@Zwiebelchen The action icons are limited to twelve specifically because they're tied to the F-keys on a standard keyboard. Twelve F-keys, twelve action icons. There's just as many icons as in the vanilla BG; there just are a few empty spaces for ease-of-use (the icons are grouped in the same way as the F-keys on the keyboard).
@Gloomfrost Sorry but i'm not a big fan of Adobe products and i use PSPX (Corel), but when the time comes, i could share the modified "CHU files" (the files for move the buttons on GUI).
@Zwiebelchen The action icons are limited to twelve specifically because they're tied to the F-keys on a standard keyboard. Twelve F-keys, twelve action icons. There's just as many icons as in the vanilla BG; there just are a few empty spaces for ease-of-use (the icons are grouped in the same way as the F-keys on the keyboard).
I don't see a problem with that. Other games solve this problem by letting me assign hotkeys to the quickbar by myself.
In most games, I, for example, assigned the number keys 1-0 for the first row of quickslots and qwertz... to the second row, etc.
I simply feel that this UI remake has no other purpose than looking better in high resolution. There seems to be no improvement in terms of user comfort at all. In icewind dale for example, I could press the F key to show a spelltree with spell level branches to fast select the spell I want. Why not add something like this to the UI for casters? I simply dont want to scroll through hundreds and hundreds of spells in my spellbook just to find what I want. Especially for sorcerers and cleric/mage-dualclasses.
I haven't read most of this discussion so if I repeat something someone already stated then consider it a trend.
I was never a fan of the old UI. And I am somewhat surprised to see it largely unchanged. One of my biggest pet peeves is the info window. Personally, I hate expanding and compressing the info box all the time. It's nice the UI is scalable but what about a scalable action bar at the bottom (most important to spellcasters)?
I imagined a new UI having something like a transparent floating info window (moveable and resizable) that shows feedback and narratives, a floating clock (also movable), and floating portraits (perhaps circular) arranged to identify the type of rank alignment. I also envisioned being able to double click each portrait to open the character record and inventory screens. And any remaining icons left over which could not be condensed, linked or eliminated would be free floating icons.
That stuff would be neat. But I will be happy just to have the improvements and content EE brings to the game.
Couldn't resist trying to make a little different GUI design... I know it probably isn't possible to make it real but just wanted to give it a quick shot how it could look like.
I didn't change colors or icons, just wanted to change the layout and size of the buttons. Only the screenshot I changed.
While making the mockup GUI, I didn't consider resolutions, details or anything like that. Wanted only to see if the "Baldur's Gate" feel was left if GUI was changed "radically" for PC. After having done the mockup, personally it just didn't feel "right" anymore without the old GUI "BG" layout design.
P.S Spell icons I loaned from "Icewind Dale 2" game, 'cause didn't find original "Baldur's Gate 1" spell icons and didn't have the inspiration to do new ones. Sorry about that.
Another quick example with "bland" GUI color. Only to show everyone that brighter colors like blue give a warm fuzzy feeling while playing instead of being depressed all the time with bland colors like brown. That´s the reason for this picture...
I kinda like this one actually... I've always liked the original vBG1 GUI appearance- certainly better than vBG2- but I don't like how bright and distracting the original color is. This version and the current new GUI tones it down. After all, it's the control bar, not the action area, so why should it stand out so much? Then again I like this hokey barnlike version by @Kerozevok a lot too with the wood and brick wall...
Having belatedly just perused this entire thread I also like the look of maximizing screen space by putting the NPCs on the bottom like in this early rework idea by @Knettgummi.
Or the way this one by @Ward removes all the excess GUI block space on the bottom to devote it to the controls themselves.
The problem with those is likely the need to scale properly when switching platforms. The iPad GUI looks perfect, but when it scales back for a PC/Mac monitor it's not so impressive for reasons stated: the lower right corner now appears crowded and the dialog box appears needlessly reduced. I'm hoping that with the new delay, fundamental stuff like this can get the proper treatment, though the GUI is as limited as everything else by decade-old code, so...
Can someone tell me whether the upcoming Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition will have an anti-aliasing feature? Or the graphic will be the same with pixelated stuff? I also heard that instead of anti-aliasing, they will replace it with some sort of filter to overcome the pixelated graphic?
To be honest, I don't care about anti-aliasing and I prefer filter the most simply because I don't have a graphic card that can support anti-aliasing. So hopefully, it will be a filter instead of anti-aliasing.
Can someone tell me whether the upcoming Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition will have an anti-aliasing feature? Or the graphic will be the same with pixelated stuff? I also heard that instead of anti-aliasing, they will replace it with some sort of filter to overcome the pixelated graphic?
To be honest, I don't care about anti-aliasing and I prefer filter the most simply because I don't have a graphic card that can support anti-aliasing. So hopefully, it will be a filter instead of anti-aliasing.
I'm with you there, but who the hell has a graphic card that doesn't support AA in 2012? Are you playing with a cup of rice, perhaps?
@Muscab Anti-aliasing is intended for making edges of polygons or just lines smooth (no jagged edges). The only thing in Baldur's Gate that benefits from this are the selection circles beneath your feet.
With the introduction of the new zoom feature, it will need an upscaling algorithm to make image sharper when it is zoomed in (think of the 'enhance' in CSI TV series etc.). I don't believe this requires any fancy features from GPU so it will probably work with any OpenGL compliant graphics card.
Played around with the GUI and wanted to make a little teaser at the same time about my ongoing fan project. It's still unfinished, about 35% is ready. Sorry if this topic came to the first page, didn't mean it happen, only wanted to release the teaser picture somewhere around the forum.
Since this was the place where I made the first comment, I finally decided to release it here. Nothing significant for the topic or ill feelings for anyone. If the emergence of old and tired topic annoyed somebody, sorry about that.
I hope to have the ongoing fan project ready in two weeks, but only if time allows it. So don't try to hold your breath.
P.S Screenshot is heavily modified by photoshop, so it doesn't in anyway represent the final or beta build of the game. This includes funky fog and some kind of rain, so it may look a "little" different and "ugly" from other official screenshots.
Just wanted to clarify some things before any misunderstandings.
Thanks.
Edit: Decided to change the size of the screenshot. To see how high resolution could look like in-game.
Couldn't resist trying to make a little different GUI design... I know it probably isn't possible to make it real but just wanted to give it a quick shot how it could look like.
I didn't change colors or icons, just wanted to change the layout and size of the buttons. Only the screenshot I changed.
While making the mockup GUI, I didn't consider resolutions, details or anything like that. Wanted only to see if the "Baldur's Gate" feel was left if GUI was changed "radically" for PC. After having done the mockup, personally it just didn't feel "right" anymore without the old GUI "BG" layout design.
P.S Spell icons I loaned from "Icewind Dale 2" game, 'cause didn't find original "Baldur's Gate 1" spell icons and didn't have the inspiration to do new ones. Sorry about that.
Comments
....
...
http://nsa30.casimages.com/img/2012/09/12/120912030559525902.jpg
you stuff is fantastic!
i love this background you made
and this border you just made
any chance you could fuse the two would look most excellent!
if not i'll take the first one, please have it ready the day of release!
http://nsa30.casimages.com/img/2012/09/12/120912034349929009.jpg No problem, just print the screen, cut the GUI and paste it on your monitor.
any chance you could post the pdf layers? would make it a whole lot easier to just use your work so far
Other games solve this problem by letting me assign hotkeys to the quickbar by myself.
In most games, I, for example, assigned the number keys 1-0 for the first row of quickslots and qwertz... to the second row, etc.
I simply feel that this UI remake has no other purpose than looking better in high resolution. There seems to be no improvement in terms of user comfort at all.
In icewind dale for example, I could press the F key to show a spelltree with spell level branches to fast select the spell I want. Why not add something like this to the UI for casters?
I simply dont want to scroll through hundreds and hundreds of spells in my spellbook just to find what I want. Especially for sorcerers and cleric/mage-dualclasses.
I was never a fan of the old UI. And I am somewhat surprised to see it largely unchanged. One of my biggest pet peeves is the info window. Personally, I hate expanding and compressing the info box all the time. It's nice the UI is scalable but what about a scalable action bar at the bottom (most important to spellcasters)?
I imagined a new UI having something like a transparent floating info window (moveable and resizable) that shows feedback and narratives, a floating clock (also movable), and floating portraits (perhaps circular) arranged to identify the type of rank alignment. I also envisioned being able to double click each portrait to open the character record and inventory screens. And any remaining icons left over which could not be condensed, linked or eliminated would be free floating icons.
That stuff would be neat. But I will be happy just to have the improvements and content EE brings to the game.
I didn't change colors or icons, just wanted to change the layout and size of the buttons. Only the screenshot I changed.
While making the mockup GUI, I didn't consider resolutions, details or anything like that. Wanted only to see if the "Baldur's Gate" feel was left if GUI was changed "radically" for PC. After having done the mockup, personally it just didn't feel "right" anymore without the old GUI "BG" layout design.
P.S
Spell icons I loaned from "Icewind Dale 2" game, 'cause didn't find original "Baldur's Gate 1" spell icons and didn't have the inspiration to do new ones. Sorry about that.
Having belatedly just perused this entire thread I also like the look of maximizing screen space by putting the NPCs on the bottom like in this early rework idea by @Knettgummi.
Or the way this one by @Ward removes all the excess GUI block space on the bottom to devote it to the controls themselves.
The problem with those is likely the need to scale properly when switching platforms. The iPad GUI looks perfect, but when it scales back for a PC/Mac monitor it's not so impressive for reasons stated: the lower right corner now appears crowded and the dialog box appears needlessly reduced. I'm hoping that with the new delay, fundamental stuff like this can get the proper treatment, though the GUI is as limited as everything else by decade-old code, so...
That new design is sweet - good work!
Think its hard to make it look any different.
To be honest, I don't care about anti-aliasing and I prefer filter the most simply because I don't have a graphic card that can support anti-aliasing. So hopefully, it will be a filter instead of anti-aliasing.
mostly sprites and such.. u need filter for the job
Just wondering if anybody got an answer for my question earlier on?
Anti-aliasing is intended for making edges of polygons or just lines smooth (no jagged edges). The only thing in Baldur's Gate that benefits from this are the selection circles beneath your feet.
With the introduction of the new zoom feature, it will need an upscaling algorithm to make image sharper when it is zoomed in (think of the 'enhance' in CSI TV series etc.). I don't believe this requires any fancy features from GPU so it will probably work with any OpenGL compliant graphics card.
Sounds good. Cheers.
Since this was the place where I made the first comment, I finally decided to release it here. Nothing significant for the topic or ill feelings for anyone. If the emergence of old and tired topic annoyed somebody, sorry about that.
I hope to have the ongoing fan project ready in two weeks, but only if time allows it. So don't try to hold your breath.
P.S
Screenshot is heavily modified by photoshop, so it doesn't in anyway represent the final or beta build of the game. This includes funky fog and some kind of rain, so it may look a "little" different and "ugly" from other official screenshots.
Just wanted to clarify some things before any misunderstandings.
Thanks.
Edit:
Decided to change the size of the screenshot. To see how high resolution could look like in-game.
It gives me the impression of castle or dungeon walls and i dig it ;x