* RE: UI proposal @ 2003-11-19 18:37 Elijah Meeks 2003-11-19 19:01 ` Hans Ronne 0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread From: Elijah Meeks @ 2003-11-19 18:37 UTC (permalink / raw) To: sampln; +Cc: xconq7 I think this is a great idea, specifically the occupant and build windows and especially the option to show only what can be built by the current unit. This would clean up my games, for sure. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* RE: UI proposal 2003-11-19 18:37 UI proposal Elijah Meeks @ 2003-11-19 19:01 ` Hans Ronne 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters ` (2 more replies) 0 siblings, 3 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Hans Ronne @ 2003-11-19 19:01 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Elijah Meeks; +Cc: xconq7 >I think this is a great idea, specifically the >occupant and build windows and especially the option >to show only what can be built by the current unit. >This would clean up my games, for sure. If you check out the Mac interface, you will find that several of the ideas discussed already are implemented there. 1. A unit list can be brought up in a separate window, which contains much more information (plans, tasks, build status, materials etc) than the tcltk unit list. 2. By right-clicking on any unit you bring up a small floating window with all the information you find in the unit info pane in the tcltk interface. Plus images of occs or transports. Clicking on these bring up new floating windows with information on those units. And so on. There is also direct access to the relevant help node through a help button in each floating window. 3. When a unit needs a new build task a small floating window pops up with a menu that shows only what can be built by that unit. Picking an item closes the window and sets the build task. The key thing here is that stuff like this pops up only when you need it (or ask for it). The Mac interface is similar to the SDL interface (and differs from the tcltk interface) in that emphasis is put on a whole-screen heads-up display. The map covers the entire screen. Lincoln's proposal included a lot of useful stuff, but there was not much space left for the map. And the map is the most important part of a game like this. Hans ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* RE: UI proposal 2003-11-19 19:01 ` Hans Ronne @ 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:03 ` UI proposal (more screenshots) Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:04 ` UI proposal Eric McDonald 2003-11-19 20:36 ` Elijah Meeks 2003-11-20 9:33 ` Andreas Bringedal 2 siblings, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Lincoln Peters @ 2003-11-19 19:49 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Hans Ronne; +Cc: Xconq list The comments that follow in this message assume that (most of) the developers still want to use SDL for a new Xconq interface. On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 10:37, Hans Ronne wrote: > >I think this is a great idea, specifically the > >occupant and build windows and especially the option > >to show only what can be built by the current unit. > >This would clean up my games, for sure. > > If you check out the Mac interface, you will find that several of the ideas > discussed already are implemented there. > > 1. A unit list can be brought up in a separate window, which contains much > more information (plans, tasks, build status, materials etc) than the tcltk > unit list. > > 2. By right-clicking on any unit you bring up a small floating window with > all the information you find in the unit info pane in the tcltk interface. > Plus images of occs or transports. Clicking on these bring up new floating > windows with information on those units. And so on. There is also direct > access to the relevant help node through a help button in each floating > window. > > 3. When a unit needs a new build task a small floating window pops up with > a menu that shows only what can be built by that unit. Picking an item > closes the window and sets the build task. Using dock items in GTK+/GNOME interfaces, it is possible not only to move a dock item from one edge of the screen to another, but also to turn a dock item into a floating window. That would very closely mimic the behavior of the Mac interface. How difficult would it be do set that up using SDL? Perhaps I should try this in Glade and make some more screenshots. > > The key thing here is that stuff like this pops up only when you need it > (or ask for it). The Mac interface is similar to the SDL interface (and > differs from the tcltk interface) in that emphasis is put on a whole-screen > heads-up display. The map covers the entire screen. Lincoln's proposal > included a lot of useful stuff, but there was not much space left for the > map. And the map is the most important part of a game like this. It should not be difficult to set up a GTK+ interface so that unnecessary panels disappear (i.e. "turn invisible") when they are not needed. In the standard game, this would have two significant effects: 1. The "Tooling", "Technology", and "Advances" panels would be disabled completely. Furthermore, the "Stats" panel would not show any size, morale, or CXP data; it would only ACP and HP (because of these, only ACP and HP are used in the standard game). 2. If the "Build" panel is set to only display units that the selected unit could build, it would only appear if the selected unit could build something. For example, if you had selected a town, the "Build" panel would appear and list everything a town could build, but if you then selected something incapable of building (e.g. a fighter), the panel would automatically disappear. The panel would automatically re-appear if you selected the town again. Again, I don't know how easy of difficult it would be to do such things using SDL. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* RE: UI proposal (more screenshots) 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters @ 2003-11-19 20:03 ` Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:04 ` UI proposal Eric McDonald 1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Lincoln Peters @ 2003-11-19 20:03 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Xconq list On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 11:06, Lincoln Peters wrote: > Using dock items in GTK+/GNOME interfaces, it is possible not only to > move a dock item from one edge of the screen to another, but also to > turn a dock item into a floating window. That would very closely mimic > the behavior of the Mac interface. How difficult would it be do set > that up using SDL? > > Perhaps I should try this in Glade and make some more screenshots. You can now find a screenshot that illustrates GTK+ floating panels at: http://homepage.mac.com/lmpeters/gtk-xconq-floating.png As before, it should be possible to turn these panels invisible automatically or on demand. Although I think that it looked better when they were docked to the edges of the window; that may just depend on who you ask. At least it should be possible to allow the user to set it up his or her preferred way (just click the handlebar and drag). Additionally, to demonstrate panel-hiding, I created another screenshot in which panels that would not appear in the standard game are hidden (actually, I just made the "hidden" panels into floating panels and moved them to the side, but the screenshot still makes the point): http://homepage.mac.com/lmpeters/gtk-xconq-standard.png In the standard game, the "Advances", "Technology", and "Tooling" panels would be removed, since advances and tooling and not used in the game and technology only applies to one unit (the nuclear bomb) that can only be developed by one other unit (the city). Perhaps in the case of the "Technology" panel, it would appear when a city is selected and nuclear bombs have not yet been developed, and it would disappear when a different unit is selected. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* RE: UI proposal 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:03 ` UI proposal (more screenshots) Lincoln Peters @ 2003-11-19 20:04 ` Eric McDonald 1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Eric McDonald @ 2003-11-19 20:04 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Lincoln Peters; +Cc: Hans Ronne, Xconq list On Wed, 19 Nov 2003, Lincoln Peters wrote: > The comments that follow in this message assume that (most of) the > developers still want to use SDL for a new Xconq interface. I am still have much to learn about both GTK and SDL, but I am not sure that these two things are diametrically opposed. I can see using SDL to do cross-platform graphics/video work, while using GTK to do cross-platform UI work (similar to my suggestion about wxWindows). The downside is that this makes Xconq have two external software dependencies instead of one.... Also, I could be way off base here. Like I said, I will research it more this weekend. > Using dock items in GTK+/GNOME interfaces, it is possible not only to > move a dock item from one edge of the screen to another, but also to > turn a dock item into a floating window. That would very closely mimic > the behavior of the Mac interface. How difficult would it be do set > that up using SDL? One thing that any solution should address is whether layout managers are available. Being able to plop down a window or any other component and have the other components be rearranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner with minimal functional impedance to the user and with minimal guidance from the programmer is a desirable trait. Eric ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* RE: UI proposal 2003-11-19 19:01 ` Hans Ronne 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters @ 2003-11-19 20:36 ` Elijah Meeks 2003-11-20 9:33 ` Andreas Bringedal 2 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Elijah Meeks @ 2003-11-19 20:36 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Hans Ronne; +Cc: xconq7 > If you check out the Mac interface, you will find > that several of the ideas > discussed already are implemented there. > > 1. A unit list can be brought up in a separate > window, which contains much > more information (plans, tasks, build status, > materials etc) than the tcltk > unit list. > > 2. By right-clicking on any unit you bring up a > small floating window with > all the information you find in the unit info pane > in the tcltk interface. > Plus images of occs or transports. Clicking on these > bring up new floating > windows with information on those units. And so on. > There is also direct > access to the relevant help node through a help > button in each floating > window. > > 3. When a unit needs a new build task a small > floating window pops up with > a menu that shows only what can be built by that > unit. Picking an item > closes the window and sets the build task. > > The key thing here is that stuff like this pops up > only when you need it > (or ask for it). The Mac interface is similar to the > SDL interface (and > differs from the tcltk interface) in that emphasis > is put on a whole-screen > heads-up display. The map covers the entire screen. > Lincoln's proposal > included a lot of useful stuff, but there was not > much space left for the > map. And the map is the most important part of a > game like this. I still haven't managed to play a game successfully on the Mac, but from how it looks and what you're describing, it sounds perfect. Lincoln's proposed UI, though, would be an improvement over the current PC interface, and if all the information windows are made on-demand (Or most of them, at least) then the screen is only ever as cluttered as a player wants. It'd look better if the information boxes could be truly floating (And only docked if the player wants) so that when you're right-clicking for info or a build, the box has the appearance of a dialog box common to many strategy games. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: UI proposal 2003-11-19 19:01 ` Hans Ronne 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:36 ` Elijah Meeks @ 2003-11-20 9:33 ` Andreas Bringedal 2 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Andreas Bringedal @ 2003-11-20 9:33 UTC (permalink / raw) To: xconq7 > If you check out the Mac interface, you will find that several of the ideas > discussed already are implemented there. > > 1. A unit list can be brought up in a separate window, which contains much > more information (plans, tasks, build status, materials etc) than the tcltk > unit list. > > 2. By right-clicking on any unit you bring up a small floating window with > all the information you find in the unit info pane in the tcltk interface. > Plus images of occs or transports. Clicking on these bring up new floating > windows with information on those units. And so on. There is also direct > access to the relevant help node through a help button in each floating > window. > > 3. When a unit needs a new build task a small floating window pops up with > a menu that shows only what can be built by that unit. Picking an item > closes the window and sets the build task. Sounds like this is a Mac game first and foremost and only a windows game last after the other platforms...Can the Mac Xconq game be run on windows by some sort of win-mac imitate program? Andreas ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2003-11-20 8:57 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 7+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2003-11-19 18:37 UI proposal Elijah Meeks 2003-11-19 19:01 ` Hans Ronne 2003-11-19 19:49 ` Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:03 ` UI proposal (more screenshots) Lincoln Peters 2003-11-19 20:04 ` UI proposal Eric McDonald 2003-11-19 20:36 ` Elijah Meeks 2003-11-20 9:33 ` Andreas Bringedal
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