Pretti! Interface-graphics

[OlSheep]

Yeah, yeah, I don't know what you people have against that colour, I like it. But due to popular demand, I've made some gold, bronze and MAGICAL BLUE METAL versions. I would still rather stick with something untraditional. I also removed the head, which people didn't like, but you can be sure it will appear somewhere else ;-)

Personally, I thought the turquoise was nice... gold-like colors are nice but a bit... I dunno... boring considering the theme.

I also thought that, with its new color, the head looked pretty good. Added a bit of variety without attracting the eye too much. Now it's gone

I think you're pretty much the only one who's got a good, clean, unified theme that doesn't rely on copied pictures.

The only things it lacks are a bolder font for readability and the next/previous buttons on the crafting screen...

Definitely good stuff.

 

[Elhoim]

I think you're pretty much the only one who's got a good, clean, unified theme that doesn't rely on copied pictures.

Mine may not be good or clean or have a unified theme, but I don´t rely on copied pictures!

 

[Elhoim]

WIP of Crafting Screen Redux:

I know there are some rough edges, but tell me what you think! Not suitable for brick dislikers!

 

[John Yossarian]

The lava is cool, but I don't think it goes with the whole theme. Also those rock borders are way too big around the paths. Overall though, this is loads better than your previous attempts imo.

 

[hiciacit]

I still think android's is the best. Most consistent and fitting the theme.
A few things:
* I loved the turquoise and I don't feel any of the other colors are an improvement, far from it. I'm guessing you're going for a rusted copper look, so perhaps you might try a few streaks and spats of brown, and perhaps a little more green and a more washed out look overall; like so http://www.gtj.org.uk/storage/Components/328/32844_1.JPG
* Don't like the 'veins' in the crafting screen. Perhaps consider another option here?
* The darker brown background in the crafting screen makes some of the icons (the armor, the lump of iron) very hard to see. Sorta kills the functionality. Perhaps you could try a lighter background here or perhaps a white outline for the icons or something.

 

[OlSheep]

Mine may not be good or clean or have a unified theme, but I don´t rely on copied pictures!

Actually I think it's good, clean and that it doesn't rely on copied pictures. But it looks as though you're still working on the unified theme thing...

 

[Elhoim]

Mine may not be good or clean or have a unified theme, but I don´t rely on copied pictures!

Actually I think it's good, clean and that it doesn't rely on copied pictures. But it looks as though you're still working on the unified theme thing...

Thanks! Still I´m doing it out of boredom. I won´t never beat Android.

 

[fraunclein]

Androids interface is definitely the best of the bestest. Now, if you would also remove the horizontal block with the ornament, it would be electronic-supersonic.
Elhoim, I still think this is your best effort minus the icons, which could have been improved with some effort. The latest ones just don't cut it; they look too generic and there's too much empty space wasted for nothing.
But oh well, that's just my tuppence.

 

[Elhoim]

Crafting Screen Redux:

 

[Vault Dweller]

Nice!

 

[golgotha]

Prefer Crafting Screen RC3. That one looks far too busy and detracts from the function.

 

[denizsi]

I could think this is from a Roman infrastructure management game, lol. It took me back to old times.

Crafting Screen Redux:

 

[Necro]

hands down i like android's golden one the best.

 

[Elhoim]

Nice!

Thanks VD! Remember to send me the textures!

 

[sabishii]

Android: The gold is nice, but perhaps better if it were dimmer. Closer to the color of the armor in the box. This might make the "UPGRADE" and "CLOSE" texts hard to see, though, so you may need to emboss them some more? I'd also say that the icons on the bottom of your interface needs to be darker as well, perhaps even more so, as the bright gold (or turquoise in the other one) are kinda distracting. My last opinion is perhaps a change in font for the normal text would be good. You have a consistent theme with everything except for that font, or it seems so at least.

Marsal: Could you try a different color in the background? Perhaps a neutral or light gray, or even a beige?

 

[Nick]

Thanks VD! Remember to send me the textures!

Looks like VD is very busy right now. Give me your email and I will send it to you myself. And will explain why that fake bump-mapping thing won't work, too :wink: You can still play with it though - I will show you how it looks in the end.

Also, give me several minutes, and I'll give my feedback to all that great stuff above, and will try to answer the questions.

 

[Elhoim]

Dialogue Screen Redux:

- Changed gold icon.
- Added bricks.
- Added conversation skills (tell me which others could be useful).

 

[MountainWest]

@ Elhoim: That crafting screen was among the best you've done, in my opinion. The font you use in the dialogue screen is a pain to read, especially the capital letters.

@android: Bring back the darker head, damnit! :D

EDIT: I agree with what Flashback says later in the thread: the vertigis green (?) looks a bit off in the crafting screen. Gold's better.

 

[Elhoim]

Thanks! I especially like the flaming god.

 

[MF]

Yeah. But the text either needs ant-ialiasing or you have to use a straight font because the jagged edges look crap.

 

[Nick]

Great work, everyone. Most of the stuff looks just awesome. And if VD wasn't surprised by these 19 pages of ideas and images, than I was, I must say.

I see that some things need to be explained, though.

1) The function of that "diskette" button - opens the "main menu" (something like what you get when press Esc in Fallout), where "save/load" is one of the buttons. Esc works in AoD too, though.

2) The fancy fonts. While they look great on your photoshopped images, I'm sure that TGE will fuck the things up here. The only solution I see is to use some simple, yet stylish stuff. What you see on our latest screens is called KaratMedium. Google for that TTF when you have time, open it and compare with what you see on the screens. Then check the text on that ancient AoD screen - my old 2D engine did a much better work in this area, using SDL_ttf library.
Another issue is a font height: it would better be fixed. The one you use now, Elhoim, has a lot of letters that jump up or down.
Of course, we could go with bitmap fonts or I could try to integrate the SDL_ttf and make it work with Torque... but all that requires a lot of time. Nice and smooth text rendering is a very important feature, I agree, but if I'll start rewriting every Torque's core feature, we will release the game only in 2153.

And, Elhoim, that brown background must go, imo. At least, that's the thing that I strongly dislike in your designs. Could you try the colour android is using now as a textbox and item slots background? The less saturated version that I see on your last works looks fine, though.

Hey, the last ixg's work is very neat, too.
I'm still looking forward to seeing the new android's and Marsal's works, and to the Mantra's return.


Android's suggestions are excellent, btw, I love them. The blue icons looked fine on the main bar, but when it came to the crafting screen... I'd pick the golden version. The toned down head was fine, too.
What tools do you use, btw? 3dsmax, Maya? What version?

I'm asking because we'll need all the source-art files from the winner, whatever they are - .psd or .max files. What about you guys (Elhoim, Marsal)? What Photoshop version do you use? CS and CS2, I believe?

You mentioned earlier that you have different interfaces for different resolutions, how is it done? Do you scale them to fit or enlarge the background like in Baldur's Gate?

"No" to both, but closer to the first. Right now we have two different sets for 800x600 and 1024x768 UIs. Basically, they are re-scaled in Photoshop + minor corrections, as the images after the "brute" scaling didn't look good. I don't remember the exact reason, because we were playing with this a long-long time ago in a galaxy far-far away. 800x600 is a heritage of my old 2D engine, btw. As well as our current interface.
Higher resolution for art = better, of course. But since you work in 3D, rendering in a different resolution is not a problem, right?

Ah, can't think straight anymore, it's been a long day. I'm sorry if I misunderstood something or missed a question. Let me know, and I will try again in the morning.

 

[callehe]

for font, why not use times new ROMAN (it is afterall a font that resembles the one that romans used)

 

[MF]

Just use bitmapped fonts, it's not that hard to do and it almost always looks better. Performance issues with a lot of text might be a problem with TGE though, I don't know. The only downside I can think of is a lack of kerning and the mono-spacing. I never experienced monospacing as a severe blow to legibility though, I always program in terminal fonts.

 

[android]

Again, thanks everyone, here are some quick comments. Some like the turquoise, some don't, some like the head, some don't, it's impossible to please everyone The color is subject to further experiments, but it's rather light now, because it needs to be contrasty. I wish I didn't do the gold version, it's the most ugly one, I'd probably go with the bronze (or turquoise). The head will definitely be there somewhere, I can imagine character screen with a shattered statue and a busted head at it's feet or something like that. The text on the buttons need fixing as I said earlier, I don't see the "veins" being slightly obscured as a problem.

1) The function of that "diskette" button - opens the "main menu" (something like what you get when press Esc in Fallout), where "save/load" is one of the buttons. Esc works in AoD too, though.

Great I was hoping for that, I don't see the disk as a distraction, but I can imagine some other icon in there. But the mouse-over only thingy is unintuitive IMHO.

2) The fancy fonts. While they look great on your photoshopped images, I'm sure that TGE will fuck the things up here. The only solution I see is to use some simple, yet stylish stuff.

I went so far as using Lucida Sans Unicode, standard font in Windows I think. It is aliased and looks and reads good I'd say. You won't need smooth font rendering for that. The other font is something different, but it will be part of the background images anyway.

What tools do you use, btw? 3dsmax, Maya? What version?

I use 3DS Max 9, but I could export it into something else if needed. However crucial for the procedural textures is a program called Darktree. Even that could be worked around, but that would take even more time (pre-rendering the textures and mapping the objects). I also use CS2.

Higher resolution for art = better, of course. But since you work in 3D, rendering in a different resolution is not a problem, right?

Yep, it's more of a thing to consider for the other guys...

One last question, you seem to have some really good artists on the team, why didn't they work on the interface? Have they seen this thread? What are their opinions?

 

[Hazelnut]

Again, thanks everyone, here are some quick comments. Some like the turquoise, some don't, some like the head, some don't, it's impossible to please everyone

I liked the white head very much, although I have no idea why, and I miss it from your most recent screens. Just thought I'd say.