172 replies to this topic

[Yacomo]

Well I don't really think holes are too much of a problem - there are several places already in the game where buttons aren't available, so they're left with the background, in this case the brickwork pattern.

Yes you are right here and I do not insist on this. Your pattern is pretty generic, so it should work for any screen, which is a good thing.

I also think we could come up with images for the options screen and whatever else uses the same button set, unless there are a lot more than I've remembered - this gives us the opportunity to use some more of the various images, and shouldn't be too hard after the first one since all you'd need to change then is the background image.

Okay, why not, but be prepared tdo some serious additional chu editing

Oh btw: Did you change your opinion on which variant of menu screen to use?

Not sure what you mean...

I was referring to the image you were using, it was looking like one of the early versions, the label is still using the canvas effect, has no drop-shadow, the overall canvas effect is a tad too strong...

[Waywocket]

Okay, why not, but be prepared tdo some serious additional chu editing

I was referring to the image you were using, it was looking like one of the early versions, the label is still using the canvas effect, has no drop-shadow, the overall canvas effect is a tad too strong...

Oh that - well actually it was just the first image to hand when I wanted to stick something in the frame, just to see what it looked like .

[Yacomo]

Oh that - well actually it was just the first image to hand when I wanted to stick something in the frame, just to see what it looked like .

Hoped so

This 'real estate' thing still has it's grip on me It's not so much the button layout itself (although I personally prefer the top-bottom layout of BP and your embossed buttons), but do we really want to give away so much real estate instead of showing our beautiful graphics?

[Ascension64]

Okay, why not, but be prepared tdo some serious additional chu editing

Hence the 'experience with CHU editing' part of my first post. Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you at all here.


What do you mean by 'real estate' (unless you really want to put 'houses' into your beautiful graphics)?

I'm not exactly sure what all the current discussion means at the moment...does it mean that the button cannot be like BP fashion but clumped together in a large oblong, similar to Way's first picture with Elm on it and the white BGT text? And that the buttons cannot contain the embossed background of the picture that you will use?


In terms of the ToB screen, there are nice pictures of Melissan all over the back of your CD-ROM case...there might be pictures elsewhere. I like the Deck of Many Things, but is there a picture of a Deamonknight shuffling them and grinning at you like he is saying 'tempt me'? It is just that having cards on a screen doesn't like all that appealing -- although one of the load screens could suffer from that 'fate'.

Edited by Ascension64, 23 March 2005 - 02:20 PM.

[Waywocket]

What do you mean by 'real estate' (unless you really want to put 'houses' into your beautiful graphics)?

Just that the buttons take up quite a bit of space.

I'm not exactly sure what all the current discussion means at the moment...does it mean that the button cannot be like BP fashion but clumped together in a large oblong, similar to Way's first picture with Elm on it and the white BGT text?  And that the buttons cannot contain the embossed background of the picture that you will use?

Basically, since the same buttons are used in more than one place, they have to be something that can be placed on top of any of the screens they're used for, so the embossed idea wouldn't work.
So, what do you think of this?

Attached Images

• 

[Ascension64]

What do you mean by 'real estate' (unless you really want to put 'houses' into your beautiful graphics)?

Just that the buttons take up quite a bit of space.

I'm not exactly sure what all the current discussion means at the moment...does it mean that the button cannot be like BP fashion but clumped together in a large oblong, similar to Way's first picture with Elm on it and the white BGT text?  And that the buttons cannot contain the embossed background of the picture that you will use?

Basically, since the same buttons are used in more than one place, they have to be something that can be placed on top of any of the screens they're used for, so the embossed idea wouldn't work.
So, what do you think of this?

It looks excellent, except...that there isn't much space for the graphic at all.

[Yacomo]

Hence the 'experience with CHU editing' part of my first post.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you at all here.

No worries Ascension64, chu editing per se is not difficult at all it is just changing some positions, dimensions and bam indices. It is the engines limitations (reuse of controls) that give us some problems. What this means is that the buttons will have to have the same background and the same position on all start screens, so no embossed partly transparent buttons, sorry.

I have already posted a list of required changes somewhere up in this thread and that really is all that needs to be done. You were the one that made me think that there might be more work involved with your comment on the in-game option screen But that should not be a problem at all, since the controls from the start screens do not seem to be reused anywhere within the game itself.

What do you mean by 'real estate' (unless you really want to put 'houses' into your beautiful graphics)?

I was just referring to the amount of screen space occupied by the buttons in Ways last design. I would have preferred to have them hovered above the screen and from top to bottom. But Way really likes to have them separated underneath the screen. I finally gave in to his suggestion, but if you want to have them organized differently, you may always object. Of course we can also provide YAO (yet another option).

In terms of the ToB screen...

I do have an idea concerning the deck of many things. It will be quite different from the picture above, but the deck will be in there. I'll not tell more until I see that my idea really works

[Waywocket]

If anyone wants to see what I've got so far, here it is; just extract it into your override and hope I've not left anything out . The actual picture used in the frame might end up different depending upon people's opinions, and there's no ToB screen yet. To save space, you'll have to copy startold.mos to start.mos (and get the same screen for both parts), or I'll post an empty framed version seperately. I've done this on BGT-WeiDU-0.9b, so I'd be interested in hearing about problems with other setups (well, or the same setup ) - especially if there turns out to be something else messed up with this; though I think I've found everything using the modified UI, and the parts changed don't appear to be referenced elsewhere, it's always possible I missed something.
So, let me know what you think.

Edit: Forgot to mention that multiplayer uses a different CHU and background BAM, so it's currently still unaltered.

Attached Files

•  newgui.rar.txt   363.62K   8 downloads

Edited by Waywocket, 24 March 2005 - 07:07 AM.

[Waywocket]

To save space, you'll have to copy startold.mos to start.mos (and get the same screen for both parts), or I'll post an empty framed version seperately.

And here it is.

Attached Files

•  start.MOS.rar.txt   168.2K   6 downloads

[Yacomo]

If anyone wants to see what I've got so far, here it is; just extract it into your override and hope I've not left anything out .

Hi Way,

Just in time before I leave. This turned out WAY better than I expected :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Oh, and it works in BP-BGT as well

But there is a BUG - click on the quit button and you will see what I mean...

[Waywocket]

But there is a BUG  - click on the quit button and you will see what I mean...

Hmm, I can't see any problems - could you describe what goes wrong for you?
Edit: Maybe you mean the circle dropping below the main screen? That was intentional, but I can always do something else, either change it completely or add a bottom bit of frame to it.

Edited by Waywocket, 24 March 2005 - 10:08 AM.

[Yacomo]

Hmm, I can't see any problems - could you describe what goes wrong for you?
Edit: Maybe you mean the circle dropping below the main screen? That was intentional, but I can always do something else, either change it completely or add a bottom bit of frame to it.

Hi Way, don't know why, but on my install the transparancy of the quit sub-menu is broken, it's greeen instead of transparent

[Yacomo]

It seems as if this thread is suffering from a serious lack of new piccies lately, so here we go: The first one is my take at a new ToB start screen, the second one is a variant of the SoA start screen for people like Sir BillyBob, who can't stand Elminster wielding a sword

And for those that want to see this stuff in-game I have added the installation package with our current work. Please note, that I had to strip weidu from the installation package in order to make it small enough to post here. So you'll have to rename weidu.exe to 'Setup BGT Menu.exe' yourself.

[Cantrip]

Wowzers!!! :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:

[Waywocket]

Hi Way, don't know why, but on my install the transparancy of the quit sub-menu is broken, it's greeen instead of transparent

Hmm, interesting. Anybody have any idea why that might be?
I'm planning to reinstall BG2 anyway, so I'll try it out with a fresh install, and with the newest BGT version, and then I'll have a look into BAM transparency, but I don't really know what I might try if I can't reproduce the problem...

[Yacomo]

Hmm, interesting. Anybody have any idea why that might be?
I'm planning to reinstall BG2 anyway, so I'll try it out with a fresh install, and with the newest BGT version, and then I'll have a look into BAM transparency, but I don't really know what I might try if I can't reproduce the problem...

Don't worry, I'll try to sort this out this evening since it seems to happen only on my machine. Maybe this has something to do with 3D acceleration?
I think we are pretty close to being finished, I only have a short listing of things that need to be resolved:
- the button that starts the game is labelled 'Baldurs Gate 1' on both start screens (SoA and ToB), think it should be better to rename it to 'Start game'
- if you do not object, I'll rearrange the buttons a bit, so that the most commonly used (Start game, load, BG2) are in the top row and the rest in the bottom row
- I am not sure if we should keep the 'Baldurs Gate Trilogy' label in the SoA and ToB start screens, since it already appears on the main start screen. I'd rather remove it from all but the main start screen, what do you think?
- What do you think about my second Elminster picture? I have layered it so that the blend effect only effects the background and not Elm himself. I like this. If you like this too, we better change your version as well, so that all 'look alike'.

[cujo]

Hmm, interesting. Anybody have any idea why that might be?
I'm planning to reinstall BG2 anyway, so I'll try it out with a fresh install, and with the newest BGT version, and then I'll have a look into BAM transparency, but I don't really know what I might try if I can't reproduce the problem...

Don't worry, I'll try to sort this out this evening since it seems to happen only on my machine.

Hi Yacomo and Waywocket, I have the same problem with the green bar instead of transparency. But keep up the good work the pics look lovely. :thumb:

[Waywocket]

Hmm, interesting. Anybody have any idea why that might be?
I'm planning to reinstall BG2 anyway, so I'll try it out with a fresh install, and with the newest BGT version, and then I'll have a look into BAM transparency, but I don't really know what I might try if I can't reproduce the problem...

Don't worry, I'll try to sort this out this evening since it seems to happen only on my machine. Maybe this has something to do with 3D acceleration?

I'm not sure if I can fiddle with 3d acceleration, since I'm running the game in Wine. Maybe you can see if that affects it?

I think we are pretty close to being finished, I only have a short listing of things that need to be resolved:
- the button that starts the game is labelled 'Baldurs Gate 1' on both start screens (SoA and ToB), think it should be better to rename it to 'Start game'

Yeah, sure.

- if you do not object, I'll rearrange the buttons a bit, so that the most commonly used (Start game, load, BG2) are in the top row and the rest in the bottom row

I don't object per se, but there was a reason for that ordering - you can't order the buttons differently at different points, for example once you've clicked 'single player' or whatever, and got another set of buttons, so I ordered them to be the best overall, without having buttons randomly placed at times. If you can come up with a better way though, I'd be happy for you to do so.

- I am not sure if we should keep the 'Baldurs Gate Trilogy' label in the SoA and ToB start screens, since it already appears on the main start screen. I'd rather remove it from all but the main start screen, what do you think?

I agree, but I would like to see some label on the other screens - can't be hard to add in one for each game type

- What do you think about my second Elminster picture? I have layered it so that the blend effect only effects the background and not Elm himself. I like this. If you like this too, we better change your version as well, so that all 'look alike'.

Well, I'm unconvinced about that...

[Yacomo]

I agree, but I would like to see some label on the other screens - can't be hard to add in one for each game type

How about 'Baldur's Gate 1 & 2' and 'Thone of Bhaal'?

- What do you think about my second Elminster picture? I have layered it so that the blend effect only effects the background and not Elm himself. I like this. If you like this too, we better change your version as well, so that all 'look alike'.

Well, I'm unconvinced about that...

Hmm, what can I do to convince you? Does it convince you if I just claim that it looks a very minor little bit nicer that way? I could also try to bribe you with a virtual pint of ale B)

[Waywocket]

I agree, but I would like to see some label on the other screens - can't be hard to add in one for each game type

How about 'Baldur's Gate 1 & 2' and 'Thone of Bhaal'?

Maybe have BG2 subscript to BG1?

- What do you think about my second Elminster picture? I have layered it so that the blend effect only effects the background and not Elm himself. I like this. If you like this too, we better change your version as well, so that all 'look alike'.

Well, I'm unconvinced about that...

Hmm, what can I do to convince you? Does it convince you if I just claim that it looks a very minor little bit nicer that way? I could also try to bribe you with a virtual pint of ale B)

Alright then, I guess I can agree to that .