jobeken

I have noticed, and generally dislike that all mods and skins including my own work around the UI that we have been presented over the years. While there are some absolutely amazing mods/skins out here, they are all generally minor tweaks to the old system.

Maybe the old system isnt bad, maybe its perfect, maybe we will never know. I intend to find out. I want to make a single mod/skin that feels correct. I want to have an interface that I can forget. I want to not think about where things are on the screen. I want to be immersed to that the UI seems like my thoughts.

In the past the closest thing to this concept that I can realize is a heads up display. Know your connected to a machine, but not be constrained by it. I dont want to alter my field of view, or obstruct it. I dont want to change my viewport depending on which twink I am playing. I dont want to notice the difference on my screen just in my head.

So, I am tasking myself with creating a totally new UI, not reusing any of the existing UI templates or graphics. It may take me a long time and I may never finish, but I want to try.

Use this thread as a place to post, as your class what you find is lacking. Clerics want to see group information more efficiently, tanks want to see HPs...But how? Post what you think is right, personal preference. It will help me to try and make something for everyone.

Thanks!

To view the current skin (11/16/2002) http://www.tweek.org/hudskin.zip

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Jobeken Xoner

blazel

For inspiration on health bars and such you might want to look at fatreduction here in the forums. I use a modification of that UI with a target bar right in the middle of the screen. Really easy for my cleric to watch the health of the MA.

aviendha101

I've got a couple ideas for this idea you propose... send me a message thingy, and I'll answer with them tonight. Maybe we could work together on it. :P

(I would type more now, but I'm at work.)

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jobeken

Woot! Nice tip on the FateReduction UI...That is a good touch on some of the ideas floating around in my head!!

Also Avie has some great ideas too. I think, that with what tools we have, we will be able to put out a very nice UI...

Keep the ideas coming please. I want to know what people feel the UI is lacking for their playstyle and try to incorporate things from day 1

xlorepdarkhelm

Not to nit-pick (ok, maybe to nit-pick) - but how many years have you been working on the new UI? I'm especially curious since the new UI hasn't been out for a year yet.




Ok, besides that - sounds like a cool idea. I had several little concepts juggle around in my head, and may even get a chance to implement them eventually when I get a job/steady (any) income.

While coming up with a bizarre design is cool, many people prefer something they are much more familiar with in the end. In that respect, I think Vert does an excellent job keeping things "normal" in layout. For a while, Techno Donuts (which my mod was based off of for it's basic design) and Fat Reduction were the two "bizarre" and more unique approaches to the UI - there was also one based off of Quake III - Industrial or something like that - but it faded. Quartz appeared and almost just as fast as it was released, it's designer seemed to fall off the face of the planet.

There is many things that can be changed in a UI, and many things which can't. There is also a rther broad category of "tricks" that can be done to reduce the number of "can'ts" from the list, which would be more impressive if the XML structure used wasn't so limiting. Personally, I like to blend form with function - not too gaudy a design, yet still cool; and enough information without the overload aspects.

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jobeken

You mean most UI mods dont look very similar to the original UI...Or the first changed UI that came with Kunark?

I have been working with the UI ever since I first logged in March 13, 1999. This is the third UI for EQ and the first one we have the ability to truly change.

Not only are you nit-picking but your mis-reading me

hehehe, anyway yah - send those ideas out...We would love to see them!

I have been working with Avienda, we think alot alike and have similar goals...I think we will be able to produce a comfortable UI that breaks the traditional layout, is more functional and easier to use.

blazel

I've been thinking about this since my last post. The things that need the most attention to are the things important during combat. This is the sensory input intensive aspects that need the most work. A cool inventory is nice but really wont make you a better player. I use the fatreduction ui or at least a mod of that i found called fatm on my cleric so i have a very clear view of the groups health during battle. The most important things are field of view of the action. Self health and mana, group health, and the feed back from the group during battle. So that I know when the second healer is lom or the tank needs invigor. So much of my screen is wasted by chat windows. I have one off to the side for shouts and ooc so that i can mostly ignore them. Guild chat more prominate but still out of the way. My dream chat would be for 5 chat windows that were opaque and with a small font that i could place at the bottom of the screen and one with large fonts with narrow characters and is transparent so i could place that more prominantly in the screen so i wouldnt have to take my focus from the action to read the group chat during battle. After the battle everything should look nice but to me if i dont care much how my inventory looks and such.

I hope this helps you out. Basically my suggestion is to focus on the information needed based on criticality and to work from there outward on the UI. If done cleverly one interface will work for all classes. On the fat reduction there is a pet health bar in green that is normally below my own health bar. But as I dont have a pet I have never seen this bar. And have lost no screen realstate because of the way it was implemented.

bumbleroot

I like your idea- I too am looking for the same thing. I've put together a sample of a UI that I think would accomplish this. I am attempting to attach a screenshot of it. This is my first attachment attmempt so please bear with me on it.

Attached Images

uiidea.jpg (64.1 KB, 872 views)

Neiloch

That looks pretty damn good. Wish i could do some sort of concept art, I got about 15 ideas that are completely diffrent from normal UI that could prolly be done.

Claymoore

i only got one thought that would kinda abstract away from the norm.. put most of the stuff, chats etc near the top.. like main chat thin across the top or somethin.. not saying thats what i want ina UI but.. it would be diff.. thats what ya want right?

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Kiriani

the UI changed after Kunark? I didn't notice a thing. Velious saw it pushing more for the fullscreen UI, the 10 slot hotkey banks, the increased social banks, etc., but I didn't notice anything really different after Kunark (been playing since launch March 16, 1999 in case you were about to mention that).

As for a UI itself, I'm a fan of a well-organized, information packed, compact UI. Statistical/Vital information should be in one part of the screen. Interface/Controls should be in another. Less referenced data should be either out of the way ("pop ups" like Inv and such) or compact and placed in the remaining areas.

FOr me, being right handed tend to draw my mouse down and right. Therefore, I feel controls I would need to click on (action window, pet window, "right clickies", and buffs) should be in the lower right corner, sandwiched in as tight as possible.

All the target and vital information should be in the lower left, with stats as merely a bonus (some people are very concerned with stats, and often I like to check my stats). Again, sandwich this stuff in as tight as possible.

Hotkeys have been on the left for so long, and I use the keyboard to use them with my left hand, so they remain on the left, vertically aligned to consume less screen real estate. The buffs in a single column down the right side of the screen is almost natural as well, and again consumes very little screen space.

The problem comes with Chat windows. Chat windows are the bane of a high visibility UI, but a neccessity in MMORPGs. COndensing them as small as possible helps, but also degrades the amount of info you recieve. Extra windows help this greatly, but in the end, the chat windows are up to the person using the UI. SOme like theirs on the bottom, some on the top. Again though, the best flow of information means keeping hitsmode windows near your information display, while other chat can be placed relatively wherever you want.

As for dissing the viewport: that again is a player's preference. For some, the viewport command is a godsend, for others, it's a non-issue. Me, I play a high enough resolution that most windows do not obstruct view in much of a way that makes a viewport seem necessary. Besides, the viewport makes me feel like I have tunnel vision. My roomie, however, plays in such a low resolution that I don't know how he ever sees the world around him through all his windows.

Don't get me wrong, your ideas have merit. But remember that this is a UI that we don't have ultimate control over. Also, All UI's will have a certain amount of information to them. There are only so many ways of arranging that information while keeping it aesthetically pleasing and easy to process with a glance.

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Ranger of Tunare
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aeluin

I understand the desire to have a UI that you don't have to think about...but while to some people that means a nearly-invisible UI with the minimum information, to me it means having everything at my fingertips, but as small as possible so it doesn't get in the way, and to some others it means having most of the game world covered in various big windows so they never miss anything because they consider the information presented by the UI and chat to be more important than the game world itself. And some people play in F10 mode, using keyboard commands, so they don't have to look at any windows at all, or perhaps close every window except for one essential chat.

Nobody will be able to make a UI that everybody's happy with- so instead of putting down other developers for "just making variations on the original UI" because their creativity doesn't match with what *you* want, try fiddling with the xml yourself and see whether you can come up with anything you like more.

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Kiriani

I just wanted to add: Think of a UI as a HUD in a fighter jet/starfighter (depending on the types of sims you play most or whether you like SciFi or not).

Your HUD displays the most critical information within your field of view, but not in a manner to obstruct. You can easily sweep your data in a quick pass. In about 1 second I can tell my bearing, speed, weapons levels, general target data, fuel levels, etc. In the case of space sims, I can tell hull strewntgh, shield levels, etc. in addition. More detailled info can be seen, but is usually glanced over until the action dies down a bit, or a moment can be had to look closer for more info.

Some of us flyboys can, like was mentioned in the previous post, play blind, with little to no inforrmation displaying. I've gone entire Muliplayer dogfights in Tachyon without ever once looking at my guages. I've (and many other have as well) done the same in almost every game I play (or played). Same can be done in EQ. I do it alot, minimizing or closing all but the most critical windows. The point? keep reading ;p

It's mostly all based on a players style, however, the information should be there (or be able to be there) for when the player needs it. When they do need it, they shouldn't have to look all over the screen for it. The same can be said for controls. While there are many of us who use more keyboard shortcuts than mouseclicks, those who do use their mouse to click buttons should be able to do so quickly and with a minimal amount of wrist movement. Not everyone is a mouselooker.

This brings us to flexibility. A UI (for any game) should be flexible, providing the most amount of information to a wide variety of players. Sure, Warriors don't need a mana count, they don't need percentages, and they don't need pet windows. However, other classes do. You could code the UI to have different versions, but in the end, it's extra code and extra work for little purpose. Warriors don't need that mana bar, but is 15 pixels in height really going to make a big difference? Rangers don't need the percentages, but is the 10 pixels in width going to make a big difference? Making the UI flexible enough that all classes can benefit from it and all types of players can benefit from it seems the most logical choice.

Earthscum

I was toying around with that idea myself... problem is that about the only colors that really work are florescent colors... and they are way too distracting.

I tried a solid green, but still got lost in some areas.... works REALLY good in dungeons tho... I was thinking about making a skin like that... all transparent like HUD just for "dungeon crawling" since I love dungeons. Looks pretty gaudy tho unfortunatly.

Here's the graphics for it. The backgrounds are "semi-transparent" by means of the Alpha channel. The options buttons have new transparency as well.

Attached Files

dungeoncrawlertga.zip (274.4 KB, 74 views)

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