James's Programming Page — UI features

Re: UI features

null@example.com (Zammbi) — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 01:42:59 +0000

yea undocking windows would make a nice touch.

Re: UI features

null@example.com (Spectre) — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:28:52 +0000

I meant the ability to move/(un)dock game windows. Such as chat, inventory, skills, etc. If you can create windows with your own code, perhaps that would be the route to go since it would avoid having to worry about portability. I really think it's needed for the chat window, since as it is now, if you have like two people messaging you plus the background chatter, you'll miss everything.

Re: UI features

null@example.com (Zer) — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 00:28:32 +0000

Move windows into the game window? Hmm. Do you mean windows of the game? Or other programs?
Resizing the chat window would be tricky since the art would have to be tileable, unless we just went
the usual game route for a chat window of a transparent box. We could do it, and it might be handy esp.
for chat but that would be the tradeoff.

One limitation (well not really, but without a lot of pain) is that AFAIK, SDL doesn't support multiple windows
(native OS windows I mean, my GUI code can still have plenty of "windows" within the game window).
I'm trying to stick with unmodified SDL since that guarantees it'll be portable.

UI features

null@example.com (Spectre) — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 19:52:35 +0000

I think it might be nice if you could dock/undock windows to the UI. For example, have it where you can undock the chat window and expand it to be most of the screen if you're more interested in chatting at the moment. Or, undock the inventory so that you can look at what you have while chatting (perhaps you're telling someone the stats on the cool new hunting knife you found). Also, it might be nice at times to be able to dock a skill window out of the way of the screen so that you can still access it but can still see the full game screen (perhaps you're blacksmithing but want to keep an eye out for monsters and other players or something).

One last suggestion on this topic, can you make it so that when in windowed mode, you can expand the window and move windows into it? Would be handy in conjunction with a dock/undock option to undock and expand the chat and put it in a large area to the side of the game screen.

Oh.. just to clarify, I don't mean spawning a new window within windows, just a new "toolbox" style menu within the game (similar to what the skills and mail system do).