Planetary Surface View Display

[MikkoM]

This seems like a perfect place for my question. Now are there any plans on displaying images of the planets surfaces in the production screen so that when you click on a planet to build for example a defence platform or etc. on it you would get to see some sort of an image on what kind of a surface that planet has? For example as in this picture:

http://freeorion.sourceforge.net/screen ... etview.jpg

This was certainly one thing that MOO3 was sadly lacking as you could only see the planet from a space kind of view. This might seem like an insignificant issue, but at least personally I would love to get as much involved in the game as possible and through these images you could really see the conditions in which your people are living as you manage your empire. Or will this issue be decided in 0.6 together with the ground combat system?

Damn I have been away too long, since it took me forever to complete this message.

[EDIT] spilt from a terragen topic

[eleazar]

This seems like a perfect place for my question. Now are there any plans on displaying images of the planets surfaces in the production screen so that when you click on a planet to build for example a defence platform or etc. on it you would get to see some sort of an image on what kind of a surface that planet has? For example as in this picture:

As more features and information is added, I expect we will need to reintroduce some kind of "planet window" — in a very different form than the example you linked to.
FreeOrion planets aren't subdivided into "regions" which individually have significance, and can be managed (nor do i think it should). So if you do get a view of the surface, (which you probably will in some form) it will be mostly static, nearly all eye-candy, not an interactive, unique representation of a planet.

...through these images you could really see the conditions in which your people are living as you manage your empire.

We do have plans to alter the planets appearance a bit as conditions change: more lights for more population, and craters and clouds of dust after battles. But what you are proposing would be extremely difficult to accomplish. The game does not happen on a planetary level. To build in all the visual detail to reflect info that is more easily and clearly expressed as a few numbers and bars in the sidebar would be a huge amount of work that would only obliquely advance the game.

[MikkoM]

As more features and information is added, I expect we will need to reintroduce some kind of "planet window" — in a very different form than the example you linked to.
FreeOrion planets aren't subdivided into "regions" which individually have significance, and can be managed (nor do i think it should). So if you do get a view of the surface, (which you probably will in some form) it will be mostly static, nearly all eye-candy, not an interactive, unique representation of a planet.

We do have plans to alter the planets appearance a bit as conditions change: more lights for more population, and craters and clouds of dust after battles. But what you are proposing would be extremely difficult to accomplish. The game does not happen on a planetary level. To build in all the visual detail to reflect info that is more easily and clearly expressed as a few numbers and bars in the sidebar would be a huge amount of work that would only obliquely advance the game.

Well what I was proposing was to use at least the same kinds of pictures which you can see an example of behind the scout vessel in this image.

http://freeorion.sourceforge.net/screen ... etview.jpg

Where you can only see a couple of rocks and some nearby moon or a planet. I also thought that the same or at least a very similar image could be used for all the same kinds of planets so that all barren worlds would use that or a similar design.

I most certainly wasn`t proposing that we should try to make Terragen 2 kind of pictures for different regions of a planet. I would be really happy with only one picture of the planets surface per planet and maybe even per planet type. Although if you think about Earth for example only one picture wouldn`t of course tell the whole truth about the conditions on Earth as they are very different in the Sahara desert and in the Amazon rainforest for example.

Also I wasn`t thinking that the pictures should represent the colonies progress either, since doing that would undoubtedly take a huge amount of work.

So what I was really asking was just as you said: "mostly static, nearly all eye-candy" kind of view of the planets surface. That way the pictures could work like a book giving your mind some material to process and form its own view of the daily life on the planet.

[eleazar]

heh, i misunderstood.

we have images like that for most(all?) of the planet types. I expect they will be in the game somewhere.

[MikkoM]

heh, i misunderstood.

we have images like that for most(all?) of the planet types. I expect they will be in the game somewhere.

Yeah I thought you might have when I wrote that reply. I have also seen a couple of those pictures around here and was just wondering if they or similar ones are going to be used for the production window.

Now with these images you could also show a list of the buildings and orbitals built on that planet, which is one thing I remember Geoff the Medio once talking about and which still seems to be missing from the game. Or at least I couldn`t find info on the defence platform I build on my planet anywhere after the Sitrep.

These images with the info would also nicely cover the hole in the production screen, where there now only is the galaxy map behind it. This way the production screen would also match better with the Research screen which covers the whole area.

And by the way eleazar you have done very nice looking graphics suggestions to the game. It is always nice too see new motivated and skilful people on these forums.

[Geoff the Medio]

Now with these images you could also show a list of the buildings and orbitals built on that planet, which is one thing I remember Geoff the Medio once talking about and which still seems to be missing from the game. Or at least I couldn`t find info on the defence platform I build on my planet anywhere after the Sitrep.

Displaying that information doesn't depend on using background images. Check the threads about the sidepanel... in SVN, buildings are shown for each planet now.

These images with the info would also nicely cover the hole in the production screen, where there now only is the galaxy map behind it. This way the production screen would also match better with the Research screen which covers the whole area.

The galaxy map is visible on the production screen so you can indicate where to build things. It's not just a hole for lack of anything to put there. Conversely, research doesn't need any location, so there's no map on the research screen.

[MikkoM]

GG (my GUI library, on which FO is built) has very extensive support for tooltips. You can have arbitrary levels of tooltip, such as one tooltip for a 0.25-second hover, a more expanded one for a 1.5-second hover, or a really expanded one for a 3-second hover, or whatever. You can also put anything in them, not just text -- graphics and so forth are ok, but they're not interactive, so no buttons or anything like that. I'd really like to see all our UIs have tooltips, but haven't gotten around to putting in good hooks for non-programmers to use.

As a response to eleazar this is the way tooltips might be connected to these images as if I am not mistaken these pictures belong to the graphics category although I don`t know if there are some limitations on the graphics which you can put into the tooltips.

By using the tooltips with the planets we could also have the galaxy map visible in the production screen and still have these images and so these two items could be fitted together without removing the galaxy map from the production screen or adding more windows to open and close for the player.

[eleazar]

MikkoM:

Please divide your flow of words into sentences, and make an effort to explain yourself more clearly.

I really don't know what you are trying say in this or some of your more recent posts.

[MikkoM]

MikkoM:

Please divide your flow of words into sentences, and make an effort to explain yourself more clearly.

I really don't know what you are trying say in this or some of your more recent posts.

Ok I will try to clarify, although I am not sure if the tooltips can be used in this way.

So what I am trying to say is that when you will put your mouse over one of the planets, a picture of its surface will appear in a tooltip . Then after some time has passed the tooltip will again disappear or when you move your mouse away from the planet the tooltip disappears. Alternatively a picture might only appear when you have chosen a planet, in the empty space, which you can see in this image.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1717/esitys1wa3.jpg

However as Geoff the Medio said a couple of posts earlier it is not just a hole, which needs to be filled. So that`s why I am suggesting that maybe we could use tooltips so that you could see the image in a tooltip, which would then disappear. This way we could still have the galaxy map visible in the production screen, but we could also use these images.

Besides why doesn`t anyone like my giant sentences? Also my mother language teacher used to complain about sentences, which where about a half a page long. I am beginning to think that I am a sentencly-challenged person.

[eleazar]

So what I am trying to say is that when you will put your mouse over one of the planets, a picture of its surface will appear in a tooltip . Then after some time has passed the tooltip will again disappear or when you move your mouse away from the planet the tooltip disappears. Alternatively a picture might only appear when you have chosen a planet, in the empty space, which you can see in this image.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1717/esitys1wa3.jpg

However as Geoff the Medio said a couple of posts earlier it is not just a hole, which needs to be filled. So that`s why I am suggesting that maybe we could use tooltips so that you could see the image in a tooltip, which would then disappear. This way we could still have the galaxy map visible in the production screen, but we could also use these images.

OK, thanks. i understand your idea now.

I don't understand why you want these "surface views" visible from the production screen, they don't seem to be relevant to production. They might go in a tooltip over the sidebar planets, but it's quite possible that something else would be better in that spot.

Frankly i'm in no hurry to figure out where to display these pictures, though i expect it will be part of a Planetary Info Window and/or the Galactopedia: both currently undesigned. There's a lot of GUI that doesn't yet exist at all, and the place for such images is probably in it.

[MikkoM]

OK, thanks. i understand your idea now.

I don't understand why you want these "surface views" visible from the production screen, they don't seem to be relevant to production. They might go in a tooltip over the sidebar planets, but it's quite possible that something else would be better in that spot.

Frankly i'm in no hurry to figure out where to display these pictures, though i expect it will be part of a Planetary Info Window and/or the Galactopedia: both currently undesigned. There's a lot of GUI that doesn't yet exist at all, and the place for such images is probably in it.

I am also starting to think that maybe placing the images in a tooltip over the sidebar planets, like you said, would be a better idea. Since that way they wouldn`t be disturbing the building process. This is also the idea which I was trying to present in the first part of my last post.

Also like I already have said in this and in the other thread, which now seems to be the "Tooltips and so-forth" thread, perhaps this discussion would be better suited for 0.6 phase in the design process. As that part deals with ground combat and so it is maybe more related to ground. So I don`t consider this issue urgent either.

However as these pictures are, as you said "nearly all eye candy" and they are not particularly needed to display information as we can see from Geoff the Medio`s post, I fear that they will be left unused. That is why I wanted to present this idea of using tooltips. Since it might offer us a chance to use these images with the planets, but at the same time they wouldn`t be disturbing more vital functions and information. Now I still believe that the best place for these images would be with the planets and not in some encyclopedia, which probably will not be used very often.