Now that's better! still not my taste but very very good!

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Previously known as "The stranger"

Tweek shows off his skills again!

My personal preference was the original D'ni version. Dark suits a login screen better - especially Myst.

Stranger, what exactly would you like to see in one?

TG

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"The Ending has not yet been written" - Yeesha in Tomahna!

I may design one when I have more time- but I'm not sure I ca even do that.

The menu has a background of an old paper (http://hem.bredband.net/notum/old_paper.jpg). There's the "Uru" logo on the upper left corner, and 2 symbols peeking from the edges- DRC symbol and yeesha symbol. On the lower left corner, as in Riven's menu, there are 3 options: choose/create character, options and exit.

In the choose/create character menu, on the left side of the screen, there is are the explorers tabs (as in tweek's design). Once you click on one, on the middle of the scree you will see a full body pic of this explorer- it's a pic, inside of a frame, and it's not moving. Once again, on the lower left corner there are the 3 options: explore, delete explorer and back to menu.

There is a lot more to talk about, but it's ot really relevent.

Yeah, I know it sounds messy, just like the old one, but it's really not. It's a simple as it can get, I think.

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Previously known as "The stranger"

Tweek wrote:

Now comes in coffee (tan) flavor, although I prefer the D'ni version myself.

Nice, although I still like the dark version better. The background in the first few pics is just a little too washed out. Also, I think monochromatic buttons and windows and all are still the way to go, even with a lightened background. I do prefer the cleft as the avatar picture, as it does address any concerns for clarity and lack of spoilers. Again, I like the dark version better, but could easily stand this color scheme. I would like it to revert at least partially back to grey/black boxes.

@ Stranger and Whilyam: what is the "options" button for? In-game options will probably be handled by the individual shards. Menu options?

I want to say that I love Tweek's original (dark) design.

I don't think that the slightly faded view of the city is a spoiler, considering that screenshots of that very area were used as one of the game's main marketing points

Is there any reason why there has to be the single, ultimate choice to which this discussion seems to be oriented? Concensus about taste is not going to happen and there's no need to have one. Why not have Uru UI skins and let us choose? Artists can stick with their principles without compromise and users can make it popular. So much is possible and we really don't need to put things up for a vote anymore as if we are trying to decide which one to submit to Cyan for approval. You're free! Get used to it. Go with your own visions. Do what you believe in and be willing to live or die by it.

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OpenUru.org: An Uru Project Resource Site : Twitter : Perfect Speed Is Being There.

JWPlatt wrote:

Is there any reason why there has to be the single, ultimate choice to which this discussion seems to be oriented? Concensus about taste is not going to happen and there's no need to have one. Why not have Uru UI skins and let us choose? Artists can stick with their principles without compromise and users can make it popular. So much is possible and we really don't need to put things up for a vote anymore as if we are trying to decide which one to submit to Cyan for approval. You're free! Get used to it. Go with your own visions. Do what you believe in and be willing to live or die by it.

I must disagree. Not everything can be handled anarchically or democratically. The community is strong not because of pure diversity, but because of unified diversity. Every community has diversity, people who don't work like the others. The only way to overcome this is to unify and to bring together our strengths and ideas, and communities which do this are successful.

A skin proposal would have these problems,

1. At least one would have to not fit with the style of the main menus, or there would have to be multiple sites and menus, destroying the whole purpose for a common directory.

2. The different skins would be confusing for people trying to give or get help, and for people just going around the interface.

3. Skins might require different information from shards (i.e. a skin with the avatar picture would need that info - one with a whole customization set would need even more info on what clothes there are - ones that follow your progress would need that information). This would make it harder for shards, and they might not all cooperate with all skins. This would create a mess, where different skins would have to be chosen for each shard, exacerbating the other problems.

4. Uru would lose a certain sense of professionalism and unity to visitors, reviewers, and explorers.

5. It wastes talent as everyone wants their own skin, or one that fits them best.

6. Some skins might allow some things while others don't. This could create possible game issues as well as making people have to migrate skins just to do something.

Let us be by our own voluntary will free... and united.

Been working on my KI design again. Click the images for full size

Shard Selection. The "custom address" button to the left allows users to enter a private shard address. The book symbol to the right is an activity indicator which blinks when attempting to connect to a shard. The "ToS" icons pull up their respective shard's Terms of Service; the book icon next to it pulls up the shard's web page.


Shard Selection (connection in progress). The "custom address" button turns into an "abort connection" button (you would have to abort any active connection in order to flip to the "custom address" screen anyway, so this is an efficient use of space). The book symbol to the right is lit to indicate connection activity.


Custom Address. Fairly self explanatory, this screen allows custom server address's to be entered, along with a port number and password (if applicable). Connect button on the left, activity indicator on the right (currently inactive). A "back" button has appeared in the upper right that will return you to the shard list.


Custom Address (connection in progress). "Connect" button turns into an "abort connection button" while a connection attempt is in progress. The book icon activity indicator on the right starts blinking to indicate a connection is in progress.


User Selection. Full body avatar preview on the left, user list on the right with the option to create a new user at the bottom of the list. "Visitor" is pinned to the top of the list above the scrollable section. Each user's KI# is displayed. The D'ni zero represents the "delete user" option. A "back" button has appeared in the upper right that will return you to the shard list.

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StarLion
The Meeting Place Hood

Nice design. I am still opposed to an in-game interface being used (especially one that people only get after a little gameplay) as the out-of-game interface. However, your design is still nice. Just for clarification, the "book symbol to the right" is the big book symbol, no? You might not want to use the same book icon for different purposes - I don't know, it might be intuitive enough. Um, may I ask what is in "settings"?

Another thing, so sorry to sound negative. Why would a server/shard not be included in the list? If it is not compatible (does not send back the needed information or something), then it won't work. I also would like to know more if this feature could be abused (perhaps forcing the interface to absorb malicious information from a false server).

Also, you said this was based off a larger redesign of the KI? I would like to see this redesign. Your images are nice looking for an KI interface. Again, I do not think the KI in any form should be used for out of game interface, but I like your design of the KI nonetheless.

I really (really, really) like both colors of Tweek's login GUI. They really have simplicity and functionality that is very refreshing and makes me feel the Dirt tingle again. They are strange and exciting and at the same time reassuring and familiar.

It doesn't overdo the "oh, oh special interface" thing too much. It's functional and not in-your-face (something I liked about the old MOUL avatar-selection-screen--even though that thing was sorta odd and... too much tan o.o).

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Guild of Writers Councilor
PyPRP2 Developer
Plasma Hacker

StarLion wrote:

Been working on my KI design again. Click the images for full size
Shard Selection (connection in progress). The "custom address" button turns into an "abort connection" button (you would have to abort any active connection in order to flip to the "custom address" screen anyway, so this is an efficient use of space). The book symbol to the right is lit to indicate connection activity.

Personally, I have a problem with this. The changes made while connecting are subtle, and may not be noticed by users, especially new users.

I would suggest either:

• "Clearing" the screen to remove the shard controls (Which you can't use while connecting to a shard) and placing a "Connecting to ..." screen in the middle with a progress bar (Or some kind of animated indicator to show things are still working), along with the cancel button
  
• Popping up a new "screen" over the existing one (blurring the screen below) to show current connection progress
  
• "Dimming" the shard selection button(s) and the "Custom Address" button, and using the selected shard button as a progress bar, with a SEPERATE "Abort connection" button

It needs to be very clear and explicit that a connection is going on right now, and that things haven't suddenly stopped or hung.

Ed Oscuro wrote:

"Shard Options" should have some network latency information, hopefully with some straightforward ping information.

The problem with this is that a "Shard" can be comprised of multiple servers. Which server do you take your latency information from? Do you get a "Server list" and ping them all, then connect to the one with least latency? What about load distribution? Presuming you're using a Round-Robin DNS system, each lookup will get you a different IP address. Perhaps we should grab a list of servers and load for a shard, order that list by available spaces, then by latency (Or some combined metric, like ((300 - Latency_in_ms) * spaces_available), which could be tweaked and modified to work things out), to determine which is the "Preferred" server, then display that ping time.

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Avatar: Anaerin
Ki: 118686

Quote:

The problem with this is that a "Shard" can be comprised of multiple servers.

There'll only be one server gateway onto the shard though (where the router is). This info was provided for each shard in Prologue.

Tweek wrote:

Now comes in coffee (tan) flavor, although I prefer the D'ni version myself.

That's pretty cool. It's somewhat neat to have it looking like a sepia photograph (it'd be interesting to have some tweaking done to the color to this effect).

I would be happy to use the UI Tweek's previewed, although at this stage my very previous comments and suggestions still apply (i.e. the delete dialog needs to show the explorer's name in that same box; I'll grant that you shouldn't need to write "delete EdOscuro").

It's become clear to me that the correct way is to allow players, perhaps through some apocryphal configurations file setting or (ideally) through something located in the UI's options itself, to alter the UI colors and aspects of it themselves, or at least choose from some presets. I might go from having no overlay to using a sepia overlay, for example, depending on what's wished. Having the two UI layouts Tweek has constructed is a major improvement in terms of choice on top of all the usability improvements, so anything further is icing on the cake really.

Overall, I feel really good about this!

Rusty_Russell wrote:

Quote:

The problem with this is that a "Shard" can be comprised of multiple servers.

There'll only be one server gateway onto the shard though (where the router is). This info was provided for each shard in Prologue.

Good point. I assume that most server setups will use a variety of servers all sharing the same connection to the 'net. It would be interesting to be able to ping each server individually for troubleshooting purposes, but it shouldn't generally be needed and having users pinging EVERY server on a shard has potential for abuse or at least could slow its performance considerably.

Ed Oscuro wrote:

It's become clear to me that the correct way is to allow players, perhaps through some apocryphal configurations file setting or (ideally) through something located in the UI's options itself, to alter the UI colors and aspects of it themselves, or at least choose from some presets. I might go from having no overlay to using a sepia overlay, for example, depending on what's wished. Having the two UI layouts Tweek has constructed is a major improvement in terms of choice on top of all the usability improvements, so anything further is icing on the cake really.

I don't really see any point in that if you're just talking about the login/startup interface, and even if it's for in-game stuff there really isn't anything to change but the KI.

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Nothing to see here, move along.