Beyond all reason widget rules and late game performance issues

Widget rules and what counts as allowed

BAR has an open widget policy anchored in the code of conduct. You can write and share widgets freely as long as you post the source and follow the basic rule of being fair to other players. The official code of conduct does not list specific widget restrictions beyond requiring source posting for any widget you share.

There has been ongoing discussion about more restrictive rules for competitive play. The exact boundaries have not been finalized, so the current standard remains the general code of conduct. If a widget crosses into unfair territory, the developers step in. Keep your widget source clean and available.

Late game grid menu lag

In extreme late game matches with hundreds of units, moving and selecting causes noticeable FPS drops. Some players blame specific widgets for worsening this. In most cases the widget itself is innocent. A widget that only touches widgetHandler.configData carries negligible overhead.

The real culprit is usually the engine rendering pipeline under heavy unit load. Drawing the grid menu requires processing every visible unit position for click detection. With two or three hundred units on screen, that math stacks up. Disabling widgets does not fix this problem.

If grid menus become unusable in late game, try typing relevant commands in the console instead. Console commands bypass the rendering cost entirely.

Idle builder alerts and in-game notifications

Players looking for widgets that notify when builders go idle should check built-in functionality first. BAR has idle builder reporting in the game console. Type the command and the console lists idle builders. No widget required.

The gui_commanderhurt.lua widget shows a red vignette when the commander takes damage. This is different from idle alerts. If you want notification types beyond what the console provides, look for community-built widgets that hook into builder state and push chat messages when a builder finishes a task and waits.