32bpp Interface?

Dundee · Post by **Dundee** » 10 Aug 2005 05:02

SLaY3r wrote:I think that the single player button will be erased, I don't use it and don't know for what it serves. I think to reorder the buttons thus:
Code: Select all
 New game   Load game
 New scenario   Load scenario
 [Temperate] [Sub-artic] [Sub-tropical] [Toyland]
     Multiplayer
 Game options   Difficulty
 Configure patches   Quit

The entire 'start game' interface has really become bad over time as more and more options have been added. I've mentioned my thoughts (also here)on this before, and I think it might be appropriate to keep reorganising and simplification in mind if the look and feel are changed.

joed · Post by **joed** » 10 Aug 2005 05:51

Dundee wrote:The entire 'start game' interface has really become bad over time as more and more options have been added. I've mentioned my thoughts (also here)on this before, and I think it might be appropriate to keep reorganising and simplification in mind if the look and feel are changed.

You've made some good points in those posts. At first, I wanted to mockup as per the existing. Next I am going to try and remodel the splash screen. I've been sketching up some ideas that I'll try and start tonight - like useing tabs for example "NEW", "LOAD", "BUILD" and "SETTINGS" pretty similar to what you described.

I find how the start window is weird and confusing. Like why when I click new I get a menu to select a scenario or generate new game. And the whole order seems odd to, like new game should be with the settings for selecting climate. Anyway, will try and post something later on what I'm thinking.

joed · Post by **joed** » 10 Aug 2005 14:19

OK, as promised, here's a new mockup. With a different organisation of buttons and a different look - but similar to before.

I realise there's inconsistancies in the buttons. I'll work on the other tabs if people like this direction (I've already sketched roughly how they'll work).

George · Post by **George** » 10 Aug 2005 14:23

joed wrote:OK, as promised, here's a new mockup. With a different organisation of buttons and a different look - but similar to before.

too white. It does not fit good into the TTD world

joed · Post by **joed** » 10 Aug 2005 14:40

George wrote:too white. It does not fit good into the TTD world

It's not supposed to be white. It's grey when I made it. Hmm, export is a bit weird. I've tried to fix it a little (image above updated). Hope that's better.

Dextro · Post by **Dextro** » 10 Aug 2005 14:46

joed wrote:
George wrote:too white. It does not fit good into the TTD world
It's not supposed to be white. It's grey when I made it. Hmm, export is a bit weird. I've tried to fix it a little (image above updated). Hope that's better.

try to make it the same gray as the title bar...

I don't think it'll look better but there's no harm in trying

DeletedUser21 · Post by **DeletedUser21** » 10 Aug 2005 14:46

I made it look more... 'complete'

joed · Post by **joed** » 10 Aug 2005 14:55

Dextro wrote:I don't think it'll look better but there's no harm in trying

OK, last attempt before going to bed. Any better?
BTW, red buttons means selected.

Novatlan · Post by **Novatlan** » 10 Aug 2005 15:01

I think it's great.
Although I'd like a bit of blue

But if Apple has the rights on the color "blue", that can't be done.
Do you plan to replace the landscape images with "real" photos?
That would look nice. Perhaps done with terragen?

toholio · Post by **toholio** » 10 Aug 2005 15:10

joed wrote: OK, last attempt before going to bed. Any better?
BTW, red buttons means selected.

I think you should lose the pictures inside the buttons.

nicfer · Post by **nicfer** » 10 Aug 2005 16:07

Why the difficulty button in new game? It not will have to be in settings? Ah, and not all options of configure patches will be integrated to options, some ones will be in difficult, as the new AI. And multiplayer will be in another label.

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 10 Aug 2005 23:42

i don't think red as the selected works, i like the layout of the rest is nice

the red is brighter than the yellow its replacing so looks too dominant and comes forward to much (IMO) if it were a colour that drops backwards in the screen then it would feel more pressed.

personally i'd go for a black outline around the yellow, and perhaps dropping the transparency of the other buttons that are not pressed.

also i don't think i agree with the choice to make the overall box/window a grey colour, the overall box that it sits in needs to be in the "same" style as all the windows in the game.

so a overall style is required to be developed before even the front page can be decided upon.

i do however think you are going in the right direction.

p.s. why have an outer box at all? why not just a set of tabs with a play, and quit tab sticking out the bottom?

Alltaken

joed · Post by **joed** » 11 Aug 2005 00:19

Alltaken wrote:the red is brighter than the yellow its replacing so looks too dominant and comes forward to much (IMO) if it were a colour that drops backwards in the screen then it would feel more pressed.

Thanks for the feedback Alltaken. The red was just an experiment to see how it looked - I agree the red's too bright and draws too much attention.

personally i'd go for a black outline around the yellow, and perhaps dropping the transparency of the other buttons that are not pressed.

I was thinking along a similar line. I don't think the buttons stand out enough so was going to add a fine line around each.

p.s. why have an outer box at all? why not just a set of tabs with a play, and quit tab sticking out the bottom?

That's a good point. And it's not like this window can be dragged (or should be for that matter). I also think this could be much larger, I've got it a bit too small right now.

I'll try and mockup another in game window and try and work up a common "theme". I agree, I shouldn't be spending too much time on the splash screen if the overall design doesn't work in game. Thanks again

romek41 · Post by **romek41** » 12 Aug 2005 06:05

Hmm, not bad, but the UI is a little bit inconsistent:
- selected tab is yellow, but selected scenario is red
- unselected tab is gray with a white border, while unselected scenario is yellow (as selected tab)
I think it should be changed - now the UI can be a bit too confusing...

joed · Post by **joed** » 12 Aug 2005 06:31

romek41 wrote:Hmm, not bad, but the UI is a little bit inconsistent:
- selected tab is yellow, but selected scenario is red
- unselected tab is gray with a white border, while unselected scenario is yellow (as selected tab)
I think it should be changed - now the UI can be a bit too confusing...

All these things I realise. Was trying out a few ideas within the one mockup.

Going to mockup another in game window now. Just need some time

Yoeri · Post by **Yoeri** » 12 Aug 2005 06:46

i like them all! why not give people the ability to choose their layout?
i can hardly choose, and you might pick one that eventually nobody really likes....

joed · Post by **joed** » 12 Aug 2005 06:54

Yoeri wrote:i like them all! why not give people the ability to choose their layout?
i can hardly choose, and you might pick one that eventually nobody really likes....

Yeah, I think being able to skin OpenTTD would be good. But there still needs to be a default UI. do we just keep it like we have it?

If we change the buttons in the main window, then everything else will change to match. I think we need a "modernisation" to the interface, as well as streamline some of the menu and windows.

Should I keep going?

Yoeri · Post by **Yoeri** » 12 Aug 2005 07:04

yes, and there should be a file called 'skins', where you can put in extra skins....

joed · Post by **joed** » 13 Aug 2005 12:10

I've spent most of today working on this new mockup.

Let me know what people think. The orgainisation is pretty much the same as now, just a different look. The icons on the red window aren't correct at this stage, just there to get the idea. And I think some of the text is a little difficult to read so I need to fix that as well.

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 13 Aug 2005 13:06

Excellent. I think this is a winner, so to speak. The original icons look so nice there too

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