STB Hotkey System

An SKSE64 plugin that replaces Skyrim's favorites hotkeys with a chord-based system: bind any item, spell, shout or power to a key (optionally a 2-key chord) from the inventory, magic or favorites menu, stack several items on one key as a group, and see the assigned key drawn on the list row.

Supports Skyrim SE 1.5.97 and Skyrim AE 1.7.104.

Why not the vanilla slots

Vanilla stores a hotkey as an ExtraHotkey slot index on the item's extra-data. The game renumbers and clears that on stack splits, equips and container moves, which is why hotkeys "reset". Here the chord is the key and the target form is the single source of truth; nothing is stored on the item, and bindings live in the co-save.

Features

• Chord binds (modifier + key, optional 2-key chords), assigned live from the menus.
• Groups: a second modifier stacks items onto one key, and one press equips the whole set — first weapon/spell to the right hand, second to the left, shields and torches left. A press with the set already on takes it off again.
• Keycap drawn on the inventory / magic / favorites rows, positioned after the item name; can be switched off per menu.
• Remembered hand: a binding made while the form was in hand puts it back in that hand every press — both hands if it was in both — and marks the row R / L.
• Instance-aware: an enchanted or tempered copy binds separately from a plain one.
• Bindings survive running out of a consumable — the star is restored when the item comes back.
• While a modifier is held, menu keys stop doing their menu job, so binding Ctrl+E doesn't also equip the item and Ctrl+R doesn't drop it.
• "Assign hotkey" shown among the button hints at the bottom of the item menus.
• By default, pre-existing vanilla hotkeys are migrated to this system when a save is loaded.
• Optional warning before assigning a key already used by a gameplay control.
• English and Russian interface text; additional languages can be added with a translation file.
• A plugin API other SKSE mods can read bindings through. A hotkey on a shout or power equips it; STB Quick Hotkey Cast uses the API to also fire it on the same press.

Building

Requires the VCPKG_ROOT environment variable, Visual Studio, and the vcpkg triplet x64-windows-static.

.\gen.ps1                       # configure (prompts for a deploy path)
cmake --build build --config Release

Dependencies come from vcpkg (vcpkg.json): CommonLibSSE-NG, spdlog, nlohmann_json, xbyak. COPY_BUILD=ON copies the DLL/PDB to STB_WIDGETS_DEPLOY_DIR after a successful build.

The keycap graphic is a separate SWF, not part of the DLL: swapping the file restyles every keycap with no rebuild. Two sets are built here — from SkyUI's button art (the default) and from Untarnished UI's. See flash/README.md for the frame-layout contract and a step-by-step guide to adapting it to another UI overhaul.

.\package.ps1 stages a release tree into package/: plugin, INI and translations, plus a FOMOD that offers the two keycap sets. The Nexus release ships them as separate downloads instead, so the installer is optional -- the script builds it either way.

Configuration

Data/SKSE/Plugins/STB_HotkeySystem.ini — a reference copy lives in dist/SKSE/Plugins. Set bDebugLog = 1 there to get verbose diagnostics in Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition/SKSE/STB_HotkeySystem.log.

License

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE.

The SWF import machinery in src/swfhelper/ is adapted from Dynamic Inventory Icon Injector by JerryYOJ, which is GPL-3.0; that is why this project is GPL-3.0 as well. Those files keep their attribution headers.

JerryYOJ has given his permission for this reuse.

Credits

• JerryYOJ — Dynamic Inventory Icon Injector, the runtime SWF symbol injection.
• Vermunds — Extended Hotkey System, the original inspiration and reference for assigning arbitrary keys from the Favorites menu.
• SkyUI Team — the default keycap art is built from SkyUI's buttonart.swf, and most of the Untarnished set traces back to it as well.
• Vor/Vorganger and uranreactor — Untarnished UI, source of the second keycap set.
• The SKSE team and the CommonLibSSE-NG contributors.

Not redistributed here

UI-overhaul SWFs and anything extracted from them belong to their authors, so no .swf is committed — only the recipe to rebuild one. Reverse-engineering output is likewise kept out. Build the keycaps SWF locally from the UI mod you actually have installed; see flash/README.md, which also covers the per-mod permission situation.