MHForever 0.8.3: HUD scale, horn songs and a launcher for the Steam Deck

New

• HUD scale. In Game settings → Video → HUD scale (also in the in-game menu, Escape → Video) you can shrink the hunting HUD from 100% down to 50%. The health and stamina bars, the clock and the weapon sharpness go into the top left corner, the minimap into the top right, and the item bar into the bottom right, so the screen is less crowded on big monitors. It only applies in quests: menus, the village and the start screens keep their original size.
• Hunting horn songs (optional, off by default; Game settings → Game → Show hunting horn songs). In a quest with a hunting horn, a card in the style of the game's own horn books lists every song the horn can play, with its notes as coloured eighth notes. The song you are playing is yellow, with the notes already played in full; a song whose effect is on is green. The names are the game's own messages for the effects, in the language you play in. It never shows in the village, during loading or cut scenes, or over the game's menus. Pick its place (next to the horn's note sheet under the health bar, top middle, under the name plates, bottom left) or drag it anywhere from the in-game menu's Game tab. (Thanks to Pablo1517.)
• Show true weapon values (optional, off by default; Game settings → Game). With it on, the game's menus show a weapon's stored attack, without the display multiplier of its weapon class, and element and status values without the extra 0 printed after them (15 instead of 150). Damage is not touched: only menu text changes. (Pablo1517.)
• Your volumes are kept. The music and sound effect volumes you change in the in-game menu (Escape → Audio) are now saved, so the next start uses them instead of the launcher's values. (Pablo1517.)
• A launcher for the Steam Deck. The launcher's window needs WebKitGTK, which SteamOS does not include, so MHForever could not start there. The Linux archive now carries MHForever-cli, the same launcher without a window, which needs nothing besides the C library: --install <image.iso> adds your copy, --set fullscreen=true (and the other video and audio settings) changes its settings, --list shows them, and --play starts the game (and stays running while it does, so it works as a non-Steam game in Game Mode). The Linux README has the steps. (Thanks to Cris9355, who reported it.)

Notes

• The horn songs, true weapon values and HUD scale work on the European, North American and Japanese releases. The horn songs were played in the European release; US and JP were built and checked against the same code.
• HUD scale applies to the hunting HUD only. Scaling the whole interface (menus, shops, the village) was tried and left out for now: the game draws its menus as many loose pieces, and shrinking them reliably needs the game's own layout code.
• Steam Deck: the maintainers have no Deck. MHForever-cli was checked to start without WebKitGTK, but it has not been run on a Deck yet: reports are welcome. To update there, run ./MHForever-cli --update.
• Windows: MHForever-0.8.3-windows-x64.zip. Keep the .dll files next to mhfu.exe, mhfu-us.exe and mhfu-jp.exe. Your settings and saves live outside the program folder, so unzipping a new version never touches them.
• Linux: MHForever-0.8.3-linux-x64.tar.gz. Built on Ubuntu 24.04 (glibc 2.38 or newer); the launcher window needs WebKitGTK 4.1 and GTK 3, MHForever-cli and the game need OpenGL 3.3 and nothing else.
• Updating from 0.8.2: the launcher offers it ("Update now"), checks the download and restarts.
• If something looks wrong, please send your game.log (next to MHForever.exe) on Discord, https://discord.gg/6xrxY2buDf

Download

Windows: MHForever-0.8.3-windows-x64.zip. Unzip it anywhere you can write to and run MHForever.exe. The programs are not digitally signed, so Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC": choose "More info" and then "Run anyway".

Linux: MHForever-0.8.3-linux-x64.tar.gz. Extract it and run ./MHForever (if your file manager removed the execute permission: chmod +x MHForever MHForever-cli mhfu mhfu-us mhfu-jp). On a Steam Deck, or anywhere WebKitGTK is missing, use ./MHForever-cli (see the README inside).

You need your own copy of the game; the archives contain no game data and no texture pack. The code is on GitHub under GPL-3.0-or-later.