New cursors?

[West]

I realised yesterday that the color cursors really don't go well with the general style of the game (IMHO). So I decided create something more... well, fantasy themed that matches the interface better.



Still haven't made any move, select and alt wait cursors though, these were just three quick & dirty improvisations.

I don't know if anyone's interested, but the png's are attached if anyone wants to try the cursors in-game.

[Jetrel]

[censored] yeah! Those are perfect; they fit the game like a glove.

Please do complete the set.

I'd like Dave to confirm what the select, and wait-alt cursors are for; e.g. where they get used. I think that "wait-alt" is used for a cycling animation of the wait cursor (e.g. flipping between the two every half-second or so), but I don't know if that feature is active. Those two currently are the exact same image.

I have no idea where the select cursor gets used, if at all.

[West]

Please do complete the set.

I'd be happy to. I just need to think of a nice move cursor

I have no idea where the select cursor gets used, if at all.

I was wondering that myself, I've never seen it used (AFAIK, as it's the same as the attack cursor).

edit

Well I've tried a boot and a flag and I can't make either look very good. Could some kind of horn work as a move cursor? You know, you sound the horn and your troops move into position.

[Dave]

I'd like Dave to confirm what the select, and wait-alt cursors are for; e.g. where they get used. I think that "wait-alt" is used for a cycling animation of the wait cursor (e.g. flipping between the two every half-second or so), but I don't know if that feature is active. Those two currently are the exact same image.

The 'select' cursor gets used in the help system when one mouses-over a hyperlink.

It seems that wait-alt is used on Apple instead of wait. I have no idea why.

David

[Woodwizzle]

More of my contributions getting obsoleted. Oh well, these look awesome, can't wait to see the rest!

[Eleazar]

looks good.

Were also working on drag-n-drop in the trunk, so if you want to work on a cursor that looks like a hand picking up something...

[West]

Were also working on drag-n-drop in the trunk, so if you want to work on a cursor that looks like a hand picking up something...

Drag & drop eh? I hear and obey. But I'm not good at drawing hands so I think this is the best I can manage. I don't know if it even looks like a hand to anyone else but me.

I also went with the horn idea and created a move cursor, and thus the entire set (unless we need a separate select cursor?) currently looks like this:



Let me know if you think anything needs to be tweaked.

[Changeling]

Were also working on drag-n-drop in the trunk, so if you want to work on a cursor that looks like a hand picking up something...

Drag & drop eh? I hear and obey. But I'm not good at drawing hands so I think this is the best I can manage. I don't know if it even looks like a hand to anyone else but me.

It does looks like a hand.

[Eleazar]

I've added these to the trunk.

See here for all the cursors used.

I don't quite understand what the horn has to do with anything.
The shape of the hand is fine, but needs more dark in it somewhere to show up against light backgrounds.

[West]

I don't quite understand what the horn has to do with anything.

Could some kind of horn work as a move cursor? You know, you sound the horn and your troops move into position.

[Jetrel]

Eleazar - thanks for the commit!

Could some kind of horn work as a move cursor? You know, you sound the horn and your troops move into position.

Hmm.. I, too, am a bit iffy about the horn. It's a beautiful cursor, don't get me wrong - however, the current black-and-white icon used for move seems a _lot_ more intuitive (it happens to be a pair of feet; very different from the color cursor you just replaced).


I think I have a good use for it, though. The horn icon, with a little "mini-arrow" (like what that feet icon I'm talking about has), could be a great icon for the "select" feature in help. I think the mini-arrow would help it, because it currently doesn't have an obvious "point" to it; there's sort of a continuum along the open end which could be the active point, but it's not certain.

If we need justification, we could say that you're "calling up" a new page, like a trumpeter calling up some soldier. Weak, I know, but I think the hyperlink cursor usage would be a lot more flexible in what metaphors would work.

[Alink]

Great work for the cursors, I always found the previous were too "modern". Since I recently work on the code of the color cursors in the trunk, here is some info:

the alt version come from the black & white cursors for apple. Apple need 16x16 b&w cursors. As you can see here on the trunk:
http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/wesnoth/trun ... ?rev=16776
All the big cursors have a smaller version for apple. For b&w cursors there is also a general condition for all system: the width must be a multiple of 8 (not really a problem since you can add transparent part to complete).
Previously the code used the same filename for color and b&w. So it's why there was also alt version in the color directory.

The hand for dragging cursor is really nicer than my previous quick prototypes :
http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/wesnoth/trun ... ?rev=16481
(I simply use the desktop method : a little thing attached to the arrow). Btw we also use a attack dragging cursor, so maybe the same hand with a sword ?

Just maybe a small note: for a standard cursor, the pointing position is topleft. It's can not be changed for b&w, but for the color ones, I want to allow some offset. It's easy to code so I will try it soon and test it with the UI. I keep you posted about this. But I suppose that a pointing hand can also be a solution.

On a side note, keeping cursors shape not too different from each other is maybe a good thing to ease the transition. But I'm not sure about this and good looking is more important.

PS: You hand remember me a talk about a hanging little unit when dragging. I had tested a quick prototype, I think I will try it again with this cursor to see how it's look. And I have a prototype of map grabbing somewhere, so a hand can maybe also used for this in the future.

Thanks again for fixing my dirty temporary work.

[West]

Hmm.. I, too, am a bit iffy about the horn. It's a beautiful cursor, don't get me wrong - however, the current black-and-white icon used for move seems a _lot_ more intuitive (it happens to be a pair of feet; very different from the color cursor you just replaced).

The reason I didn't want to use the footprints was that all the other cursors depict items (arrow, sword, hourglass, glove) whereas a pair of footprints can't really be said to be an item per se, and it might look odd with the metallic sheen of the other cursors. It doesn't have to make perfect sense of course, but a metallic footprint? More odd than a horn IMO

But you might be right that footprints are more intuitive, considering what the cursor stands for. Let's see if I can come up with something more, uh, footy. And oh, I will fix the brightness of the glove as well, I don't know why it turned out so bright compared to the others.

[Mist]

Maybe try a pair of boots? Quite obvious and could be made in apropriate style to fit the rest.

[West]

Maybe try a pair of boots? Quite obvious and could be made in apropriate style to fit the rest.

Haha, that is exactly what I'm working on right now

edit

I dunno, something like this maybe?



It's not perfect, I'll have to tweak it further when I have more time.