Why does the user interface look weird?

[mtgrares]

I answered this in the new readme that I wrote. The short answer is that any user interface is complicated, so a complicated user interface like Magic is very complicated.

The user interface uses regular Windows components like panels, dialog boxes, and buttons to represent the Magic game board. The user interface is basic but very usable. There are many aspects of the user interface which could be improved.

The user interface was written using Java Swing which wasn't intended to be used for a videogame. Hopefully in the future the user interface will be more visual like a real videogame.

[MageKing17]

And here I was expecting a post complaining at your past self for having made such a weird user interface.

[mtgrares]

Oddly enough 99% of the user complaints against the user interface have been silenced since MTG Forge scales the card pictures for your hand and in play area. Those two lines of code really improved the quality of MTG Forge and I couldn't imagine going back to just those colored text boxes. (By the way, I tried to come up with those magical two lines of code myself but some things you either know or you don't know.)

[mtgrares]

And here I was expecting a post complaining at your past self for having made such a weird user interface.

Well since I'm the designer I love the stuff I code, even though other people may think it stink, lol. When I programmed MTG Forge I just wanted something that WORKED and had a usable user interface. Maybe in the future I can upgrade the user interface to be 50% as good as Incantus, ha. (I would settle for just 20% )

[MageKing17]

And here I was expecting a post complaining at your past self for having made such a weird user interface.

Well since I'm the designer I love the stuff I code, even though other people may think it stink, lol. When I programmed MTG Forge I just wanted something that WORKED and had a usable user interface. Maybe in the future I can upgrade the user interface to be 50% as good as Incantus, ha. (I would settle for just 20% )

Hah. I just wish I understood our UI code.

[mtgrares]

I understand very basic graphics, I don't know anything about 3D or transparancies or layers. Programing in one language is hard enough and gui programming is a second language embedded in the first language. I think about using a very, very basic gui library that has like 50 methods and 3 objects, I call it user interface design for dummies. (In case anyone is interested I forgot what it was called but it looked very simple, I have it on my home computer so I see what it is called.)

[GandoTheBard]

Imho other than issues of screen realestate graphics don't matter in the least. I don't care what Forge looks like, I prefer a functional UI than a pretty one. If we could get a functional UI for Forge I'd be content with it.