Question about chat box

[Bärlauch]

Hey,
I just started playing VS a couple of days ago and I'd just like to know if I can keep the chatbox from appearing all the time? I died a couple of times because I accidentally started typing in chat when it popped up. It also doesn't seem to serve any purpose in single player, does it?

I tried to check and uncheck the button in the settings that says something about chat but it doesn't seem to help either way.

I'm trying to stay away from spoilers so I don't dare look at the Wiki. Thanks.

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums! You should be able to turn off the chat appearing whenever there's a new message by ticking the Autoshow Chat option off in the Interface tab of Settings. If it's General Chat specifically that's giving you grief, you could also try this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/nogenchat

1 hour ago, Bärlauch said:

It also doesn't seem to serve any purpose in single player, does it?

Damage and healing data goes into its own tab...I forget what it's called, but it's the one in the middle, and if you need that data you would need to be able to view that tab. Likewise, the Info tab displays all of the readouts when you're using the prospecting pick to find ore, so that's important information to have as well.

As for the General tab...that one is especially important if you are playing with lore and temporal mechanics enabled, as that is the tab that displays temporal storm warnings. If you disable that tab entirely, or otherwise keep it from appearing when there's a new message, you'll miss the warning entirely unless you have a mod like Salty's Temporal Symphony installed. Aside from that, General is also used for console commands and related information regarding the commands, so if you're needing to use commands at all you'll want access to the General tab.

Edited August 15, 2025 by LadyWYT

[Bärlauch]

12 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

As for the General tab...that one is especially important if you are playing with lore and temporal mechanics enabled, as that is the tab that displays temporal storm warnings. If you disable that tab entirely, or otherwise keep it from appearing when there's a new message, you'll miss the warning entirely unless you have a mod like Salty's Temporal Symphony installed. Aside from that, General is also used for console commands and related information regarding the commands, so if you're needing to use commands at all you'll want access to the General tab.

Thank you! I try to stay away from too much information at the moment (my time in Minecraft was before recipe books) and just see how far I get. I have no mods or watched/read any tutorials or anything and didn't even know there were these supernatural elements in the game, but I already noticed something going on with time before that just because something seemed odd.  The only thing I remember from world creation was something about ruins.

My main problem was really the chat popups during fights because they caused me to die and I had to run back all the way from spawn. It would definitely be nice to be able to disable that.
 

[7embre]

17 hours ago, Bärlauch said:

I'd just like to know if I can keep the chatbox from appearing all the time?

You can hide it by pressing Tab key when you're done with it.

May also consider binding chat to a different from "T" key — I prefer playing with chat being at "Enter".

In case you're left-handed (I don't really know what layout they prefer using), you may accidentally hit "/" key, which is aslo tied to the chat but for commands specifically

Edited August 16, 2025 by 7embre

[Bärlauch]

20 hours ago, 7embre said:

You can hide it by pressing Tab key when you're done with it.

May also consider binding chat to a different from "T" key — I prefer playing with chat being at "Enter".

In case you're left-handed (I don't really know what layout they prefer using), you may accidentally hit "/" key, which is aslo tied to the chat but for commands specifically

Hello and thanks. I do use the mouse with the left hand, yes. But I've changed the keys for some chat actions now, hopefully that was the problem. Unfortunately, I can't even tell you what they were because I don't have an English keyboard layout and things like / are often different. 
When I press Tab it removes the 'target description' though it seems? The text that shows up when you target something? I have tried that but I don't think it closed the chat box, I may have to try it again.
 

[7embre]

11 hours ago, Bärlauch said:

I do use the mouse with the left hand, yes. But I've changed the keys for some chat actions now, hopefully that was the problem. Unfortunately, I can't even tell you what they were because I don't have an English keyboard layout and things like / are often different. 

In that case, you're probably accidentally hitting the key to the left of the right shift. Try to reproduce this sudden-chat opening behaviour by pressing keys around your main control layout. It's pretty tricky to narrow down the issue for left-handed persons, having different keyboard layout above it, not gonna lie... So my best guess is that you're hitting the key responsible for opening command window (it's the same chat, but it conveniently starts your message with "/" for command input)