Soldat Menu GUI

[chutem]

I strongly suggest that the menu's resolution is expanded. Make soldat's resolution setting in config.exe only change in-game resolution. 800x600 is usually the smallest resolution still used today,

I play Soldat on a crt monitor @ 640x480.
Thanks to that low resolution, I can set it to 120Hz.

Please, pretty please don't remove the 640x480 menu GUI resolution.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yes, lets not make it easier to use the soldat menus so that one person can render 4 times as many frames per second as neccesary.

[Sipar]

F11 to the grandmasters version, would say yes if it was more soldat-like

Actually, his version is more about "content" than about "look".

[Bistoufly]

Yes, lets not make it easier to use the soldat menus so that one person can render 4 times as many frames per second as neccesary.

Ahahhahaha. Are you one of this people who believe that 30 frame per second is the limit that the human brain can process. I was hoping this old myth would be dead by now. 

I red that the menu will be expandable from 640x480 to higher. In function of your desktop resolution. So don't need to worry about that. If you have a bigger desktop resolution, fine,  you'll see more servers in the lobby list and so on.

I just ask the 640x480 not to be removed. That's not asking the moon. And it makes a world of difference to me. Enough to be a deal breaker.



@KYnetiK: That's an old crt screen. Nothing special about it. Some High-end iiyama crt monitors can go up to 200hz!!

If you can find some old crt screen. I advice to try it for gaming.
.Set your monitor resolution to 640x480
.Set it to the highest frequency supported.
.Configure soldat to run in windowed mode.
Enjoy!

High refresh rate, no input lag, no ghosting. Ideal for a fast paced game like soldat.
In comparison, when I play with my flat screen, movements feel super blurry and sluggish

[Bistoufly]

Bought a new crt monitor on ebay.
Now I can go up to 200hz in 640x480 and 800x600.

But I'd still prefer the menu to be able to scale to 640x480 correctly.

Soldat has a 640x480 resolution. That's why a lot of players like to set their monitor at 640x480.

Run soldat windowed at 640x480
 => looks good

Run soldat windowed at 800x600 with resize=100%
=> Re-sizing deforms the image. The texts looks wierd. (ingame)

[Flym]

good job

[thegrandmaster]

Had a lil bit of time recently, so drew some ideas out... I may have missed an option or two out since I didn't have the list at the time.

1. Start page

• Small blurb displayed, including some vital new player info (e.g. changing player name)
• Extra bar at the bottom with 'scheme' name and saved/unsaved status (similar to the current 'profile').
  Schemes is a concept very similar to profiles, except that instead of auto-overriding each scheme when exiting, you have to save the scheme.
  The 'schemes' button on the menu simply branches into subcategories 'New', 'Save' and 'Load'.
  

2. New game (page 1 of 2)

• Gamemode selection page
• Includes the settings which are attributable for any game mode (such as bonuses, weapon options etc).
  Note: For the selection box thing at the bottom, only one section would be openable at a single moment, unlike my drawing which shows two open. That was just to show what they could look like.

3. New game (page 2 of 2)

• Last vital game settings
• Possible map preview, however I'm wondering how annoying this could prove if the map is more square-like rather than a nice rectangle... so possible add, but maybe not

If you would prefer to voice your ideas and debate things rather than simply posting here, head to #soldat.gui.

[Monsteri]

Cool, cooler, coolest. However though, as I said in the IRC already, in the 2nd pic there should be an Internet/LAN button.

[KYnetiK]

Im glad theres still people who love their CRTs =) In my experience, its hard to find one thats >100 hertz, and its always fun making optical illusions with 120 hertz to play with. If I found a CRT that had the same contrast and definition of my 23" samsung, I'd definitely mount it on the wall thats for sure.

[Monsteri]

Uh, huh, did you choose wrong tab?

[thegrandmaster]

No, unfortunately... there was a few posts earlier about crt's >.>
But anyway.. I'd like some more opinions about my sketches.

[Monsteri]

For me, they're too good to give criticism, at least not constructive one. Just that one button.

[L[0ne]R]

I'm sloooooowly working on yet another concept for menu GUI. Here's a very rough idea so far. The idea behind this idea (lol) is to show the player the most essential options on the main page, and show additional advanced options in pop-up windows. The point of this is to not confuse new players and only show elements that make sense to most gamers in general, while keeping all the things that are unique to Soldat in a separate area, keep the screen clean of options and settings that aren't being used often. Also it's aimed at a minimum resolution of 800x600.


So here's what the images show:
 [screen-1] - All the basic info about the game at the bottom, a profile list, and a flashy image at the top that shows what soldat is all about (I've used one from Soldat's home page as a placeholder for now). Once you've selected your profile - you're taken to a Start Game screen.

 [screen-2] - Start Game tab, the only one I've done so far since I wasn't sure if you'd like the concept. On the left are all the buttons (I tried keeping the interface a bit more console-friendly, so you can scroll through all the buttons with just up/down buttons and change options with left/right buttons). On the right side are all the descriptions.

 [screen-2a] - Same tab, but with a window with extra game settings that pops-up when you click on "customize rules". Shows advanced settings like power-up and player spawn frequency.

 [screen-2b] - Same tab, but with a maplist window that pops-up when you click on "customize playlist" window.

Same thing could be done for bots - a pop-up window you can pick which specific bots you want on which team (which, IMHO is kinda unnecessary in the first place really since you can spawn specific bots via commands already).




Let me know what you think about the whole pop-up window idea.

[13th_account]

That's a pretty darn nifty concept, and you seem to have a sense for HCI. It's not a simple task to just replace the GUI though, but maybe it's worth it. My main gripe is that it also needs to work with the 640x480 resolution, since that's still native for the game.

[L[0ne]R]

That's a pretty darn nifty concept, and you seem to have a sense for HCI. It's not a simple task to just replace the GUI though, but maybe it's worth it. My main gripe is that it also needs to work with the 640x480 resolution, since that's still native for the game.

Noob question, but what does HCI stand for?

As for 640x480 - from what I've read, most of us agree that it's so ancient that the support for it should be dropped (heck, even back in 2000 with my crappy pentium 100 I still had 800x600 monitor), so I think it's safe to aim a bit higher. I believe Shoozza himself mentioned that he'd like to raise the native resolution at some point and he even started porting the GUI to a different language as far as I know.

[Bistoufly]

Make it 640x480 compatible or don't make it at all.

[Bonecrusher]

Noob question, but what does HCI stand for?

As for 640x480 - from what I've read, most of us agree that it's so ancient that the support for it should be dropped (heck, even back in 2000 with my crappy pentium 100 I still had 800x600 monitor), so I think it's safe to aim a bit higher. I believe Shoozza himself mentioned that he'd like to raise the native resolution at some point and he even started porting the GUI to a different language as far as I know.

Soldat looks best in 640x480 imo. I've always been using it and dont plan on changing it anytime soon, so id strongly recommend to leave that option up to the player.

Make it 640x480 compatible or don't make it at all.

+1

[L[0ne]R]

Noob question, but what does HCI stand for?

As for 640x480 - from what I've read, most of us agree that it's so ancient that the support for it should be dropped (heck, even back in 2000 with my crappy pentium 100 I still had 800x600 monitor), so I think it's safe to aim a bit higher. I believe Shoozza himself mentioned that he'd like to raise the native resolution at some point and he even started porting the GUI to a different language as far as I know.

Soldat looks best in 640x480 imo. I've always been using it and dont plan on changing it anytime soon, so id strongly recommend to leave that option up to the player.

It's hard and impractical to fit all the menu elements in such a tiny space, and I really don't see the reason to keep it at 640. If you still want to play at 640x480 - I imagine that would still be possible to leave that functionality for the game itself, but the menu really needs more space. What exactly did you mean by that Soldat looks best in 640x480?

[Shoozza]

Nice mockup!

You can use any resolution for the mockups but the final GUI has to be 640x480 compatible. I don't think that the min resolution will get changed anytime soon.

Having issues to make everything fit into the small space?

Here is some inspiration (sorry got carried away xD):
Animations?
Map preview idea
(Update) notification: first - second
Enable/disable buttons: 1111 - 2222
Alternative menu navigation
Sub menu?
Tutorial/Walkthough/Installer: overview - full
Button to show help
Crazy global overview :3
Show overview (::) button
Options icon
Top and side menu?
Centered Menu: one - two - three - four
If you can enter menus you would need some kind of back button too
Sound and Music volume could be sliders
Splash screen: first - second
Poll
Fancy edit box
Very simple welcome page (for profile choose dialog?)
Choose profile (different way?)
Search options
Search tags
Server search box?
Min max controls
Search box to find settings? (like in chrome)
Simple Color picker?
Fatal Error Dialog
preview for Keyboard shortcut?
star/bookmark/fav a server?
better server list? first - second

And while we are at it:
Windows 7 like style
and a different one (white) - and in black
Big text reminds me of a few PS3 game menus (another one)
Another map preview idea (small thumbnail boxes next to each other the rectangles)

[L[0ne]R]

Well, if I make the font really tiny (like Soldat has now) - I may be able to fit everything in there, but some people might have issues with readability. :S Anyway, I'll make a 640x480 version and post it maybe sometime next week (this week's gonna be very busy).

Thanks for the links, Shoozza, I might get a few ideas from there.

[Bonecrusher]

you can use any resolution for the mockups but the final GUI has to be 640x480 compatible. I don't think that the min resolution will get changed anytime soon.

btw, love some ideas:
for menu

for adjusting sound

for server list search

and the star for fav servers[like in opera ;]


opera star if site is a bookmark,