ALFA Universal UI (Plus Other UIs for DMs/Players!)

[FoamBats4All]

Redoing the creator/chooser menus has been covered I believe?

Won't be in the initial changes, depending on how long it actually takes this stuff to roll out to live users.

But yes, creator/chooser will be revamped/replaced/given an alternative eventually.

[Swift]

Probably difficult but a creator that actually respected the subcategories from the toolset would be divine

[FoamBats4All]

Probably difficult but a creator that actually respected the subcategories from the toolset would be divine

This will be a different thread entirely once the creation begins.

However my wishlist for a new creator would be:

• Infinite category support.
• Searchable.
• Tabbed based on object type.

[Swift]

For someone that hates UIs, you sure are putting a lot of work into them! Awesome work Foam

[FoamBats4All]

Another progress update. Most of the underlying code is done, just a matter of hooking it into ALFA's numerous subsystems.

Along the way, it ends up being easier to create some extra UIs to help make things more user friendly. For example, anchors now have their own dedicated UI (though of course text-only commands still work).



The blank empty space at the bottom will be filled with info like health and other junk when I get around to finishing it.

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As usual, please provide any suggestions you might have. This entire thread (and GUI initiative) was created to answer multiple requests over in the Dungeon Master Wishlist thread. If you have annoyances with old UI styles that you don't want to be repeated, or have an idea of how something pictured could be better, shout out. If you have general other requests that can make your DM life better, please post them in that thread.

[Magile]

The opportunity to change the bar from vertical to horizontal and back again would be lovely. I have tested this in-game with Foam, and when the options are implemented, this will make a lot of options a lot easier for the click-happy people.

[FoamBats4All]

Another day, another UI.

This time I've updated the language selection interface. It has always annoyed me that there was a large pane full of many tiny buttons. I've also been asked in-game how to use @<language> commands so that you don't have to use the UI. Hopefully this makes the UI more usable, and also presents that information to the user.



At the bottom, it shows what language you are currently speaking by default.

It also helpfully collapses into a smaller bar that won't steal your mouse clicks, in case you want to keep it up. You can drag the window around by its title bar, as you can all of my other window-style UIs.



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The opportunity to change the bar from vertical to horizontal and back again would be lovely. I have tested this in-game with Foam, and when the options are implemented, this will make a lot of options a lot easier for the click-happy people.

Thanks for coming on to take a look first-hand.

I'll try to offer a horizontal version. Would be kind of a headache to redo most of the subelements, but it's certainly possible. I'll do it after the I'm 100% sure that I have things how I want, so that I don't have to edit 2 UI variants each time I tweak.

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As usual, feedback, blah blah blah blah blah whatever.

[Rumple C]

a feature to set charges on items?

create a wand, drop it to 7 charges etc?

[Ithildur]

Been meaning to ask about this, though this may be Zelk's domain... Player Report, it'd be nice when you mouse over the various function button icons it displayed the name of what that button does. I know it's listed somewhere in the forums but it would be nice to have them display ingame without having to do a forum search to find out what they do or keep track of what a dozen buttons/icons mean by memory for a noob DM

[edit] Found the info... posted request there as well, though I'm unsure of Zelk's status as far as further development of this tool

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... yer+report

[FoamBats4All]

I have some eventual UIs I want to create, but I need more practice first. Here is the start of a UI (obviously a rough draft!) that will allow DMs to modify locks, as well as some important data about their parent object.



The bottom bar displays some (somewhat) handy information when you mouse over objects, in case you need a blurb describing what something does beyond just a one or two word tooltip. Once I learn a bit more I can start cranking out some more useful tools, and these are needed to fit into the ALFA Universal UI pictured a couple of pages ago.

a feature to set charges on items?

create a wand, drop it to 7 charges etc?

I'll be making a UI similar to the one above that lets you edit item info, including wand charges.

Been meaning to ask about this, though this may be Zelk's domain... Player Report, it'd be nice when you mouse over the various function button icons it displayed the name of what that button does. I know it's listed somewhere in the forums but it would be nice to have them display ingame without having to do a forum search to find out what they do or keep track of what a dozen buttons/icons mean by memory for a noob DM

[edit] Found the info... posted request there as well, though I'm unsure of Zelk's status as far as further development of this tool

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... yer+report

I really couldn't get tooltips to show for those damn bastards. I have a couple of new ideas to try, but no such luck yet. Worst case I can do something similarish to what I did in the above UI. Mousing over the buttons can fetch the info (such as a deities name if you do not recognize the icon), then I can display that on a text object down at the bottom.

[FoamBats4All]

Finished up the door/lock edito layout. Most of the things work, just need to fix up health/tool buttons. Next up: Animations Window.

[FoamBats4All]

Similar in form to the last couple of UIs, I've built the new Personal VFX Manager UI. This interface will allow you to toggle on-off various effects, like what could be done via PC Tools. Examples of these effects are the weapons you can equip to your back or hip. Backpacks, quivers, longsword sheathes, etc.

Some effects conflict with each other. For example, if you try putting on a red quiver then a brown quiver, the first will be swapped for the second. You can now carry a mug of ale in one hand, and a drum in the other, unlike what PC Tools allowed you to do before.

This opens us up to add more personal VFXs to players. We just need to find files and add them to the constants list and give them a couple of names. The script and UI knows how to handle the rest. Up to 100 effects are supported as of yet, but we could expand this. Currently we are only using 29. As you can see below, there is also a new magic tab, where we could hypothetically support visuals for Ioun Stones or permanent spells. As of yet both of these are unsupported, even though it teases you with a "token required" message.

Finally, DMs can use this tool to quickly change the VFXes of a target. On the tools tab, you'll see a "change target" command. A DM (and only DMs) can use this command to set which targets VFXs get tweaked. Handy for quickly giving that bar patron a mug of ale. Another alternative is to use the paired text command interface, which will support this and all other features of the new UIs.

Anywhere here are some screenshots of the UI itself.



As always, suggestions, feedback, and requests are welcome. If you want to get a look at these UIs prior to ACR 1.90 to ensure that you like them, get in contact with me via IRC, I'll open my dev server to you.

This UI marks that the first 2 categories have been fully implemented in the ALFA Universal UI. A few functions of lower categories got done before, but it's certainly progress. Next will be probably the only UI needed in the movement category: animations. That UI should definitely be a step up from what we currently have.

[Ithildur]

Arcane Sight and Ioun stones?? Fun.

UI looks quite good, though taking up a bigger chunk of the screen than I'd imagined.

[FoamBats4All]

Arcane Sight and Ioun stones?? Yum...

No actual implementation for them yet. Proof of concept only at this point. If you know of any other mage-ish effects that they should be able to turn on/off when certain spells/items are had, post here, and I'll see if I can add them.

UI looks quite good, though taking up a bigger chunk of the screen than I'd imagined.

Yeah, while the Universal UI part of it is very slim and compact, the actual windows are larger. Not as large as stock NWN2 UIs, but still decently big. I could slim down rows and tab sizes if it seems that the UIs are bigger than needed. Feedback on that is highly appreciated!

[Swift]

UI looks quite good, though taking up a bigger chunk of the screen than I'd imagined.

Size of the UI is only really an issue during combat situations. For UIs that produce effects like this, it is not such an issue to briefly take up a large chunk of screen space as you are unlikely to ever be using them at critical moments.