New, minimalistic battlescape HUD with transparency

[MCR]

Well, I also have some thoughts about how people learn to click the HUD buttons more like 'clicking the blue thing somewhere over there' while their attention is on the main screen.
This already happens for the crouch button and the crosshair button in the minimal HUD, but not yet for something like the IR-goggles button.
I mean, I still need to look at the row of buttons and consciously identify the button with the goggles icon.

I am thinking like maybe the buttons would be easier to learn the 'somewhere over there' way if they were arranged not in a line but in a good arch, maybe like boobs?
I think I found the menus and nodes in the wiki.
Not decided yet, I might want to experiment with some HUDs also : )

Best place to look for the scripts responsible for the UI is base/ufos/ui, the UI code is located in src/client/ui.

If such experiment would be successful, the same principle might be suitable for other applications as well wherever there are heavy-duty toolbar buttons.
Not like text editors perhaps, but like graphics editors, like GIMP.

Hehe, you are right on that one. I always end up searching that GIMP Clone and Measure tool buttons
Unfortunately designing a UI for UFO:AI is not like drag & drop - especially hard is that you have to restart after changing a UI script, so it is quite time-intensive. So a in-game feature to reload the scripts on the fly is number one on my ufo wishlist for quite a while now

Anyway, a new version of the Minimal HUD has been pushed to master. This one features:

1. Getting rid of the bottom_right panel completely (level selector), new minimalistic level selector implemented (implemented pretty much homunculus' idea)
2. Implemented possibility for easy switch of the weapon hand via LMB/RMB click below the weapon container inside the weapon window (this just works in the bottom part of the weapon window, beside the ammostring and behind the switch-hand-arrows, otherwise the mouseover tooltip showing weapon details would have been lost)
3. Work on tooltips
4. Integrated number of spotted enemies string and end turn button into main panel
5. Implemented rank display for the main panel (currently disabled, still WIP)
6. Redesigned uperright panel (now with buttons to control the music [Stop, PlayNextRandomTrack]), I finally implemented this badly needed feature, which now allows the player to change the track playing or stop the music completely for a silent battlescape (also useful for maps which already use background music placed on the maps, like city_disco)
7. Minor position fixes

Here are 2 screenies of the actual master version:

[MCR]

The second one:

[Crystan]

6. Redesigned uperright panel (now with buttons to control the music [Stop, PlayNextRandomTrack]), I finally implemented this badly needed feature, which now allows the player to change the track playing or stop the music completely for a silent battlescape (also useful for maps which already use background music placed on the maps, like city_disco)

I actually think we should remove the ambience music from city_disco.

[MCR]

I actually think we should remove the ambience music from city_disco.

I just replaced it as you requested, so ? 

Upgraded the inventory and physdata windows a bit also:

[Crystan]

I just replaced it as you requested, so ? 

Well i thought people would dislike the idea because/or its too much work.

[geever]

Uh, what are those ugly buttons on top-right?

-geever

[Crystan]

6. Redesigned uperright panel (now with buttons to control the music [Stop, PlayNextRandomTrack]), I finally implemented this badly needed feature, which now allows the player to change the track playing or stop the music completely for a silent battlescape

[Nutter]

Or simply play something else alltogether.

[Mattn]

nice job, but:

* i think you are using too much colors that don't fit the rest of the ui
* the music button icons doesn't look good imo.
* not sure whether the music buttons should be on a hud. we should have such an option, yes, but not on the hud imo. a dedicated menu would be better

[MCR]

/offtopic on

Well i thought people would dislike the idea because/or its too much work.

I can remove it from the city_disco map, but another solution would be to simply adjust volume and attenuation levels, so that the sound would just be audible when the camera is near the inside of the disco, where the speakers are...
The overall problem with our ambient soundfx is that: Just a few maps have a few ambient sounds correctly adjusted (attenuation & volume), not because the functionality is not here, as the audio code is working perfectly for some time now, but because someone has to invest the time and workforce to go through all the maps setting up a good ambient sound atmosphere, like H-Hour already has done for the alienbase map for example.
Maybe I get to that some day, but help would be appreciated here

/offtopic off

Uh, what are those ugly buttons on top-right?

-geever

A nice way to tell me that you do not like the look . Do not worry - these are just first placeholder button versions - I am not satisfied with the look of them either & they will get improved soonish.

Or simply play something else alltogether.

This functionality was already implemented into the sound options menu quite a while ago, where you can turn off the music completely while still having soundfx playing - So you can run audacious or winamp or whatever with your favorite tracks in the background and turn off in-game music completely... .

The music control panel is not meant to work that way - Its purpose is to give the player, who plays with the in-game soundtrack enabled, the possibility to

1. Turn off the battlescape-music for a specific mission or turn on/off the battlescape-music whenever
2. Play the next random track if the player dislikes a specific tune or simply does not want to hear it looped once again on a long mission

* i think you are using too much colors that don't fit the rest of the ui

The colors used (for the soldier stat numbers [health, morale , TUs, TUs reserved]) have the same color coding like the bars, so they could be more quickly identified, but I agree that the look is not perfect - I will see what I can do to improve that (maybe use the color coding in the transparent background, while leaving the text color white...)

* the music button icons doesn't look good imo.

I agree & will modify them to fit in better soonish.

* not sure whether the music buttons should be on a hud. we should have such an option, yes, but not on the hud imo. a dedicated menu would be better

It is more or less a dedicated menu (or better panel), where just the buttons for music control, message log (not implemented yet) & options menu reside.
You can turn it off (hide the panel) completely, so it will not disturb the view anymore (see screenshot)...
The panel setting will be remembered, so you can adjust the MinimalHUD to your liking once (turn on/off top/bottom panels, show/hide deco) and on the next battlescape mission your HUD starts like adjusted before. 

A additional option (also for the other HUDs) would be to add 2 keyboard shortcuts for music control, so the player could also switch track or stop the musac via key (when using the other HUDs for example).

[MCR]

Update:

* New versions for stop and playnext buttons (128x128 pixel)
* Updated bar_right_mini and bar_selbox (white glow)

* MiniHUD: Work on bottom (soldierselection) panel:

* 1. Added strings with soldiernumbers for easy identification of the soldiers
* 2. Soldier selection via left or right mousebutton
* 3. Shadows for the soldiernumbers
* 4. Tooltips
* 5. New positioning for the changed selectbox with additional white glow

* MiniHUD other changes:

* 1. Enabled mini rank display in the main panel beside the soldiername (valid in campaign mode only)
* 2. Removed the color from the spotted ememies string
* 3. Font from ammo-, health-, morale-, TUs & TUs reserved- strings is not bold anymore

Forgot to tell you about the Physdata window changes:

* 1. Removed the color from the health- and moralestrings
* 2. Added transparent, grayscale skill and attribute bars in the background
* 3. Slow rotation of the soldier model

[MCR]

disabled top panel & decoration:

[MCR]

I've implemented a visual leveldisplay (levelselector).
Give it a try

[homunculus]

[...]
* the music button icons doesn't look good imo.
* not sure whether the music buttons should be on a hud. we should have such an option, yes, but not on the hud imo. a dedicated menu would be better

what we need is not a music button, or a good-looking music button, but units, the drummer and the piper at least, who raise the morale of the troops as they march into battle in phalanx formation.
/offtopic

Being able to add my own music to the music list played by the game would be great : )
Maybe it is already possible somehow, and I just don't know about it?

[MCR]

/offtopic

@homunculus: Take a look @ base/ufos/music.ufo or turn off the music in the sound options menu and use a mediaplayer with your tracks in the background