[GUI] Design

Discussions pertaining to the development of graphics for Transport Empire.

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Steve
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Steve »

I admit I liked the first design of the menu slightly better, though I see the point of the white transparent bits are to show which menu is open.
Perhaps indenting the chosen option slightly or a different shade of colour could achieve a similar effect?

I shall also remind Purno that we don't necessarily need text boxes, buttons nor sliders.. some of the most innovative game designs don't need them and theres a good chance something just as clever can be used here.
Click and drag goes a long way.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by uzurpator »

Ne0Que wrote:Okay, im sorry ;)

Does anyone know how to run the current build in a bigger window.. its only 700px width, i need to get it at least 1024 pixels width and 600 pixels high to make a complete GUI.

thank you
Alt-tab and stretch the window :)
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Purno »

Steve wrote:I shall also remind Purno that we don't necessarily need text boxes, buttons nor sliders.. some of the most innovative game designs don't need them and theres a good chance something just as clever can be used here.
Click and drag goes a long way.
True, but what I meant is that you need to think what kind of GUI elements to use. Click and drag can also be considered as a 'GUI element' in this context.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by NukeBuster »

Great stuff Ne0Que!
Hope to see more of your 2d artwork :)

I love where this game is going. I will give the alpha a try tomorrow.

Don't spend too much time making discisions over the in game menu. The only thing depending on the menu structure are the icons.
You could always change the structure later... as code decides where an image is drawn on the screen.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Kalin »

Hi all,

I've been silently following this forum for quite some time and I really like the ideas on this project.

I think I have an idea which might be interresting to include in the program.

The biggest problem I think exists in these kind of programs (certainly those which are extensible by usercontent)
is the cluttering of the different menus. Why don't we build a menustructure which echos the stucture of different folders on the harddisk, where the mainmenu-item would be the imagefile with a certain name.

Thus......

This folderstructure...

Code: Select all

--Menu+--Default.jpg
      +--Roads+--Default.jpg
      |       +--Road.jpg
      |       +--Highway.jpg
      |       +--OneWayRoad.jpg
      |
      +--Track+--Default.jpg
              +--Rail.jpg
              +--Subway.jpg
              +--ElevatedRail.jpg
              +--LightRail.jpg
              +--Maglev.jpg
              +--Monorail.jpg
would result in the following menustructure...

Code: Select all

--Menu+--Roads+--Road
      |       +--Highway
      |       +--OneWayRoad
      |
      +--Track+--Rail
              +--Subway
              +--ElevatedRail
              +--LightRail
              +--Maglev
              +--Monorail                 
If my Trackfolder gets too cluttered for comfort (say 100+ files) I could simply create a new folder splitting Rail and Maglev each in a different folder.

This folderstructure...

Code: Select all

--Menu+--Default.jpg
      +--Roads+--Default.jpg
      |       +--Road.jpg
      |       +--Highway.jpg
      |       +--OneWayRoad.jpg
      |
      +--Track+--Default.jpg
              +--Rail+--Default.jpg
              |      +--Rail.jpg
              |      +--Subway.jpg
              |      +--ElevatedRail.jpg
              |      +--LightRail.jpg                  
              |
              +--Maglev+--Default.jpg
                       +--Maglev.jpg
                       +--Monorail.jpg
would result in the following menustructure...

Code: Select all

--Menu+--Roads+--Road
      |       +--Highway
      |       +--OneWayRoad
      |
      +--Track+--Rail+--Rail
              |      +--Subway
              |      +--ElevatedRail
              |      +--LightRail                   
              |
              +--Maglev+--Maglev
                       +--Monorail
This way anyone can organise his menu the way which suits him best.

Regards,

Kalin
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Purno »

I don't know what's common for programming, but I'd just add a prefix to the filename, instead of putting them in a seperate folder.

Someting like button_rail_subway.png

And I'd never use .jpg
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Steve »

Kalin, its definitely a good approach, a customisable menu would be good and probably not too hard.
I think we could handle some sort of ingame editor though, rather than you having to hack around with your file system!


Purno.. what does it matter what extension he used? I think you're missing the point slightly.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Kalin »

@Purno

if you would use a prefix this prefix could become very long if the menus are nested, besides what would happen if a menuitem is missing but is included in the file prefix....??

Those problems aren't of any concern using the example I've given.
And Steve is right, the jpg was only an example....;)

@Steve

an ingame editor could work, but using it might be very tedious work especialy when working with large numbers of menu items, while dragging files around can be done at large volumes with relative ease.

@Uzurpator

I might be able to do some smaller programming work, there is only one problem....
my coding skills don't extend beyond Visual Basic .net, but to my knowledge VB .net and VC++ can be integrated, although I don't know how this can be done.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Purno »

Kalin wrote:@Purno

if you would use a prefix this prefix could become very long if the menus are nested, besides what would happen if a menuitem is missing but is included in the file prefix....??

Those problems aren't of any concern using the example I've given.
True. I guess yours is the easiest indeed.
And Steve is right, the jpg was only an example....;)
Just a quick side-note that jpg equals quality loss. ;)
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by bob27 »

Purno wrote:
Just a quick side-note that jpg equals quality loss. ;)
Especially when used as a button that doesn't use millions of colors. At this step for just a mock up, it doesn't really matter, but a final project should probably use .PNG or maybe .GIF (PNG would be better IMHO) :)
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Ne0Que »

*.PNG is the best solution. You can even add meta to *.PNG files (like for names and / or symbols). This makes *.PNG a littlebit look like PSD (photoshop).
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by m3henry »

very nice, I think you will come out with some great work.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Ne0Que »

Meta can help language ;)

You create a text object in Photoshop
That object will take the name from meta: TREE

So the image will display the letters TREE

But if your settings are at Dutch for example, the DUTCH meta: BOOM

So the image will display the letters BOOM (not an explosion, thats BOEM or Kaboem in dutch) ;)

;)

But i dont know how this engine will handle images ;)..

I still think that PNG is the best solution, even without mention the meta feature.
Last edited by Ne0Que on 19 Mar 2008 09:37, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Ne0Que »

You guys are programming the game, please tell me in what format want to have the GUI. *.PNG ? As it supports transparancy, it will look mutch nicer :).


In what resolution do you want them? Anyway, i think its the best to design it in 800x600 ?

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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by NukeBuster »

PNG are vector graphics right? Might be nice to be able to rescale them ingame...
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Arathorn »

PNG is raster images. SVG is vector. Vector graphics for the UI would be awesome, but I believe Uzurpator preferred to use some raster format.
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by NukeBuster »

What should happen with the images if a higher resolution would be set than the mentioned 800x600?

I might give the gui a go. Although I'm still waiting on some more feedback from linux users. But discuss what format you would like for the gui PNG or SVG. The gui files will someday end up grouped in a (TE Media zip) as I mentioned somewhere else on the forum.

By the way, there was a logo chosen a while ago. You might want to use it somewhere in the gui.
As far as I know all versions are allowed. But the ones with the black background might be used for creating a watermark. (By making the black transparent.)
http://www.tt-forums.net//files/transpo ... _2_496.png

/EDIT:
Another thing, a mouse pointer might be the first thing needed. Did you draw any mouse pointers earlier?

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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Ne0Que »

NukeBuster wrote:What should happen with the images if a higher resolution would be set than the mentioned 800x600?

I might give the gui a go. Although I'm still waiting on some more feedback from linux users. But discuss what format you would like for the gui PNG or SVG. The gui files will someday end up grouped in a (TE Media zip) as I mentioned somewhere else on the forum.

By the way, there was a logo chosen a while ago. You might want to use it somewhere in the gui.
As far as I know all versions are allowed. But the ones with the black background might be used for creating a watermark. (By making the black transparent.)
http://www.tt-forums.net//files/transpo ... _2_496.png

/EDIT:
Another thing, a mouse pointer might be the first thing needed. Did you draw any mouse pointers earlier?

For direct feedback, or direct support on coding stuff join our IRC channel.
[url]irc://irc.oftc.net/transportempire[/url]
Depends on how it is coded. Like websites you can scale sites, but you have to make a 'filler' or also called 'spacer' image. Vectorbased is also cool!

But one thing is sure, i want to get rid off those crappy graphics ;)
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Re: [GUI] Design

Post by Ne0Que »

NukeBuster wrote:What should happen with the images if a higher resolution would be set than the mentioned 800x600?

I might give the gui a go. Although I'm still waiting on some more feedback from linux users. But discuss what format you would like for the gui PNG or SVG. The gui files will someday end up grouped in a (TE Media zip) as I mentioned somewhere else on the forum.

By the way, there was a logo chosen a while ago. You might want to use it somewhere in the gui.
As far as I know all versions are allowed. But the ones with the black background might be used for creating a watermark. (By making the black transparent.)
http://www.tt-forums.net//files/transpo ... _2_496.png

/EDIT:
Another thing, a mouse pointer might be the first thing needed. Did you draw any mouse pointers earlier?

For direct feedback, or direct support on coding stuff join our IRC channel.
[url]irc://irc.oftc.net/transportempire[/url]
Well, for better (scaling) perpouses i need an illustrator format of that logo.. i will design a GUI to fit the style.
Stop those stupid shooting games, make peaceful games!
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