Introduction and Contribution (Starting controls interface)

[JustinS]

Hey guys, nice to meet you. I have a couple years of self-taught experience with web dev, and I've messed with pet projects in Unity off and on for about as long. I tried Daggerfall for the first time a couple weeks ago and loved it. Found out about this project a few days ago and decided to contribute as much as I possibly can.

I picked the keybind interface off of the roadmap and started working on it. I have the main keybinds interface, mouse controls, and joystick controls all hooked together but no other functionality yet. You can see it here:



I haven't worked with a team before so I'm not really sure at what stage of completion I should submit a pull request to the main repo, so let me know. Also, I wondered if we were planning on/interested in setting up other methods of communication and coordination like Trello, Slack, Discord, etc.

Looking forward to working with you all!

[Interkarma]

Hey JustinS, welcome to the forums!

This is great, you've made an excellent start with wiring up these UI windows so far.

I've created a new branch for you called 'keybind-ui' on github. If you can send me pull request with your changes to this branch, I'd be happy to review and help you progress the feature. Just let me know if you need any direction with sending a pull request.

[JustinS]

Thanks Interkarma. Do we plan on implementing the classic control scheme with the HUD bar at the bottom and clicking around the screen edges to move, or only mouse look?

[Interkarma]

I personally don't have any plans to implement cursor-based movement. If someone else does, I wouldn't want it to be default. I think a lot of people bounce right off Daggerfall without ever realising they can enable full screen and standard mouselook controls.

[Nystul]

I also would never ever choose cursor-based movement. it is just a pain in the ...

[JustinS]

Yeah, I definitely agree. Just checking because part of the keybinds interface changes based on whether you're using cursor mode or mouse look. But that brings up the question: what should we do with the mouse controls window, since the classic interface gives you the option to choose? Just use a custom interface like the save/load screen?

[Interkarma]

My plans for the keybind UI was to replace it completely as it's fairly locked-in to a single time and place. It's also quite cramped and it would be difficult to add any new bindings because the UI is already stuffed edge-to-edge with boxes.

I was considering a new interface similar to the new save/load UI (clean and flat) with a basic scrolling list of bindings. Maybe a left-hand scrolling list of binding groups (e.g. movement, interaction, combat, spellcasting) and a right-hand scrolling list for bindings related to that group. This would also create a bit more versatility to add new input options down the road without much additional clutter.

That said, I am happy to begin with the classic binding UI since you kindly started the process. Unsupported options can be covered in a red panel for now or blanked out with an appropriate bit of graphic (or replaced with something else). Most of the actual functionality (capturing input on rebind events, sanity checks, and updating input manager) will be consistent across old and new interfaces.

How do you feel? Would you like to keep working on the classic keybinding interface implementation, or pivot and start on an improved one?

[JustinS]

Well I've been working on the classic keybind interface for about the past half hour, getting all the buttons working and positioned correctly. Should be ready to commit and send pull request in an hour or so.

I was thinking that we could stick with the classic keybinds interface for now, and maybe implement a custom temporary mouse control window. Then maybe down the road we could redo all/most of the windows in the same style. The save/load window and the startup window work very well, but they kinda stand out from the rest of the game, know what I mean?

For extra keybinds that aren't included in the classic interface (like quicksave and quickload), we could add a button in the top right of the window that opens up another temporary window.

[JustinS]

Keyboard controls and set defaults are done!

[Interkarma]

Everything looks just about perfect. Great work mate!