mod shiny - alternative main menu & UI theme

[maroder]

SVN users: there is now a release candidate version for A27 - see first page for screenshots.

 

Here is the download link:

https://api.mod.io/v1/games/5/mods/1965214/files/3658747/download

(you have to manually download & install it)

 

Feedback and bug report welcome - maybe I will have time to update it again for the official launch of A27.

[maroder]

On 02/12/2022 at 2:44 PM, hyperion said:

On 02/12/2022 at 1:40 PM, maroder said:

What specific points do you have in mind regarding the inconsistency? I'm always open for feedback / suggestions

Some random points:

1. Start page has 4 different hover effects and there are more variants in other places
2. red old style buttons need to go
3. tooltip background transparency (only used sometimes) may lead to hard to read tooltips
4. radio button are of the old theme, same for drop down arrow
5. ai options icon color
6. button borders come in variants
7. some enabled buttons lack hover
8. there is an issue when expanding the menu in-game
9. full screen pages like match-setup shouldn't have inset window borders/decorations

As for incomplete, well, the in-game game controls are untouched as of yet.

1) Mostly done, I tried to unify it a bit more

2) replaced. I feel like the current buttons may be a a little bit to hard to see tho, so maybe they need to be adjusted in the future.

3) adjusted

4) radio buttons replaced, dropdown arrow not yet; I don't mind it that much (I thought about using google's Material icons, but that would require switching from GPL2 to GPL3 if I'm not mistaken)

5) TODO

6) Half way adjusted - still different borders but more similar themed now. Feels ok for me.

7) Which ones? / Still an issue?

8) Should be fixed? Not sure what the original problem was.

9) Done

In-game: True, there are some changes in this version tho. Sometime in the future I would like to redo the HUD, but too much work right now.

[maroder]

On 01/03/2023 at 6:56 PM, maroder said:

On 01/03/2023 at 5:23 PM, hyperion said:

To the right, maybe a different page would make sense as well. Covering existing buttons I'd say is bad practice.

I'm gonna think about it

Thought about it and no - I'll stick to the current horizontal layout. The downwards expanding submenu feels right to me.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On 19/02/2023 at 4:28 PM, guerringuerrin said:

I just share two different alternatives. (ignore the black rectangle in the middle, ofc)

So @maroder I saw your point about the dropdown menu not being "drop-up" menus, and I agree.

However, the placement debate remains, especially if you ever want to add the vanilla backgrounds to the mod. (not sure if there are other constraints here)

one solution is to group mod selection, hotkeys, language, and options(settings) underneath a new large dropdown called "options". I would say options is on a similar level of importance as "learn to play" "Single Player" and "Multiplayer".

This way, with 4 items, you can have symmetry around the 0ad logo at the top, and leave space for the backgrounds in the middle of the screen. The last thing to consider then is where to put "scenario editor" and "exit". It would make sense to slide them both over to the top right, next to the WFG logo, since they both take you out of the game.

Edited March 19, 2023 by real_tabasco_sauce

[maroder]

56 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

However, the placement debate remains, especially if you ever want to add the vanilla backgrounds to the mod. (not sure if there are other constraints here)

Main concerns are: 1) the center menu overlaps important aspects of the designs ; 2) color mismatch between the dark menu and a very light background.

From the vanilla backgrounds in combination with this menu, I would say:

• the kushite one looks quite nice as it is
• the seleucid one has ok placement, but a bit hard contrast
• the carthage one is ok color wise but would need some adjustments to the placing of the two soldiers (one a bit more down and to the left, the other one a bit more to the right)
• the hellenes one has the least compatibility - the colors are quite different and the center menu overlaps basically all the people. They would need to be shifted quite heavily to either side and then it would still be a rather large contrast.

So generally I think 3 out of 4 could be adapted to work "ok" with this menu design.

The more general question is: Does it make sense design wise to use two completely different art styles in the main menu? One 3D rendered and one digitally drawn?

This also only plays a role if this shall ever be included in the vanilla game ( which is questionable, since design changes are very much opinion based and I can guarantee that not everyone would like that ). So I don't actively work on making the old backgrounds compatible right now.

1 hour ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

one solution is to group mod selection, hotkeys, language, and options(settings) underneath a new large dropdown called "options". I would say options is on a similar level of importance as "learn to play" "Single Player" and "Multiplayer".

Sure, one could greatly reduce the number of buttons and get rid of the center menu all-together. But one of my goals with this design was that every button is present, that is present in the vanilla menu - So maybe the first question would then be: Why are there so many buttons in the vanilla version

1 hour ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

This way, with 4 items, you can have symmetry around the 0ad logo at the top, and leave space for the backgrounds in the middle of the screen. The last thing to consider then is where to put "scenario editor" and "exit". It would make sense to slide them both over to the top right, next to the WFG logo, since they both take you out of the game.

Might work; Although if you put exit & scenario editor also to the left, there is not much symmetry left. It also might become quite crowded on the left side with the minimal resolution of 1024x768.

[guerringuerrin]

10 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

one solution is to group mod selection, hotkeys, language, and options(settings) underneath a new large dropdown called "options". I would say options is on a similar level of importance as "learn to play" "Single Player" and "Multiplayer".

 

8 hours ago, maroder said:

Might work; Although if you put exit & scenario editor also to the left, there is not much symmetry left. It also might become quite crowded on the left side with the minimal resolution of 1024x768.

What about put everything else inside Options?

I just wanted to take a look to the whole design so I made this. I share it in case someone else also wants to

Edited March 20, 2023 by guerringuerrin

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Well, I think scenario editor and exit should be separate from a dropdown. For 1) its not really an "Option", whereas mod selection, language, and settings are all "options". Also, players wishing to leave shouldn't have to do more than one click to leave.

I had something like this in mind:

Clearing the middle up allows making the top bar and 0ad logo a bit larger too, which is good imo. "exit" and "Scenario editor" can be a different font and color. They can also be vertically stacked next to the wfg logo so that the symmetry at the top is effectively unchanged.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

13 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

Well, I think scenario editor and exit should be separate from a dropdown. For 1) its not really an "Option", whereas mod selection, language, and settings are all "options". Also, players wishing to leave shouldn't have to do more than one click to leave.

I had something like this in mind:

Clearing the middle up allows making the top bar and 0ad logo a bit larger too, which is good imo. "exit" and "Scenario editor" can be a different font and color. They can also be vertically stacked next to the wfg logo so that the symmetry at the top is effectively unchanged.

Or move Multiplayer to the left side (making that whole side about gameplay), then "Design Tools" and "Exit" can be new buttons on the right side, putting 3 total buttons on each side. Just spitballing. "Design Tools" for now would only have Scenario Editor has an option, but in the future additional tools can and probably will be developed and would go into that dropdown.

[maroder]

On 20/03/2023 at 7:41 PM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Or move Multiplayer to the left side (making that whole side about gameplay), then "Design Tools" and "Exit" can be new buttons on the right side, putting 3 total buttons on each side. Just spitballing. "Design Tools" for now would only have Scenario Editor has an option, but in the future additional tools can and probably will be developed and would go into that dropdown.

That would work.

[guerringuerrin]

Just to have a look at it.

I like it

[leopard]

I like shiny mod, but we don't need the fog in UI and on button click we don't need that much white light

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

On 22/03/2023 at 8:56 PM, guerringuerrin said:

This looks really nice.

[Stan`]

Dropdown menu might be missing some decorations.