OpenXcom Forum

Modding => Work In Progress => Topic started by: xracer on June 07, 2013, 10:01:50 am

Title: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 07, 2013, 10:01:50 am
Here is some food for thought i know we are not implementing HI-RES just yet, but i figure it might help to start something, after all everyone is talking about it!!

let me know what you guys think!!!!

maybe we should see which version people prefer.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: luke83 on June 07, 2013, 11:36:55 am
If we are planning Hi-Res controls , can we add quick access section for grenades ( other small items)  on your belt or side pockets.

Also long term i would like to see some sort of group moving options added to OXC , a location for this would be great also 8)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Daiky on June 07, 2013, 09:31:45 pm
Long time ago, when I was still young and ambitious, I created this "thing"/mockup. In case you need more food for thought ;)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Volutar on June 07, 2013, 09:51:38 pm
It reminds me starcraft:-). Actually it's too reworked panel, almost no vanilla left. but sc-like is interesting idea!
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 07, 2013, 10:08:05 pm
THIs is the remaking of the UI, for now i wnat to keep it as close to vanilla as possible later on we can add another row of controls
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 07, 2013, 10:15:43 pm
If we are planning Hi-Res controls , can we add quick access section for grenades ( other small items)  on your belt or side pockets.

Also long term i would like to see some sort of group moving options added to OXC , a location for this would be great also 8)

i was thinking to add the squad control similar to Apoc, but i don't know how feasable will be that to implement in the game
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 08, 2013, 07:43:29 am
Still messing around with this thing

added the TFTD buttons to zero out a unit and to reserve for kneeling.

other than that is basic vanilla (yes Volutar i am not an artist) my vanilla doesn't meet your strict vanilla standards :P
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 08, 2013, 08:11:57 am
purifying the drawing :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: 54x on June 08, 2013, 04:51:07 pm
Very cool. I assume the blank buttons are going to be the TU reserve toggle at some stage? While they don't have to be red and green, I'd definitely suggest making those four, and the kneel reserve toggle, look slightly different to the others, even if it's just by not rounding the outside of the button, for instance.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 08, 2013, 05:53:18 pm
yes you are correct i still have a few variations to go through i think sticking to the original set up is best because is easier to make toggable buttons, and of course after a long discussion with Volutar, i have decided to redo the main control icons let me know what you think.

54x i think that the green and red might be the better choice i will make them all follow the same criteria, unless someone has better ideas
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 09, 2013, 07:28:13 am
ok latest iteration of the control panel
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: moriarty on June 09, 2013, 09:16:31 am
do you think you can replicate that "used" look from the original buttons? some kind of bump mapping effect? the new ones look too shiny for my taste :) I like them anyway, but somehow they lose a little bit of that feeling when they look as perfect as they do.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 10, 2013, 01:16:42 am
i will try to give it some noise so that it doesn't look so shiny and sharp or maybe i could just blur the whole icon, although last time it didn't look so great :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Mr. Quiet on June 10, 2013, 06:37:55 am
Looks cool!! I want it!! Also making it look dirty would be cool. I love gritty stuff.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 10, 2013, 07:41:10 am
ok i did a few variations of the buttons to see where people are falling inline,

1st clean-cut
2nd blur applied
3rd noise applied
4th noise & blur applied.

let me know what you guys think.

Volutar your vanilla version pixel by pixel is on the way :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Volutar on June 10, 2013, 09:08:21 am
Tried to enlarge classic button (with palette preserved)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: kkmic on June 10, 2013, 09:21:21 am
Looks good.

I like how it keeps the retro feel while having a higher resolution.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Volutar on June 10, 2013, 11:31:22 am
It's similar to technique used for TTS

--- posts merged ---

Slightly smoothed top and bottom bevels. I think that's more natural and like vanilla.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 10, 2013, 09:39:27 pm
just as a starting point, i think i will add volutar's icon better for later revision, this is just for a proof of concept to put in the game.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 11, 2013, 08:06:52 am
ok a revised revision

its getting there, eventually someone will use it :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: SeanEBlog on June 11, 2013, 09:53:10 am
I wanted to see the white slashes replaced with negative space ones. Does it look better?
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: moriarty on June 11, 2013, 10:33:22 am
I like those buttons! they are really coming along great.

about the negative space slashes: perhaps they are a little bit too subtle now. maybe the "free ends" should still be visible? some kind of "inversion", where the part on black background turns beige, and the part on the beige background black?
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Mr. Quiet on June 11, 2013, 10:45:04 am
Looks good, xracer. Add a nice border graphic around the top of the UI, like Starcraft, how each race has a different looking UI theme.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: SeanEBlog on June 11, 2013, 11:02:03 am
about the negative space slashes: perhaps they are a little bit too subtle now. maybe the "free ends" should still be visible? some kind of "inversion", where the part on black background turns beige, and the part on the beige background black?

How about this?
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: kkmic on June 11, 2013, 04:59:23 pm
Is this vectorial?

Or at least, can you upscale it to any decent resolution? (I know it's an improvement over the original, but I have to ask :) )
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 11, 2013, 06:39:23 pm
the main control panels are not vectors the rest it is, the main buttons were made by Vol the rest by me, unless Vol made vector drawing i could replace the ones there, but it should be scalable no matter what, i have posted the source .png so you can download it an play with it.

I still want to do the a couple more things on the actual little icons to give them depth. other than that it should be all good. Warboy is helping me to get a demo version going, maybe this is the start of something bigger :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Warboy1982 on June 11, 2013, 07:32:30 pm
(https://i.imgur.com/ttovQsH.png)

doesn't take a ridiculous amout of code adjustment.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: Korenn on June 11, 2013, 08:21:51 pm
maybe this is the start of something bigger :)
I lolled.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 11, 2013, 09:43:32 pm
(https://i.imgur.com/ttovQsH.png)

doesn't take a ridiculous amout of code adjustment.

that looks really nice
of course this would be the tip of the iceberg to get the whole game to this res, but i think it looks very nice and very vanilla :)except for the reservation buttons :)

EDIT:
hmmm there is one thing missing there in the level icon there should be a "2" showing the unit is in the second level, i guess i need to move that to the left a little to give space for the number.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: SeanEBlog on June 12, 2013, 10:30:31 am
(https://i.imgur.com/ttovQsH.png)

doesn't take a ridiculous amout of code adjustment.

Hey, you know what could be used the make that new display flush? A text bar with a large colorful font, which would inform the player what the mouse buttons would currently do if clicked.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 20, 2013, 05:10:16 pm
Hey, you know what could be used the make that new display flush?
First sorry for the late reply.

I don't understand what you mean by flush :S.
Quote from: SeanEBlog
A text bar with a large colorful font, which would inform the player what the mouse buttons would currently do if clicked.

you are talking about a tooltip? a little text to say what the button is for? i presume you are referring the GUI buttons not the mouse buttons. Otherwise the mouse button "left" to activate/select, "right" to cancel


ON A SIDE NOTE:

I am working on doing little modifications to the rest of the combat UI, i think I may have something ready tomorrow night. STAY TUNED :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: MyThos on June 20, 2013, 05:34:48 pm
Since you're looking at the control panel from a modding point of view may I suggest fast access panels for grenades and ammo reload ? See Xenonauts control panel for reference  ;D

Thanks and Regards,
Michael
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 20, 2013, 05:55:27 pm
Hello,
the reload option was mentioned by someone before , i yes i have thought about it,  i have added a small icon at the bottom of the weapon area, i have not created a screen shot because i have been waiting to finish some other areas. But yes is a function that i need to talk to the coders to see if they could do the favor an code it.

the grenade quick access, i have been having trouble trying to find a "proper" place where to added, because i wanted to make it look as though is part of the GUI and not just a discombobulated number of controls.

If you can think where it could be located that will be great.

Thanks for the feedback.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: pmprog on June 20, 2013, 06:09:09 pm
discombobulated
Sorry for being a little off-topic, but I love that word :D

FWIW, where I live, when you say something is "flush" in the context Sean was in, it means "fits together nicely", or more accurately "Of a surface exactly even with an adjoining one, forming the same plane"
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 20, 2013, 07:06:45 pm
Sorry for being a little off-topic, but I love that word :D

FWIW, where I live, when you say something is "flush" in the context Sean was in, it means "fits together nicely", or more accurately "Of a surface exactly even with an adjoining one, forming the same plane"

I lol, i understand what "flush" means, what i was asking is in what context, meaning what will make it flush? the text type? the color? location? 
I wanted to ask Warboy to create a tooltip which would float about the icons aligned to the top of the icon and offset 50% of the width of the icon on mouseover. I think for new players that will provide enough information to help them get through the game without resorting to looking for a manual.

On an side note
I think I found the perfect place for the "grenade quick access". Of course there could be some limitation to when to access it, but i think that is a rule that will be implemented once i get a decent GUI view. For example if you are holding a weapon on that hand then you can't use it, or it can be done that the system will calculate the number of time units to move the weapon to the back pack, then the grenade to the hand, throw and then move the weapons back to the hand., so that way you know if you have enough time units to perform such action.

Of course all this will be available if the grenades are only in the belt and maybe leg pockets, i think quick access to the backpack should not be possible, so if you have grenades on your back pack you will need to do it the old way.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: pmprog on June 20, 2013, 07:17:44 pm
I lol, i understand what "flush" means, what i was asking is in what context, meaning what will make it flush? the text type? the color? location? 
Ah, sorry, my bad ;)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: MyThos on June 20, 2013, 11:55:36 pm
Of course all this will be available if the grenades are only in the belt and maybe leg pockets, i think quick access to the backpack should not be possible, so if you have grenades on your back pack you will need to do it the old way.

Fully agree! Grenades have to be at belt, shoulder or leg pockets to be available for quick access. Good that you have already some ideas in mind ...
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 21, 2013, 04:25:56 am
ok a small edit to try and fit all the request, it looks a little odd but not so out of place.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 21, 2013, 05:14:47 am
ok this is what i have been working on, let me know what you guyes think, the second one is supposed to be "if" we implement equipment load out in base management. there is a few things left to do, so this is just a proof of concept ;)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 21, 2013, 05:20:26 am
large items in backpack

i think it does fit nicely, you be the judge
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: luke83 on June 21, 2013, 05:30:16 am
Looks Fantastic if you ask me :)

As for the GUI something like this , just More Xcom with LESS Baldurs Gate 2  :P
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 21, 2013, 06:12:54 am
i think that could be done fairly easy, the problem will be implementing the multi-soldier select for the game. and setting up default formation points and of course the workaround for obstacles :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: luke83 on June 21, 2013, 06:21:37 am
Original i thought something like APOC would be Good, Now i am thinking you hold down a button on keyboard to create a selection Box for the mouse , highlight several units , click a rough troop layout option and Send them all to the UFO door at once  :P  Something that changes automatically when place to close to a Wall or fence would be good, in case i don't want 5 guys outside the building and 1 looking for cover inside the building.

Also the Feedback box would be a different option to those annoying POP up windows that piss me off. "BOB spotted alien", "Jim is injured", Greg is out of ammo", "Murphy just crapped his pants ... I mean panicked ", "Ted is Dead".
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 21, 2013, 07:05:49 am
i think Apoc had a good idea, create a squad, base on the number of soldiers, i alwasy hated it how they got split but if was nice enough, and then you could re-assign them, that was simple enough, also Apoc had basic formation, column, wedge,  skirmisher and echelon. having those with a 4 member fire-team works great. and Apoc did a nice job following that basic setup. 
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: luke83 on June 21, 2013, 09:04:15 am
 i know i am going off topic hear but to me the only reason i don't use larger numebrs solider in missions is because of the amount of pointless clicking i need to do to get them off the ship and into battle. Normally i secure the landing craft with a few troops and then cant be bothered moving the rest along only to find i NEED them half way through because of taking casualties.  Any sort of group movement could help here.

Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 21, 2013, 09:14:35 pm
i know i am going off topic hear but to me the only reason i don't use larger numebrs solider in missions is because of the amount of pointless clicking i need to do to get them off the ship and into battle. Normally i secure the landing craft with a few troops and then cant be bothered moving the rest along only to find i NEED them half way through because of taking casualties.  Any sort of group movement could help here.



I hear you , and i know is off-topic how about creating fire-teams based on the location in the ship something like this


_3_      _2_   _1_
11   9    7 5   3 1
12 10    8 6   4 2

we can set the specific position on the ship to belong to a fire-team, in this case position 1-4 will be fire-team 1, position 5-8 will be assigned to fire-team 2 and so on, but that will be only for default set-up after that you could reassign troops however you like. the same way Apoc did. selecting and dragging to the squad you liked, i will try to make a little mockup in a few days this weekend is pretty busy :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: luke83 on June 22, 2013, 02:34:03 am
Honestly ,i would be happy to move towards any sort of grouping now, we can argue about what works and doesn't work later :P

i have decided that higher resolutions is the only way to play now and your Control panel is needed ASAP  ;D
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on June 22, 2013, 04:47:30 am
Control panel is basically done, i have added those last 2 little items for grenades quick access and reload  of course functionality for those would need to be added, although i have re-size the icons to give a little more space to the status bar, and to make it fir vanilla size.

if you think there is something else that need to be changed let me know, maybe we can gather every thing and make a "large" mod, I am tinkering with the rest of the GUI to make it fit a 640x400 but not simply 2x everything.

Althought right now i am focused on teh battlescape i think there isn't much that needs to be done there if the loadout screen is used then that covers basically everything, the rest of the GUIS such as the minimap, scanner, medikit will just be centered with the battlescape as background so that it looks like an actual window. Anything else i am missing? maybe i shoudl play the game and go over every GUI again :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: luke83 on June 22, 2013, 05:08:00 am
Just let me know when i can try it for myself :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on August 01, 2013, 07:16:36 am
Hey
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47596892/XracerCom.rar

this is the initial version that warboy compiled it only has a working control panel it has the .exe with the proper dll. aslo you will need to adjust the options.cfg in your save game folder to add the proper ruleset.

give it a try :)

--- posts merged ---

ok it has been long in the making, i think i am doing one too many things at once :P but if you don't do that you will get bored.

I have compiled all of Chiko's sprites and a few other mod like Warboy's combat knife made or adjusted a few sprites from Luke i think in any case is a huge mod i am working on :) maybe too large, so i have asked for help to a lot of people :)

I did a little quick overview of the changes the reserach tree and dependencies are still pending, i want to first get all items to properly display on the GUI.

You can see the overview here.
https://youtu.be/C1UYAePEI4c

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: SeanEBlog on August 12, 2013, 03:30:49 am
First sorry for the late reply.

I don't understand what you mean by flush :S.
you are talking about a tooltip? a little text to say what the button is for? i presume you are referring the GUI buttons not the mouse buttons. Otherwise the mouse button "left" to activate/select, "right" to cancel

Sorry for the super late reply. I had to move, took super long.

When I said mouse buttons, I meant that literally. Of course it would act as a tool tip for the GUI buttons, but it would also explain what actions pressing mouse buttons would take.

For example:
-Left, Fire. Ctrl+left, Force Fire. Right cancel.
-Left, Move. Shift+Left Strife or run. Right, turn in place.

I'm sure the favor text would be more flavorful than that but yeah.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on August 13, 2013, 11:41:48 pm
Sorry for the super late reply. I had to move, took super long.

When I said mouse buttons, I meant that literally. Of course it would act as a tool tip for the GUI buttons, but it would also explain what actions pressing mouse buttons would take.

For example:
-Left, Fire. Ctrl+left, Force Fire. Right cancel.
-Left, Move. Shift+Left Strife or run. Right, turn in place.

I'm sure the favor text would be more flavorful than that but yeah.

hmm... not a bad idea but since right now even tooltips are not done :) i think i will have to see what can be done.

Moving along with my goal to make OXC a higher resolution game here is the latest, thanks to Warboy and Supsuper and a bunch of people that help stupid people do nice things :)

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/117436529281832067974/albums/5894756605877745809/5911675865666000082?pid=5911675865666000082&oid=117436529281832067974

this is an actual ingame screenshot. We will get there people!!! :)
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: mercy on October 05, 2013, 12:29:24 pm
WOW!

New graphics is needed or you have to scale originals up 2x in order that everything stays visible and we don't have to poke grenades few pixel high.
Title: Re: Battlescape control panel
Post by: xracer on October 06, 2013, 04:45:43 am
yeah new graphics would be required, but at this point, i am at a stand still due to some unforeseen circumstances. what i will do as soon as i get everything back on track is try to get the battle scape working properly in the higher res, a few people have already done new art but a lot of floor object will need to be added. Also the problem that is see is that your soldiers looks so far away :)

but in test play the game runs smoothly