Menu Rearangement

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BryanFRitt
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Menu Rearangement

Post by BryanFRitt »

The menus could use some rearrangements. Mainly the multiplayer/network stuff moved out from the GAME AND MENU.

Some ideas:

MAIN MENU > SETUP >

GAME AND MENU could be split up, with NETWORK stuff moved into it's own directory in SETUP. (split GAME and MENU too?)
CUSTOM GRAPHICS it's OVERRIDE could go under GRAPHICS.
CUSTOM SOUNDS, CUSTOM MUSIC and their OVERRIDE could go under SOUND AND MUSIC
TOUCH CONTROLS, INPUT DEVICES, and KEY SHORTCUTS could be merged together.
GAME ENGINES put in GAME & MENU (?split into two menus GAME, and MENU?)

MAIN MENU >
INFO SCREEN option moved to top of LEVELS list above where it says .. (PARENT DIRECTORY).
LEVEL CREATOR renamed LEVEL EDITOR

Add an option to change the menu font. (like for those that are having visions problems)

Is there an easy way to play around with this, If someone wanted to?
Life is partially trying to strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and making sure they are good/organized. These extremes can be said to between gibberish mess and nothing said/done.
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Holger
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by Holger »

Yes, parts of the setup menu are probably a bit confusing and could indeed be reorganized.

There are several possible approaches to do this that I could think of. For example, one way would be to only have the more common options in the normal setup menu, while moving the more "esoteric" options to an "advanced setup" menu.

Another approach would be to strictly sort things by topic (that's more or less what you suggested, I think).

However, it's not so easy in some cases. For example, I'm not sure if it is a good idea to split the "custom artwork" options into the "graphics" and "sound and music" sub-menus. Although it seems likely to do that, I am not sure if this will make things better or worse in this case (especially as the custom graphics options may get a bit lost between all those other graphics settings, and because it may be more desirable to keep that custom artwork stuff together).

Regarding "Game" and "Game Engines", the latter should probably be put into a sub-menu of the former.

Regarding the main menu:
INFO SCREEN option moved to top of LEVELS list above where it says .. (PARENT DIRECTORY).
I did not understand this. Do you really mean that the "info screen" menu should be moved inside the "levels" menu? Why?!
LEVEL CREATOR renamed LEVEL EDITOR
Yes, this was already mentioned by some other people in the past! It's a relic from the past, and maybe I should change it.
Add an option to change the menu font. (like for those that are having visions problems)
I assume that you thought about the classic (light blue) "Emerald Mine" font heavily used in the EMC collection that really is not very readable. :-|

As the menu font is part of the currently active custom artwork, it is nearly impossible to change just this font without destroying the layout of that custom artwork. It may work (especially for older sets like "BD2K3"), but it may also horribly fail -- just think about the custom artwork of nearly all level sets of Jürgen Bonhagen.

For sets like the EMC collection, just switching to the "classic" (R'n'D) graphics would improve readability of the menus a lot.

Maybe one day I could add an option to change game graphics and menu graphics (that is, all other graphics) separately.
Algebroot
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by Algebroot »

Add an option to change the menu font. (like for those that are having visions problems)
I kind of have a similar idea. Only it's not because of visions problems. It's because the ability to use lowercase in player names does exist (as it is shown in the high score server; I didn't know it's possible to use lowercase in player names), but the game itself can't display that because it's graphically only capable of ALL-CAPS due to how its menu graphics function.
BryanFRitt
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by BryanFRitt »

I typed up the current 4.3.4.0 menu, and then moved stuff around to hopefully be in a better menu locations. Perhaps the menu order, etc... might could still be improved on these. Feel free to use this for menu arrangement ideas, or whatever.
Attachments
MenuOrderDefault4.3.4.0.txt
(2.47 KiB) Downloaded 128 times
MenuOrderIdeas01.txt
(3.74 KiB) Downloaded 137 times
Life is partially trying to strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and making sure they are good/organized. These extremes can be said to between gibberish mess and nothing said/done.
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Holger
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by Holger »

Hi Bryan, I also think about re-arranging especially the setup menu (sub-menus and menu entries) every now and then, and I think there are some good ideas in your proposal (including some changes I also thought about).

Regarding the suggestions for a "network" setup sub-menu, it should be noted that you can also play local multi-player games (which would affect settings like "team mode" or "only move focussed player"). The option "multiple users/teams" is even independent from multi-player (or even network) games, and is mainly intended for cases where more than one person is using a single R'n'D installation, like families using the same PC, tablet or TV (with FireTV stick). (I know exactly what I'm talking about here with two kids playing on devices like tablets or Meta Quest 2, using different accounts to have their own game progress. :-) )

I also was always unsure about the "custom artwork" menu -- should I put all graphics/sounds/music customizations into one place, or split it into "audio" and "video" sub-menus, like you suggested? Both solutions have their advantages... :?
BryanFRitt
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by BryanFRitt »

changes...
Holger wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:06 pm Regarding the suggestions for a "network" setup sub-menu
How about this NETWORK folder being named NETWORK and MULTIPLAYER?

For MenuOrderIdeas02 list,
  • Added in some of the options that menu items have
  • Added in some options that weren't typed in before
  • renamed NETWORK to NETWORK AND MULTIPLAYER
  • Put NAME:/TEAM: under this <-- Some might it better where it was
  • moved up SMALL GAME GRAPHICS to under WINDOW SCALING
  • corrected a spelling of FOCUSED
  • for percentages removed space between number and '%' sign
  • added 350% and 400% scaling options
  • changed some YES/NO to ON/OFF for consistency
Question: Should there a pattern for when something is YES/NO or ON/OFF, or keep everything the same?
Attachments
MenuOrderIdeas02.txt
(4.39 KiB) Downloaded 118 times
Life is partially trying to strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and making sure they are good/organized. These extremes can be said to between gibberish mess and nothing said/done.
BryanFRitt
Posts: 219
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:16 pm

Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by BryanFRitt »

Holger wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:06 pm Regarding the suggestions for a "network" setup sub-menu, it should be noted that you can also play local multi-player games (which would affect settings like "team mode" or "only move focussed player"). The option "multiple users/teams" is even independent from multi-player (or even network) games, and is mainly intended for cases where more than one person is using a single R'n'D installation, like families using the same PC, tablet or TV (with FireTV stick). (I know exactly what I'm talking about here with two kids playing on devices like tablets or Meta Quest 2, using different accounts to have their own game progress. :-) )
I haven't really tried out the multiplayer online stuff, so I bet someone who has could probably pick out a better NETWORK AND MULTIPLAYER menu arrangement

Changes for MenuOrderIdeas03
  • Moved HIGH SCORE SERVER stuff to end of NETWORK AND MULTIPLAYER section
Attachments
MenuOrderIdeas03.txt
(4.4 KiB) Downloaded 122 times
Life is partially trying to strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and making sure they are good/organized. These extremes can be said to between gibberish mess and nothing said/done.
filbo
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by filbo »

I haven't looked at the downloads, only what's mentioned in text here. Anyway, the one menu thing that has consistently bugged me for years is: no keyboard shortcut for 'quit' from the main menu. It seems like at least a couple of Q, Ctrl+Q, Alt+Q, should quit. Maybe 'Q' would lead to the yes/no dialog, like clicking the last menu item; and one or both of the others would just quit, like clicking the window's close box.
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Eizzoux
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by Eizzoux »

Speaking of weird setup option locations, pretty sure both "Ask on Esc key" options shouldn't be in Tape shortcut keys.
kdhaskjausd.png
kdhaskjausd.png (327.34 KiB) Viewed 4930 times
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BryanFRitt
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Re: Menu Rearangement

Post by BryanFRitt »

Eizzoux wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 8:18 am Speaking of weird setup option locations, pretty sure both "Ask on Esc key" options shouldn't be in Tape shortcut keys.
kdhaskjausd.png
Aren't these under MAIN MENU > SETUP > KEY SHORTCUTS > VARIOUS KEYS ?

Looking at it, the tape shortcuts in VARIOUS KEYS section probably should go with the TAPE shortcuts.
MAIN MENU > SETUP > KEY SHORTCUTS > TAPE
  • QUICK SAVE GAME TO TAPE:
  • QUICK LOAD GAME FROM TAPE:
  • REPLAY & PAUSE BEFORE END:
filbo wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:31 am I haven't looked at the downloads, only what's mentioned in text here. Anyway, the one menu thing that has consistently bugged me for years is: no keyboard shortcut for 'quit' from the main menu. It seems like at least a couple of Q, Ctrl+Q, Alt+Q, should quit. Maybe 'Q' would lead to the yes/no dialog, like clicking the last menu item; and one or both of the others would just quit, like clicking the window's close box.
I like this idea too, options for this could be placed in
MAIN MENU > SETUP > KEY SHORTCUTS > VARIOUS KEYS

move ASK ON QUIT PROGRAM: ON/OFF to LEVEL/GAME TRANSITIONS, and/or put in KEY SHORTCUTS > VARIOUS KEYS ? <-- come up with better name than VARIOUS KEYS?

MAIN MENU > SETUP > KEY SHORTCUTS > VARIOUS KEYS
  • QUIT LEVEL: <-- new feature, currently 'ESC' only?
  • QUIT EDITOR: <-- new feature, currently 'ESC' only?
  • QUIT R'n'D: <-- new feature
  • ASK ON 'EXIT' KEYS (LEVEL): ON/OFF <-- WAS NO/YES
  • ASK ON 'EXIT' KEYS (EDITOR): ON/OFF <-- WAS NO/YES
  • ASK ON 'EXIT' KEYS (R'N'D): ON/OFF <-- new feature
Attachments
MenuOrderIdeas04.txt
(4.64 KiB) Downloaded 114 times
Life is partially trying to strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and making sure they are good/organized. These extremes can be said to between gibberish mess and nothing said/done.
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