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Re: The SDL client (fwd)


Hans Ronne wrote:
> 
> I think flexible is the key word. The ultimate design is one big map that
> covers the whole screen. Everything else should be optional and brought up
> only when the user wants it.

What I'm thinking of is something along the lines of Netscape's
twistout at the side of each top panel.  It's a little more complicated
to have such panes on multiple sides of the map...

> >I advise against quickness and for correctness.  Do not force any decisions
> >about placement, allow that to be set by interface or game designers.
> 
> I would add the most important person, the user, to that. The best thing
> about the mac interface is that its many movable windows make it possible
> for the user to customize the interface layout. This is very unlike the
> unix version where you are locked into a certain layout even if you can
> tweak it by resizing the panes.

I could see a customization strategy where the SDL panes are draggable;
they stick to the closest edge of the screen when you let go, and
each has the minimize/maximize button. (Gee, sounds like a window
manager...)

One note of caution about user customization though; I can't think
of a single "A-list" game that has a user-customizable interface.
Somehow games like Diablo and AoE and StarCraft manage to be insanely
popular without this.  I don't think it's laziness on the game
developers' parts, because they clearly go to a great deal of trouble
on the fine points of the display.  My personal theory is that
over the past several years, strategy games have settled on some
common conventions - controls all on the bottom and/or one side,
minimal (if any) info on top.  It's probably not a coincidence that
this mimicks automobile dashboard layout!

(Hmmm, one could test this theory by rearranging the tcl interface,
wouldn't even need to change any C code...)

Stan

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