UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Design => Topic started by: MCR on November 25, 2011, 11:48:15 am
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I have implemented a derivate of the Alternative HUD called Minimal HUD. You can activate the new HUD in the gameplay options in latest master.
It features transparency and some other fine enhancements.
It is fully working, but will nevertheless get improved in the near future as I have a few ideas already...
Please test it and comment here.
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One question would be if we want the partially transparent backgrounds for our other HUDs (Normal/Alternative) also ?
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The most recent version adds several features like:
* 1. Prepared bar_right.png background panel for additional information and buttons
* 2. Added additional Real-Time TU bars under the actor's name inclusive tooltips
* 3. Maximized space for the actor's name to avoid truncation
* 4. Better tooltip explaining how to open the inventory/physical stats windows
AAAND
* Added possibility to show/hide the top/soldier/level panels to the Minimal HUD making the HUD deserve its name (see screenie) 8)
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Nice Idea! I love a clean screen. Is there a chance you reduce the size of the soldier bar by removing the heads or add it as a additional option? :) I also would suggest to put the weapon bar in the right corner and move the level panel to the "option bar" in the right upper corner. And is there an way to remove the "metal grey" background so only the important things are shown like buttons, info etc. (take a look at the scnd screen)?
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Is there a chance you reduce the size of the soldier bar by removing the heads or add it as a additional option? :)
Would be possible ofc. Currently you can just disable the whole soldier panel. I'll think about the best way to implement it.
I also would suggest to put the weapon bar in the right corner and move the level panel to the "option bar" in the right upper corner.
This sounds easy, but is a lot of work code-wise. I agree that the main panel (weapon) should end up at the bottom right position of the screen and it is planned to implement this.
The level panel might be moved to the lower left corner then as its height is the same like that of the soldiers panel.
And is there an way to remove the "metal grey" background so only the important things are shown like buttons, info etc. (take a look at the scnd screen)?
This would also be possible by using a second set of panel backgrounds. Seems like an idea worth to try. I'll think about a good implementation.
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Minimal HUD Upgrade making it even more minimalistic ;)
The player now is able to turn the whole deco on/off also for ultra-minimalistic experience. 8)
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Love it.
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Minimal HUD Upgrade making it even more minimalistic ;)
The player now is able to turn the whole deco on/off also for ultra-minimalistic experience. 8)
You're working well MCR.. I just started using it today and it's shining - so much easier to use.. ;) :)
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Love it.
You're working well MCR.. I just started using it today and it's shining - so much easier to use.. ;) :)
Thanx. 8)
Another Upgrade:
* 1. changed font sizes for better readability
* 2. changed text shadow angles
* 3. Added new Show/Hide buttons for the Physical Data, Inventory, Radar and Help windows to be able to access all of those without knowledge of the key shortcuts
* 4. new positions for the show/hide panel buttons
* 5. Fixed/added some tooltips
* 6. Added disabled skeleton-code for future music control panel show/hide button
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Again nice! Oh anyone tried to pronounce the name of Mr. Zwfwz? Wait... wears that alien a red jeans? :P
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Tried out the hud and I got some comments, maybe you find something useful.
* 3. Added new Show/Hide buttons for the Physical Data, Inventory, Radar and Help windows to be able to access all of those without knowledge of the key shortcuts
Pressing 'i' did not seem to open the inventory screen, at least in the version I am using (the recent nightly build, I guess).
I usually find it more convenient to open inventory with mouse, though, just the 'inv' button being so small caused me to try out the keyboard.
Maybe the inventory button could be larger, because some players might want to lob grenades and use plasma blades quite often?
There is a big picture of the weapon in hand, maybe it could function as 'use weapon' button, and this way the crosshair button could be gotten rid of?
Or it could switch the weapon hand, or at least the button that switches the weapon hand does not need a direction (only two hands, you know, it's either one or the other, and some recycle button would be sufficient).
Though myself I would find it more convenient if both weapons were visible, but that is not exactly minimal anymore (and would be even more convenient not needing to open inventory screen for belt and holster items, and whatever).
The problem with two weapons not being visible is that when I lob a grenade or use a medkit on one soldier then I have to switch back on the primary hand on the next soldier to shoot the primary weapon.
The original hud crouch button is more obviously identifiable than the arrows button in the minimal hud.
There is already a tooltip at the numbers (health, morale, and time units), and the numbers have different color, so there should not be much trouble understanding what the numbers are for, without the picture behind the number.
The picture just makes the numbers harder to read, and the numbers over the picture makes the picture hard to see.
Maybe it would go well with the minimalism to put the panel with the 'end turn' button at the top of the soldier panel, so there would not be panels all over the place.
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Pressing 'i' did not seem to open the inventory screen, at least in the version I am using (the recent nightly build, I guess).
You are right. This was not planned. I will investigate what is causing this and fix it.
I usually find it more convenient to open inventory with mouse, though, just the 'inv' button being so small caused me to try out the keyboard.
Maybe the inventory button could be larger, because some players might want to lob grenades and use plasma blades quite often?
You can open the inventory via LMB-click on the soldier's name also.
There is a big picture of the weapon in hand, maybe it could function as 'use weapon' button, and this way the crosshair button could be gotten rid of?
Or it could switch the weapon hand, or at least the button that switches the weapon hand does not need a direction (only two hands, you know, it's either one or the other, and some recycle button would be sufficient).
How about adding the possibility to switch the weapon hand via LMB/RMB click on the weapon ?
Though myself I would find it more convenient if both weapons were visible, but that is not exactly minimal anymore (and would be even more convenient not needing to open inventory screen for belt and holster items, and whatever).
The problem with two weapons not being visible is that when I lob a grenade or use a medkit on one soldier then I have to switch back on the primary hand on the next soldier to shoot the primary weapon.
Maybe I'll implement a feature to automagically switch to the right hand weapon when the player switches the soldier, or, even more advanced, implement a feature so the HUD will remember the recently used hand for each soldier to fix this problem...
The original hud crouch button is more obviously identifiable than the arrows button in the minimal hud.
Most of the button-gfx come straight from the Alternative HUD, maybe those buttons get some gfx-tuning in the future also...
There is already a tooltip at the numbers (health, morale, and time units), and the numbers have different color, so there should not be much trouble understanding what the numbers are for, without the picture behind the number.
The picture just makes the numbers harder to read, and the numbers over the picture makes the picture hard to see.
I am not satisfied with the look of that one either, readability of this one will be fixed soon also.
Maybe it would go well with the minimalism to put the panel with the 'end turn' button at the top of the soldier panel, so there would not be panels all over the place.
You can hide the whole panel and end the turn with "e" also.
Thanks for testing and the detailed review, I will implement the improvements soonish 8)
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How about adding the possibility to switch the weapon hand via LMB/RMB click on the weapon ?
There are some pretty strong reasons to use one-handed weapons, people have done it before and will most probably be doing it in the future.
A somewhat unusual example might be grenade and knife as main weapons and pistol as sidearm (wrote the reasons in my recent post in tactics forum in favorite weapons).
So, how am I supposed to know which arrow button I am supposed to click to switch the visible hand?
I'll try to break it down a bit.
First, the player will have to learn which side is the right side and which is the left side, and that depends on the point of view (facing the player as in original HUD has it the other way round).
Second, if it is like sniper rifle in the main hand, and a grenade in the off-hand, then there is no confusion, but with one-handed weapons in both hands, how am I supposed to know if I need to switch to the left hand or to the right hand?
Third, the 'either one or the other hand' makes the two directional buttons perfectly superfluous.
All this hassle can be avoided by treating it as 'switch hands'.
If there is some principal reason why you want the player to learn which is the right side and which is the left side in your HUD, I think the better solution would be to only show the 'right' button when the left hand is showing and replace it by 'left' button when the right hand is showing (with the additional benefit of indicating which hand it is that is currently visible).Maybe I'll implement a feature to automagically switch to the right hand weapon when the player switches the soldier, or, even more advanced, implement a feature so the HUD will remember the recently used hand for each soldier to fix this problem...
The extra click (which will very soon become a thousand extra clicks while playing) cannot be avoided if only one hand is shown, and I very much doubt that changing the current system would improve anything.
I was actually not trying to suggest that this minimal HUD should do something differently about this issue, just pointing out the general problem with showing only one hand.
As for the LMB and RMB, I would suggest to get rid of the 'inv' button if LMB on soldier name would duplicate it.
Because clicking on the soldier name is more convenient, and the presence of the 'inv' button does not force players to find that functionality (so the 'inv' button and the other duplicate buttons are hiding the more convenient functionality in a way).
More generally I think making GUI in C should be considered a fossil nowadays.
I am thinking like 'why such nonstandard semi-completely functional solutions and not some GUI framework?' all the time, but I understand such thing might be difficult for this game.
Also, nowadays mouses have wheels, you know : )
The most natural way to, say, switch weapon, would be mouse wheel in my opinion.
Also, scrolling through the list of soldiers could be done with mouse wheel on the soldier name panel, and changing the elevation level (I mean, which floor is shown) would be more natural as mouse wheel on the elevation button.
Ok, the weapon image.
Could be LMB to shoot, and RMB to switch hands.
But I would rather suggest it this way:
LMB = shoot
RMB = reload
wheel (no matter what direction) = switch hands
Also, instead of showing just total reserved TU, I would rather appreciate the name and TU of reaction fire.
And, as pointed out somewhere, there seems to be no reason to use 'one shot reaction fire', and therefore 'reaction fire' vs 'no reaction fire' would be sufficient.
Reaction fire could also be scrollable button (no reaction fire, firemode 1, firemode 2, etc.) somehow, but no idea how that might look like.
So, yeah, the minimal HUD in my mind would look like this:
1) Soldier name.
2) Weapon image (maybe with reaction fire toggle on top of it, say, in lower corner).
3) Crouch toggle.
4) IR-goggles button.
5) Elevation level button (just one, scrollable with mouse wheel, and LMB/RMB if you will).
Anyway, it seems I got like... interested, and made a mockup. Minimalism FTW.
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Pressing 'i' did not seem to open the inventory screen, at least in the version I am using (the recent nightly build, I guess).
This issue is now fixed in latest master version.
Several improvements and fixes have already been pushed to master also. Those include:
AltHUD & MiniHUD: only show the possible arrow for left/right hand switch, implemented the possibility to switch the levels via mousewheel also, added possibility to reload the weapon via LMB click on the ammostring
MiniHUD: Removed the color and darkened the backgound symbols for better readability of the stat numbers, fixed soldier decoration display for less than 8 soldiers
Future improvements are already WIP. Those include getting completely rid of the seperate levelselector panel and the top right panel and integrating all of the functionality into the main panel.
homunculus, I've already fixed the weapon hand arrow issue, soonish there will be another additional possbility to switch hands easily added, the levelselector will soon be implemented the way you suggested (good idea btw.), you already can test the mousewheel ;)
You can reload now by LMB clicking the ammostring.
The reaction-fire code is currently under heavy development, so the HUD (& respective buttons) will be optimized, when the next version of RF is fully implemented.
homunculus, thanks for all the other ideas and suggestions also, you may find some of those implemented soonish also ;)
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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 : )
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.
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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:
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The second one:
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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. ;)
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I actually think we should remove the ambience music from city_disco. ;)
I just replaced it as you requested, so ? :o
Upgraded the inventory and physdata windows a bit also:
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I just replaced it as you requested, so ? :o
Well i thought people would dislike the idea because/or its too much work. ::)
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Uh, what are those ugly buttons on top-right?
-geever
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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
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Or simply play something else alltogether.
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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
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/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. 8)
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).
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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
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disabled top panel & decoration:
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I've implemented a visual leveldisplay (levelselector).
Give it a try :)
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[...]
* 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?
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/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
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To use my own music i disable music (it works with TV and radio too)
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Update:
* 1. Thicker and longer bars with 70% opacity for the bottom panel (soldierselection)
* 2. Thicker real-time TU-bars with 80% opacity (main panel)
* 3. MouseWheelUp also switches view to next visible enemy
* 4. Fixed "Ammo>99 was not correctly displayed" bug
* 5. Delete cvar:mn_icon_level and cvar:mn_chrrank_img (if existent == in campaign mode) on window close
* 6. Enable reload by RMB click on the weapon container
* 7. Work on tooltips and comments
* 8. Mousewheel over the soldiername cycles through living soldiers now
* 9. Mousewheel for soldier selection now works over large parts of the bottom panel also (everywhere, except over deco or bars), work on tooltips
Screenie 1:
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Screenie 2:
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Update:
1. Changed angles of the head models in the bottom panel (not the final version)
2. Fixed "head7 off by 8 points"
3. Mousewheel over realtime TU bars now switches soldiers also
4. Added possibility to switch to previous visible enemy by RMB and to cycle through visible enemies by mousewheel
5. Buttons for music control (stop, forward) now glow on mouseover
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Update:
1. Allow switching of the visible weapon hand by mousewheel (valid over weaponcontainer and below of it, also on top of the weaponstring)
2. Changed invisible panel easy_hand_switch to button to allow usage of the mousewheel
3. Updated tooltips
4. Removed redundant chat button and fixed button background rendering for multiplayer
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Update (once again):
1. Fixed chat button background rendering by removing the double definition of the chat button background image (bar_chat_bg)
2. 90% opacity for the borders, minor fixes for bar_right_mini
3. Fixed unsafe usage of ui_addcvarlistener by using the new cvarlistener (thanx, Bayo)
4. Fixed incorrect display of soldiernumbers for < 8 soldiers, minor color adjustments, comments
5. Reduced code duplication by optimizing the show/hide panel buttons
You can switch to the new HUD in the options menu in latest master:
Options -> Gameplay -> Battlescape Gameplay Settings -> HUD Design -> Minimal HUD
Please help testing it and report issues here.
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Guess what ;D:
Update:
1. Fixed interaction with the battlefield outside of the main panel while preventing that interaction inside of it
2. Fixed missing interaction possibility with the battlefield outside of the top panel
3. Added possibility for interaction with the battlefield outside of the bottom (soldier) panel
4. Fixed some issues with the decoration introduced with recent optimizations
5. Replaced all excluderect code
6. Ghost property for the soldiernumberstrings
7. Added mouseover effects to all numberstrings (bold on mouseover)
8. Soldiernumberstring of the selected soldier is now white as well
9. Added ghost property to nodes, where mouseover detection is not needed
10. Respective bars (of the selected soldier) get 100% opacity and gain brightness on mouseover on the string (health, morale, TUs)
11. Minor changes to tooltips/comments
As always:
Please help testing it and report issues here.
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MCR, this project looks really interesting, but I guess I have to ask a stupid question...where's the download link?
:o
Thanks for your work.
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Theres no dl needed. The HUD is featured in the nightly builds
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updated the game and played with the min hud a bit.
I think it is good that you have increased the size of the levels button, because while the mouse is over the levels button, the level number and the icon are covered by the cursor so that the player cannot see it.
is it really necessary to show all the help in tooltips, maybe show the level number instead?
well, that's a matter of taste, as you are probably aware i decided to take a different approach in my own hud.
putting the end turn button near the other buttons, as i remember it was my own suggestion, might have not been such a good suggestion, because people develop automatisms, which means that when they see a button they click it before they think what it does (sounds stupid, but it is true), and i accidentally managed to click end turn twice when i didn't really intend to.
conventionally, as far as i remember examples, end turn is always in the very lower right corner of the screen, it might be worth experimenting with moving it to the right edge at least, if it is to stay more or less where it is right now.
by experimenting i mean that the right edge is also something that might be intuitive and therefore useful for some other button.
i was bit surprised that the hide\show functionality (default hud, if i remember correctly, but also min hud) uses lmb for opening a window, and rmb for closing it.
as far as i have seen that functionality in gui frameworks, the same mouse button is used for both opening and closing.
for example, the player might want to just view the soldier stats window, click nothing there, just view it and close it, then it might be slightly more convenient not to make the player coordinate between lmb and rmb.
and, as the standard that the player expects might be that hide/show works with the same mouse button, then if it doesn't, and the player is not saintly careful, the player might not notice that the other mouse button is needed for closing and might derive that the hide/show just does not work correctly.
(lol, lots of text on such small thing)
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MCR, this project looks really interesting, but I guess I have to ask a stupid question...where's the download link?
:o
Thanks for your work.
The MiniHUD works with recent master versions (v2.4dev) only, because it utilizes latest ufo:ai tech. You cannot use it with other, older versions of the game.
Theres no dl needed. The HUD is featured in the nightly builds
Well, a download of a recent UFO:AI version is still necessary ;)
You can ofc also use Muton's tool for Windows to keep the game up-to-date, or download a nightly build from our Downloads page to try it out.
I think it is good that you have increased the size of the levels button, because while the mouse is over the levels button, the level number and the icon are covered by the cursor so that the player cannot see it.
is it really necessary to show all the help in tooltips, maybe show the level number instead?
?
The level number is shown already, why should I want to present the same info to the player via tooltip ?
well, that's a matter of taste, as you are probably aware i decided to take a different approach in my own hud.
Yes, I think tooltips are here to explain stuff ;). If you do not like/need them or find them disturbing you can turn them off in the options menu.
putting the end turn button near the other buttons, as i remember it was my own suggestion, might have not been such a good suggestion, because people develop automatisms, which means that when they see a button they click it before they think what it does (sounds stupid, but it is true), and i accidentally managed to click end turn twice when i didn't really intend to.
It is the only button there. It is twice as big as other buttons on the main control panel to make it stand out more.
You suggested to put it on top of the soldier panel, which is not a good solution for my design.
The thing with clicking a button before knowing what it does really just sounds stupid, should I come back to tooltips ? ;)
Twice ??? ?
conventionally, as far as i remember examples, end turn is always in the very lower right corner of the screen, it might be worth experimenting with moving it to the right edge at least, if it is to stay more or less where it is right now.
by experimenting i mean that the right edge is also something that might be intuitive and therefore useful for some other button.
No, as I am very happy with the current position. It does not need long ways to get the mousecursor there and having the end-turn button on the main panel makes sense to me as well.
But the look of the button might change in the near future to make it easier identifiable 4 the player.
i was bit surprised that the hide\show functionality (default hud, if i remember correctly, but also min hud) uses lmb for opening a window, and rmb for closing it.
as far as i have seen that functionality in gui frameworks, the same mouse button is used for both opening and closing.
for example, the player might want to just view the soldier stats window, click nothing there, just view it and close it, then it might be slightly more convenient not to make the player coordinate between lmb and rmb.
and, as the standard that the player expects might be that hide/show works with the same mouse button, then if it doesn't, and the player is not saintly careful, the player might not notice that the other mouse button is needed for closing and might derive that the hide/show just does not work correctly.
(lol, lots of text on such small thing)
Tooltips are there to explain all of that to the player and LMB/RMB buttons are used consistently for showing/hiding buttons (soldier & top panels, decoration). Also you can close inventory and physdata windows with the RMB as well.
But I get your point here and have noticed some players really might have problems to check that the green lights are actually buttons, that is why recent versions use mouseover effects for those buttons as well.
Thanx 4 your review. (As always) I will consider your points.
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Upgrade:
1. Update for the soldier selectbox background gfx
2. New versions for on/off buttons gfx (on/show==green, off/hide==red)
3. New background gfx for the Physdata & Inventory HUD windows (seperating deco & inside)
4. New on/off mouseoverfx-icons
5. New MiniHUD background mouseover-gfx
6. Close the Inventory window if the Physdata window is already open and vice versa
7. Inventory deco and inside are two seperate background gfx now
8. Ability to hide the decoration for Inventory/Physdat windows as well
9. 90% Opacity for the TU bars to make them more visible
10. Hide soldiernumberstrings for dead soldiers
11. Minor changes to comments
12. Main Control Panel now is built up from multiple inner parts (enemy, civilian, level, name, info, hand)
13. Level Control: Changed position and enhanced clickable area
14. Enemy Camera Control: Now green if no enemies visible, background turns red when enemies in sight, hide string if no enemy visible
15. Hover Effects for all inner parts of the control panel (enemy, civilian, level, name, info, hand)
16. Hide morale, TUs & TUs reserved strings if they are 0
17. New hover effects for the show/hide on/off buttons to make it more obvious for the player that he can interact with them
18. Closing the Inventory/Physdat windows if decoration is switched, so those can update (consistency: all deco is on or off)
19. Removed a unused confunc
20. cvar:mn_minihud_enabled gets created onWindowOpened and deleted onWindowClosed (needed for Physdata & Inventory window checks)
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?
The level number is shown already, why should I want to present the same info to the player via tooltip ?
Because when the player is using the levels button, the mouse cursor is over the button, and especially when the button was smaller like it previously was, the mouse cursor covered the level number and the level number was not visible while using the button.
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I forgot those:
* Implemented "smart" weapon hand behaviour - the weaponhand gets now stored and restored for each soldier
* The cvars created for storing the info about the weaponhand get deleted onWindowClose (stored just for 1 battle)
* More verbose tooltips for the info panel (TUs and TUs_reserved now display the cvar:mn_tu_tooltips)
* Enlarged the area on top of the namestring the player can interact with (Wheel:Cycle soldiers/LMB:Inventory/RMB:Physdata)
* Actor string's font now also turns bold if the manipulatable area is hovered
* Spotted enemies string is now red to better blend in with the background
* Better structuring of the code, work on comments
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MiniHUD Upgrade (mainly for the soldier selection panel)
* 1.Simplified the way the inside of the soldier panel is built up
* 2.Added mouseover fx to the soldier panel
* 3.Grayscale background for dead soldiers
* 4.Replaced the bold soldierstring on mouseover with a more decent colorswitch from grey to white
* 5.Minor colorchange for the soldiernumberstring of the selected soldier to white
* 6.Removed unused cvarlistener
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Good to see you keep working on this. I like it.
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Nice work, a couple details tough:
- I think it should be possible to close the firemodes menu clicking the fire button or right clicking the menu itself or something, right now I can only close it by clicking in another button - like reaction fire one - which isn't very intuitive, and a little annoying when all I want is choosing the reaction fire mode.
- Since I'm translating to Spanish I couldn't help notice that the HUD name (minimal HUD) isn't up for translation
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DarkRain, thanx 4 your comments :)
1. This is still WIP and behaving the same way like the altHUD does (because it is derived from that HUD), but there are plans to improve this behaviour
2. :o I do not know how to fix that :'(
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Looking forward your new improvements
Also I think you are only missing an underscore to make the name translatable
from hud_alt.ufo:
func onScriptLoaded {
// Register the window to the HUD list
cmd "add_hud_name <path:root> \"_Alternative HUD\""
}
form hud_mini.ufo:
func onScriptLoaded {
// Register the window to the HUD list
cmd "add_hud_name <path:root> \"Minimal HUD\""
}
You are missing an underscore here ^^
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Which make me think, the translatable string is IMO unparsable by the pot generator... i can be wrong
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MiniHUD and Skirmish mode support up to 12 soldiers in v2.5dev now:
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Is this aliens invading an alien base ?
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Nothing like a civil war to spice things up.