findDisplay

Description

Finds a display by its IDD which can either be defined in missionConfigFile (description.ext) or configFile (config.cpp) or by its UI On Texture's unique name (see displayUniqueName).

If the specified display cannot be found, displayNull is returned.

Important
Dedicated servers and headless clients do not have a primary display (e.g findDisplay 46 will return displayNull).

Detect both with the hasInterface command.

Note
For a list of (almost) all Arma 3's IDDs, see Arma 3: IDD List.

Syntax

Syntax 1

findDisplay idd

Parameters:

idd: Number

Returns: Display

Syntax 2

since arma3 2.12

findDisplay displayName

Parameters:

displayName: String

Returns: Display

Examples

Example 1

0 spawn
{
    waitUntil { !isNull findDisplay 46 };
    hint "Mission Display is now available!";
};

Example 2

_display = findDisplay 1;

Example 3

private _display = findDisplay "RscDisplayRenderTest";

Community notes

Lou Montana2019-07-07

Common IDDs:

46: Mission display
312: Zeus display
49: Pause menu
602: Inventory
24: Chat box
300: Weapon state
12: Map
160: UAV Terminal

Kronzky2009-06-15

findDisplay does not find displays defined under RscTitles (even when they are visible).

To access those types of displays, either assign the resource to a global variable, or pass its this value to a script, during the onLoad event: e.g.

class RscTitles
{
    class MyRsc
    {
        onLoad = "myDisplay = (_this select 0)";
        // or
        // onLoad = "_this execVM 'myDialog.sqf'";
        // ...
    };
};

You can then use the stored value as you would for regular dialogs:

(myDisplay displayCtrl 1111) ctrlSetText "hello there");

Nelis757331262017-06-25

I have tested the behavior of this command and I found out that findDisplay appears to only return the display AFTER any onLoad event handler of that display is done.

Meaning: using findDisplay inside the code of an onLoad event handler is useless.

Demellion2017-08-14

There are some specific cases, where findDisplay will not be able to find an existing display. Here's the cases and how to act on them:

// Your display has IDD= -1.
class RscDisplayNew
{
    idd = -1;
    scriptName = "RscDisplayNew";
    // ...
};

// Your display doesn't have IDD
class RscDisplayNew
{
    scriptName = "RscDisplayNew";
    // ...
};

// Your display doesn't have scriptname with IDD = -1
class RscDisplayNew
{
    idd = -1;
    // ...
};

// Your display doesn't have scriptname, neither IDD
class RscDisplayNew
{
    // ...
};

You actually can find a -1 display, but this means finding a display with this IDD might be a problem, when there are a few displays marked as -1.So as you can see, theres an entry called scriptName. You can get a reference to this display by using uiNamespace:

(uiNamespace getVariable "RscDisplayNew")

NOTE: Variables are overwritten with a reference of the last declared display under the same scriptName entry. Take a look at case 3 for solution.

Displays without IDDs can actually exist. They can be manipulated only in a way described in the first case using uiNamespace.
You can really have this display seeking it manually in a allDisplays return. This is experimental, but working option.
You will have a problem finding this display, since this display doesn't exist even in allDisplays(?) return. Behaviour unknown.

AVespade2023-05-07

Since findDisplay is case-sensitive, and any UI On Texture unique names defined inside a p3d file will always be forced to lowercase, the unique name you search for with findDisplay will need to be lowercase.

private _display = findDisplay "rscdisplayrendertest";

Use of toLower may be useful to improve legibility or flow, especially in cases where a UI On Texture's unique name is the same as the class name.

private _display = findDisplay (toLower "RscDisplayRenderTest");