Gallux

How are things going with the chat area? Do you think you'll be able to emulate the original scroll type area? Thats what im most looking forward to since it was an excellent contrast for text.

faBBe

well I'm mostl;y done with the inventory although I';ve got a better design in plans but is not urgent now as inventory is looking 'ok' and fully functional

so, might actually work on chat window next since I was making the main view elements first

I'll try the old UI chat design first

There shouldnt be any major problem, although I might have to tweak the graphics a little beat to make it work in a sizable window.

I'll post a screenshot in the next few days hopefully.

Current plan is to have 2 chat areas side by side, which you can size so you can have 50% 50 %, or 75% 25 % of the horizontal space... use the left one for main chat and right one for second chat or hitsmode..

__________________
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Gallux

Awesome.

Just one thing, any chance you could do a test and try doing the buffs like this screenshot:



This would emulate the old buff design and give you a lot more space in the right side for inventory slots and exp/aa information.

If you keep the buff icons small and put small text to the left of them it won't take much away from the viewport.

Just an idea anyway.

faBBe

It is not in my plans right now, because I try to stick with this idea that the viewport is completely free of cluttering, but this will be easy to 'mod' into the UI when it is released anyway :P I suspect people will want to add maps, recipes , different compass etc..

faBBe

There's a quickie old ui style CHAT WINDOWS

I didn't bother with the vertical scroll bar, but I will explain.

There's the chat windows with a dark background, those are UNFINISHED mind you picture

I want to show you because I am open to discussion, and this UI seems to interest quite a few people so I am not trying to just please myself.

Now, squint your eyes and watch each of those. What can you make out of the old UI chat windows? The white text almost entirely disappears, the yellow as well, you're pretty much left with the dark colors: blue , dark red, black.

The 2nd pic however you can see just about any variety of colour will stand out and be easily readable, imho.

PROBLEMS with old UI style chat windows

I find myself sticking my nose to the screen most of the time to be able to read the text on the old UI style chat window.. either that or I had to change all my custom text colours to a much reduced selection of dark blue/ green /red, black , yellow and white. With a dark background I can tell you pretty much EVERY custom text color is different and I can tell each one from a nother.

I realize everybody was fine at the time with those chat windows, but at the time you didnt have 50+ custom text colors either.

ANother thing I dont like is that I find the UI at the moment to be very bright and the game seems to be plunged in constant night time, everything is so dark. THus the UI seems to come on top which isn t a good thing. The old style chat windows make it even more brighter and make the UI come forward instead of being somewhat 'transparent' to the player as it should.

Yet another problem with the old UI design, is it doesnt look too good when you put 3 areas side by side. What if someone wants to have a 60 pct main chat then 20pct width 'MY HITS' then 20pct width 'OTHER HITS' ? The old UI style chat windows I have implemented in the 1st screenshot above DO resize, but they dont look good when they are very small :/

Plans

I will design something of my own for the chat window, and post a screenshot when I ;'m done.

Until then the discussion is open, and I posted 2 screenshots here hopefully so you 'll understand why I wouldnt use the old UI chat windows.

andara

This is honestly amazing, mad props to you!

Seriously, it looks great

Gallux

I think the old style UI looks superb. Any chance of a prebeta release? I think the chat area looks awesome. I totally disagree with you about the colours and feel the light background gives a very nice contrast.

If anything, please keep the old chat UI look and give the option for an alternative new style look. If I had access to the XML id be using this UI right now

Gallux

Just worked out how you can solve those problems.

All customiseable parchments. A black one will give the look you see in the new style picture and the original old ui style will give a light coloured one. If you can keep the borders, people can slot in the one they find best.

Amaprotu

I personally really like the look with the 'new style' chat windows with your interface. I think it looks a lot better than the old style, and I don't like losing that much space to borders.

This is really comming along, I wish I had a pre-beta version to play with.

ataal

I agree with you. I like the second (darker) picture better.

It's looking great so far. I'd still love to see my exp/aaxp exp bar on main window though rather than inventory slots that only benefit a few classes.

Other than that, keep it up.

faBBe

Gallux I've saved the XML and textures for old UI chat areas, you should be able to put them back in with little effort.

Project is slowing down as I am busy with other things, will post as soon as I have something new.

Gallux

Thanks Fabbe.

Any idea when we can start playing around with the XML?

Neiloch

Geez this setup seems to be my dream UI, bout time someone is making an uber UI made for the popular 1024x768 resolution according to a poll conducted at this site.

bruenob

WHat happened to the buff box area on the right hand side??? All I see now is a bunch of bags. =( Is this how you're going to leave it? I REALLY liked the buff box area on the right side but now in the latest screenshots it's gone.