Ideas for a UI facelift

[Wintermute]

Sounds good West.

I agree with you - there are certianly places to improve on, and I do think that the UI feels in some ways. I look forward to seeing some fresh ideas.

[Blarumyrran]

That does look really cool & should be implemented asap as the engine will accommodate it?
(although i dont think the wooden panels fit with the rest)

I did try making a GUI theme myself again sometime in the autumn (sample attached), but as wesnoth UI is as obscure as it is, the panels wouldnt have worked well on resolutions i hadnt made manually special versions of the panels for (lack of tiling really hurt) - but yours is so much superior that not continuing it was for the best.

[West]

(although i dont think the wooden panels fit with the rest)

Those wooden panels don't fit, true. A darker, grimier wood texture might work better though.

but yours is so much superior that not continuing it was for the best.

Are you kidding? Your theme looks great, though it's obviously quite stylistically different from mine. I especially like the bg texture and those twirly little decorations. How did you make those, btw? I'm thinking of adding some similar things and I haven't yet decided on the best way to do it. Freehand drawing is the most obvious route, but I'm pondering whether I should do the basic design work in Inkscape and then paste the rasterized shapes in PS. That might make it easier to go back and edit stuff if I need to.

[kitty]

Great to see that this is taken care of! While the old one (who did it?) certainly isn't bad, it could really use some polish. I actually like where you are heading!
Concerning the last screenshot you posted, the shape of the "normal" button looks nice, but I think that the hover button and the bar are too saturated, the teal seems a bit too loud to me. And while I generally like the small golden borders, especially the ones in the upper right in the first screenshot, I'm not so fond of the greek ornament you are using because it is too specific associated with ancient greece - perhaps you could find a more general graphic ornament.

Can't wait to see more!

[West]

Concerning the last screenshot you posted, the shape of the "normal" button looks nice, but I think that the hover button and the bar are too saturated, the teal seems a bit too loud to me.

Yeah you're right, no doubt about it. I usually don't see issues like that right away, I need to not look at the image for a few hours before making good desicions about color and contrast. So thanks for pointing it out.

Looking at it now, the glow around the hover button really doesn't look any good either. If it was a magical gem-looking button, sure, but why would a stone textured thingy glow like that? Bleh.

And while I generally like the small golden borders, especially the ones in the upper right in the first screenshot, I'm not so fond of the greek ornament you are using because it is too specific associated with ancient greece - perhaps you could find a more general graphic ornament.

I didn't actually intend it to look Greek, but I guess it's almost impossible doing angular ornaments like that without it ending up looking Greek anyway. At first I tried some Celtic knotwork decorations but a) it didn't really go well with the dark stone look, and b) it was hard to make it look like a proper knotwork design at such a small scale.

I know, I should probably focus on more important stuff and wory about deco later, but sometimes I just get caught up in the details

Thanks for the feedback kitty!

[Girgistian]

Looking at it now, the glow around the hover button really doesn't look any good either. If it was a magical gem-looking button, sure, but why would a stone textured thingy glow like that? Bleh.

true, the hover button doesn't feel as much of a good idea as most of the other suggestions, but I'll have to disagree with kitty about the bar, as to me it looks pretty good that way - it's got a pretty cool shine, and it doesn't collide with the general medieval atmosphere (with the magic and all that).

[West]

Check out the top portion of the frames for some deco variations. I'm not crazy about any of them, but the lower left one is probably best IMO. Just so you know, I tried using the gold color for the deco, but I think it made the frames stand out a bit much. As the middle background is quite dark, having bold and shiny frames will draw the attention away from it and the contents.

Girigistan: I've de-saturated the progress bar a bit. You still think the old version was better?

[Girgistian]

Yes, I still fancy the earlier one. There's not too much difference not to import either one into the game though, so it's pretty much all the same to me
The selection boxes could stand to be of a somewhat darker shade of blue, IMO, so that the text would stand out more.

As for the decorations, yes, the lower left one's probably the best. I like the rune thingies in the middle one too, but I'm guessing a lot of people would actually try to read it when they notice it, and then we'd have to figure out something inapproppriate to write on it.

EDIT: Btw, you could put something special in the top-middle section of the ornaments, like a blue gem or... something. Could even be used for an alternate close-button, maybe?

[Rocket Slug]

Ditto on the lower left one. If you think they're too distracting, have you considered not letting it wrap around the entire box? Just corners or something like that could possibly work.

[West]

The selection boxes could stand to be of a somewhat darker shade of blue, IMO, so that the text would stand out more.

What selection boxes? You mean the buttons? I'm still not sure what to do with those, pay no attention to them ATM.

and then we'd have to figure out something inapproppriate to write on it.

"Why are you reading this instead of playing the game?"

EDIT: Btw, you could put something special in the top-middle section of the ornaments, like a blue gem or... something. Could even be used for an alternate close-button, maybe?

Good idea! Maybe the frame deco doesn't have to be very elaborate if there's a sort of fancy center graphic at the top. A gem surrounded by ornaments is definitely an idea. An eagle or other bird of prey with spread out wings might look a bit too Third Reich to be useable, but what about a dragon in a similar pose? Clichéd, yes, but what the heck.

Ditto on the lower left one. If you think they're too distracting, have you considered not letting it wrap around the entire box? Just corners or something like that could possibly work.

Well I don't think they're distracting right now. When I tried the gold color for the ornaments however, the frames became a bit obtrusive. But yeah, we don't necessarily need frames on all sides.

[Girgistian]

What selection boxes? You mean the buttons? I'm still not sure what to do with those, pay no attention to them ATM.

Aye, the buttons... nevermind the english, I don't sleep. I shall come back to the subject when you've started with them, complaining and spreading opinions.

Clichéd, yes, but what the heck.

Indeed, what the heck. We've already got elves, orcs and dwarves so I guess it's okay to keep going down that road. A gryphon could work as well, since they're more common in wesnoth anyways, but dwagons are naturally cooler.

[JustinOperable]

I really like where this is going. It would be a great step for the next release towards an even more polished Wesnoth.

I personally like it, but I also feel that you are correct in the need for an awesome graphic built into the interface. It shouldn't distract but a lot of the Warcraft and Warhammer et al games have pretty cool looking graphics that are built into the UI that I really think adds to the aesthetic.

[Jetrel]

Synerr - that stuff you did was actually pretty impressive.

EDIT: Btw, you could put something special in the top-middle section of the ornaments, like a blue gem or... something. Could even be used for an alternate close-button, maybe?

Careful. You want to be really sparing (often outright not using them) with inset gems. They're really loud, and their difference with the surrounding stuff makes them look like they should be functional in some way. (which of course isn't the case if they're pure ornament.

[West]

Synerr - that stuff you did was actually pretty impressive.

Yeah, I thought so too. Maybe I'm not the right person to take on this project?

Careful. You want to be really sparing (often outright not using them) with inset gems. They're really loud, and their difference with the surrounding stuff makes them look like they should be functional in some way. (which of course isn't the case if they're pure ornament.

True dat. I'm leaning more towards having some golden figurine type of decoration anyway, I'm just not sure what and where to put it.

[West]

Only miniscule progress due to having a cold. I gotta say, the frame looks oddly waffle-like with that pattern. I really have to break it up somehow -- if nothing else because it's going to lead to tiling problems.