Controls

Chatbox

Sending text chat in Basis, the typing indicator, and the OSC bridge for driving the chatbox from external apps.

Overview

The chatbox lets you send short text messages that appear above your avatar for everyone nearby to read — useful when voice isn't an option. Open it with the Open Chat key (Y by default — see Settings and Controls), type a message and send.

  • Messages can be up to 256 characters.
  • A sent message shows above your avatar for about 10 seconds, then clears.
  • While you're typing, others see a typing indicator over your avatar, so they know a message is coming.
  • An optional notification sound can play when a message arrives.

You can hide an individual player's chat messages from their player panel.

Driving the chatbox over OSC

The chatbox can also be controlled from an external application over OSC, on the address /chatbox/input. This lets tools type into the chatbox for you — for example a speech-to-text app or a status display.

The address accepts:

  • A single bool — sets the typing indicator on or off without sending anything.
  • A string with two optional bools — (text, openKeyboard, playNotificationSound). The text is the message; the first bool chooses whether to open the in-client composer or send straight away; the second chooses whether a notification sound plays.

Text coming in over OSC is sanitised the same way as text typed in-client. See OSC for enabling and configuring the OSC connection.

Edit on GitHub

Last updated on

Players Menu

The per-player panel in the Basis client — mute, volume, block, pin, highlight, direct connections and more.

Introduction

Next Page

On this page

OverviewDriving the chatbox over OSC