0.3 graphics summary / sidepanel revision

Development of artwork, requests, suggestions, samples, or if you have artwork to offer. Primarily for the artists.
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tzlaine
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#61 Post by tzlaine »

solartrix wrote:Hey guys, I'm new here, but would like to pitch in and help out with some of the graphics. I took a stab at some new stars last night, they're at:

http://www.pbase.com/solartrix/inbox

If someone can point me the files for the menus / sidebars / etc I'll see what I can do with them (it always helps to have a place to start, even if just to get the right sizes of the images). I have the v.02 exe and didn't see much of the menu gaphics in there. Perhaps I'm just missing 'em...?
There aren't any. The menus, buttons, etc. are programmatic -- they are code, not textures.

miu
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something to show at least ./

#62 Post by miu »

Been very busy week, anyway, here's updated sketch on sidepanel/planet info. I'm quite happy with the layout. Those bars under resource values are their meter-values. brightest is the current, then the current max and then space for it to grow. Should grown expotentially (bar moves smaller amounts with meter values) so that it would reach full bar ~ meter value 200, or how we find it best.
Still misses those few icons and some finetuning to do, but generally I like it, and also you can start to see my suggestion for our theme - metal borders on big UI boxes, transparent turquise glass-like texture, curved, minimalistic and clear information boxes and buttons. Probaply realtime 3d-rendered elements mixed in as well, but will see where they suit best.

Image

How do you like it?
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iamrobk
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#63 Post by iamrobk »

Is that like 2 separate images placed on top of each other, or what? I don't get it..... :?

miu
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#64 Post by miu »

One on the left is just the old ui that I had as reference when sketching.. just ignore it and look at the fancy things on right side. Those number down there which miss the icons, are infrastructure, health/enviroment, happiness and security meter values.
Difference between a man and a gentleman is that a man does what he wants, a gentleman does what he should. - Albert Camus

iamrobk
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#65 Post by iamrobk »

Aaaah. I love it!
Still misses those few icons and some finetuning to do, but generally I like it, and also you can start to see my suggestion for our theme - metal borders on big UI boxes, transparent turquise glass-like texture, curved, minimalistic and clear information boxes and buttons. Probaply realtime 3d-rendered elements mixed in as well, but will see where they suit best.
I very much love that theme idea. Very futuristic, very spacey, and I just like that kind of UI in general. Oh, and I have photoshop elements 2, so if you need me too, I can a bit with graphics.

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utilae
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#66 Post by utilae »

That interface is sweet. 8)

leiavoia
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#67 Post by leiavoia »

I think the glass effect is much better than the previous dark overlay.

BreadMan
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#68 Post by BreadMan »

Definitely like the colors and overall visuals here miu. Not over-the-top but still visually pleasing, think you've found a good balance. The only thing I don't like is the layout of the focus buttons. While what you've got works, and is nice aesthetically, I think there could be a more functional solution. For example (and I've been meaning to do this for a while now :P), I fleshed out my earlier idea with the line graph a little:

Image

The solid line shows the current levels, the dotted line shows where they're set to move to. Rather than have a button for balancing, just click on the graph itself and "average" the shape of the line. For the above example, the player could have just changed the primary focus from manufacturing to farming, and changed the secondary focus from science to balanced.

It is a little more crowded, there's probably room for a bit of tweaking, but in my opinion its a little easier to get an idea of what your planets are doing with a quick glance. Reading the numbers requires that little extra bit of brain power, so if we bring the visuals to the forefront it'll make it that much less tedious.
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noelte
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#69 Post by noelte »

hmm, i'm not so happy. First (minor) those little button to switch pri/sec focus are gone? ... So we stay with left-/right-btn click? Maybe we could add two btn within the resource icon. If the resource isn't set to be an focus, those btn are very week. if set to an focus, they are display much stronger ....

Second, i don't like those bars. They don't give much feedback to the players, imo. maybe the current value is displayed as a bar and the current max (min) is displayed by an vertical line. So if the meter value must be adjusted to an lower value, this could displayed very easyly.

Just my thoughts....


@ BreadMan, looks nice.
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BreadMan
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#70 Post by BreadMan »

Something I've always wondered (since I don't like the left-click right-click thing either), why not just have it so each time you click it ups the focus by a certain increment? Click something once makes it a secondary focus, and clicking something thats already secondary makes it primary. Course this would allow you to have two things set to secondary at the same time, but is that really all that bad? Just eliminate the labels "primary" and "secondary" and give it something like "15% focused" and "30% focused" or whatever the values are...
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miu
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#71 Post by miu »

Good comments.
Noelte that vertical line idea is very good one. Weakness of those not-chosen resources is because of my poor lcd-monitor, will be fixed when on better monitor. Breadman, I like the clarity and touch but it needs more thought - also you have to show somewhere if balanced focus is chosen. If I got this right: Choosing focus, increases the max-meter value of that resource. Then that meter grows towards it's max-value on speed defined by current infrastructure. Actual output amount of each resource is calculated considering various things. Your suggestion doesnt actually show meter values, just how they affect to resource generation. - could be a good thing, will think of this.

Other issue, as they have just one meter value, I think we could instead of showing happiness and security as numbers, show lil icons like in moo2, for example, very happy people = 3x :) , very bad = 3x :( , and have mouserollover to see exact value. Little shields and swords for secure-unsecure.
Difference between a man and a gentleman is that a man does what he wants, a gentleman does what he should. - Albert Camus

Satyagraha
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#72 Post by Satyagraha »

nice design miu =D

it could probably do without the metal as well, just some holographics as UI.

BreadMan
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#73 Post by BreadMan »

miu wrote: Other issue, as they have just one meter value, I think we could instead of showing happiness and security as numbers, show lil icons like in moo2, for example, very happy people = 3x :) , very bad = 3x :( , and have mouserollover to see exact value. Little shields and swords for secure-unsecure.
I agree wholeheartedly, there's a lot of numbers and not much hint of what each one is. Icons = good.
Good afternoon! This is the Earth Alliance embassy diplomatic office. My name is Alex. How may I assist you?
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dstjames
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UI

#74 Post by dstjames »

I love it. My only complaints have already been covered. I dont like the bars and the numbers at the bottom need icons to help explain them.

Good job!!!

tzlaine
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#75 Post by tzlaine »

This topic needs some more attention. That Nov 21 mockup above is great, but there are some small problems with it:

1) What happens when you press the Info button? Can we see a mockup of that?
2) What information are the boxes with "65/120", 33/90", green "40", and yellow "23" displaying?
3) In v0.3 and later, there will be no more planet-level production, so the Build button should go away.
4) What do unpopulated planets look like?

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