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The new UI for BG:EE

GeldridgeGeldridge Member Posts: 21
edited July 2012 in Archive (General Discussion)
Assuming that the GUI is the same for othe rplatforms as it appears to be for the iPad, what do we think of the new GUI?

This one shows in detail the new 'stone' motif for the GUI

image


And here more detail of the LHS utility bar (with a couple of new icons...)
image


And more of the same, but clearly showing the spacing of the bottom bar
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Comments

  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    Looks great man, but I'll miss the old UI.

    Very attractive bluestone hue.
  • Excalibur_2102Excalibur_2102 Member Posts: 351
    other than the icons on the left look a bit too Bg2ish it looks nice.

    However I thought they were designing different UIs for different platforms? I know its hard to tell from screens but this looks just like the PC one
  • g314g314 Member Posts: 201
    I like it a lot! Looks like a hybrid between BG1 and BG2

    I hope the main menu, the journal, the spellbook, etc. will retain their backgrounds like BG1...

    image

    ...instead of a embedded-looking interface like this:
    image

    Of course 'quests' and 'done quests' buttons should be kept.

  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    I swear to god if they got rid of the backgrounds I'll be unhappy. Also the loading artwork too. Also it's good to have quests and done quests.
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    This loading screen brings up good memories... I loved the sketches in them!!

    though in new BG:EE there will be no loading screens at all.
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    Did you know there is loading artwork that isn't used? I loaded some of it using Near Infinity, there's a lot of unused artwork.
  • lordkimlordkim Member Posts: 1,063
    @Ward; Any change of showing it here ? :)
  • SeldarSeldar Member Posts: 438
    sounds like a mix between BG1 and BG2, I like it, but I still prefer the old UI of BG1

    @Ward => There's also a cinematic not used in the game but you can unlock it in the .ini if i'm not mystaken... It shows the interior of some Inn I think
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    edited July 2012
    Sure, I'll make a thread entirely of unseen stuff if you like. Unfortunately I'm still trying to find out how to export the compressed archived files into standard images (.bmp/jpg/png/gif/whatever).

    You do get a little caption of it though so I can screenshot em' and show.

    EDIT: Near Infinity also lets me have access to the original portrait files, in high quality resolution baby!

    @Seldar

    I haven't played Fallout but the video files for it and BG/IWD are called .MVE, some ancient video format obviously. There was a tool which turned them into .exe files to view but I can't find it.
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    Seldar said:

    sounds like a mix between BG1 and BG2, I like it, but I still prefer the old UI of BG1

    @Ward => There's also a cinematic not used in the game but you can unlock it in the .ini if i'm not mystaken... It shows the interior of some Inn I think

    Tavern cinematic:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8OWFMpISbQ

  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @mch202

    This is really cool, have not seen it before. I need to find out how I can extract all these videos so I can put them on a DVD and watch them on my DVD player with ice cream and poppet butter corn.

    P.S. I will put that unused art for you guys to see after I get permission from 'them'. I don't want to get put in the naughty corner. XD
  • deserkdeserk Member Posts: 35
    I've only played BG1 through BGTutu. Never seen that background thing for the journal, but having seen it now, I prefer that. Looks much better than BG2. Also, artwork in the loading screens would be nice yeah.
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    I'm pretty sure TrentOster already mentioned that BGEE has no loading screens.
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @Tanthalas

    NO LOAD SCREENS? That would be really good, except now we'll miss out on some artwork. :(
  • LRECLREC Member Posts: 68
    @Tanthalas I thought Trent Oster mentioned that they were creating entirely new ones for cutscenes and load screens.

    Not sure if this is blasphemy, but I HATED the BG2 UI. It just didn't have the same appeal as BG's stone type.
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    @LREC

    They are creating new movies to replace the original ones and new images for the dream sequences and chapter transitions.

    As for the new UI, you can catch a glimpse of it on the baldursgate website if you check the iPad screens. The "battle" UI looks closer to the BG2 one than the BG1 one, so I'm not sure if you'll be happy with it.
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    edited July 2012
    @LREC @Tanthalas

    I agree man, the BG1 UI had a rawness to it. BG2 was very draining and depressing, too fantasy and not artistically pleasing compared to the first. Just wasn't my taste really.
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    edited July 2012
    @Ward

    Honestly, the UI never bothered me one way or the other, so I'm perfectly fine with either look. Its not something I've ever had a strong opinion about.
  • CheesebellyCheesebelly Member Posts: 1,727
    Aren't they still working on the UI though? I mean, the looks might be definite, but the buttons and such could still change in my opinion. I would like to see the inventory screen and how they handle the thieving tools for a cleric/thief (ESPECIALLY the latter)
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    From Trent's twitter, yeah, they are still working on the UI.
  • FrozenCellsFrozenCells Member Posts: 385
    I think they're working on the coding of the UI rather than the look itself but we'll see. I think it looks fine but the blue looks a bit too bright in those screenshots for my taste. Pretty irrelevant though.
  • LRECLREC Member Posts: 68
    @Tanthalas It's not that I won't like the new UI screens, I loved the BG2 ones. I just loved the BG ones a lot more :)
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    Ugh. That looks like the old UI but reskinned and with even more buttons. I was kinda hoping for something radically new and much more simple. If you're going to go through the trouble of re-coding everything from scratch why not take the time to redesign things a bit also?
  • FrozenDervishFrozenDervish Member Posts: 295
    Well as long as the UI is customizable and allowing for a bard to have stealth instead of bard song I am happy.
  • CheesebellyCheesebelly Member Posts: 1,727
    @Zeckul : keep in mind that's the iPad version, so they need more buttons for it (for instance, see on the right side what I presume are "Select All" "Zoom" and "Tab key-like button" while on the left side you can see the Character Arbitration button (presumably multiplayer game) and that lantern. I wonder what the lantern is though.)
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2012
    @Cheesebelly I suppose the lantern is the AI toggle. I would hope zoom is achieved through a pinch gesture on the iPad rather than some slider though. And on PC with the mousewheel.

    Anyhow, there's still hope the bottom panel is fully customizable at least and we can always hide the useless LHS one on PC as in BG2.
  • WolfheartWolfheart Member Posts: 170
    @Cheesebelly I soo hope the zoom will be done with gestures and not with a button *shivers*.
    I also wonder how many quick cast spells a mage gets? Or for that matter, a Thief/Cleric or Thief/Mage. And will it support to shove some unused things away (like hide, I almost never use hide on my Thief/Mage's) in favor of another quick-spell? I loved IWD2's approach to it all, where ya could set up pretty much your buttons however ya wished.

    And how does it look if you try to cast a spell? Same old horrific long list? Matrix popup?
  • CheesebellyCheesebelly Member Posts: 1,727
    The style Neverwinter Nights used was actually very good, although instead of being limited to 12 buttons + Shift buttons and such, I would rather have like, 25 positions to configure everything with everyone, everyone having their own different setup. But if the hardcoding collapses then I guess we will be able to do it, if not in-game, with mods?
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2012
    From what we've seen and reading Trent's posts on Twitter, it looks to me like the new UI will be essentially a re-skinned copy of the original that auto scales to different resolutions and with slight adjustments.
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