The most popular screen aspect ratio of OA front page visitors is 16:10

[fromhell]

therefore I have to consider 16:10 for the missionpack UI. which means i'm gonna have to move the menu options from the top instead of the left

still want to try the crimson maroon ruby/blue turqoise color scheme though...

the bad thing is missionpack UI relies strictly on a 640x480 virtual space so it's 4:3. Default UI letterboxes on widescreen aspect but missionpack doesn't so it stretches (undesirably).

[andrewj]

Maybe it's time to make widescreen the norm, i.e. 768x480 virtual space for the UI, and vertically letterbox on ye olde CRT monitors (possibly with an option to stretch instead of letterbox).

[fromhell]

This is my 4:3 mockup of an adaptable menu design that can be widened to 16:9/16:10

[Gig]

Nice!

[WingedPanther]

I like the look.  Very nice!

[Neon_Knight]

Is this the menu for the vanilla version as well? Considering that the actual menu will be replaced for the MP UI...

[Peter Silie]

+1

i realy like it!

[sago007]

I normally prefer a menu being centered and placed vertically.

For a menu system I just think the background should extend to the borders. I do not like the multicolumn approach that is sometimes used because people feel they must use the extra space provided by wide screen.

I prefer scrolling up and down over looking left and right.

The serverlist on the other hand can gain something from widescreen because more fields can be shown directly in the list without clicking on the item. things like extra options enabled on the server could be displayed in the extra space.

[Peter Silie]

sign of the times: many displays have 16:10 and mirrors today.
ofc you can go the "linux" way and ignore what ppl have on hardware and ppl like to see. scnr
the better approach (imho) is to fullfill the needs the ppl believe to have.

but i wouldn´t say that the above sample is a typical 16:10 screen.
it could also work on the classic 5:4 or whatever.

to sum up: i like the menu fromhell made:
title row on top, menu bar below and a window depending on the selected menu item centered.
maybe you could even use a drop down menu.

or making something completely different: using gestures with your mouse, like on smartphones with their touchscreens, to navigate through the menus?

It is an idea pit

[Gig]

Uhm... I know nowadays wide screens are very popular, but everything we will do, remember to do not make things that would look bad on classic 4:3 screens. I still like 4:3 screens. And remember that old Q3 mods QVMs will continue to use the classic 4:3-oriented GUI, I suppose.

Anyway, some sort of "adaptative menu", automatically selecting from two layouts, fitting the screen ratio, could be nice (but the engine does not allow 4:3 and 16:9/16:10 only... DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Resolution]it is possible to customize screen resolution at will, I think... and this could be a problem, maybe). But how much work would it require, considering that Sago often says that working with those menus is a pain?

About multiplayer menu, IMHO adding a "status bar" line that shows the currently highlighted server address, and somewhere an indication of how many "favorites" slots are used (e.g. "3/16") would be the minimum needed, and we should add it also for 4:3 screens.

[fromhell]

The menu prototype is starting to exist now

[Peter Silie]

rofl.
nice comment on the name!
(but maybe remove for the release )

[Gig]

rofl.
nice comment on the name!
(but maybe remove for the release )

About removing strange phrases from the game... what about removing the "big b.... are better than smalll t...?" from the console?

[RMF]

This is my 4:3 mockup of an adaptable menu design that can be widened to 16:9/16:10

That looks just totally awesome!

The most popular screen aspect ratio of OA front page visitors is 16:10

Really? I was under the impression that 4:3 and 16:9 were the standards. 16:10 (or 8:5) was also popular but making place for 16:9, I heard.

[Peter Silie]

It is just me: i have 16:10 on my netbook and visit the site 1,000 times each day XD

[fromhell]

About removing strange phrases from the game... what about removing the "big b.... are better than smalll t...?" from the console?

I can't find that phrase in my SVN working copy.

It should be noted that the new chaoticsoldier bots look down on sexual references like that, not even Dark (a succubus) would find chat about body parts amusing

[Gig]

I can't find that phrase in my SVN working copy.

Do you mean it has already been wiped out?

Anyway, in OA 0.8.5, running oa_ded.exe and loading a map:

------------ Map Loading ------------
trying to load maps/wrackdm17.aas
loaded maps/wrackdm17.aas
found 61 level items
-------------------------------------
30 bots parsed
^3Can't use keys or values with a '"': quote" = bigáboobsáareábetteráthanásmallátits
112 arenas parsed
AAS initialized.

From standard game, instead, it is a yellow line (with spaces instead of "á") just under the "ui loaded in XXXXXX bytes on the hunk" line

[fromhell]

------------ Map Loading ------------
trying to load maps/wrackdm17.aas
loaded maps/wrackdm17.aas
found 61 level items
-------------------------------------
24 bots parsed
51 arenas parsed
AAS initialized.
-----------------------------------

Standard 0.8.5.

It's one of those 6 additional bots you have, and in the SVN, the only occurance of "tits" are binary matches in TGA/PSD files.

Strangely I did a search for that phrase in my skin/player collection, I CAN'T EVEN FIND THAT PHRASE. Definitely a recent work that got autodownloaded to your baseoa folder

[Gig]

You are right. A clean installation does not show that message. Sorry for your lost of time.
I'm sorry I didn't thought it was some add-on... I thought it was some message you put in the game as a generic reminder that people can't use keys or values with a ", with an example... and seeing that many OpenArena characters actually have large b...., I thought that was from OA.

I will try to find the pk3 with the third-party bot that causes it, when I will have some time. For the meanwhile, thank you.

[sittingduck]

Am I the only one that almost never even sees the menus?
I launch servers from shortcuts or my browser, and settings are all done in the console, or config files.
My monitors must be set up for HDTV or something because they are both 16:9.

[fromhell]

it's possible to completely disable the UI and just have a bare full-screen console. Heck I might just do that to begin the menus - prioritize hud first, then ingame menu, then finally the front end menus.

[GrosBedo]

Very nice work and idea!

Any news about this?

[fromhell]

I once attempted to disable the stretching, it puts a 640x480 UI in the top left corner instead.

[fromhell]

I'm restarting the menu with a simpler design. So far i've done the "create game" pages. This time around, there's tabs to keep things visually undaunting. Probably would add an ADVANCED CONFIG tab later on.


Unfortunately i'm running into a lot of bugs regarding input and the old TA menu system. Trying to drive this menu with a gamepad is going to be a challenge even when it's dumbed down.

Also all the shader effects done in this menu are all alpha blends, so it's PowerVR friendly

[Gig]

Nice. Can I give some suggestions?

- Screenshot 1:
--"Free for All" is the exact name of a specific gametype (g_gametype 0), which is usually known as "Deathmatch"... thus, using it as a synonim of "non-team-based gametypes" may cause some confusion. What about using something like "Individual", "Selfish", "Personal" or similar for the category, and use "Free For All" for the specific gametype? Would you prefer "Free For All (DeathMatch)"?
--Maybe there is enough room to write "Team Deathmatch" extended.
--Maybe one may add also the "number" of each gametype -even if in smaller fonts-, to help people learning them?
--Just a (stupid?) idea: maybe one could also add common abbreviations -even if in smaller fonts-? FFA, TDM, DOM, DD... Unfortunately this may not fit so well some gametypes, like Oneflag and Elimination...

- Screenshot 2:
-- I think we really should write both "long" and "short" names for a map, by using a "status line" for the currently selected one, or (proably better) by using a two-columns table. It's already hard enough to remember the name of a map (and let's consider that the long name in the .arena file may differ from the one shown during the map loading -that depends from worldspawn/message key-).
-- One might take advantage of the table to allow users to order the list in different ways: "default" (as the standard game works, with new maps at the end IIRC), "by long name", "by short name".
-- Some people may however prefer the "classic" view with 8 thumbnails images on a single page (someone may better recognize a map from its levelshot than from its name). I think it should be possible to implement the suggestions above also keeping a such layout. Maybe you may give users the ability switch layout as they wish, switching between the "names table" and the "levelshots gallery".

-Screenshot 3:
--It's not clear how to open more slots than the few that are on screen (5 per team)... but maybe while actually trying it, that may be clear.

Of course, if you will provide both "simple" and "advanced" modes (as you mentioned in your post), you may decide what to put here and what to put there...

By the way... for which reason should the interface focus on gamepad? This game is clearly adapt for mouse controls, why the interface should differ? I've played a little of Quake3 Revolution (PS2) and controls aren't comparable with the PC version.