Author Topic: Interface art  (Read 38469 times)

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Offline Lt.Cannonfodder

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After a short chat in our lair in Mordo... erm, on the irc channel, we decided to open up the developement of the game a bit more for everyone to see. There are a couple of benefits from this:

1) Since the show is now over, there's less for you guys to talk about here on the public forum and thus less interest to come over on regular basis. We want to keep the place alive and posting WIP stuff more often serves to further that goal.

2) More direct feedback from you. While not all ideas can be implemented, we do appreciate the comments and take them into account.

3) Stroking our frail artistic egos  :P

Anyway, the interface. It's one of the biggest remaining obstacles on the way to a truly standalone game from Freespace 2 (we've been running with the standard fs2 interface art so far) and thus of high priority if we want to make a release anytime soon. It's also a huge amount of work, and not very satisfying thanks to being limited to the basic layout of the original fs2 interface. But it has to be done.

Some of you may remember the BtRL interface; that was mostly my work, but I was never quite satisfied with how it ended up looking. So this time around I've decided to try and make the best possible looking interface from the start so I dont have to come back later and redo the work because the thing keeps bugging me. I hope I'll archieve this goal, but knowing me, I might redo it all anyway within a year or two :P

Most of you've already seen the mainhall I did months ago, but here's a reminder:



And here's the very first test image of the very first new menu, the pilot selection. Early WIP of course, I'm currently playing around with texturing and lightning setup.



I snatched the basic idea for the design from some BSG card game image I found online. Yea, how evil and unimaginative of me.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2009, 02:25:45 pm by Lt.Cannonfodder »

 
Solid beginning, looking forward to the flight deck. :)

 

Offline Lt.Cannonfodder

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Not gonna happen I'm afraid. Way too much work to model entire interiors. Besides, it would look out of place if we decided to make a campaign on any other ship than a Columbia-class battlestar.

 
Ah, oh, aww.

No harm done though, the reasoning makes sense and it allows time to be invested in other areas, folks won't be playing these games to look at the menu interfaces.

 

Offline Morwen

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I really like how you stuck to the BSG theme in that interface, with the colouring and the ribbings. I thought of the exact same thing before seeing this pic. Subtle details like these make it so awesome :)

 

Offline tikey

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Wouldn't be better if the background was the same in all the menus (or at least the same colour)? It would give it more coherence between the different interface screens.

 

Offline General Battuta

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deeeiiiiii

kooooboooooolll

(Actually, I reckon you're getting new music to go with your gorgeous new menu.)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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I am lobbying hard for "Battlestar Muzaktica" to be the multiplayer lobby/loading music.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Prutus

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Looking nice, thou one thing I would like most to see as background, is the red elevator doors from galactica hangardeck. but I see this wont be happening, due those campaings away from galactica.

  

Offline Deckard

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Feedback?.. sure thing:

Your "mainhall" design is great. So I'd suggest to move forward with it. The textures combo you used on it looks very cool so you may properly use it as basis for the whole UI. Maybe the normal state buttons could go with yellow or blue colors due that the diaspora logo captures the end-user's attention a little too much. Other than that, the mix of dark and yellow textures on the blueish background looks somehow Colonial and Cylon at the same time. I do like it !

The new textures you've put on the new Pilot Selection Box look cool as well. The blue content on the buttons a bit too bright, imo.. but as you said is WIP.. so I've said nothing on them.. :P

As you said, the making of the whole UI means A LOT of work so maybe, maybe, R1 could be ready to go with part of the final UI into it.

Hope this helps somehow. Keep up with the good work!! :)
-------------------------------
Deckard a.k.a The Silencer

 

Offline Lt.Cannonfodder

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As you said, the making of the whole UI means A LOT of work so maybe, maybe, R1 could be ready to go with part of the final UI into it.
Unfortunately that's really not an option. First of all we are doing a total conversion, meaning we need to replace as many of the FS2 assets as possible, preferrably all of them. Secondly, wouldn't it be a real mood killer to have this new and shiny interface on some menus and the old FS2 one on others?

This is what we meant by saying the R1 requires the most work. It's the building of the foundations such as the interface that takes time.

Anyway, the newest render I whipped up this morning. Lots of things to do still, but getting there:


 

Offline Fish

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Hey, that's a pretty awesome improvement. It seems clear that you've got the right idea of what to aim for!
<><

 

Offline Dilmah G

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Hey, that's a pretty awesome improvement. It seems clear that you've got the right idea of what to aim for!

Yeahh, looks AWESOME

 
Very impressive and evocative of the show

 

Offline Demitri

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Looking good. If I can can make one suggestion, it might look better with a blue band round it instead of red to make it look more colonial. That might just be personal preference on my part tho.
Nice work nonetheless.  :yes:
"Brothers and sisters are natural enemies!
Like Englishmen and Scots!
Or Welshmen and Scots!
Or Japanese and Scots!
Or Scots and other Scots!
Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!" - Groundskeeper Willie

 

Offline Dilmah G

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Looking good. If I can can make one suggestion, it might look better with a blue band round it instead of red to make it look more colonial. That might just be personal preference on my part tho.
Nice work nonetheless.  :yes:

Well the red band reminds me of the paint scheme on a Viper, so I don't have any issues with it.

 
Looking good. If I can can make one suggestion, it might look better with a blue band round it instead of red to make it look more colonial. That might just be personal preference on my part tho.
Nice work nonetheless.  :yes:

Well the red band reminds me of the paint scheme on a Viper, so I don't have any issues with it.

I agree, and I always associated Galactica with red, if not for the titles at the beginning of every episode, then all the markings on Galactica herself!

 

Offline Deckard

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Yep, /me likes the red touches too. Maybe the blueish background could be a bit more bright though. Other than that this WIP looks cool, indeed ;)
-------------------------------
Deckard a.k.a The Silencer

 
Looks great so far.

And may I say that the team's approach to "opening up the process more now that the show's over" is just brilliantly fantastic?  Thanks for extending a bit of a hand to us.  Let's hope it doesn't get bitten!   ;)

I always thought that it would really hit home if one of the interface screens was a Devotion Wall, such as the one featured throughout Galactica's run.  I'm not sure what they called it during the series, but it was the portion of corridor where photographs of the dearly departed and some of their possessions were posted in remembrance.  Not only would it feel authentic, but it would be a pretty gritty, grim and disturbing reminder of the stakes involved. 

What would make it especially chilling is if photographs were added to it as the game progressed.  Oh yes, I love that idea, don't you?  Hell yeah, you do, how could you not?   ;)

It'd probably be a real mother frakker to figure out, but all things worth doing are that way, are they not?

Let me know what you think of the idea, and whether or not it's doable! 

And don't worry, all I'll charge for my contribution is 15% of the gross profits.  Oh yeah, baby, I'll be rollin' in the dough any day now!  "Worldwide economic crisis?"  What "worldwide economic crisis?"  Me has my thick wallet of Diaspora bucks right here Daddy-O!

 ;)

 

Offline Lt.Cannonfodder

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I always thought that it would really hit home if one of the interface screens was a Devotion Wall, such as the one featured throughout Galactica's run.  I'm not sure what they called it during the series, but it was the portion of corridor where photographs of the dearly departed and some of their possessions were posted in remembrance.  Not only would it feel authentic, but it would be a pretty gritty, grim and disturbing reminder of the stakes involved. 

What would make it especially chilling is if photographs were added to it as the game progressed.  Oh yes, I love that idea, don't you?  Hell yeah, you do, how could you not?   ;)
The devotion wall has the same problem that any other location specific to Galactica has: It's specific to Galactica. The interface needs to be generic enough so we and fans alike can make campaigns that dont necessarily take place on Galactica.

Anyway, almost there.