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Menu/Gui Concepts (Loading/Startup)


pakmannen

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I like the original gears more, these are kinda too dark, almost muddy.

 

Edit: Oh and I imagine there must be some live screen widget which gets plastered onto a gui to show the actual progress. Although, I have noticed, D3 loading progress is not terribly accurate. T3 is really good there, but D3, way off.

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I like the light concept better here... but I feel the peach color that is incorporated in both the light and dark logo is inconsistent with the rest of the coloring in the image, which is somewhat a no-no in art, imo. This is the only thing that bugs me about it. That peach color just doesn't flow with the rest of the coloring in the image. I think it'd look better to take one of the rusty brown colors in the background parchment, or a dark gold color from the background gears, and lighten it up. Just my two cents...

 

As for watching those gears quickly rotating for a minute as something loads, it doesn't seem very interesting to me. Maybe if they rotated more slowly. But I still find the more photo-realistic gears in the other menu presented in the poll better/more interesting. I also like the idea oDDity had of having a screenshot of a mission show up, faded with parchment over it. The only problem I have with it is that it's pretty standard these days for games to show a faded image from a level as missions load, so it's not that original. The styling oDDity incorporated is what makes it unique and possibly worthwhile, imo.

 

EDIT: Hmm... just to clarify regarding the peach color:

* It looks "peach" color in this static JPG image, which I don't agree with: http://www.tjoff.com/jens/darkmod/gui_startup_lightlogo.jpg

* Yet it looks fine (not peach) in this video: http://www.tjoff.com/jens/thingy2.avi

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Well, we really got a lot accomplished in this thread. The whole point of discussing this was because drumple (and Gildorian too, apparently) was ready to start getting these menus in game. Two weeks and three pages later we still don't have any finished art to give them, nor have we--as far as I can tell--agreed on how to do the animations, or even what the mission loading screen will now look like. We're actually further behind now than when we started all this.

 

I also like the idea oDDity had of having a screenshot of a mission show up, faded with parchment over it. The only problem I have with it is that it's pretty standard these days for games to show a faded image from a level as missions load, so it's not that original.

 

Moving gears aren't exactly original either--all the Thief games used them in some form or another. At least the parchment-style screenshots are interesting to look at. We could always work the gears into the top and bottom bars if people are dead set on having them.

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i have actually started to make the guis with a generic parchment template, so that whatever designs that

are decided upon in the end, will just slide in with no problem, since they are background images/videos and

should be interchangable. im all for the more the merrier when it comes to different videos showing when

a different level starts, so it should all flow pretty good. instead of seeing the same loading screen every time

a mission starts, i think different ones would be good... but as i mentioned, whatever video/style of artwork

would be basicly dropped in the exisiting guis.

 

currently im doing the font styles and layouts needed... and i got the idea to make them lively when

a mouse over is in place.. should look real nice in the end.

 

artwork aside.. music that will accompany the screens should also be considered....

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About those gears, can we even use them? Did this guy make them or did we just both get them from the same source?

 

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http...6lr%3D%26sa%3DN

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yeah spring, in the meantime while this continues ( the loading debate ) im moving along with the other

menus, since both loading menus will be animated they just need to be dropped in, so to speak... so im

moving along with the other stuff for now so at least i'll be further along with something to show, hopefully

soon.

 

i like the animated clock for the begining one.. and the gears are nice for the mission loading, as to what gets

finally decided upon should work out well with it. as for the construction of those loading videos, i do not

have adobe or after effects, since i use psp... i have makde a roq out of the gear screen to see how well it

would look ingame, and it looks quite nice.

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well, i dont want to throw anything more on oddity's plate, since he does a lot already, but he obviously has the

skill and talent to create such things, plus the proper tools such as adobe after effects and photoshop which

i do not have. if the final loading/startup's are decided upon and he is willing to create such a nice work, i'll

convert them to roq's and incorpoerate them into the main hud.

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yeah.. the main problem i guess is that the original was borrowed artwork, but the same idea with the

darkmod logo.. something that loops and not fades in.. that way it can be transitioned in with the gui

and run until everything thats needed loads, since everyones computers load at different speeds.. god knows

mine can be slow.. old drives.. mobo does raid.. just need new ones.. but something that loops.. say 4 seconds

or however long it needs to.. er.. wait.. maybe that cannot be done.. since some gears mover at slower speeds.

 

i guess you make the call how long it runs.. actually.. the length of your 1st one seemed a good run.. was it

6 seconds? i can't remember. but you get the drift of it..

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The clock looks great. The font should probably be Dark11 for consistancy though.

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I don't like having the dark mod plastered over the middle in huge letters anway. By the time people have downloaded and insatlled the mod, they'll know it's the dark mod they're playing without it being shouted at them.

I've come up with a better loading screen, with a loading bar progression shown with an animated glowing ring around the clock.

 

Video

 

 

ringloader2.jpg

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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I don't mind the smaller font. I think we still need the images on the side, however. It's pretty bare without them. I think Pak has those.

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Looks fantastic, but better minus the red progress thingy. Looks out of place; where the rest is dusty-ancient-book-almost-sepia-surreal, creepy, ominous, the red thing makes me think "game special effect overlay." Progress has to be dynamic anyway (even though it's never very accurate in D3).

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Obviously, any loading bar would be overlayed using a tga sequence.

I don't like having those twigs crayoned in, it looks stupid, nd it doe't workl now anyway, since the edges are too dark. It doesn't look remotely 'bare' now, I don't think we get extra points for filling every inch.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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After a bit more tweaking, this is a better version. I won't tweak any more, so this is definitely it.

We'll just stick with the original plan and use a rotating second hand as the loading progress. It will be a separate overlayed model.

 

loader_final.jpg

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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I still like the idea of having more than just the clock present. The forest and city images help provide a thematic context to the game. Pak or I can always add them in later if you're done with it.

 

Doesn't look like you used Dark11 on the last version at the top...unless you didn't use caps?

 

The clock itself looks excellent, but I don't understand why we need a progress indicator. Isn't this for the game-loading screen only?

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Lowercase letters look better in DarkII I think.

I agree that the clock by itself doesn't say 'this is a Thief inspired stealth game'

I don't hold with people tinkering with my artwork after I've finished, so here's a version with some game relevant overlays.

 

loader_final3.jpg

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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The text can be overlayed from an image.

I think the clock looks bare without a second hand, but I can't put it in the video, since it won't loop (unless I make the video 60 seconds long)

I will convert it to roq myself, since I can use the original high quality video as the source. How does the roq compressor work? It's just a DOS program as far as I can see.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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it does look very good the way it is. for converting to a roq vid, there will be some loss in detail which would

affect the smaller text at the bottom. how clear would the image look at 640x480?

 

 

I'm also curious...are the gears still supposed to move? They're nice jpegs, but I'm sure it would be easier if we had the source files to work with so it could be tweaked if needed, instead of having to ask for revisions for minor details.

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