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  #151  
Unread 02-20-2009, 02:41 PM
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Lodrelhai Lodrelhai is offline
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Okay, mock-up for a HUD layout, based on 1024x768 resolution. It's not perfect, obviously, and I think some tweaks need to be done to the windows themselves before we can get anything finalized:



I've got 3 hotbars there, since that's the number of hotbars we can access via keyboard. The third could be removed and the compass, clock, and eq2 button moved under them. Or, more likely, the hotbars then swapped with the active quest window. Either way, quest window then made a bit taller.

Dead space needs some severe trimming! The amount of border on some of these windows is insane. Casting bar and effects windows particularly could use the cut.

I couldn't get an implied target window up, but ideally it'd be under the target window.

Connection stat thingamabob was left open in error - but I do think that's a decent place for it.

No clue whatsoever where the minimap would plug in on this.

Rothgar repeatedly mentioned having the casting bar included in the HUD. I've got it there (though it needs trimming to fit in its intended place), but honestly, I think it shouldn't be included, simply because it's a window that is rarely up and only for short durations.
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  #152  
Unread 04-06-2009, 01:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SOE-Rothgar View Post
Something else I wanted to let you guys know. I'm finishing up the conversion of our INI files into XML format. It wont be done for 51 but hopefully will go out with 52. This new format will be much easier to view and tweak. It'll be more friendly for us as developers as well. This change will also pave the way for me to provide you guys with a method to save and load values from UI windows so your custom mods can save data between sessions. As long as your saved values don't conflict with values we expect to find, you should be able to save whatever you want in a player's UI settings file.

It'll probably work something like this; any custom values you write to the main page will be serialized into the INI file and read back in when the UI is loaded. Unless of course you guys have some better ideas, I'm all ears. We could require that you create a data object with a specific name like "CustomData" and all values in that object would be written to the INI file. This might be a cleaner implementation.
So the XML stuff went live. Is custom variable saving in place yet? I'd REALLY like to see this go live. For windows that have toggle'able settings in-game, this will be a godsend. I'd like to be able to configure settings in-game, rather than include "setting" files.
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  #153  
Unread 04-12-2009, 03:08 AM
bazzar bazzar is offline
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i would LOVE this system for quickbars:

you have got quickbarcontainers. empty by default. (or if you like with 12 free slots by default).

you can adjust the size of the containers. 1 slot, 3 slots, 24 slots, whatever.

you have got unlimited containers.

you are able to drag&drop skills and spells into this containers. you are able to combine several icons into one container.

so you are able to create a quickbar with only one big icon @ 76 pixels or a 32 slot quickbar with 16pixel icons. etc.

as a cherry on top you could rightclick a button and assign a key(combination) to it.
so you are not forced to waste 2-9,0 in one bar. you could assign key 2 to hotbar 3 and key 3 to hotbar 5 slot 7, alt-1 to bar 2 slot 4 etc etc...

so you could create custom (self-)click to cure icons, without wasting a complete bar. or a big feign death button in the middle of the screen, a rescue icon above your most used combatarts, etc etc etc.

as a bonus you could make containers invisible while still maintaining the key shortcuts.


i hope you are able to understand my english. if you have got questions, please ask.
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  #154  
Unread 04-12-2009, 10:51 AM
lordebon lordebon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bazzar View Post
as a cherry on top you could rightclick a button and assign a key(combination) to it.
so you are not forced to waste 2-9,0 in one bar. you could assign key 2 to hotbar 3 and key 3 to hotbar 5 slot 7, alt-1 to bar 2 slot 4 etc etc...
Well, you have to go into the options to do it but you can already assign individual hotkeys to individual hotbuttons now. For example, my #2 hotbar is set up to cure or heal the nth person in the group (ie hotkey 1 is cure myself, hotkey 2 is cure F2, etc. and 7 is to heal myself, 8 is to heal F2, etc.) and I have split assignments. Hotkeys 1 - 6 use Shift+#, hotkeys 7-12 use Alt+#. So at least that part is already available to you (and you can add controls to all 10 hotbars now. Which hotbar is designated at which is controlled via the hotkey options).
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  #155  
Unread 04-25-2009, 03:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bazzar View Post
i would LOVE this system for quickbars:

you have got quickbarcontainers. empty by default. (or if you like with 12 free slots by default).

you can adjust the size of the containers. 1 slot, 3 slots, 24 slots, whatever.

you have got unlimited containers.

you are able to drag&drop skills and spells into this containers. you are able to combine several icons into one container.

so you are able to create a quickbar with only one big icon @ 76 pixels or a 32 slot quickbar with 16pixel icons. etc.

as a cherry on top you could rightclick a button and assign a key(combination) to it.
so you are not forced to waste 2-9,0 in one bar. you could assign key 2 to hotbar 3 and key 3 to hotbar 5 slot 7, alt-1 to bar 2 slot 4 etc etc...

so you could create custom (self-)click to cure icons, without wasting a complete bar. or a big feign death button in the middle of the screen, a rescue icon above your most used combatarts, etc etc etc.

as a bonus you could make containers invisible while still maintaining the key shortcuts.


i hope you are able to understand my english. if you have got questions, please ask.
Sick ideas indeed. One thing I hope gets covered is how hotkey command associations dont always get attributed to their appropriate hotbar.
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  #156  
Unread 06-17-2009, 07:58 AM
Gnomeanns Gnomeanns is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dragowulf View Post
So involve the whole community, but only a group will determine the final decision based on logic/reasoning. Sounds reasonable.


Aye quality is important. If it's done right the first time, you don't have to go back and edit it several times. For me when editing UIs, it has to be perfect on each side with the same amount of pixel deadspace otherwise it bugs me.


I'm not exactly sure. What does everyone else think?
Well three of us in my household play . we discussed this and we would be
willing to test. My wife works I am disabled and always homeand my duagther plays when she can I am a tradeskiller to relax and raider for fun have many toons able to do alot. Ok we are Everquest Junkies
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  #157  
Unread 07-08-2009, 05:46 AM
Oodoe@Oggok Oodoe@Oggok is offline
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They all look a little cluttered so far, imo, needs simplifying, also everything at the bottom has a blocking effect on the loverly graphics, there getting an upgrade I want to be able to see them
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  #158  
Unread 07-08-2009, 04:28 PM
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dragowulf dragowulf is offline
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I don't know whether this project has been abandoned, but a request would be to consolidate windows. As it is we have so many windows that could be consolidated. Socials/Community could be put in as tabs in the inventory or persona, etc, etc. Also make it so the map window isn't squared, but more of a sphere. You would have to implement the ability to have spherical windows to make that work, but then there could be a whole array of other mods that come out of it.

Just my 2cp.
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  #159  
Unread 07-08-2009, 05:17 PM
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What the dev team is looking for is ideas on possibly combining windows, making some windows better, and the window graphic design. They aren't really looking for default window placement using the current default interface.

One idea that came from the UI community they are adding soon is the side by side quest window. These are the types of ideas they want and are looking for. How to make the UI smarter. The current default quest window was ok when most monitors were 4:3 aspect but now with almost every one having 16:9 the side by side quest window works much better.

How about some ideas for the persona window and zone lockout/reuse windows? How long does it take you to explain to some one new at raiding how to find and use the lockout/reuse window? I'm sure some of you have some ideas to either move info out from the window into the hud or better orginize that window. Or some ideas to make the raid window and raid leader options better and more intuitive?

Heck with the zone lockout/reuse timer would be cool to have a little clock / key icon on the hud any time there is a lock out set and clicking it would bring up a window that just lists the current instances you are locked out of or timers you need to reset.

Last edited by Dolby : 07-08-2009 at 05:19 PM.
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  #160  
Unread 07-09-2009, 06:08 AM
lordebon lordebon is offline
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I know of one window right now that is FAR more difficult to use than it should be. The recipe/crafting window. If you want to filter by anything more than name, then you have to open the filters dialog, make a new filter, save it, apply it. And then when crafting you recipe list goes *poof*.

What if instead we made the recipe window like the incoming quest window: make it in two side-by-side panes. The left pane is your recipe list, and always stays there. The right pane goes to an improved sorting system where all the filter criteria are always visible to select, and you can still save/load them (sort of like the way the broker window works). When you begin crafting, this pane gets replaced by (hidden under) the actual crafting process pane, with your progress/durability bars, skills, etc.

I know we can already move the recipes part to the side, it's mainly the improved filters pane that I'm looking for. The current system is far too clunky to use. Why do we need to select levels? Just allow us to input them... "5-10" or "5, 7-8" that kind of thing. There's a lot of area for improvement there.
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  #161  
Unread 11-09-2009, 12:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SOE-Rothgar View Post
Something else I wanted to let you guys know. I'm finishing up the conversion of our INI files into XML format. It wont be done for 51 but hopefully will go out with 52. This new format will be much easier to view and tweak. It'll be more friendly for us as developers as well. This change will also pave the way for me to provide you guys with a method to save and load values from UI windows so your custom mods can save data between sessions. As long as your saved values don't conflict with values we expect to find, you should be able to save whatever you want in a player's UI settings file.

It'll probably work something like this; any custom values you write to the main page will be serialized into the INI file and read back in when the UI is loaded. Unless of course you guys have some better ideas, I'm all ears. We could require that you create a data object with a specific name like "CustomData" and all values in that object would be written to the INI file. This might be a cleaner implementation.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Drumstix42 View Post
So the XML stuff went live. Is custom variable saving in place yet? I'd REALLY like to see this go live. For windows that have toggle'able settings in-game, this will be a godsend. I'd like to be able to configure settings in-game, rather than include "setting" files.
I'm really hoping for some updates on something like this soon. I kinda feel like true UI customization ideas are getting no where
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  #162  
Unread 11-09-2009, 02:25 PM
Nitefang Nitefang is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dolby View Post
What the dev team is looking for is ideas on possibly combining windows, making some windows better, and the window graphic design.
ideas for consolidating windows:

1. compass/clock/minimap/quest helper/browser

2. player/group/raid/voicebar

3. maintained/detrimental/effects

4. target/implied
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  #163  
Unread 11-09-2009, 08:55 PM
lunator lunator is offline
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How about having a more techy minimalist style of UI for a alternate default. Maybe tie it in with some Erudite lore.

Right now its hard to combine interfaces pieces from different authors together with the default UI and have any kind of uniform style.

A simplier style would also make it easier for novice UI developers to contribute.
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  #164  
Unread 11-10-2009, 04:45 PM
vakuum vakuum is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dolby View Post
What the dev team is looking for is ideas on possibly combining windows, making some windows better, and the window graphic design. They aren't really looking for default window placement using the current default interface.
But they should!
Currently the default UI is a big mess when it comes to HCI (Human Computer Interaction).

In the screenshot:
  • The white rectangle is the "enjoy" area, this should be as free as possible from any ui stuff to give the user a good experience. (You don't play eq2 to look at the ui. The ui is there to help you play the game, and you want to view the game as much as possible)
  • The bottom part starts with the hotbars in the middle (This creates a vertical line from the center of the view down to your hotbars so you only have to move your eyes down\up to hit keys).
  • Over the hotbars are the targets with health\info, this makes it easy to watch your own health and others while finding the key you wanted to press.
  • All the way to the sides are less important stuff like track, "eq2 start menu", map and the buffs you got on you by effects and such.

What I want in a new default UI:
  • Hotbars are center aligned
  • The compass\clock looks good between target and implied target on top
  • A smaller track window (the default is way to wide)
  • That everything has a place (look at my agro meter or melee auto attack, it has no alignment and looks "out of place")
  • The "enjoy" area is as free from UI stuff as possible

And yes, my UI setup is far from pretty, but it's very friendly to my eyes when it comes to how much time I need to find the important stuff. And it also let me enjoy the games as I see most of the game and not much UI in the "enjoyment" area
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  #165  
Unread 12-14-2009, 07:28 AM
deKoven deKoven is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vakuum View Post
But they should!
Currently the default UI is a big mess when it comes to HCI (Human Computer Interaction).

In the screenshot:
  • The white....... Much, much snippage.
  • The "enjoy" area is as free from UI stuff as possible

And yes, my UI setup is far from pretty, but it's very friendly to my eyes when it comes to how much time I need to find the important stuff. And it also let me enjoy the games as I see most of the game and not much UI in the "enjoyment" area
It ain't bad, yes. It doesn't answer my needs though; I have a monitor with the older style sizes. Moreover, one of my biggest criticisms of all these interface ideas is the common practice of covering the bottom of the window with stuff/clutter so that the nearer one is to something, the harder it is to see/target. For some of these one can move things around but for others the UI dev has made assumptions that make moving things not so easy.

I've used 3 different UI's since starting play; Fetish, ProfitUI and RickF. Currently using RickF but it certainly isn't my idea of an ideal UI. I really hate his bags and am looking for a replacement. I've other things which I've replaced so that my UI is a hodge-podge of relatively unrelated items.

A REAL pet peeve is the broker window and the practice of putting buy and sell in different window tabs. When I have an item for sale I want to hit the broker key and have the Sell side of the window show me what the price is, currently. The only one I know of that has this feature is the Fetish broker. All the rest I've looked at are of the Buy/Sell... etc. tabbed style.

I guess I would say to devs of interfaces is stop a bit and think about how your product looks to others. What you think of as forward thinking and "greatest since sliced bread" is my poison and goes into the bit bucket. A viable UI for the masses is minimalist but with extra "stuff" that can be easily plugged in (and self-containment belongs right here in the equation) after one has experience enough to be able to make decisions about them.

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  #166  
Unread 05-05-2019, 07:51 PM
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Drumstix42 Drumstix42 is offline
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Super duper necro bump....

So, @samejima, how did you do Auto Attacker timers before the DynamicData went live?
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