Widget spam

Widget spam

A dynamic game undergoing constant development and refinement, that attempts to balance playability with fresh and innovative features.

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MidKnight
Posts: 2652
Joined: 10 Sep 2008, 03:11

Widget spam

Post by MidKnight »

Which widgets are needlessly enabled in CA?

How should we go about streamlining and optimizing CA's Lua?
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Licho
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3803
Joined: 19 May 2006, 19:13

Re: Widget spam

Post by Licho »

atm? Probably none. All chili widgets are disabled in stable except for gesture menu which isnt real chili widget.
Regret
Posts: 2086
Joined: 18 Aug 2007, 19:04

Re: Widget spam

Post by Regret »

MidKnight wrote:Which widgets are needlessly enabled in CA?

How should we go about streamlining and optimizing CA's Lua?
Make disabled at start/delete these widgets:

Code: Select all

ally cursors
auto skirm
auto swarm
auto group
build bar
build eta
building starter
calayout
camerashake
ceasefire
chili marking menu
cloaker guard
command insert
dc icon
darkening
ghost site
jumjet gui
land fly
lasso terraform gui
local widgets config
minimap events
noduplicateorders
prospector
rank icons
retreat
satellites
selection send
selection buttons
selection circle2
shield guard
smoothscroll
resetstate
statereverse toggle
stereo3d
stockpiler
transport ai
unit mover
voices
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Pxtl
Posts: 6112
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 01:43

Re: Widget spam

Post by Pxtl »

Are you kidding? Disable at start? Some of those widgets are important or even essential to CA gameplay - the Jumpjet GUI, land/fly, etc.? Seriously? And is anybody out there really complaining about Ally Cursors?

The problem is how the Widget list is organized - it's cluttered up and a player can't crawl through them. It feels messy. CA is reorganizing the widgets into a nice, user-friendly "options" menu.
Regret
Posts: 2086
Joined: 18 Aug 2007, 19:04

Re: Widget spam

Post by Regret »

Pxtl wrote:Are you kidding? Disable at start? Some of those widgets are important or even essential to CA gameplay - the Jumpjet GUI, land/fly, etc.? Seriously? And is anybody out there really complaining about Ally Cursors?
Yes seriously. Those are all the widget (excluding lups) that bother me about CA. I play without them and they are in no way essential.
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hoijui
Former Engine Dev
Posts: 4344
Joined: 22 Sep 2007, 09:51

Re: Widget spam

Post by hoijui »

i agree that the list should be better. for example, when i play on a pc with low tech graphics card, i would like to see easily which widgets are graphics only. then there could be a list of widgets that may be CPU intensive.
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Jazcash
Posts: 5309
Joined: 08 Dec 2007, 17:39

Re: Widget spam

Post by Jazcash »

The widget list in ALL games and mods should only include those essential to the game/mod. Everything else should be optional for many reasons.
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Licho
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3803
Joined: 19 May 2006, 19:13

Re: Widget spam

Post by Licho »

Well there is crude menu - its meant to replace widget lists for all but advanced users.

It will include standard options known from normal games instead of chaotic widget list.
luckywaldo7
Posts: 1398
Joined: 17 Sep 2008, 04:36

Re: Widget spam

Post by luckywaldo7 »

JAZCASH wrote:The widget list in ALL games and mods should only include those essential to the game/mod. Everything else should be optional for many reasons.
Regret wrote:Yes seriously. Those are all the widget (excluding lups) that bother me about CA. I play without them and they are in no way essential.
LuaUI itself is not essential.
Saktoth
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 2665
Joined: 28 Nov 2006, 13:22

Re: Widget spam

Post by Saktoth »

For the future, the player shouldnt have to even look at the widget list. The widget list is a programming-side thing. Everything should be accessible through the menu.

The current crudemenu setup is pretty bad though, some parts of the menu have very little under them and others are buried 5 levels deep.
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1v0ry_k1ng
Posts: 4656
Joined: 10 Mar 2006, 10:24

Re: Widget spam

Post by 1v0ry_k1ng »

widget spam ownz my fps
the only widgets a real man needs are factory gaurd and metal makers
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Otherside
Posts: 2296
Joined: 21 Feb 2006, 14:09

Re: Widget spam

Post by Otherside »

1v0ry_k1ng wrote:widget spam ownz my fps
the only widgets a real man needs are factory gaurd and metal makers
Metal makers in CA??? get out...

also a real man can macro his metal makers
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JohannesH
Posts: 1793
Joined: 07 Apr 2009, 12:43

Re: Widget spam

Post by JohannesH »

1v0ry_k1ng wrote:widget spam ownz my fps
the only widgets a real man needs are factory gaurd and metal makers
I use neither of those
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CarRepairer
Cursed Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3359
Joined: 07 Nov 2007, 21:48

Re: Widget spam

Post by CarRepairer »

Saktoth wrote:buried 5 levels deep.
Which item is buried 5 levels deep?

The less deep it gets, the larger the menu needs to be and people with tiny screens can't see it all.
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Licho
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3803
Joined: 19 May 2006, 19:13

Re: Widget spam

Post by Licho »

Thats why there is scrollbar control :)

Treeview will help.
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CarRepairer
Cursed Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3359
Joined: 07 Nov 2007, 21:48

Re: Widget spam

Post by CarRepairer »

Licho wrote:Thats why there is scrollbar control :)
I'd like to try to avoid scrolling for menus, you'd have to scroll down every time you start over. That doesn't save you any time over deeper menus. One is more clicking and one as more dragging.
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Licho
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3803
Joined: 19 May 2006, 19:13

Re: Widget spam

Post by Licho »

It does save a lot of time!
You assume people know in which branch it is.
But they dont. So they have to explore each branch without easy way to go back.

Its very frustrating.
Compare that with scrolling which is intuitive since it exists everywhere.
Saktoth
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 2665
Joined: 28 Nov 2006, 13:22

Re: Widget spam

Post by Saktoth »

Menu has 3 submenus, the first two with two options.

Menu > settings has 7 submenus.

Lowest Settings has one option.

Video has 9.

Menu > Settings > Video > Graphic detail (4 levels deep). 13 options. These are only for 3-4 options in 3 settings, and would be better served by radio buttons or a drop-down list. The menu is rife with this kind of stuff, actually.

View is similiarly huge.

Effects, however, is back to only two options.

Menu > Settings > Misc > Mouse Settings is large, 4 levels deep.

Okay, so there are none 5 levels deep.

Game, on the other hand, has 10 options and one submenu.

So what does crudemenu need from chilli?

A. Drop-down menus.

B. A way to display toggle buttons on the button itself (All these buttons marked 'Toggle X' is bad, a light or tick boxto the left of the panel or such would be better).

C. Tabs for the menu. You shouldnt have to scroll through options then be taken to a second page, the categories should be on the side or top, with the options in a main panel. You can use a technique other than tabs but you need some way of organizing them. Ideally, you should never have to go two menus deep, everything should be categorized properly. Hell even springsettings does this. A few exceptions may have to be made for things like the Night widget, but all the important stuff should be on the main page.

That may help.
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Licho
Zero-K Developer
Posts: 3803
Joined: 19 May 2006, 19:13

Re: Widget spam

Post by Licho »

Modern options often use treeview on left displaying categories and pane on right category content.
Problem is it needs someone to code simple chili treeview which is some 4 hours of work and then integrate it into crude which is *nobodybutcarknowshowhard*
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Pxtl
Posts: 6112
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 01:43

Re: Widget spam

Post by Pxtl »

Honestly, a treeview doesn't seem worth that effort - I usually find treeview-based options panels to be annoying, since you never know whether the options you seek will be located on parent or child levels of the tree.
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