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The User Interface - Appearance and Organization

Started by townscape, November 05, 2009, 01:21:31 PM

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toberas

Quote from: croxis on May 13, 2010, 03:28:13 PM
The function of a pie menu is that it adds direction in addition to order. A traditional line menu (sc4) only has order. This results in pie menus being drastically faster to navigate and use than traditional menus. Using a scrolling arc will eliminate the power of direction.

Thanks, you say what I meant better than I could. And in so much less words too :)

Nique

#81
I think we all agree with this radial menu by now? It has huge power when we combine it with a tagging system. My only concern related with this menu is zoning types. Because according to the draft, it is slightly different from SC4.

For example:

  • Environmental

    • Parks

      • Public

        • Grass parks
        • Ponds
        • etc.
    • Sports

      • Amateur

        • Simple city sponsored sport complexes
        • Sport fields
      • Professional

        • for example: Football clubs (with stadium)
        • etc..
    • Tools

      • Road (noise) barriers
      • etc..

  • Residential

    • Rural

      • Mansions, villas. (high wealth)
      • Farm houses, villages/hamlets. (medium/low wealth)
    • Suburbian

      • Typical village buildings, row houses etc

        • Small
        • Medium
        • Dense
    • Urban

      • small
      • medium
      • dense
and so on

I also want to keep the 'zone demand' displayed on the screen. And i liked it to be on the bottom of the screen, because it is natural to have a 'interface' of 'what you need' at the bottom and an 'interface of what you have' on the top (see warcraft, starcraft etc). But because we do not need resources our selves the top bar is not needed. But a city hall overview (and a small version of that on the bottom right like in SC4, (financial stuff)) will be great.

It is natural to have 'the control panel' at the bottom of the screen. A train driver doesn't have his controls above the window either ;)
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croxis

I'm a big fan of top bars. We need a good way of providing quick information without being clunky. In most games I have played (Star Craft, Civilization4 and Civ5) resource data is at the top of the screen. It is an established convention that keeps a cleaner interface than sc4, which looks increasingly clunky as it ages.

townscape

#83
This was already posted on the third page, but here you are a layout:



don't mind the build menu, the image was taken before the discussions

larger image in  gallery

funny how I link the banner to the only place I ever post :)
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Nique

#84
Quote from: croxis on May 12, 2010, 08:41:50 AM
we do have a chat room ya know ;)
Yes, but here your text will be stored..  ()stsfd()

Quote from: townscape on May 14, 2010, 08:05:43 AM
This was already posted on the third page, but here you are a layout:

(image)

don't mind the build menu, the image was taken before the discussions

larger image in  gallery
I know that image. It's something i meant. But i think it is too 'city xl ish'. :)

Quote from: croxis on May 14, 2010, 08:03:47 AM
I'm a big fan of top bars. We need a good way of providing quick information without being clunky. In most games I have played (Star Craft, Civilization4 and Civ5) resource data is at the top of the screen. It is an established convention that keeps a cleaner interface than sc4, which looks increasingly clunky as it ages.

Overview on the top
Controls on the bottom
Proudly developer of

Jonathan

Actually why not build the UI to be very basic simple menu. Then you can create the game and UI mods can be made. As your not going to satisfy everyone with one UI.

croxis



townscape

#88
anyway...

Here is a restyle of the original interface:


larger image here

my main goal was to make it available for greyscale:


would it translate correctly if it used the color property in panda3d blend mode?
do you like it? ()stsfd()

funny how I link the banner to the only place I ever post :)
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croxis

Like I said in chat. I love it. I am very egar to getting this in.

townscape

Here is a circle menu button with all phases and a symbol to go with it for tests:
Download

filename:Icon_test.zip
size: very small (29.26 KB)

funny how I link the banner to the only place I ever post :)
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tomkeus

townscape, these button shapes are kind of a problem because they can fit well only onto the radial menu of particular radius. Remember, each new submenu level has greater radius and radial menu I've coded supports arbitrary number of submenu levels.
#define TRUE FALSE /*Happy debugging suckers*/

townscape

All my earlier examples used this button and in my opinion they looked normal.
In my design I use slightly smaller buttons for additional submenus.

could you show me an example of not fitting well?
or would you rather have another form? how about a similar one but of smaller width?

Did the grayscale button work properly at least or should I give you one with a black background?

funny how I link the banner to the only place I ever post :)
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croxis

I believe they are not intended to fix tougether and touch, but have some space in between them like in the sample shots.

tomkeus

#define TRUE FALSE /*Happy debugging suckers*/

Nique

Proudly developer of

townscape

do we need one? hmm... does it have to be constantly on the screen? do we use it that often? I could place it in the upper left corner...

funny how I link the banner to the only place I ever post :)
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DanniBee

Yeah, make a little tab so it could be expanded ;D

toberas

Townscape, what will it look like in 'statistics'-view because it seems to me that the lower right bar is too small to show overlays and statistics. Will it be another floating menu, will it expand or is there another plan for it?

townscape

Quote from: toberas on May 18, 2010, 01:27:18 PM
what will it look like in 'statistics'-view because it seems to me that the lower right bar is too small to show overlays and statistics
my thought was that overlays will display around 6 most used or important overlay options and clicking it would show the full list and a minimap or top view

and we can take out the statistics from the panel and show it when pressing the demand chart displayed in the lower bar

Another issue to be raised what enters every submenu:

zoning options can be simple and not so branched out:

Residential:
-low density
-medium density
-high density

Commercial
-low density (includes small shops and offices)
-medium density
-high density
-mixed use

Industrial
-agriculture
-industrial (buildings grow by demand)

Let's not forget that the less zoning types the more challenge you get in limiting industrial pollution, getting a clean neighborhood, etc.

What about other categories?

Beautification:
-Terraforming
-Trees
-Parks
-Plazas? (as a separate category?)
-Recreational?
-Labels

Transportation:
-Busses
-Trams
-Rail
-Subway
-Airports
-Ports

Roads:
-Roads
-Highways

Public Services:
-Fire safety
-Police security
-Healthcare
-Education
-Landmarks (rewards)

Utilities:
-Water
-Power
-Garbage

Discussion is welcome and even needed, everyone is invited to comment

funny how I link the banner to the only place I ever post :)
The Greatest place to get a game name