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Author Topic: JA2-like hud  (Read 21551 times)

Offline bayo

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JA2-like hud
« on: October 23, 2010, 12:17:57 pm »
BTW, i think http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4762.msg39294#msg39294 (the second part) is the more interesting interface. I only talk about the 2 screens mechanism, one for the group and one for a soldier, and not about the current content (especially not the second screen content).
But IMO implementation should need some smooth animation feature, for transition, we dont have ATM.

Offline mor2

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JA2-like hud
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2010, 03:58:41 pm »
you mean, TrashMan sugestion?



i tried to bring it into discussion before (Was edited out), with 1-16 soldier this will be the biggest most space consuming control. so we must decide where it fit in, on top as before or maybe as part of the lower panel.
in the current suggestion, the bar is to big and cannot hold 16 soldiers also it creates a lot of dead space captured underneath it, one of the options is to use a scroll bar showing X soldiers at a time or make it expand depending on the amount of available soldiers not all 16 slots (like fire mod control does) or show them all and try to fit it somewhere in the interface, making it smaller placing them in a numberr of rows.

few question before we can start, does everyone share our enthusiasm about it? (portraits how small will you go?)  if so, then what is the functionality people want to see here, the 3 stats and function icons or more like in H-hour bar ? i prefer the later, i think we can make it work without creating information overload but we should start from the more basic design.

here is a very quick sketch of what i mean:



thoughts?
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 05:13:05 pm by mor2 »

Offline bayo

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JA2-like hud
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2010, 07:10:42 pm »
To be clear, i talk about the relation between http://img189.imageshack.us/i/uaigui21.jpg/ and http://img704.imageshack.us/i/uaigui22.jpg/ (the 1st one is a global view of the second one)

But i dont like the second one (especially the blue bar, and globally the layout). I think the second one should not display info about other soldiers, but provide something like simple tab to allow to switch to soldier (like the current number list). But most of idea is here, all soldier info is on bottom and over it there is tabs. The bigger problem is to display all the soldier content in a clear way and graphically separate it from tabs. Maybe http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=5468.msg44081#msg44081 with the head on bottom do the job better. And your proposal with the merge of left-right weapon together can looks clearer (http://i55.tinypic.com/2s80oxj.jpg, the third from the top, at left). (and alien info should not be here too).

About portraits for the global screen (http://img189.imageshack.us/i/uaigui21.jpg/ ), it is not the more important, but it is an element to help selection anyway. I mean, the size is not important. The weapon size is more important, we must see which weapon it is. If it dont work with 16 weapons, and there is no solution to display all this content for 16 soldiers, if think it will not works. A little comment about uaigui21.jpg, i think separation between soldiers should be clearer.

Offline Bartleby

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JA2-like hud
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2010, 07:51:42 pm »
as i understand now nearly all of u want a new gui. some want to change the colors, some the graphic, some the functionality and some all three. some think the gui can wait until game is finished and some think u need to start with changes now.
all ideas in this forum are better than the old gui.
maybe u should start a thread where u can see:
- what is possible
- what needs to be done
- who can do what
- who wants to do what
- and some polls where u can vote
(maybe just polls where the contributors take part and maybe less polls where whole forum can vote)

i think the target-gui shoudnt be a perfect gui it should be a better (and maybe easier to change) gui.
well... h-hours start (closed discussion in mainforum) wasnt bad. maybe a bit.. hm..  strict... but.. well... maybe u should just delete my post because its a bit simple-hearted =).

Offline mor2

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JA2-like hud
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2010, 08:10:11 pm »
@bayo, ok i think i understand what you mean, you want Ja2 interface? soldier bar at the bottom showing both weapon hands and secondary interface for more management, only with added soldier selectionl bar (minimal) so you can go through all of the sixteen fast?

still you need to address how you are planing to deal with 16 soldiers bar on the "global screen". (we will deal with graphics later )


in the mean while here is another idea (i didnt kept a copy of the source so its jepg of jepg quality :-\ )


1. instead of wasting place on L.hand panel (which not everyone use often) i placed it on the right, it will close when only one weapon will be in use.
2. the floor selector, i tried the same idea as before, it works exactly as the original only the bar is show only when you move your mouse there (just like the log in geoscape)
3. maybe we should allow the soldier selector to hide, personally i dont use it much, i move the soldiers mostly by using the cursor, this way everyone can chooce if he wants it or not, i also added the old select next\privious soldier buttons.


@Bartleby
- what is possible - been doing that.
- what needs to be done - that what we are discussing here.
- who can do what - lets not get over ourself, one step at time.
- and some polls where u can vote - pools works for final designs in the meanwhile you can post your opinion here...
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 08:29:35 pm by mor2 »

Offline mor2

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2010, 03:32:01 pm »
i see you have split the main thread, not sure if its such a good idea because at this stage the bottom line is that we still dont have a soldier selection concepts for any of the design that works with 1-16 soldiers.

Offline Thrashard96

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2010, 06:43:58 pm »
16 soldiers will be awesome, i know that ;D

Offline bayo

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2010, 08:21:55 pm »
Quote
not sure if its such a good idea because
It is only to make the thing clearer. If something is interesting we can anyway reuse it elsewhere.

Offline bayo

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2010, 08:59:20 pm »
I copy-paste 16 little soldiers, i think the weapon is not so small, then maybe it can work. It is anyway the worst case. UGV take more that 1 slot. But maybe there is way to improve the layout of this little id card. Bars under the head, or i dont know... Vertical weapon will looks strange (or we should use vertical weapon everywhere).


About http://i55.tinypic.com/2utq26x.jpg
* about the left-hand. I think it is not the better position now. I mean, now there is no a left-weapon on the left corner and right-weapon on the right corner. Then, i think it is better to have them near together. Plus, i think the left-hand width can be smaller (need to check it) cause it can't be a big weapon. And maybe we anyway can fold in too.
* about floors, i dont think it is a good idea. We can test it anyway, it should be easy. But i think map often dont have a lot of level, if we only display what it is need, we already reduce a lot the size, and we also can reduce the width of unselected level.
* about soldier selection, we shouls have nothing other the weapon (cause the popup), and it really can be veryvery small. And it is really important to have a clear graphical separation between soldier info and this selectors.
* the soldier name must be somewhere, somewhere near the head

Offline H-Hour

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2010, 12:15:51 am »
If you choose to split the HUD into two panels we must switch between, would it be possible to keep the current HUD as another alternate, please?

Offline mor2

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2010, 01:27:50 am »
@bayo, i know you can make them small, the question is if you should?

wasn't this one of the biggest critics regarding UFO:ET interface that the portraits was too small and that it wasnt personal enough?
also if we make the weapons so small, does it matter if we actually draw them or make an icon to represent what they are, its not like we have such huge verity and i for once prefer to know if its a sniper/heavy/closecombat/etc so i know what role this soldier play in my team.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2010, 01:45:17 am by mor2 »

Offline Destructavator

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2010, 02:50:38 am »
 ???

Forgive me if I'm sounding like an idiot when I say this, but I'm not sure what "JA2" stands for or refers to, and in skimming back through this and the other GUI design thread I haven't seen what it means spelled out.

Do you mean this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagged_Alliance_2

?

(This is what came up as a top result in Google.  Before you ask, no, I've never played it and I'm really not familiar with it.)

Offline mor2

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2010, 03:10:16 am »
yep, Jagged_Alliance_2, one of the best tactical shooters, btw there is a new remake soon to be released and it doesnt seem like it is mainstreamed  :D
« Last Edit: October 25, 2010, 03:12:04 am by mor2 »

Offline Mattn

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2010, 07:35:41 am »
what is the name of it? a link available?

Offline mor2

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Re: JA2-like hud
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2010, 09:46:42 am »
Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded wiki, few screens probably wont be as good as 1.13 has become but still...

btw we are little of topic.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2010, 09:48:33 am by mor2 »