DESIGN: Graphics/Interface Requests Thread

[Maquiladora]

I'll probably move the growth turns to where conversion loss is, and put conversion loss next to franchise loss.

That still leaves some space left though. Got any ideas?

I was thinking of expanding the city view right, but I don't know how it works yet, whether it would stretch and zoom in more or what.

[Martin Gühmann]

Well, it looks very confusing. So far the lower part of the screen looks more or less OK. But I would set the rush buy and the sell buttons under their list boxes. And then we have to figure out how we can arrange the data more clearly.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Well, it looks very confusing. So far the lower part of the screen looks more or less OK. But I would set the rush buy and the sell buttons under their list boxes.

I've added this change. The rush buy button can be moved to the right to mirror the city improvements section, but this means it will be too close to the close button, unless we move it.

And then we have to figure out how we can arrange the data more clearly.

I was thinking of adding panels or borders, of different shades or colours to the background picture, to make things easier to separate.

We also still have a lot of open space that needs to be filled or partitioned somehow.

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Regarding the city view, it's simple to resize but it's best to keep it around the same ratio as the original, so that means we can't increase it much, if at all.

Perhaps it would be better to scrap the city view altogether and create a transparent window there which centers on the city.

Another option is to shade over the window and present some more info there about how each ring is being worked.

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And what about the advice window? At the moment it doesn't fit on 800*600 next to the city window. Perhaps it can pop-up in front of the city window instead.

[EPW]

It looks as if most of the build menu features are still missing. The buttons might be able to fit below building/unit pictures if you move or remove the unit list. I'm starting to think it may be better to keep the building screen separate, perhaps on a tab in the city manager screen. This screen is starting to look pretty cluttered. If you select multiple cities' through the national manager and try append all their build lists, which screen comes up?

[Maquiladora]

It looks as if most of the build menu features are still missing.

If you mean the build manager features, there are none in this window. Everything you see was taken from the city manager tabs and spread on to one window for quicker viewing.

All I've removed from those tabs are the great library text box for the inventory tab list, and GL text box from the build tab queue list. These were useless because a) if you already had built a building, you would know what it does, and b) if something is in your build queue, you would have seen the GL text from the build manager when choosing it.

If you select multiple cities' through the national manager and try append all their build lists, which screen comes up?

The build manager, which is another reason to keep it separate.

[Maquiladora]

We could also shorten the two list boxes at the bottom, and put titles above each, "City Improvements" and "Build Queue". Or just add headers to the list boxes.

[Martin Gühmann]

We could also shorten the two list boxes at the bottom, and put titles above each, "City Improvements" and "Build Queue". Or just add headers to the list boxes.

Actually, it now looks fine, except that you should right align the crime percentage and the number of growth turns.

[Maquiladora]

First I need to (try and) fix an assertion when the game exits (which seems to be related to the destructor of the city window), then I'll upload it.

[Martin Gühmann]

First I need to (try and) fix an assertion when the game exits (which seems to be related to the destructor of the city window), then I'll upload it.

What does it say?

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

What does it say?

-Martin

I fixed the assertion, or at least it's gone. I saw in the ldlparselog.txt the background ldl was "unknown", and it was because I didn't put the new background image template above the new window template.

I discovered another seemingly more serious problem using the debug version, but I don't think it's anything I did. When I exit the game, while the city manager, or the build manager is still open, I get an access violation. Both point to this line in aui_region.cpp:

AUI_ERRCODE aui_Region::Reset( void )
{
	ResetThis();

The only other window I tried leaving open while exiting was the National Manager, and that didn't give any access violation.

As I said though, these errors don't occur with the final (or final with logging) version.

There does seem to be another bug (which was present in the last AE), where when you disband a unit in a city from the city manager (using the disband button), you don't get the production, although the production (green) bar does increase, and then goes back when you select the city again.

[Martin Gühmann]

As I said though, these errors don't occur with the final (or final with logging) version.

No, they occur in the final version, too. But the code to report them is cut out by the preprocessor.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

No, they occur in the final version, too. But the code to report them is cut out by the preprocessor.

Well then it looks like I created some problems, if these weren't present before. You're gonna have to tell me how to fix these, or give me some hints

[Martin Gühmann]

Well then it looks like I created some problems, if these weren't present before.

Are you sure? Did you test those windows in a previous revision without any of your modifications?

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Are you sure? Did you test those windows in a previous revision without any of your modifications?

I updated my working copy back to revision 952 (the one before I committed the city manager modification), and the access violation still happens at the same point. So at least I didn't cause the problem, at least with my last changes.

So how far back does this problem go? And should I keep going back to find it?

EDIT: Well it looks like you fixed this problem now in revision 957.

[Martin Gühmann]

So how far back does this problem go? And should I keep going back to find it?

Probably it occured when I fixed the memory laks caused by the LDL-GUI-code. That was ages ago.

EDIT: Well it looks like you fixed this problem now in revision 957.

Looks like I forgot to post here. Anyway I just make sure that those windows ae hidden when you close CTP2 via Alt+F4. So I didn't fix the root problem, but for now I don't care.

-Martin