Custom HUD

Ready Up's in-game HUD is a Panorama layout that CS2 draws through its custom_hud_layout entity. The layouts live in the Auto Tournament HUD Workshop addon. Every Ready Up server mounts it, so players download it when they join.

The hud plugin (hud.so) owns the entity and publishes the readyup.hud.v1 interface. Your plugin uses that interface. There are two ways to put something of your own on screen:

Start with screens. They cover cards, prompts, menus and buttons, and every look ships in the addon already, so there is nothing to publish.

Get the interface

#include "readyup/hud_iface.h"

const ru_hud_v1* hud = api->get_interface(api->self, RU_HUD_IFACE_NAME, RU_HUD_IFACE_VERSION);
if (hud && hud->available()) {
  /* draw */
}

Look it up again in every callback: hud.so can reload. Members were added in minor versions (screen in 1.1, menu and register_menu in 1.2, set_capture in 1.3), so check struct_size before you use one. The API reference has the rules every interface follows.

Screens on the Auto Tournament HUD

screen(slot, spec, on_click, user) shows a whole screen to one player (slot 0-63). The spec is key=value lines separated by newlines:

static void OnClick(void* user, int slot, const char* command) {
  /* command is the button's command, e.g. ".sponsor" */
}

hud->screen(slot,
            "id=sponsor\n"
            "where=card\n"
            "kind=Tonight's sponsor\n"
            "title=Example Energy\n"
            "sub=Free drinks at the bar\n"
            "btn=Got it|green||.sponsor\n"
            "mouse=b",
            OnClick, NULL);

Call it as often as you like. The same spec costs nothing, the same id updates in place (good for countdowns), a new id plays the leave and enter animations, and "" hides the screen. A click calls on_click on the game thread with that button's command.

Try it without code

On a server, as an admin:

• .dev in chat lists every built-in screen to click through.
• .ru hudkit tour steps through them; .ru hudkit demo <screen> shows one.
• ru hudkit screen <slot> <spec> shows your own spec, with ; between lines:

ru hudkit screen 0 id=test;where=card;title=Hello;sub=From the console;btn=OK|green||.r;mouse=on

Spec keys

Unknown keys are ignored.

Utility classes

Every look the HUD can have ships in the addon once, so a new combination needs no publish.

• On the panel (cls=): motion speed-fast speed-slow delay-1..3 flash flash-twice no-flash; glass glass-1..3; surface bg-soft bg-solid bg-clear edge round-s round-l no-line no-brand no-wash no-px; size w-280 w-340 w-420 w-520 w-640 w-760 w-fit pad-s pad-l; place at-right at-low at-center at-top at-left.
• On one part (cls.title=, parts brand kind title sub hint timer counter teams confirm lines cmds buttons close flow b0..b7): text text-xs … text-2xl bold normal upper mono left center right; colour tc-ink tc-dim tc-faint tc-acc tc-live tc-warn tc-ban tc-ct tc-t; breathe blink hide; buttons pulse glow btn-s btn-l.

Example: enter=drop;exit=rise;cls=at-top edge glass-3;cls.title=text-2xl tc-live.

Menus

menu(slot, owner, spec, on_click, user) draws a menu over whatever screen shows. The latest menu wins, and the screen comes back when the last menu closes. owner is your plugin's short name; "" closes your menu, and slot RU_HUD_ALL with "" closes it for everyone (do that on unload).

To appear under .menu, register with register_menu(owner, priority, active, open, user). .menu asks providers from the highest priority down whether their menu fits the player right now, and opens the first that says yes. In use: match 0, mapvote 10, movement 20, practice 30. Pass NULL callbacks on unload.

screen and menu manage the cursor themselves: they take it for mouse=on (or while the buy menu is open for mouse=b) and give it back on a click, a new id, "" or a disconnect.

Your own layout

When the built-in screens aren't enough, for example a full scoreboard or a sponsor overlay with your own art, ship a layout of your own.

1. Write the layout (.xml) and styles (.css) and build them into a CS2 Workshop addon with Counter-Strike 2 Workshop Tools. The HUD addon's README shows the build and publish steps we use for ours.
2. Publish it as Unlisted or Public. Servers can't download private or friends-only items.
3. Add its ID to workshop_addons in cfg/ReadyUp/addons.cfg so the server mounts it and players download it (Workshop addons).
4. From your plugin, open it by its source path and set texts and classes:

int h = hud->open("panorama/layout/custom_game/my_board.xml");
if (h > 0) {
  hud->set_text(h, RU_HUD_ALL, "board_title", "text", "Grand final");
  hud->set_class(h, slot, "board", "hidden", 0);
}

hud.so keeps what you set and pushes it again when it has to recreate the entity or a player takes a slot, so just say what each player should see.

Rules for layouts

CS2 is strict, and most mistakes render nothing and log nothing:

• Use the source path with its extension, panorama/layout/custom_game/<name>.xml. Not the bare name and not the compiled .vxml_c.
• Only Panel, Label, Image and Button. Any other panel type and the client refuses the whole layout.
• No id on the root panel. Put ids on children.
• hittest="false" on anything that shouldn't take the mouse.
• No inline style="", and quote @keyframes names (@keyframes 'fade').
• Width and height can't animate. Animate opacity, position (transform) and colours with transition triggered by a class; @keyframes only work for opacity.
• Images are CSS backgrounds (background-image: url("s2r://…vtex")), not <Image> with scaling. Your own .vtex files must be BGRA8888.
• Panorama caches layouts for the whole game session. Restart CS2 after a change, and republish the addon before players see it.

The Workshop takes a while to process an update before servers can download it. If steamcmd +login anonymous +workshop_download_item 730 <id> +quit says "Access Denied", Steam isn't done yet.