Changing the user interface--a question

[Karl G.]

I'm trying to decide whether or not (and how much) to change the user interface of PV away from Xenimus, so can you all help me out by answering these questions?

How attached are you to the way the main menu is laid out?

Would it be a big deal if PV used a "real" font instead of the bitmapped Xen font for the menus?

How about in-game?

How would you feel about having real "Windows"-style dialogs instead of just having menu pages? Would this be worth the extra two weeks it would take to develop?

[thadiusofx3]

You can't get worse than the xenimus menu design, so I say take the extra time and develop something good.
Real fonts would look a lot better, and you would be able to scale the fonts to different resolutions unlike in xenimus, while also making text input more responsive.

[ziggman]

i was very supprised to see when EJ made items in you inventory look like an item and not just typed out.

have you played xen FP? i really do like the start up menu where u can see your character and the gear he/she is wearing. altho some items dont show up properly and what not. its really completely useless and probably time consuming programing, but looks cool anyway.

i say go for a nicer UI,
its better to have nice UI that you can understand.

[thadiusofx3]

I REALLY like the interface for Tabula Rasa, if you can find some screenshots check it out, especially the radial menu (ctrl)

[ziggman]

i spent about 10 min looking, all i could find were screen shots of game play, or design models... the woman in the white suit looks rather bloated in the chest.

[Karl G.]

Yeah I couldn't really find anything either... could you post a shot of what you mean?

[thadiusofx3]

yeah im reinstalling it now, I just did my monthly format

[Necromadon]

I liked the way the menus were in one of the videos. I would like to see the inventory remain "old school" like old Xen. The oldschool aspect is why most of us turn to PV.

[Karl G.]

Necro - that's why I'm having trouble deciding which approach to go for. I think I'm leaning toward just doing the oldschool "feel" but with a redesigned menu layout--the menu system EJ used is really akward to code. I'm going to set up a different (but compatible) method first, then see what you guys think.

Karl

[thadiusofx3]

that sounds good