First Look At Setup UI

Discuss Daggerfall Workshop news articles.
Post Reply
User avatar
Interkarma
Posts: 7236
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

First Look At Setup UI

Post by Interkarma »

The first time you run Daggerfall Unity 0.2 and later, a simple setup wizard helps you configure the game. This replaces the Unity resolution dialog, and for many users will entirely remove the need to edit an INI file to get up and running.

As discussed in my previous post the INI file and KeyBinds files are now stored in a persistent data path. This means you only need to setup Daggerfall Unity once and future updates will continue to use your custom settings. This should make things more convenient when downloading incremental releases in future.


Aliem
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 9:12 am

Re: First Look At Setup UI

Post by Aliem »

Outstanding work!! Is there a way to access those settings while in-game or are they only available at launch?

User avatar
Interkarma
Posts: 7236
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

Re: First Look At Setup UI

Post by Interkarma »

Cheers. You can trigger the setup wizard again by deleting your settings.ini file or removing the MyDaggerfallPath value inside it.

One of my todo items is implement the key binding UI and a proper Daggerfall Unity options UI distinct from Daggerfall's basic settings. The reason I'm delaying this is I need to write a bunch of new UI controls to support it (sliders, scrolling layouts, color picker, validated text fields, that kind of stuff). It's not a difficult job exactly, it's just not where I have my priorities at the moment. Will probably do this in stages, with the INI file being the go-to spot for advanced settings.

User avatar
Uncanny_Valley
Posts: 221
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: First Look At Setup UI

Post by Uncanny_Valley »

Great work as always!

A few suggestions if I may:

1. Consistency. As a user, I don't want need to re-learn new "rules" for each screen. Keep all the windows, buttons, text and colors the same across all screens. You keep changing the position of the window, and the "OK" button changes places from the right to the center of the window after the first screen. Your fullscreen toggle button is green, but the toggle buttons for the various options on the next screen are yellow, keep the colors consistent based on function. For example: yellow is alway for non-interactable content such as text, green is always for interactable and red is always "locked" interactable content.

2. Use already established and pre-learned patterns. Try to position everything in a way that I the user is already familiar with. For example: as a user I want to find the "cancel this setup" button, and when I'm looking for it, I already have a pre-learned behaviour for where I look. I would suggest using the standard windows installer setup as a base for the button layout. It's something that most people are familiar with. Aside from the button layout, I would also change the words "OK" and "Exit" to "Next" and "Cancel", to make it even more familiar and clear.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/images/t ... ine-10.jpg

3. A button to go back to the previous screen. If I as user change my mind about my screen resolution, and I don't want to restart the entire application to do this.

4. A menu counter, indicating on many screens I have completed and how many I have left before the I'm done with the setup. As a user, setup menus can feel like a chore, knowing how much I have done and have left can greatly alleviate this feeling.

5. As a user I would like to be able to sort resolution options by aspect ratio, 4:3 16:9, 16:10, etc. So that I can quickly find the correct ones for my monitor size.

User avatar
Interkarma
Posts: 7236
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

Re: First Look At Setup UI

Post by Interkarma »

Thank you for the feedback Uncanny_Valley. I will take all this on board for the next iteration of setup helper. I get your points completely, especially around colour consistency, and will review some of these items prior to release.

Just so you know, I am intentionally leaving as much of the background render visible as possible in step 2, as this is what conveys the effect of your resolution and quality settings - something that is quite lost in the video. If the screen was obscured by a same-size box the whole way through, then the real-time feedback of changing these settings are lost. I can however tidy things up a bit based on your feedback. Thanks again. :)

Post Reply