(request) bg1 style ui
Danacm
Member Posts: 951
in UI Modding
Hi,
I liked the atmosphere of the old bg1 green ui, and i think a lots of us liked it but nobody wants to create it
Im not an ui modder, but a requester if somebody see some nostalgic feeling to create a bg1 style ui i would be very pleased:D
Just a green high resolution bg1 style mod.
I liked the atmosphere of the old bg1 green ui, and i think a lots of us liked it but nobody wants to create it
Im not an ui modder, but a requester if somebody see some nostalgic feeling to create a bg1 style ui i would be very pleased:D
Just a green high resolution bg1 style mod.
7
Comments
I created some concepts a while ago, that I would like to materialise one day.
Here's a rough idea of what I mean...
I used BG1 so it would need higher res but you get the idea. Just wanted to convey the general layout and style. If someone were to do this I'd be ecstatic.
(forgot to put the word "Memorized" in the middle of the bottom bar.)
I've recently come to the conclusion that once the novelty wore off, I really didn't like BG:EE's blue stone UI. I wish Beamdog had been at least as faithful to the original as they were with BG2:EE's GUI. Alas, that wasn't the case. SoD's GUI looks cool in many aspects but I still miss the old one.
So I've taken upon myself to convert the original BG1 GUI to the EE engine. But as @Pecca has pointed out, it's certainly a time-consuming project. And not without a few complications.
So far, I've done a few tests with the main gameplay window. It currently looks like this:
Right now what I'm doing is sort of starting over. I intend to create a dedicated thread where I'll explain the complications in more details, regularly post on my progress, get feedback (or so I hope) and beg for help/collaborators.
BTW @Pecca: your concept images look awesome. I like your original buttons better than mine.
Also, I really don't like scroll bars on spellbooks its just weird. It's fine on abstract pages like char sheets but when you have it on a literal page in a spellbook it just doesnt work imo.
this might be useful if you haven't found it yet: http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/1017-classic-gameplay-windows-for-bgee/
@agris Thanks for the link. It's a good reference and it's a shame this is no longer compatible with BG:EE - I think it predates the 1.3 Patch, even.
@AndreaColombo I've seen the image you posted with the old avatars. Already excited for whatever you're working on. I'm dreaming of a near future where we'll be able to play a version of BG:EE that's truly the best of both worlds - the nostalgic mood and feel of the original game without missing out on all the good stuff brought by Beamdog.
I've done a bit of work this week and I've got to say, there are many roadblocks in making it look just like the original UI.
One example is that portraits on the right sidebar have a larger stone border than the ones in the Dragonspear UI. I haven't been able to figure out how to reduce the size of the portraits inside the frame without reducing the whole BAM.
There's also the issue of the new version of the engine using an extraneous highlight effect on whatever buttons corresponds to the screen you're currently in. It used to use a specific frame in the BAM cycle but not anymore, so I'm not sure on how to reproduce the "lit up" effect.
What I'm saying is that this might take a while.
Portrait borders are a pain, I have used independent graphic elements in UI++, because the portrait scaling is hardcoded. Perhaps you can make use of similar technique, check the code.
I think you can disable the highlight effect by removing the "glow lua" line. Instead you could make a "frame lua" line with the original selection graphic effect (something similar to spell level buttons in spell screens).
The only catch is that when the journal is open, the screen that was open previously (either Game or Area Map) will continue to glow, which is strange by Vanilla BG1 standards, but makes sense because those screens are still active.
I personally would like the mod to bring back the old Journal behavior in a way similar to Dragonspear++ or @lefreut 's mod, but we're not there yet.
And to anyone else reading this: I've made a bit of progress. My initial plan was to put something out yesterday to celebrate BG's release 18th birthday but alas, there was no time. But don't lose hope, a test version is coming out soon.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/66226/mod-lefreuts-enhanced-ui-bg1ee-skin-for-bg1ee-sod-bg2ee-and-eet
It's sort of a hybrid of the original and new UI.
So I'm asking any of the really advanced modders like
Kilivitz
Lefreut
Pecca
AndreaColombo
you all have done very in-depth UI modding.
Any chance you might take a crack at this and give all of us some so much needed BG1 nostalgia?
Please it would mean a lot to us ol' timers