TEMPORARY (BFME style GUI test)

[WhiteTreePaladin]

BFME style GUI test:

Copy / paste these files to test. It should be simple to revert when finished. Does not require a rebuild.

public.zip

[Kimball]

[Wijitmaker]

Sorry, I don't have my computer to test this out. Is it context sensitive? If so, I applaud the minimalist GUI. Only showing what is necessary as you interact with the game world.

There should be a way to make this, and other modifications to the GUI into a mod package - for those that would prefer it to the game default. Philip could likely provide more guidance on this.

[Kimball]

Doesn't the game already load additional mod folders over the default (currently 'public')? If not, how does it decide precedence? Alphabetically?

I have to wonder how complex it would be for the player to be able to order their preferences. For example, a total conversion mod may change the UI, but they could install a UI mod that takes priority over it and overrides both the TC and the default.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Here was the major concern I had with it (and BfME's UI):

Splitting up essential (and related) tasks and spreading them around the periphery of the screen. Part of what makes the more "standard" UI we have now so usable is that all the functions of the selected entity are clustered together. You lose that in a UI such as this, especially when our poll indicates most players won't be playing this game at 1024x768 resolution anyway.

I would suggest continuing to make the current UI functional. Once that is complete, then making a "minimized" version for players stuck with 1024 resolution.

[fcxSanya]

This is my subjective opinion: I'm run game always with 1024x768 and I prefer current style GUI, because as I said before I prefer to see more info on the screen simultaneously and by some subjective aesthetic preferences.

But I'm not too advanced RTS player and I'm not too much time play 0ad (just testing different things regularly) so my opinion is not so worth

[k776]

So you need something simple, clean, and small.

Personally, to achieve that, I think it'd be good to move the minimap to it's own place, in the top right corner below the menu bar. Then increase width of the other panels at the bottom in order to decrease height.

You end up with something like this: https://skitch.com/k776/rb781/0-a.d-redesign-idea

Obviously it's a rough sketch (someone with better arts skills could probably blend the minimap a lot better), but the main idea is it decreases the bottom panels height by nearly half, giving more screen space. It also isn't tied to the minimap, so the panels can hide when nothing is selected, and the minimap won't be stuck about 1/4 of the way on high res screens (like mine).

[Ykkrosh]

Doesn't the game already load additional mod folders over the default (currently 'public')? If not, how does it decide precedence? Alphabetically?

Not by default, but if you run it like "pyrogenesis -mod=foo -mod=bar" then it'll load the public and foo and bar mods (with bar overriding foo, and foo overriding public).

[fcxSanya]

So you need something simple, clean, and small.

Personally, to achieve that, I think it'd be good to move the minimap to it's own place, in the top right corner below the menu bar. Then increase width of the other panels at the bottom in order to decrease height.

You end up with something like this: https://skitch.com/k776/rb781/0-a.d-redesign-idea

Obviously it's a rough sketch (someone with better arts skills could probably blend the minimap a lot better), but the main idea is it decreases the bottom panels height by nearly half, giving more screen space. It also isn't tied to the minimap, so the panels can hide when nothing is selected, and the minimap won't be stuck about 1/4 of the way on high res screens (like mine).

Are you draw your sketch from scratch, right? This approach seems wrong for me. You should start from that, what we have currently:

There is not so many free space on bottom panel (and it will be even less in the future probably), so I think we need to keep area size the same. To reduce panel height by half, you need extend it twice by width (area = width * height, right?), but by moving the minimap away from this panel you will achieve only roughly 1/5 of additional width. But minimap in this case will not fit into other layout and gui will be probably looks even more overloaded. Also the minimap under "menu" button seems uncomfortable for me.

[tsukabishi]

Not by default, but if you run it like "pyrogenesis -mod=foo -mod=bar" then it'll load the public and foo and bar mods (with bar overriding foo, and foo overriding public).

about the user interface, wouldn't it be better having an option in the menu to choose the gui style?

(classical, minimal or custom ones). in my opinion it would be simpler than the overriding method since it's a basic feature.