Cube Engine Games

Cube & Cube 2 FORUM

The new GUI

by Aardappel_ on 09/20/2006 21:51, 134 messages, last message: 11/20/2006 16:00, 92302 views, last view: 05/07/2024 17:05

I just mentioned it in another post, and also on IRC, and it dawned on me it could be beneficial to tell people about it before I implement it.

So in the beginning, there was the current menu system. Super simple and effective, but not very pretty and flexible. Its been on the list for getting a more serious replacement for a LONG time.

The #1 thing that has always bugged me for in-game GUIs is that its "modal". You are either in the game, or you are in the menus, and you are blocked from the game until you explicitly cancel the menu. I prefer UIs where I can do everything all the time, less mental and physical switching all the time, less clumsy.

But how should that work? my initial idea for that you can see at work if you fire up the rpg prototype work (commandline -grpg). Here, the menu is always visible on the side of the screen, and you can scroll through options while you are running through the gameworld. leftmouse always activates, wether its attack (the default) or an actualy menu. Conceptually beautiful and simple.

However, in using it I noticed that it was clumsier than expected. It being on the sides meant dealing with say an NPC means you have to see whats active on the left while pointing at the NPC in the middle, which was uncomfortable. I don't know if anyone else tried using it, I'd love to hear feadback.

So the new plan is actually an older idea I had, but which I thought was unpractical: Do menus fully inside the 3d world. Go close to an NPC, and a bunch of options/icons pop up over his head in 3d. Press ESC, and the main menu launches in front of you, in the 3d world. You can now select menu items simply... with your crosshair! Can't read it? move closer. Large menu that doesn't fit on screen? walk further away! Close the menu? you don't have to, it will automatically dissapear if you are a certain distance from it (though ESC will still work too).

You can have multiple menus open (main menu, NPCs, your inventory, etc etc), and they will overlap depending on which one you are closest to (so switching between menus, should they overlap, is again a question of moving around). ESC goes back or closes the closest one, keep pressing to close all menus manually.

My big initial problem was what happens if an NPC stands in a small indoor environment, and the menu doesn't fit in the 3d space above his head. My solution now is simple: I draw menus on top of the world no matter what, or maybe just for the frontmost menu.

There have been games that have used the crosshair for in-game screens you can click on (Doom 3 is an excellent example), but never before has it been used consistently for everything. I think the modelessness (no switching between crosshair and mousecursor) and the fact that you can control everything with existing controls (movement + shoot) will make it one of the best game UIs ever. But feel free to give your critical comments.

btw this menu overhaul will also mean more different UI elements, i.e. icons in the UI, maybe sliders for numerical values and all that jazz.

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#1: stealing fire button

by guest57 on 09/20/2006 23:01

One of the annoyances i've had with these sort of non-modal menu systems was how to return quickly to shooting things without the menu getting in my face and stealing my fire button - maybe a non issue for rpg?