Inline Images

VellumFE can float real images into text, with the text wrapping around them. Images are display-only and driven by Lich scripts through XML tags the game itself never sends.

Installing art

Drop image files into:

~/.vellum-fe/global/images/inline/

The filename (without extension) is the name you reference. sunset.png becomes src='sunset'.

Names may contain letters, digits, _, +, and - only, and are case-insensitive. Restart or run .reload to pick up new files.

Sizing tip: the art is drawn a few text rows tall, so a 512×512 export looks identical to a 4000×4000 one and loads far faster.

The tag

<vellumImg src='sunset' rows='4' align='left'/>

rows is a request, not a guarantee, and the two window kinds size the picture differently — on purpose:

• Text windows (story, thoughts, custom, tabs): the picture follows the height of the text that wraps it. One short line beside it gives a small picture; a paragraph grows it toward rows. A standalone image with no text after it renders at exactly rows. Press-and-hold always shows the art at full size, so a small float loses nothing.
• The room window: the picture renders at rows, shrinking only with the window itself (its height, and a cap of about half its width).

In both, aspect ratio is always preserved, the ceiling is 8 rows, and a window too narrow to wrap beside at all puts the image on its own rows with the text below.

Putting an image in the room window

GemStone declares a sprite component on every room change and never puts anything in it — the official client shows no room-window images at all. VellumFE uses that unused slot for room art:

_respond "<compDef id='sprite'><vellumImg src='sunset' rows='4' align='left'/></compDef>"

<component id='sprite'>…</component> works too.

Art plus the room description

To float art beside real room prose, put the image at the front of the description component:

_respond <<~'XML'.strip
  <clearStream id='room'/><pushStream id='room'/><compDef id='room desc'><vellumImg src='sunset' rows='4' align='left'/>Blue and red arrows painted upon the smooth planks of the dock point to the northeast, while a solid green arrow points to the southeast.  A pair of sturdy steps leads down to a finger pier with five docking slips.</compDef><compDef id='room exits'>Obvious paths: <d>northeast</d>, <d>southeast</d>, <d>west</d></compDef><popStream id='room'/>
XML

The description wraps beside the image and rejoins the full width once it clears the image’s bottom edge.

Ruby quoting: room XML is full of both ' and ", and room names contain apostrophes (“Kraken’s Fall”). A single-quoted heredoc (<<~'XML') passes everything through literally with no escaping and no interpolation — far less painful than a quoted string.

Art clears when you move

The game re-declares sprite (empty) on every room change, so script art disappears when you walk. That is usually what you want — set it from a script that reacts to the room you are in.

Room art without a script

Instead of sending a tag every time, you can map art to rooms once and have it appear whenever you walk in.

Stand in the room and run:

.roomimages set sunset

That maps the room you are standing in — you never type a room number. Then turn the feature on:

.roomimages on

The editor

.roomimages edit, or Editors → Room Images in the GUI. One card per image, since a single picture usually covers many rooms:

[thumb]  krakens_fall_pier          Rows [4]  Align [Left]
         7118245  Kraken's Fall, Third Pier          ✕
         7118250  Kraken's Fall, Second Pier         ✕
         [+ Add current room]

Rows and Align are per image, so every room sharing a picture is framed the same way. + Add current room is the quickest way to build a mapping: walk around and click it in each room you want covered.

Where the mappings live

~/.vellum-fe/global/room_images.toml, with an optional per-character file at ~/.vellum-fe/profiles/<character>/room_images.toml:

[[image]]
name = "krakens_fall_pier"
rooms = [7118245, 7118250, 7118251]
rows = 6
align = "left"

Rooms are keyed by the game’s own room id. A room can belong to only one image — mapping it somewhere else moves it rather than leaving a duplicate.

Different art by time of day

Add variants to show a night version of the same view:

[[image]]
name = "krakens_fall_pier"
rooms = [7118245, 7118250]

  [[image.variant]]
  name = "krakens_fall_pier_night"
  when = { type = "time_of_day", phase = "night" }

The first variant whose condition matches wins; none matching falls back to the entry’s own name.

In the editor, each image card has an + Add variant button and a row per variant — pick the phase and the art from dropdowns. Conditions more complex than time of day are shown read-only there and edited in the file.

Elanthian time runs on US Eastern, so VellumFE computes the phase from your system clock — no time command, no waiting for the game to tell it, and it is correct the moment you log in. The four phases are dawn, day, dusk, and night.

Sunrise and sunset in Elanthia follow Central more closely than Eastern, so the phase boundaries are approximate by design rather than a claim of exactness.

Variants use the same condition system as hotbar button states and injury doll art, so they are not limited to time — a variant can key off effects, injuries, vitals, or any combination. Time of day is also now available to hotbars and the doll for the same reason.

Script art still wins: if a script sends a sprite for the room you are in, that is what shows.

GemStone’s own room pictures

The game sends <resource picture='N'/> on every room change — the official client uses it to show a picture beside the room name. The wire carries only the number, so VellumFE fetches the art from play.net and caches it.

This is off by default. It sends requests to play.net, so it is an explicit opt-in: run .settings and turn on Game Room Pictures under Appearance.

Once on, walking into a room with a picture downloads it once and caches it under global/images/gs-art/. The image appears on the next room change after it arrives — fetching happens in the background so the game feed is never held up.

Your own art still wins: install images/inline/32.png and rooms with picture='32' use yours instead of the download. Most rooms send picture='0', meaning no picture at all, and ids with no art are remembered so they are not requested again.

Putting an image in the story window

Send the tag on its own:

_respond "<vellumImg src='sunset' rows='4' align='left'/>"

The image floats and the following lines wrap beside it, rejoining the full width once they clear its bottom edge — the same behaviour as the room window. This works in every text window: story, thoughts, combat, custom windows, and each tab of a tabbed window.

Press and hold to enlarge

Press and hold an image to see it at full size; release to shrink it back. Works with mouse and touch, in both the desktop GUI and the phone client.

Where images work

An image name with no matching file also shows the [img:name] fallback, so a missing file is visible rather than blank.

Images are never sent to the game

These tags are display instructions your client interprets; they travel from Lich to VellumFE only and never reach the game server. src is a name, not a path — it is checked against a restricted alphabet and then resolved through the client’s own image list, so a script can name art you installed but can never read another file on your disk.

See also: Emoji for :shortcode:-sized inline pictures.