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OCR Accessibility Overhaul v0.1.2

Thanks to Stellaris' heavy use of tooltips and other text elements, it is very close to being fully playable for the visually impaired via the use of OCR (or Optical Character Recognition) screen readers. This mod aims to take it the rest of the way wherever possible while keeping gameplay changes to a minimum. This version 0.1.2 release is far from complete but should already improve the experience for those relying on screen readers to play. Please don't hesitate to leave feedback for further improvements.

This mod was tested using the NVDA screen reader coupled with Windows 10's stock OCR engine and the Golden Cursor add-on. It has not been tested for compatibility with other mods, but should not interfere with the majority. This will change over time however as the mod includes more alterations. English is the only language currently supported, but more may be added if I know there is demand.

• Reworked Fonts - Stellaris' primary font has been replaced with a font having better OCR performance. A black background has also been embedded into this font to increase contrast for improved detection.
  
• Camera and Zoom Adjustments - The galaxy and system map cameras are locked directly overhead to remove perspective distortion. The default galaxy zoom has also been pulled back to allow easier detection of neighboring stars, and the zoom levels various map text elements are set to appear at have been altered to not overlap.
  
• Improved Hyperlane Navigation - In stock Stellaris, the navigation arrows marking hyperlanes around the edge of the system map are small and not in a predictable location on-screen. As these arrows provide the only in-game OCR readable identification for hyperlanes via their tooltip and hyperlane navigation is crucial to grasping system layout, special attention has been given to making these arrows much easier to locate. The recommended method for doing so is detailed further below. While not completely ideal, it should be vastly superior to the previous method of pixel hunting.
  
• Galaxy Generation Tweaks - Removed nebulas. System height variation removed. Systems spaced more evenly.
  
• Miscellaneous Tweaks - Disabled edge scrolling. Removed tooltip delay. Planet sensor range increased by one to show neighboring system names for any colonized system.

This method works by exploiting the fact that by panning the screen with the WASD or arrow keys, you can reliably center the screen on any of eight points spaced every 45 degrees around the edge of a system map (north, northeast, east, etc.). By also enlarging the navigation arrows to cover a 45 degree arc along the system edge, it can be ensured that if a navigation arrow exists, it will be present at one of the eight points and present its tooltip.

1. In whatever software you are using to move the cursor to specific pixel coordinates on-screen, make sure you have a location saved for the exact center of the screen. For a 1920 by 1080 monitor, this should be something like 960 x and 540 y.
   
2. Enter the system map of the system you want to read connections for and make sure you are fully zoomed out. (Panning speed is slower if you are zoomed in.)
   
3. Move the cursor to screen center. Keep the cursor in this position for all of the next several steps.
   
4. Pan to the northern-most spot on the system map by holding W or the Up arrow key for two to three seconds, and then use your screen reader to look for a tooltip in this location. If a connected system exists in a roughly northerly direction, you should now have its information.
   
5. Pan to the northeastern-most spot on the system map by holding W and D or the Up and Right arrow keys for two to three seconds. Take care to let go of both keys at the same time to not drift too far north or east. Use your screen reader in this location to look for a system tooltip.
   
6. Repeat the above for the other 6 points around the map, and your list of connections should be complete.

While this method is very reliable in my testing, accurately detecting more than 99% of all hyperlane connections with this mod's current hyperlane spawning rules, hyperlane detection can fail when two hyperlanes are close enough for their arrows to overlap. Any tooltip read from the overlap will only show information for one of the systems. If you suspect this is happening to you, you can usually find the information you're missing by slightly rotating the map (right-click and drag a short distance left or right) and rerunning the search.

• Further Font Improvements - This includes refinements to the currently implemented font replacement as well as font replacements for the stock Stellaris fonts not yet edited by this mod. Special attention will be given to the areas where OCR still frequently fails, very short bits of text like "Sol" and single digit numbers.
  
• Less Intrusive Resource Bar - Due to the resource bar's position at the top of the screen, it's constantly read in front of all other text the player may be interested in. To address this, the resource bar will likely be reduced down to one word and several evenly spaced textless positions at which you can still read resource information via tooltip.
  
• Reworked Game Details Screen - The current game details screen is difficult to make sense of via screen reader and several settings are completely skipped over by OCR. All settings will be arranged into a column format for screen readers to better present. This should make the planned feature below viable.
  
• Expanded Galaxy Size and Empire Count Selections - As the galaxy layout is Stellaris' most visually heavy element and can be cryptic in non-visual play, the game options will be expanded to give players more options in how manageable they want this aspect of gameplay to be. The 5 available stock galaxy sizes which range from 200 to 1000 stars will be expanded into 10 selectable galaxy sizes ranging from 50 to 1000 stars. To enable further encouragement to play "tall" rather than "wide," the maximum selectable number of AI empires will also be increased to yield fewer available systems per empire.