extra addons to the list but got a UI error. ESO did, however, change the order the addons were listed in the file, so I think it's at least reading. Now I've installed it again, and even with the settings on, I don't have any UI errors. If I have to, I'll write them all out by hand and see if it works, but that'd take quite a bit, even if I'm just copying and pasting the titles and adding a 1. So, I'd like to find a better option if one exists. I can assume that in my earlier example I missed a library, but I just started from scratch instead

[Sharlikran]

To the left of the name of the mod is a small triangle. That will expand the requirements needed for the mod. If they are white then they are active and the proper version. If they are red they are not active or an older version. I am unsure if there is an audio queue that could help with the situation.

In your screen shot all of the names of the mods are in red indicating that a dependency is not installed, not active, or the incorrect version. Without clicking the triangle for each name I would not be able to be more specific and indicate what is needed for each individual mod.

[valmorian1234]

sadly seems like the screenshot was less helpful than I'd hoped. I took another screenshot after i pasted all of the folder names in and added a 1. it probably won't work like that but it's worth a shot
Heres the screenshot does it look the same?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kkhux5ukgs...22708.png?dl=0
if it does then i'll half to try something else. Perhaps starting with a differint mod manager? are there any others that support eso I could use I'm having too many issues with minion and even though I can read most of it it's not seeming to update the progress bars just stay at 0 and the auto updator doesn't q anything.
There probably isn't currently an audio q addon for something like that but it'd face the same issues as any other addon unless it was made by the actual company probably if it ever gained enough traction maybe someone could make addons for nvda specifically but that's a hole diferint ballfield. thanks for all the help I'm looking forward to gameplay

[Sharlikran]

It's not the mod manager and it's the only one from this website. Trying to use something from the Nexus would just add another level of complexity and it won't automate the process anyway.

I feel it is more of a mod activation issue. I worked on some mod managers for Skyrim and Fallout 4 and one of the things they did was have the mod activation built in. It's not needed for ESO because you do that in game.

I saw what Baertram put for the Default and that looks correct but there is more to it from what I have observed. Once the game creates your character then you will have two sections; Default and the characters name. The game will use what is in the Default section if there isn't some kind of setup for the character already.

#Version 101038
#AddOnsEnabled 1
#Default
LibDialog 1
FCOAccesibility 1
AddonSelector 1
LibAddonMenu-2.0 1
#NA Megaserver-Valmorian
LibDialog 1
FCOAccesibility 1
AddonSelector 1
LibAddonMenu-2.0 1

The second section Valmorian, once created won't pull any information from Default. You can't edit AddOnSettings.txt while the game is running. If you close the game completely and then load the game by creating a brand new AddOnSettings.txt the game may be able to set up the character you intend to load. However, that would mean adding all the folder names again plus the numeral 1 to say it is active.

To me what I see in the screen shot is that the requirements or libraries are all inactive. Because once you have selected a character and logged into that character like you show in the screen shot, you will have a checkbox for any mod that has the requirements active. I don't see any with a checkbox. Meaning none of them have enough of the requirements active.

There are two sections. The upper section is the mod like Craft Store. The lower section is the libraries or requirements for the mods. If you don't activate the libraries then the mods can no become active.

[Sharlikran]

My example or explanation doesn't mean you need to make a separate section for the character you are loading in addition to the Default section. I'm saying once the character's section is created Default is no longer used. At least from what I have observed.

[Baertram]

From the Screenshot we can see, as Sharlikran wrote already, that all of your addons are disabled (red) because of missing "or not enabled" dependencies.

The problem here now is:
You maybe have downloaded the dependencies but they are not enabled, and you need to scroll down at that addon manager list where you can find the dependencies below the headling "Libraries" then.

Unfortunately as you cannot see this will be very hard, scrolling down, finding the dependencies and hitting the small checkbox then with your mouse...

I hoped that changes to the AddOnSettings.txt file in your live/AddOns folder would automatically enable the helping addons like Addon Selector for you.
And if we get that to work AND also enable "Votans Addon List" (which is an addon that automatically enables the needed dependencies of any addon you click, if that dependeny is installed properly) we can make it work for you in the end.

If you do not have that addon yet (not sure if it was in Croshy's link? But I hope so) please install that one via Minion BEFORE doing the below steps!


Could you please do the following:
In folder c.\users\your windows username\documents\elder scrolls online

rename the file "AddOnSettings.txt" to something else -> Backup it, e.g. add .bak at the end
Then star the game, login to character selection, select any character and login furrher into the game world.
Open the Addon Manager.

Then press RETURN key to open the chat and type /reloadui and press RETURN again
The UI will reload and hopefully the file AddOnSettings.txt will be created new.

Now logout (type /logout in chat and press return).

After that check the same folder c.\users\your windows username\documents\elder scrolls online again if there is a new
AddOnSettings.txt in it now (not the one you backuped before! An additional new one created today as you logged in or did the logout/reloadui).


After that link us your file live/AddOnSettings.txt here somehow, maybe upload somewhere and share the link.
I'll try to manipulate it then to enable all addons and libraries which the game detected in there for you,
especially "Votans Addon List".



I'm also working on the narration of the Addon Manager so at least the mouse enter on any addon name will be read to you.
But for that the addon "Addon Selector" needs to get enabled somehow, and we need to find a way to do so.

Maybe we can also help via Discord or any other screen sharing tool to do so in the future

[valmorian1234]

it did create a new one but it only says #Version 101038
#AddOnsEnabled 1
I can only assume that all of the addons in the second screenshot were read because all the libs and addons are out of date.
I did have all of the libs and addons in my folder in the list which is now marked as my old file with the number 1 after them if you'd like I could post that list as well. I did try to reinstall some via minion and it said it reinstalled but that didn't seem to change anything so I did not do them all. The updating progress doesn't move much though, and the few I poked through weren't on api38 some were even on api34 or had multiple numbers listed as the api
Discord could work i've only done that once with a race in fable it seemed to work ok so if that's something peopled be willing to do we can pm and work out time zone differences if we could find out any solution without it I could share with any one else that wants to play.

[valmorian1234]

this is my old file not the one currently in the folder listed above

[Baertram]

I've added 1 line

#AcknowledgedOutOfDateAddonsVersion 101038

Try to use this file here, see attachment:

[valmorian1234]

here is the resulting screenshot
https://www.dropbox.com/s/enbor6pbvu...40221.png?dl=0

[Sharlikran]

Have the game closed and try that file. However, if it doesn't work then don't remake it. Just log out and close the game so it updates the file. Then attach the new file the game altered to another post.