suggestion/request for GUI

[pinecones]

it would be nice if you could have the graveyard (or hand or opponents' graveyards or similar zones) have a fixed size so that instead of the zone scaling when there are more cards in it, it scales the distance between cards and/or adds a scrollbar if a certain threshold is met? (similar to how the hand works in MWS)

unless i'm missing a setting, right now i'm resorting to taking up most of an x or y plane to display these.

the ability to have a good way to easily view your own and opponents' graveyards without a pop-up window is something that could set OPT apart from the other similar programs.

[pinecones]

i'll try to post a screen shot to illustrate what i'm talking about later today if i make enough progress with the skinning.

another suggestion to consider as a long term goal (maybe an overhaul after release) is a more piecemeal approach to the GUI where you can set attach points between any two items. a couple of GUI mods for world of warcraft used this approach and it allowed for very robust customization options. for example you could set the top-left corner of the blue mana pool symbol to attach to the bottom-right corner of the white mana pool symbol... (and then adjust off-sets from each end). then you could attach the top-right of the green mana pool symbol to the bottom-left of the white mana symbol... etc. this would allow someone to create the 5-point mana configuration shown on the back of magic cards.

you would have a lot more menu entries under the theme customization menu option, but nestling sub-menus could easily and logically make everything pretty easy and intuitive to find.

the GUI mod i used to use in world of warcraft, specifically, also had a minor scripting system built in, but i don't think that would be completely necessary. although allowing most objects to do thing like hide or show dynamically after a certain period of time or on certain actions could be helpful. (such as allowing the big display card to appear after 2 seconds of hovering over a card in play/hand/gy/etc and display attached to the top-center of the card you are hovering over)

it also had an option to show all hidden objects temporarily in order to be able to move them around or see how the would look if they were active, and an ability to temporarily show "tabs" that attach to objects so you can easily drag them around screen.

i'll also try to look around for screen shots of that application and/or a website. (it's been a while since i've played WoW)

again, that seems like it's probably a big pain in the ass to mess with before other more important features are added, so it may be something to consider for after "release". i think one of the major wins for your program is that the GUI (already) has the potential to look better than anything else out there and is extremely customizable--which isn't something anything else really has. the GUI alone allows for OPT to be lightyears above and beyond MTGO and MWS.

edit: i understand a lot of the layout options are already similar to this, but i was suggesting allowing the user to dock anything to anything... and being able to separate things like the player icons (life total, deck, hand, gy, exile) and dock them to anything else.

[pinecones]

i lied... i can't find any good screen shots of the setup screens for any of the wow mods that are similar. =o\

[pinecones]

attaching a screen capture of what i've got so far...

[pinecones]

the priority button is hidden (forgot to make sure it was up when i took the picture). notice the problem i'm having with the mana symbols in lists showing up with a #FF00FF background... and for some reason the text is also. you can also see there is a plains showing up bunk for some reason. (i'm using a deck created in MWS)

here are my suggestions based on things i've run into while messing around with the theme:

-it would be nice to be able to have a set width/height for zones like the GY on the left, hand on the bottom, or stack on the right... so that you don't have to play the whole rest of the GUI around it. what i mean is making the zone have a set width/height and adding a scrollbar after a certain threshold, and/or having the distance between cards become shorter as more cards are added.

-the ability to change the direction of card flow in the stack, or other similar objects such as the counters bar, player icons, and whether the +health icon appears on the top/right/bottom/left side of the health adjust bar.

-being able to dock zones would also be pretty nice

-the ability to resize the highlighted card/messages window/text bar/etc/etc.

-more ways of being able to modify text on the mana bar... especially the text that pops up when you add or subtract mana from it. such as x and y distance from the center of each mana symbol.

[pinecones]

i think of all things, adding a feature to hide the "highlight card" and replacing it with an effect like this:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... uzzling-5/ (hover over the card pics or card links)
would save lots of real-estate on the screen.

you could also consolidate some space by having the tokens (and health control bar or similar objects) be one icon long, but expand when you hover over them.

[Jorbes]

lots to read, i have courses now, so i'll have a look in the weekend.

thanks though.

[pinecones]

yeah, i'm about to get back to school, myself. anyway, it's just suggestions based on what i think from having fiddled with the GUI settings.

=oD

[pinecones]

i'll just keep posting things i notice that don't seem to work right, or things that may help if they could be added or adjusted. not trying to create a sense of urgency or tell you what to do or anything. just trying to be helpful!

let me know if there is anything you want me to do specifically!


-while editing the "player panels" in 1v1 mode, there is an option to "new row after name". this setting cannot be changed Independently of panel--if you change it for player 2, it also changes for player 1.

-in player panel settings, there is a drop-down box on the right for "player icon". i probably just don't know what this is or what it's supposed to do, but it appears to do nothing.

[pinecones]

-png files used for the skin with multiples levels of transparency are only rendering one level of transparency (transparent or not) as far as i can tell. all pixes in the graphic that have a level of alpha between 100% or 0% display as #FF00FF colored pixels when rendered in the program.

i realize by now that PNG allows for levels of transparency. (which is a really cool feature). i don't know if this is a bug as much as it may be a feature of OPT to only use two channels of alpha.

EDIT: i originally thought that pixels with any alpha information in them aside from 100% or 0% were showing up ast #FF00FF. but, after examining a screen shot of OPT with an icon loaded that had levels of transparency... i noticed that OPT WAS displaying pixels that had transparency information in them as if they were that degree of transparent with an #FF00FF background. dunno if that will help at all.

also i tried fiddling around to get the mana symbols in the zone lists to show up with real alpha instead of #FF00FF. i tried messing with options i could find inside the program and by re-editing the mana symbols by hand to make sure their transparency was set up right. but i had no luck.

(scroll down to see affected pixels)

[pinecones]

here is a new screenshot of my latest work on the skin. i replaced the icons for areas of play and life adjustment as well as the dice icon. gotta still clean up the dice icon and doctor the mana icons.

so far i've been using non-copyrighted sources for work with the icons, or material that is under creative commons for use as long as you don't re-sell it. (aside from card backs/lands/mana symbols)

also it's really, really hard to think of a concept to convey "exile". o_O


in case anyone else is checking this out, just let me know if you want a copy of the theme/skin. it may look a little plain right now, but i figured that i would reduce it to mostly nice looking colors while i was trying to get a good layout, then go back to adding background images later.


-request: it would be nice in situations like the mana pools and zone icons of the player panels to be able to adjust the offset of the text (x/y).

[pinecones]

in the 3-6 player skin mode, the default layout is:

player 2, player 4, player 6
YOU , player 3, player 5

should i stick to a layout like this?

does it have any bearing on the battlefield?


if not would it be worth considering an option for a more modular layout in multiplayer games and/or individual areas for each player? i don't know what you've already considered.

[pinecones]

got a newer version with support for multiplayer:

[Jorbes]

in the 3-6 player skin mode, the default layout is:

player 2, player 4, player 6
YOU , player 3, player 5

should i stick to a layout like this?

does it have any bearing on the battlefield?

if not would it be worth considering an option for a more modular layout in multiplayer games and/or individual areas for each player? i don't know what you've already considered.

each player will have an "ID" for use in the code, the player panels each match to this ID, so when you say, join a 4 player table as the 2nd player, your ID will be different then when you join as the 3rd player.

The positioning of player panels does not change though, it's configured by ID. This also is the last thing that tells you the seating order by looking at the objects on the table, now that the zones are pretty much all floating and moveable.

I do want to rethink the config of zone positions when I get into theming more, with snap-to-object docking and such, maybe I will allow for an override setting for "your" zones, so that they always appear at the same spot and have the rest configurable in the old way. maybe split it up into teammates and opponents also, not sure yet.

[Jorbes]

PS: Nice theme, forgot that transparency was possible