Vitaee

I decided to make my own custom UI from scratch. Since I'm artisticly crippled, any artwork will be default artwork, with possibly some simple art borrowed from others in the UI mod community. I have also limited myself to a UI that will work in 1024 x 768 resolution.

Those being my working parameters, the first piece I worked on was the Hotkey bank. I wanted to make this horizontal with some slots for right click items. I also wanted to make this as small as possible. I have attached my first draft, and showed 4 different hotkey pages from the test character I was using. I would like to know what you all think of this so far. Any suggestions and comments would be appreciated. I particulary want to know if this is too smal.

The spell icons I've used were made by Etasi http://www.eqinterface.com/download...nfo.php?id=1310

I will have more slots for right click items in the final product, and which inventory slots I have right click slots for is very open to debate.

Attached Images

Vitaee_HotKey.jpg (92.8 KB, 199 views)

mortis42

This is alot like the one that i use, except mine is only one row tall, and not so small.

Personally, I don't think that the size matters much as long as the text can be read. I only use my hotbanks as a quick visual reminder as to what buttons are what, and which bank I am on.

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Vitaee

At some point, I may move the right-click slots to another part of the UI, but wont' know that for sure until I'm more done with the rest of the UI so I can see where I have space for various things. The thing about the size that concerned me most was that for that some of the Social Hotkeys, the Labels don't quite fit correctly (eg. Sense Heading, Consider). But as you said Mortiis, I can still tell what they are. I guess it's a matter of valuing functionality over prettiness. BTW, is it bad that I've said the same thing about an ex-girlfriend??

I've also started work on the SpellCast bar, and one thing I've run into is that I don't want it to look too much like a bank of the HotKey window that has spellgems in it. Later, I'll edit this post with a picture of what I'm talking about. But for now, do y'all have any suggestions on how I can make the SpellCast bar look a bit different from the Hotkey Window??

EDIT:
I've added a screenshot of my hotkey bar and spellcast bar. I've used square gem holders for the spells, and think it makes things look better.

Two concerns at this point. First, since the hotkey bar is on a page of mostly spell gems, it looks almost identical to the spellcast bar. Secondly, I'm not all that fond of the graphic I'm using for a "blank" spell gem.

Any suggestions on how I might differentiate the hotkey and spellcast bar?? And any suggestions on what I could use as the "blank" spell gem graphic??

Thanks to all who offer any input.

Attached Images

Vitaee_UI.jpg (12.1 KB, 46 views)

mortis42

You can use different textures for the gem holders and backgrounds for each bar...that would be one way for them to look different. My hotbutton bar uses the default holders and backgrounds (for now) and my spell bar uses the same texture for a 'normal' button.

Also, in my hotbutton bar, I have text labels in the upper corner for each hotbutton for the corresponding key on the keyboard.

One thing that I always do for my spell bar is add spell name labels to it, but that is difficult for a horizontal bar.

Vitaee

I thought about putting the custom graphics definitions within each XML file that uses it, but decided against it. In this case because the graphics for the spell gems are used in both the Hot Button and SpellCast windows. Also, I plan on putting all custom graphics in a file called vitaee.png, and putting all the definitions within EQUI_Vitaee.xml which will be called by an include statement with a custom EQUI.xml file. Then, if a patch changes EQUI.xml, all I'll have to do is copy the new default version into my custom ui folder, and edit it by just adding the one include statement for EQUI_Vitaee.xml. This seems to be the best way of doing things. If anybody has sugesstions, please let me know.

Please note: This post will appear in two different threads as it has become relevant to both.