the interface/solid HUD threaaaad

[Sensuki]

Wider combat log one ushas did is definitely better.

 

[dukeofwhales]

These HUDs all look great, though I generally think they're too large. Comparing viewports as a percentage of total screen resolution:

Reference Images: BG1 BG2 Grotesque's 4:3 BG2 720p Grotesque's 720p
Combat log is excluded in the 4:3 versions since it's resizable and takes up the full width of the viewport anyway.

Considering how much larger monitors are now compared to when BG1 came out (15" CRT was about normal as I recall), it seems crazy to go backwards in terms of proportion of space available for the viewport - it could be scaled to, say, 70% of its current size, allowing for a wider message window or more ability slots.

 

[Grotesque]

I'll make a version to accomodate a vider combat log

 

[Grotesque]

These HUDs all look great, though I generally think they're too large. .

 

[Zed]

Grotesque
great job.

here's a 2 minute mock-up, of course looking like crap, but maybe it could give you a couple of ideas

 

[ushas]

Cutting trees I see. But moving sides is a good idea, you managed to wider combat log by this

Another option is to lower left and right bottom panels. Underneath is nothing important, and it doesn't look so bad, if you do that...

Below is another mock-up, where the maximum lowering is incorporated. As well together with two other possibilities -- narrowing the left panel by putting buttons into one column and a slight reduction of the portrait side. I don't know about these two changes, especially not fond of portrait reductions. But it is interesting to try, at least.

 

[Seari]

That's too small IMO. I would inverse the position of the left buttons and formation and make them a bit bigger. Also symmetry.

 

[Athelas]

You can have up to 4 weapon sets. Better make it a collapsible menu (ditto for formations).

It might also be wise to make room for more spell levels and spell/ability slots.

 

[ushas]

In case you are telling this to me, I agree, combat formations would be better below, etc... However, this is Grotesque's design. I'm just trying to visualize some of the ideas (eg. extremes for comparison), not doing full fledged layout. It's up to him to incorporate and finaly put together, what he wants.

Athelas, Grotesque is using nine slots, isn't that enough? Druids and Priests have 9 spells at lvl1 and lvl2, 8 at lvl3, 7 at lvl4 and lvl5, 5 at level 6, dunno about others.

Edit: Indeed, the tree is optically making the picture look asymmetric I also like Grotesque decision to cut it out more, sadly.

 

[Bester]

ushas that's much better in my opinion.

1) stealth, attack and inventory buttons look out of place graphically (don't look like part of the UI, aren't integrated, they just hover over what seems to be self-sufficient ui)
2) the attack button is placed weirdly, why is it so far from abilities?
3) top bar isn't needed
4) not enough space for spell levels, weapon sets, combat log could be wider. I suppose this could be achieved on 1920*1080. Maybe make use of the lower right corner by making portraits a little smaller.

 

[Seari]

I would prefer the buttons to the left to be of similar size(a bit smaller) than the portraits ala BG2.

 

[Bester]

Do you also want to play in 640*480 resolution? Cause that's where it made sense.

 

[Grotesque]

Cutting trees I see. But moving sides is a good idea, you managed to wider combat log by this

not only this, the spells/abilities and sets/quick items sections were also moved/narrowed.
____________________________________________________________________________

"So after a long discussion that escalated way to quickly here some constructive critique

1. The combat log and the portraits seem to end at a random height.

2. Combat Log in the middle would give it a more balanced feel.

3. Why are the menu buttons all over the place, it forces the player to memorize 3 different areas where he has to look for the menu buttons.

4. Are the formation buttons really that important to give it so much screen space?

5. What about putting all menu buttons on the left side, using rectangular boxes?"



1. Bringing the portraits to the same height as the log would shrink them too much.

Also, the log is a bit depressed so that the conversation and fight log tabs would not pop out and intrude the view area. also it gives a nice effect of variation by breaking the line and giving a larger view area on the vertical axis in the center of the screen where it counts most. And considering the log's height is to be player customed, you can bring it at any height you want, pixel by pixel.

2. Combat log is in the middle of the screen (vertical axis). You perceive it otherwise because of an optical illusion. Seeing the mockup in its native resolution and full screen would eliminate that.

3. The UI is practically littered with buttons (spell levels, active chants, weapons slots and quick items are buttons too). And the interface is not designed to the lowest player common denominator (which in this case would be not being able to memorize 2 simple buttons in 5 minutes.)

Also Baldur's Gate did it the same, which can be viewed as a mini-tribute. Replacing the buttons would only leave the area empty and unbalanced and clutter other areas because...

4. The formation buttons are important (at least to me and maybe others.)

Besides several formations being ONE click ready & "pressable" (not an actual word), it helps by filling the otherwise empty space on the left section.

And because this is a symmetrical design on the vertical axis ( and forever will be so on 16:9 monitor proportions), the width of the left section is dictated by the width of the right section which houses those big portraits that me and nearly all love (as it seems).

5. Putting all the main buttons to the left side would only clutter it and leave other areas empty and unbalanced ,such as the case of removing the buttons above sets and quick items slots. Those buttons help to visually balance the spell levels, active chants and grimoire/chanter's scroll icons of the opposed side of the vertical axis.

 

[ushas]

Cutting trees I see. But moving sides is a good idea, you managed to wider combat log by this

not only this, the spells/abilities and sets/quick items sections were also moved/narrowed.

Of course. Just wanted to point out, that you managed to wider it without the butchery I executed on sets/abilities...

 

[ushas]

Below are another two low-res mock-ups, which are trying to address some of the concerns and visualize some of the proposals. So we can have in between fun before Grotesque posts next iteration.

Buttons are probably wrong, as I would never mouse travel and click on stuff, till have to. I guess there is a whole science around it...

Anyway, some of the things trying to take into consideration:

1) To see how it would look like with portraits above the ability panel:

Well sadly, portraits have to be smaller for that. There is more space for the combat log and even for one more ability slot (10 in total). Just I don't know, what is more efficient: To travel all the way to the right bottom corner and back to use the ability; or travel a shorter path, but have to occasionally circle through list of abilities, to find the desired one? Also subjectively, It doesn't feel right to me to have abilities in the corner... However, the bigger ability panel can possibly accommodate more spell levels buttons. (how many can we expect after the expansion, nine?)


2) Make even wider combat log (and we can go on...):

As you will have to circle through weapon sets anyway, why not through quick items? Besides most of the time we will have 4 usable slots (who is going to take Deep Pockets talent?). Erased the metal thing around it, not sure if a favourable change. It saves a space, but is less original. Also used the same arrows as in the abilities panel -> is my assumption right, that it will be clickable to circle through stuff?


3) More integrated buttons into the interface:

I'm not able to help with this, but at least tried different buttons, especially for those in the bottom area. Did you notice how is the PoE interface heavily arrow-headed? -> So the second mock-up is a kind of parody of that...


4) Bigger buttons:

Does a bigger button area counts? (but I would probably use lower size, as the bottom ones are slightly too big for the interface here)


5) Some different logic for button positioning for comparison. Just a few simple considerations by a simple person:

a) Put only the combat related often used stuff into the bottom panels (attack, select all, stealth, cancel, formations?). So turning off the left panel will not downsize functionality...​

b) All the other things, which are easy accessible by shortcuts or by other ways, and/or are used less often --> put them to the left panel. (for inventory you can right-click on character portraits or use the "i" shortcut easily).​

c) In that regard there is a problem with formations. In game by the key "f" you can modify custom formations. I'm not aware any other means to switch them than by clicking on the menu in the main interface. So the first mock-up would be more to the Grotesque's liking. However, for all the time functionality, it's probably better to have it in the bottom panels? (and circle through possibilities).​

d) There is also a stash button - sometimes you would like to access it directly (opens inventory + stash container in one click). How often we will craft stuff? (a craft button?). Some games have buttons for quick save/reload, but dunno if needed here at all...​

6) I like the adventuring vibe of the Grotesque's interface, so the date is accompanying the money info. But that's just a whim


Closer to original:

PoE like buttons (feels slightly too modern to me):

 

[Athelas]

Some quick notes:

The attack/cancel/select all/stealth buttons should be next/under each each other in a 2x2 grid, in a manner similar to the quick slots. They're the commands you'd use in/for combat. The others have less frequent use so their positioning is less important.

The globe in the bottom left corner should be pushed upwards on the side bar, so that there's more room on the bottom bar.

There doesn't appear to be any actual room to expand the formations menu. Putting it on the side bar would make that possible.

Still not enough room for weapon sets and quick slots.

That one icon ripped straight from Baldur's Gate looks pretty jarring IMO.

 

[ushas]

Some quick notes:

The attack/cancel/select all/stealth buttons should be next/under each each other in a 2x2 grid, in a manner similar to the quick slots. They're the commands you'd use in/for combat. The others have less frequent use so their positioning is less important.

The globe in the bottom left corner should be pushed upwards on the side bar, so that there's more room on the bottom bar.

A good points! What would you put to the bottom left corner?

There doesn't appear to be any actual room to expand the formations menu. Putting it on the side bar would make that possible.
Still not enough room for weapon sets and quick slots.

Well the point is to circle through the stuff by arrows, for example (or in menu). But I guess you can always accommodate all the 4 sets and 6 quick items slots by a narrowing the combat log (which I was doing the opposite here), or using the bottom left corner... But it feels slightly as a wasting space on the main hud to have half of the slots empty for most of the characters.

The formation button can work as in PoE now. (in case you are talking about the second mock up).

That one icon ripped straight from Baldur's Gate looks pretty jarring IMO.

That's from Baldur's gate? I didn't know where he took it from, but also didn't have time to consider other decorative elements requested by Zed. We would need something PoE related of course.

 

[Seari]

Spoiler

I would totally play with this.

Things that I would change personally:

• Gold doesn't need to be shown in the main UI, you can open the inventory for that.
• Time should be near the clock thingy, or better yet it should be a mouseover like BG2.
• Bigger left buttons >_<

edit: I guess you could move attack and select all to where stealth and the other buttons are.

 

[Zed]

I'm personally not a big fan of the gold count and date/time put on the solid HUD. Date/time could be a mouseover pop-up somewhere, perhaps.
(What Seari said)

Also, it looks like the buff/debuff icons are sticking out of the right-side frame next to the portraits.

 

[ushas]

• Gold doesn't need to be shown in the main UI, you can open the inventory for that.
• Time should be near the clock thingy, or better yet it should be a mouseover like BG2..

I'm personally not a big fan of the gold count and date/time put on the solid HUD. Date/time could be a mouseover pop-up somewhere, perhaps.
(What Seari said)

heh, ok, you are entitled to be bothered by any details. Don't worry about date, was just a filler for the meantime (I tought it was obvious, sorry). Of course you can see it by hovering above the clock thing in the bottom left. As for the money count, that's interesting that you complain now when tried to move it into less important place, originally from bottom panel. But good to know anyway. Grotesque wants to have easily accessible stuff without too much click working. I dunno about the importance of money count myself. Perhaps you can persuade him to remove it from the interface by promising to show this info by hovering a mouse above the inventory button?...

 

[Grotesque]

new weapon sets slots design. each slot represents a set. weapon from the second slot active

http://postimg.org/image/d50qayupd/

 

[Grotesque]

Would someone please post a screenshot with PoE running at 2560x1440 resolution?

 

[ushas]

That's nice.

How do you plan to show the second weapon slot in the set?

I don't know. For example, have the foreground one to be the right hand, or show the left hand weapon/shield in the sub-slot in the corner? (but I don't know what is possible with PoE icons)...

 

[dukeofwhales]

If it's possible to squeeze it in, I would prefer to see both hands for all weapon slots

Bester and/or Sensuki - is modding something like this in going to actually be practical? Or are we just living in fantasy land anyway?

 

[agris]

If it's possible to squeeze it in, I would prefer to see both ands for all weapon slots

Bester and/or Sensuki - is modding something like this in going to actually be practical? Or are we just living in fantasy land anyway?

Adam (iirc) said in a post on the OE forums that the programming required to implement such a UI would take "weeks", and is outside their current scope. It's a shame, the solid UI got shafted.