Black border around map
Etamin
Member Posts: 830
Is it intentional or a bug?
For me it's the ugliest thing i have found in 2.0. Breaking immersion like hell. Hope it will be fixes in next patch.
For me it's the ugliest thing i have found in 2.0. Breaking immersion like hell. Hope it will be fixes in next patch.
6
Comments
that said, this is just visually disturbing and immersion breaking, and needs indeed to be fixed.
Maybe it doesn't need to be so thick?
I'm waiting for this issue to be corrected in a not so distant future patch before starting my playthrough.
The thing that annoys me here is that I pre-ordered the game and now I'm waiting to play it because it has several issues that were not part of the previous version.
I hope we get some answer from the developers, because I want to know if I'm waiting for nothing.
I do like some of the new things they have added and all, but in the end I would probably have prefered they just did the new content and bug fixes and left everything as it was, at least for this release.
After lots of discussion, Beamdog used a customer designed UI for the SoD and v2.0 BGEE character record.
If you don't like something, enter a feature request on their Redmine site (http://Redmine.beamdog.com). I bet they will consider it.
The bottom panel and dialog window used to be opaque on their left and right sides, covering the entire bottom side of the display so you couldn't see blank space along the bottom of the map (Map aligned to the top of this UI), however the Enhanced Edition made the space on either side of these UI's transparent so now you will see blank space on either side of these HUD Panels (The functionality didn't change, they simply removed some portions of the UI that originally covered the blank space).
The issue preventing you from clicking the bottom of the screen was because Beamdog developers mistakenly didn't code the game to align the map edge to the top edge of the Quick Loot Bar when it was active, so the game continued to align to the top of the Dialog Window which meant the Quick Loot Bar was now in the way of the bottom edge of the screen! So all beamdog had to do was adjust the game engine to align the map edge to the top edge of the Quick Loot Bar when it is active and bam, problem solved!
Basically there was no reason for Beamdog letting us pan the camera beyond the edges of the map. It is an incredibly crude solution to a problem that they introduced. The original devs already solved this issue when developing their GUI, Beamdog just didn't follow their solution when adding the Quick Loot Bar.
Tl;Dr?
Original Devs made it impossible to see blank space/beyond the edges of the map except in areas where everything fitted on screen. Beamdog made parts of the UI transparent making blank space visible along the bottom edge of the display regardless of what area you're in (Normally the blank space is covered by the UI), this let you see more of the playing field when not near the bottom edge of the map which is a good thing. Beamdog then (in v2.0) made it possible to scroll willy nilly past the edges of the map for no reason that I consider to be good, afaik this is the first time in the history of this game that you can scroll past the edges of the map.
Imo tho i dont mind it
On Topic:
i think i've seen the request on redmine already, so the devs are aware someone does not like the black borders (and not only one). So this should be adressed, and looking on how IWD 1.4 handles it is somewhat a proof it can be done without losing usability in the lower part of the screen.
This is something that bugged me a lot in 1.3 interface actually, so it's a solution to me now, but an ugly one (and potentially not done to solve the actual problem, but a side effect of the map feature).
Its resolvable with coordinate limits though ... i could give them the general math, but i guess it won't help them much to implement in their environment (mine is web developement context) and they are very capable to do this on their own, if not they would not have re-written the engine that far
Is it true @Dee, you are not going to touch this?
Completely unacceptable to me.
edit: also some opinions from SHS users about it (one player refunded the game on steam after seeing this problem): http://www.shsforums.net/topic/54271-comments-on-bgee-bg2ee-news/page-58
The Feature on redmine has not even been submited.
As I said before, this is one of the issues that I would like to see fixed before starting my playthrough.
Exterior maps should feel infinite in size. The black border being the same color as the fog of war gives the impression that there's still more area to explore. This breaks immersion when you get to the edge and see more fog of war but no more explorable area.
Obviously this isn't practical, but for me the only way adding the border would work is if the current black border was replaced by new art work showing the map fading into the nonclickable distance (so instead of a black border, the maps would be updated to show what's happening in the black border). I'm not sure if that makes perfect sense as typed but hopefully the idea gets through. Again, not a practical idea.
Another thing I haven't seen comments on: the new map feature broke the ability to drag the viewer. Instead, you have to click on the map to move the viewer. (Right? Or am I misremembering the original?)
Note: Typed on my phone so probably the least comprehensible comment I could leave.