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0AD GUI and icons


ConfusedRose
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2 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Ridiculous comparison and you know it. Linux is capable of being run on very beefy hardware.

It is, but it is also capable of running on much lighter and older hardware. So what you or someone else might consider a very outdated machine could actually be very capable of running 0 A.D.

For what's worth, low-resolution screens still have a sizable market share worldwide, according to https://gs.statcounter.com/screen-resolution-stats/desktop/worldwide

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1 hour ago, Nescio said:

For what's worth, low-resolution screens still have a sizable market share worldwide, according to https://gs.statcounter.com/screen-resolution-stats/desktop/worldwide

Preliminary results for our statistics:

        800x600: 0.31%
        1024x768: 0.88%
        1280x720: 2.28%
        1280x800: 2.11%
        1280x1024: 1.80%
        1360x768: 1.49%
        1366x768: 21.68%
        1440x900: 4.52%
        1536x864: 4.43%
        1600x900: 5.05%
        1680x1050: 2.68%
        1792x1120: 0.39%
        1920x1080: 37.87%
        1920x1200: 1.67%
        2048x1152: 0.44%
        2560x1080: 0.79%
        2560x1440: 5.70%
        3440x1440: 0.92%
        3840x2160: 1.40%
        Other: 2.15%

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1366x768 as minimum supported resolution for the vanilla version of 0 A.D. sounds most reasonable for me. It also shares the same aspect ratio (16:9) like the de-facto standard 1080p which allows the same proportions for GUI elements when scaling.

However, when talking about GUI, resolutions are only one part. What I miss in 0 A.D. is something more immersive and organic/natural than the current (flexible, but kind of technical for a historical game) one... Note that the following examples also use a minimum of text, numbers and/or signs which every good gui should aim for IMO (in any case make extensive texts optional, as part of an overlay and/or in-game encyclopedia).

I really liked the old settlers games in this regard, where the gui featured marble surfaces and small decorative plants:

egypt.png

or Stronghold Crusader

Snap307.jpg

Edited by Palaxin
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45 minutes ago, Palaxin said:

I have roughly... A first sketch for the Spartans! - may be a bit overloaded, just to show some possibilities/ideas...

IMG_20210304_205133.jpg

starting from... it would be necessary to change the color of the interface from a dark tone to a light one.( At least with that concept you are presenting)

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7 hours ago, Palaxin said:

I have roughly... A first sketch for the Spartans! - may be a bit overloaded, just to show some possibilities/ideas...

IMG_20210304_205133.jpg

That's actually quite nice. I really like it. Reminds me of Age of Empires Online.

But:

- What's with that hoplite helmet on the left and the III below it? It's taking away 1/4 of the ui

- 3 shields in the center, if they're not buttons, they shouldn't be there. Except the spartan one of course.

- That vase, I get the idea, but it's too protruding and will clog up the screen for no reason.

- It lacks player name, but im not sure where to put it.

- HP should use healthbar. It's almost always a given in any modern RTS.

- Greeks and laurels?? I'm no history buff but aren't they associated with the romans?

- Most importantly, where's the pop cap lol

- Instead of +cavalry -archers I think it should indicate what the unit is currently doing e.g. Idling, Gathering Wood, Moving to attack

- Just realized it has no button for formations

Edited by Dragonoar
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Thanks for the feedback, @Dragonoar

To be honest, I had most of your concerns in mind, but I was mostly focusing on the overall layout, proportions and impression. I wanted to give an example for a "framework" around individual buttons/icons/words...

  • hoplite helmet (something else for other civs) could only be added/visible for higher resolution where it would not negatively affect the functional UI
  • not sure about the shields... if functional (e.g. for stances and formations) at least 5 would be needed - otherwise agree
  • yeah vase probably overkill... - could replace the big hoplite helmet e.g. for Athens
  • player name could be put in the central roof triangle (forgot the actual name for that element in greek architecture)
  • agree healthbar is better (was just quickly/randomly putting some symbols in there to fill the space :P)
  • I would associate laurels also especially with romans, however I couldn't think of a better replacement to decorate the minimap
  • regarding pop cap - as I said I didn't go for the details
  • the +/- was intended to indicate units this unit is strong/weak against (as a shorter way for listing classes, damage multipliers etc.)
    of course this doesn't mean that other useful information could be shown as well
  • yeah need to think again if formations go somewhere to the shields or (probably) into another field
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57 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

Is it going to be scalable? Because it might be hard to move these nicely and tightly packed elements for a different display ratio.

Actually that is a question that I had in mind for quite long - because if we redesign the GUI we should take every opportunity to make it scalable...

vector images - major design decision
+ ideal for infinite scaling
+ memory saving (I guess)
- a lot of work (to use it consistently)
- I don't know much about their usage in RTS and if their technical implementation is feasible

huge bitmap images (full details on >=4K displays)
+ basically the same approach as we use now
+ not all GUI elements need to be redesigned (but may still be better)
- takes a lot of memory (even more if we do not scale them down dynamically but use a set of different resolutions)

no scaling / what we use now
+ least amount of work
- GUI would shrink extremely for huge displays (limited to the central part)
- no future-proof solution

I think I would go for high resolution bitmaps for this part (500 B.C. - 0 A.D.) of the game and for something fancy - ideally vector graphics - for the second part (0 A.D. - 500 A.D.) in the far future...

EDIT: My personal skills don't allow me to fully flesh out these ideas as e.g. @LordGood would be able to do - I am probably limited to deliver ideas drawn by hand...

Edited by Palaxin
better specify the meaning of "4K"
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2 minutes ago, Palaxin said:

vector images - major design decision
+ ideal for infinite scaling
+ memory saving (I guess)
- a lot of work (to use it consistently)
- I don't know much about their usage in RTS and if their technical implementation is feasible

Vector is good, but it's good for flat and simple design. Pretty usual for AAA shooters and actions.

3 minutes ago, Palaxin said:

huge bitmap images (at least 4K)
+ basically the same approach as we use now
+ not all GUI elements need to be redesigned (but may still be better)
- takes a lot of memory (even more if we do not scale them down dynamically but use a set of different resolutions)

Not all elements should be 4K, I'd say only big pictures, like the helmet. There is another way to save memory: 4K masks with lower-res textures. Low-res texture for colors and 4K mask (in 3D it's called detail texture) to make it more sharp on edges or add some tiny details.

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14 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

Vector is good, but it's good for flat and simple design. Pretty usual for AAA shooters and actions.

I have seen quite pretty vector graphics with a considerable amount of detail but I guess it takes time and practice...

14 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

Not all elements should be 4K, I'd say only big pictures, like the helmet. There is another way to save memory: 4K masks with lower-res textures. Low-res texture for colors and 4K mask (in 3D it's called detail texture) to make it more sharp on edges or add some tiny details.

Sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean that each element should be 4K. I meant that the GUI as a whole should be designed for 4K displays, but the individual elements could have a much smaller resolution depending on their proportions... 4K masks sound interesting :)

8 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

The helmet seems to me exaggeratedly large and disproportionate.

I wanted to include something that is decorative and breaks the straight lines - but I may come up with something that consumes less area...

8 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Its interface reminds me a lot of Rise of Nations and Age of Mythology 

AoM was one of the games I have played most, so I am biased probably...

Edited by Palaxin
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3 minutes ago, Palaxin said:

Sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean that each element should be 4K.

Then you swapped titles :) Because in 0 A.D. we have a window scaled by system (that means it scales UI as well) or via gui.scale, since we don't support Hi-DPI (2K, 4K) yet (have another things in mind x) ).

5 minutes ago, Palaxin said:

I meant that the GUI as a whole should be designed for 4K displays

You mean resolution or ratio?

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yeah you're right, my words are misleading

I know about the automatic window scaling in some cases and gui.scale (but I never used it since I have a standard 1080p screen).

9 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

You mean resolution or ratio?

I mean the UI should horizontally stretch over a 3840x2160 display natively (without any scaling / reduced quality)

Edited by Palaxin
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