Chat Heads + Custom playername text compatibility issue - 8.0-alpha.9 - MC 26.1.2 and 1.21.11

[Fourmisain]

Description

Original issue: dzwdz/chat_heads#156

When using Chat Patches together with Chat Heads on a server with Embellish Chat that allows using icons in chat (e.g. by typing :love:), the icons (AtlasSprite object components) will be turned into text:

This only happens if "Custom playername text" is turned on and Chat Heads is using "Before Name" mode (first message in the screenshot), which changes the structure of the message to insert a PlayerSprite object component aka chat head.

How to reproduce

Install the 2 client mods, setup a server with Embellish Chat, then type :love: in chat.

Expected result

The icons shouldn't be turned into text.

Log

There's nothing relevant in the logs, so here's one received message with "Log message structures" turned on:

ChatListener received message ' [mob_effect/health_boost@gui]' -> vanilla = true
An error occurred while modifying '<[Fourmisain head]FourmisainFourmisain> [mob_effect/health_boost@gui]'
(lastEmpty=false, boundary=false, messageData.vanilla=true, config.name=true, config.nameFormat='<$>')
Timestamp: literal{[15:13:52] }[style={color=#FF55FF,clickEvent=SuggestCommand[command=05/29/2026],hoverEvent=ShowText[value=literal{05/29/2026}[style={color=#FFFFFF}]],insertion=1780060432716}]
Body:
Team: empty
Sender: empty[style={color=#FFFFFF,clickEvent=SuggestCommand[command=/tell Fourmisain ],hoverEvent=ShowEntity[entity=net.minecraft.network.chat.HoverEvent$EntityTooltipInfo@77c46c1],insertion=Fourmisain}, siblings=[literal{<}, empty, ObjectContents[contents=PlayerSprite[player=net.minecraft.world.item.component.ResolvableProfile$Static@9cc9f005, hat=true], fallback=Optional.empty][style={color=white}, siblings=[literal{Fourmisain}]], empty, literal{> }]]
Content: empty[siblings=[literal{[mob_effect/health_boost@gui]}]]
-- End of message structure --
[Modified] [CHAT] [15:13:52] <[Fourmisain head]Fourmisain> [mob_effect/health_boost@gui]

Additional context

I think this is - like last time - an issue with the way non-translatable messages are restructured.

I haven't looked into it but it seems firstPart may contain basically the entire message, including the "love" icon and firstPart.getString() turns it into "[mob_effect/health_boost@gui]", which will then land in afterEndBracket.

[Fourmisain]

I fixed this specific* issue on Chat Heads' end, though it still exists in general.

If you look at how the list of parts is constructed:

ChatPatches/src/main/java/obro1961/chatpatches/util/ChatUtil.java

Line 511 in ed50f45

List<Component> parts = Lists.asList( m.plainCopy().setStyle(style), m.getSiblings().toArray(new Component[0]) );

It's the right idea, but it needs to be recursive.
The way it is now, one can easily construct a message such that firstPart will contain an object component that will thus be turned into a string, e.g.:

m = Component.literal("<")
				.append("Player")
				.append(Component.literal("> ").append(Component.object(new AtlasSprite(Identifier.parse("minecraft:gui"), Identifier.parse("minecraft:mob_effect/health_boost")))));

And it's not just about object components; any component that's directly behind ">" will lose style information and all.

While originally trying to fix this issue I adapted Chat Heads way of linearizing a component tree (split function using walkTree, ignore the formatting code preprocessing):

Spoiler

	/** Walk the component-sibling tree in depth first order (aka render order). */
	public static void walkTree(Component component, Style currentStyle, BiConsumer<Component, Style> consumer) {
		currentStyle = component.getStyle().applyTo(currentStyle);

		consumer.accept(component, currentStyle);

		for (Component sibling : component.getSiblings()) {
			walkTree(sibling, currentStyle, consumer);
		}
	}

	public static ArrayList<Component> linearize(Component component) {
		ArrayList<Component> components = new ArrayList<>();

		walkTree(component, Style.EMPTY, (c, cStyle) -> {
			var copy = c.plainCopy().setStyle(cStyle);
			components.add(copy);
		});

		return components;
	}

Using that like List<Component> parts = linearize(m); should fix most cases.
If you want I can PR this.

There's still failing cases when translatables are involved since they are not split up into parts - however, these cases seem improbable.
(I tried splitting up translatables via TranslatableContents.visit(), but that actually does too much, since it'll turn PlayerSprite object components into  literals with a font description representing the sprite - and that font description cannot be serialized, so it errs when saving the chat log.)

* For the original issue the messages were of the form:

m = Component.empty()
	.append(Component.translatable("chat.type.text",
		"Player",
		Component.object(new AtlasSprite(Identifier.parse("minecraft:gui"), Identifier.parse("minecraft:mob_effect/health_boost")))));

I simply told Chat Heads to not put single components under an empty one, so you shouldn't be seeing this one again.

[mrbuilder1961]

thank you so much for the detailed report!! i always knew that check would result in something broken and it seems this is one such case.

i agree the linearization as you call it should be implemented, ive been looking into that for chat formatting as well, particularly with toFlatList() i believe its called.

i'll be sure to fix this soon and thanks again for the breakdown and patching what you can on your side. i really appreciate it!!

[Fourmisain]

i agree the linearization as you call it should be implemented, ive been looking into that for chat formatting as well, particularly with toFlatList() i believe its called.

toFlatList() would theoretically work as it's just a thin wrapper around visit() - but you'd get the serialization issues I mentioned earlier.
The walkTree I wrote is basically just visit without the getContents().visit().

If you write your own solution, just know that styles are inherited, e.g. for

Component.literal("Hello").withStyle(ChatFormatting.RED)
    .append(Component.literal(" World"))

The " World" will be red too.
That's what that Style selfStyle = this.getStyle().applyTo(parentStyle); line in visit (and walkTree) is for.
(I had to learn that the hard way... 😅)

[mrbuilder1961]

thanks for the breakdown!! i'll keep that in mind 🙃

[mrbuilder1961]

no pressure if you're busy yourself but i won't have the time to implement this for a while, so if you want to and are able i would definitely accept a PR!

[Fourmisain]

I should have written a PR back then, now I have to look into it again! 😅
Currently also relatively busy, I'll see if I can squeeze it in soonish!

[mrbuilder1961]

no pressure! if you're not able to or if it takes you a year, so be it (it'd still be faster than a lot of issues i've definitely gotten to... cough # 75 cough...)