SE V demo Interface

Phoenix-D · #1 September 18th, 2006, 07:40 PM

fright: where's the sector display? Or is that it in the lower-left?

If we're going for a revamped interface, the simple way would be to make everything movable. The complicated way would be to stick everything up top and on the sides, and make a "viewport", so the controls would never obsure the screen.

frightlever · #2 September 18th, 2006, 07:48 PM

Sector display is top left. It and the planet/ship display could as easily be swapped. And there's plenty of room down the right hand side for more "buttons".

Edit: and I've no problem with movable panels but the main thing IMO is that most screen resolutions (all?) offer more space horizontally than vertically so it make far more sense to use the space at the sides and thereby maximise the view of the system. With the standard view about a qtr of the height of the screen is unavailable to the system map.

Phoenix-D · #3 September 18th, 2006, 08:25 PM

Sectors are individual hexes in se terms.

So what you called ship/planet display.

wrongshui · #4 September 18th, 2006, 08:30 PM

Whats wrong with the UI exactly?

Ive played SE 3 and 4 and im enjoying the demo, everyone else seems to be acting like the game kicks them in the balls or 2 or 3 clicks equals a MoO3.

It could be more intuitive I suppose but its not ruining the game for me.

Phoenix-D · #5 September 18th, 2006, 10:03 PM

frightlever: good news and bad news. The good news is that SE5 has a Hudsettings.txt file that lets you move various interface elements around. So in theory we COULD make your custom UI layout.

The bad news is the file doesn't have all the settings needed to do that. :/ You can move the buttons of the main bar and orders menu around, but you can't move the containers they are in or any other interface element. Looks like something that was started and put on the back burner.

Noble713 · #6 September 18th, 2006, 10:11 PM

So if we moved the buttons like frightlever did they would just be floating in space? What about editting the images for the "HUD panels" so they are completely black or something similar?

Phoenix-D · #7 September 18th, 2006, 10:18 PM

That might work, but they could still get in the way of clicks. And yeah, the buttons would just be floating in space. No border or anything like that.

EDIT: yep. The main buttons are in Dlg_Main_ButtonBar.bmp. If you replace the contents of that file with that nasty pinkish color, it turns transparent. Boom, instant buttons-only display.

EDIT2: here's a larger, easier to see version of the minimalist UI.