PhoenixUI prototype

Post by **Eric** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:09 am

it seems that I can nolonger tab between radio buttons; not a good thing.

Also the way the radio buttons space out when you make that window bigger is kinda funky, although it might be what is intended, I don't know.

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:12 am

That's intentional, a group of radio buttons is a single control. It looks weird when there is only one group in the window, but it's right. Also the resizing is right too.

Post by **Eric** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:20 am

I see... that's what you were trying to say before. With the arrow keying around it does work well. So if there were other buttons (non-radio buttons, or a different group of radio buttons) in that window we would have tabbing go between them. That alleviates my earlier issue with the tabbing around and then clicking a radio button; well i can't be sure that is true without seeing other buttons in the window - hint hint hint.

When a field starts up is it not supposed to have a field selected? it feels funny when the radio field isnt tabbed to right away.

Nuky · Post by **Nuky** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:44 am

Will it support opacity? I see it already supports transparency.

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:44 pm

Nuky wrote:Will it support opacity? I see it already supports transparency.

I don't think I understand the question. If you are asking if you can make a window arbitrarily transparent, the answer is yes. You could also theoretically make random holes in the background of a window and such. Everything has a full alpha channel.

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:19 pm

bob wrote:When a field starts up is it not supposed to have a field selected? it feels funny when the radio field isnt tabbed to right away.

Actually I take that back, apparently there must always a control that has the focus. All windows should start out with a control selected. Fixed!

Mini status update:

I also made it so that the window is constrained to the screen when you resize it, so that the corner of the window can never leave the screen.

Double buffering progress is slow but steady. I had a meeting with David (aka breakfast) and we mapped out the entire system. It's just a matter of implementing each function, now.

Also, I had an epiphany in the shower this morning. PhoenixUI is going to be the first gaming UI (AFAIK) that is resolution independent a la Vista and speculated future versions of OS X.

Nuky · Post by **Nuky** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:50 am

Awesome!
(Well, if it uses bitmapped theming, it isn't COMPLETELY resolution independent unless you got some kind of super-antialias.

Btw, I'm making a mockup of my own already

Post by **Jeff** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:02 am

Just uploaded a new version for today. Changes off the top of my head:

- Hit control and shift to see a super secret debug mode.
- Can finally close windows now. Control-w is the key command for now, even on Mac.
- Slightly improved editfield double click selection behavior. As far as I know, it is verbatim to a Cocoa text field now.
- Cursor changes to the I thing over editfields!! How could I forget that?
- Fixed tiny details in the editfield and title buttons relating to mosue drag.
- Plus the stuff I mentioned previosly, and of course, double buffering is about 50% complete. Don't expect this build to be faster though.

Post by **Jeff** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:26 am

Nuky wrote:Awesome!
(Well, if it uses bitmapped theming, it isn't COMPLETELY resolution independent unless you got some kind of super-antialias.

Btw, I'm making a mockup of my own already

It will use bitmaps as the UI elements for speed, but the key is that the bitmap can be created during runtime from a vector image, so it has the advantages of both methods.

However, if the theme is not a vector theme, it will still look pretty good with intelligent scaling, since we are rarely scaling down; only up. The problem I am trying to address is that when you run a game at like 1600x1200, previously in games the UI elements are so ridiculously small that they are almost unusable. With my system, the UI will look roughly the same no matter what resolution you have. If the theme is a vector theme, then its features will just gain more details.

Nuky · Post by **Nuky** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:01 am

That's awesome. I can't wait for themeing documentation or whatever that shows me what I need to create and what not to.

(Oh, and that Rabbits Home concept art as a background for the main menu is just plainly awesome!)

zip · Post by **zip** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:47 pm

Nuky wrote: (Oh, and that Rabbits Home concept art as a background for the main menu is just plainly awesome!)

Dunno.. I'd much rather see a really nice landscape view showing off the grass and sky tech =)
Maybe some rabbit farmers working out in their fields..

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:06 pm

This UI is going to be the best ever! And that's right, most games like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter have crappy GUIs, they're glitchy and have hardly any functions on them (though pretty much all games don't even have this apart from the main menu, it's normally something Like Lugaru's or SOS' console menu CLI). This thing has already weeded out most of it's bugs (can't find little bugs anymore), and the basic options it does have works just like the real thing.

This bug, isn't really a bug, just an issue with that draggable window thing. See, for some reason I can drag windows to the left, hide them, and then bring them back. But when I hide them over to the right or on the bottom, I can't bring them back again, I have to restart the UI. I don't know what it would normally do for a Mac, but Windows' GUI just toggles the side edges to a resizer so you can't lose the windows.

Just an issue, you can hide windows to the left, but you can't safely drag them to the right or at the bottom without losing them.
(probably didn't need to write all that suff)

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:19 pm

Hey what do you mean for the title? The title for the game or for the GUI menu? (what would be the GUI title?)

I'd like to see a title montage with either a flying camera that moves over the landscape, or small clips of game footage (like the three clips that Lugaru 1 shows off) with the occasional concept painting thrown in.

The Lugaru music Nazguil spotted, sounds like it would be a great musical montage for a roaming camera (especially if it flew over some awesome stuff like rabbit campfi- nevermind that. Too cool to mention in writing

)

zip · Post by **zip** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:18 pm

I was sad to see the original Lugaru menu go

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:24 pm

Crap I missed something, where did Lugaru's menu go? The heck are you guy's talking about? You mean, the concept art really is part of the title?
Where the hey is the title people?
(yep, no spelling error that is 'hey')