444 replies to this topic

[playn]

devilhunter said:

now i can make CiderX Ports on my iPad :D

But for a mac Application this looks kinda out of place.

That's what I was afraid of! I tried redoing it slightly to give it more of an aqua feel, but I cant really hit that spot. I'll look into it more, but it's hard when the basis idea came from an iPad app :P hehe

If you or anyone else has some suggestions on what to change, or even if you want to throw an interface or idea around, feel free to.

HK1295 said:

GameGuy said:

ok I was thinking about instead of having the tools on the side that they could be on the top like this:

I was feeling the same way, i like how it is so far but moving the tools to the top seems like a better idea to me

We will definitely have a look at this. I'll have a chat with Drakulix about it.
What tools specifically would you want there?

edit:
Wait I think I misunderstood. You want the "side bar" on the top? I had another interface that was based around the toolbar, but Drakulix and me thought this current style looked better.
We can always rethink it though, after all, that's what this thread is for.

[Hrachya]

playn said:

Thoughts?

edit: updated


It's still in a very early stage, It'll be made better and there'll be changes, but some opinions now would be great!

WHOO HOO!!! NICE WORK!!! GREAT JOB!!

[Hrachya]

Love iPad interface!

[HK1295]

the iOS interface seems to be the best to me

[Drakulix]

So guys! NEXT ROUND!

Interface Concept is ready and looks pretty. Here is the last screenshot of the developer build, hope you like it:




So let's talk about the content.

We need to structure all available options in this interface.
The Icons on the left the Scroll Objects next to it and the part on the right.
The example was made for the Graphic Settings, that are now actually part of XConfig.
You can layout this as you wish, but make suggestions.
It would be even possible to make a little switch for switching between expert and standard options.

As soon as we know this I will develop further and make a little icon contest for the category-icons, we'll see on the left.
So come on!

[NF Mynster]

SWEEEEEET! :D That is looking good!

[HK1295]

this is coming along great

[Hrachya]

Oh wow! Nice! And I think, I'll enter the contest.

[Drakulix]

Okay here is a draft of sorting the interface:


Newbie Menu

Basics

- Wrapper Startup Options (only one! entry fixed on Cider Engine)

- Install Software
- Debug Run
- Browse C: Drive

Packages

means clearly explained Winetricks Packages for fixing errors.
- DirectX
- Visual C(++) Runtimes
- .Net Runtimes
- PhysX
- possible Audio Fixes

Options

- Engine Swaping (no Custom Engine or system-specific engine)
- Windows verison to emulate
Some really basic Graphic Options, that are changing really something.
FBOBackBuffer and GLSL maybe.

Export Wrapper

- Add Splash Screen
- Add Icon
- Credits Screen
- Export (means remove game folder and lock credits) and Compress



Experts Menu. Here you get all possible Options.

Basics

- Wrapper Startup Options (all entries for the launcher, possible to select wineskin as engine)

- Install Software (with custom screen options and much more)
- Debug Run (maybe with a little overlay in windowed cider mode. So you see the errors while running the game. Would be a semi-transcluend terminal window in front of the game. Should be easy to do in windowed mode)

- Browse C: Drive

Packages

all possible winetricks, displayed as a list, that are running in Cider
+ my own packages like
PhysX from DAO Cider
Mono 2.10
vcrun fixed for cider
cod5 audio fix (? was requested)



Headline:Options


Graphic Options:

The whole config file list!
Like in the screenshots

Registy
disable write access to certain reg files
edit registry like you wish

Engine Options
- Fast Engine Switching
- Custom Engine (maybe with a little gui to import dylibs from other engines?)
- System-specific Engines

DLL Options

- DLL Overrides
- DLL Renaming, found in the newest Sims 3 Cider, needs much testing, works only on some engines

Drive Emulation:

- Add Drives
- Fake Drives
- CD Emulation
- Auto-mount images maybe?

  Other options:

windows version to emulate
protected files (lock files to prevent them from getting delete by cider on next run)
disable exe files or force exe files to launch with command line options(appdefaults)

probably:
joystick options
audio options
process priority

--- Options Headline ended


Customizion
Launcher (Background, Button Images? additional buttons? website/support,etc or background music?)
Credits Screen + lock function
Icon
Splash Screen
(maybe a gui that supports auto image converting to icns for icon? or gui to make splash screen and background fit the launcher/splash screen in size?)

Export

Wrapper as DMG
Wrapper as Archive
Full Game as (splitted)DMG
Full Game as (splitted) Archive

So what do you make out of this draft?
All green options would appear as icons on the left (but i plan to sort the option icons on one stack, maybe like in the dock?)
and all yellow options would appear in the second line like shown in the screenshot. The space on the right would give the interface to change/edit/start/whatever the selected entry. If you swap between expert and newbie view all changes you made in the expert view will be saved even if you do not see them anymore. So switching between them this possible, if the expert view e.g. confuses you.
Would you sort those options another way? make different categories? or do you think they do not match to the category?
Maybe rename something? is the newbie and expert view a good idea? give me some input!

[DankoB]

Wow, Now I'm even starting to get really excited about all this...I've just started using Cider and I think this new interface is going to be something outstanding.

That being said, does CiderX, or more so the Cider Frameworks utilize the wine .dll.so files? If so I have a potential mouse fix that you could work into the interface. It has worked for me on dozens of occasions.

It's pretty cool you're considering to implement converter to create .icns files....this is going to be a sure fire hit once it's finally released...I'm pretty stoked about it.

[Drakulix]

DankoB said:

Wow, Now I'm even starting to get really excited about all this...I've just started using Cider and I think this new interface is going to be something outstanding.

That being said, does CiderX, or more so the Cider Frameworks utilize the wine .dll.so files? If so I have a potential mouse fix that you could work into the interface. It has worked for me on dozens of occasions.

It's pretty cool you're considering to implement converter to create .icns files....this is going to be a sure fire hit once it's finally released...I'm pretty stoked about it.

Thank you. I am really trying to make it as user-friendly as possible. Cider is the most difficult wrapper around here.

Cider does sadly not load dll.so files. Only dylibs. But it should be possible to compile some of wines dll in dylibs. Since there are using pretty similar dll functions. If you compare older wine build so-files with cider's dylibs, they are really similar. You can get all functions of those files by using the nm-command in terminal btw. You type "nm " and drag&drop the file to the terminal, hit enter.
Based on this I want to try writing my own cider-dll-plugin after this project. Should be possible and would keep Cider alive, if we would be able to program our own dll options. But that is talking about the future.

[GameGuy]

looks great...excited :D

[NF Mynster]

Hey.. It looks awesome! You are really working hard!
But hey, a little suggestion:
The Dll override, maybe a little "help" or info how to use that? xD I really don't know what it is. Or is it just me? I heard a lot talk about it
ONLY a suggestion! :)

[HK1295]

damn looks like a complete porter package looking good

[Drakulix]

ferdyfist said:

Hey.. It looks awesome! You are really working hard!
But hey, a little suggestion:
The Dll override, maybe a little "help" or info how to use that? xD I really don't know what it is. Or is it just me? I heard a lot talk about it
ONLY a suggestion!

Yeah everything will be explained.
It should be user-friendly, that is the first goal.

[NF Mynster]

Sweet!!
Its becoming a pain to wait for this!:P

[HK1295]

Quote

all possible winetricks, displayed as a list, that are running in Cider
+ my own packages like
PhysX from DAO Cider
Mono 2.10
vcrun fixed for cider
cod5 audio fix (? was requested)

EXCELLENt now it wont be so hard to implement a good physx

[Jowacom]

Looks like it's got almost anything that you'll ever need. Looking really good, I haven't really got anything to add! :D

[Coogie7]

This looks very promising! Nice Job, again, Drakulix! I will be trying it out!

[Hrachya]

Ok! Great! I like it!!! I just can't imagine how is it going to work! Just one thing, don't rush! We don't want it to be laggy! Spend your time on that.
About the functions:

Drakulix said:

...Background Music...

No background music, this is not a club or something -.-

[playn]

Hrachya said:

Ok! Great! I like it!!! I just can't imagine how is it going to work! Just one thing, don't rush! We don't want it to be laggy! Spend your time on that.
About the functions:

Drakulix said:

...Background Music...

No background music, this is not a club or something -.-

Dont worry, thats for the launcher when you run the app. For an example, check ports made with the DAO2 wrapper

[Drakulix]

playn said:

Quote

Ok! Great! I like it!!! I just can't imagine how is it going to work! Just one thing, don't rush! We don't want it to be laggy! Spend your time on that.
About the functions:
  

Drakulix said:

...Background Music...

No background music, this is not a club or something -.-

Dont worry, thats for the launcher when you run the app. For an example, check ports made with the DAO2 wrapper

Also this would be optional for your ports. I just thought about ways to improve the launcher.

[Drakulix]

So nearly everyone has answered and everybody like the draft.
I'll start the the Icon Contest this evening in the Artist Section.

[Drakulix]

A bit delayed but the Icon Contest has been started:

viewtopic.php?f=68&t=7799

[Drakulix]

Thoughts?

[GameGuy]

looks very professional...i like it

[devilhunter]

A bit too simple for my taste, perhaps.

But either way, you have to go into a direction; either make it as easy as possible for new users while making things a bit harder on advanced Porters, or make the interface too complicated and it will turn off new guys.

Still, Icons look good but don't fit so well (what's with the plane or the idea blub?),
If Icons are used, they should graphically say what that section is about.

(Side note: I know it's just a placeholder, but so much description/white space for a simple ON/OFF switch is kinda overkill, me thinks...)

[Drakulix]

Thanks for the feedback.
Really opened my eyes.
I think I have to change some things.
There must be a way between advanced and easy to use.

[devilhunter]

Quote

There must be a way between advanced and easy to use.

Put in 'two' interfaces.
One for new users and one for advanced users; this way you can keep the most required things in the new users tab and everything looks clean and nice, on the pro side you can litter every bit of white space with buttons and settings or the like.

Example, the settings of VLC:

Simple Intertface:


Advanced Settings:


Simple settings is great and things are explained very well, but occasionally i have to to into the advanced settings to tune the timings of a video decoder for example.

[Drakulix]

Now at-least the icons look better:


Yeah I planned to make "two" interfaces, but I just thought about hiding advanced features.
Changing the complete interface could be interesting. Thanks, I will think about that.

(Yeah it is just a placeholder. For log files this space will be better, for the preferences it is wasted space.
But I have already a pretty good idea how to use it better.)