I recently completed a module for my granddaughter which seemed to go well with her but I almost hit a real demotivator for her - the radial menu. Now she is only 8, so using the mouse isn’t a given for her either although she handled it well. However, at one point she has to use the radial menu to put up a magic tent. It is in her inventory so when she right clicked on the object it was against the busy backdrop of the rest of the objects in her inventory. My son sent me a screenshot of it and it was only then I realised how hard it is to see some of the options.
So, my question is, is there any way to make the radial menu options stand out better? Possibly reducing the transparency of the options in the menu so they stand out against the background or moving the options somewhere other than from roundabout the object ( silly suggestion but maybe into the quickbar or somewhere else on the screen - maybe even not a radial menu but a non transparent menu which appears beside it? )
radial menu stand out better actually reduced GUI transparency classic icons with no background
Pics or it didn't happen.
Note: last (first) release was in late 2017 and I’ve been recently contacted about some possible improvements, so when I get some free time there will be an update which is going to bring transparent spell icons.
Thanks, Tarot. These look good and seem to be only affecting the radial menu which might work. Not sure how clear they’ll be agains the various coloured items in the inventory but I’ll try them shortly.
Thanks for this. They are much better, largely due to the reduced transparency, I think. However, ( and purely imo !) the font still looks a bit lower quality - and small . I currently use Yeneko’s UI due to size and clarity of the font. It’s great when you’re reading a lot of dialogue and if your eyes aren’t what they used to be.
If you are looking to redo or add bits it might make a nice thread to see if there is any consensus about what might look better. I’ve a feeling we might all be wildly divergent ! For me, I’d love something along the lines of
The colour scheme appeals to me here plus the slightly increased size of windows. I also like the small colourised icons although the ones on the game screen in the quickbar are a little large and garish for me. The creator, @wes471, even made me an option of the inventory box less transparent which I thought was much better.
In game UI - Yeneko, as above. Great clarity and size of font and windows plus arrangement of items on screen but doesn’t go into other possible areas, such as transparency of radial menu, colour etc. Sample of Yeneko’s below. Has good before and after pictures on his project page.
Icons - I’m off to have a look a the suggestions here and see what else I can find but I wouldn’t want these too large, too bright or bearing no relation to the spell, item etc.
To be honest I’m not sure what else there is that could be changed. Also, I take it the toolset is hard coded and can’t be tampered with, looks wise ?
Just in passing, and being still quite new to NWN, it saddens me to see so many great projects with few or no comments after them. I’m guessing this has been covered here and at length before but I try to always remember to leave comments on project pages, especially if I download and look at the content. Apart from anything else, it’s good to have discussions/get feedback on a topic we all enjoy and I’m sure positive comments encourage the creators to publish.
Tarot, I had a look a the colourised icons and to me they look pretty good. Thanks.
I’m mostly interested in making classic UI consistent with itself while staying true to the original aesthetic (no colored icons, etc). It’s great however that there are other projects, including total overhauls.
Perhaps you can try combining the three (SUI < TAD’s icons < Yeneko). For test at least
Ok, had a play. As I really don’t know what any of these filenames refer to it has been a bit haphazard.
The mods in play at the moment are :
SUI
Yeneko
Coloursied radial menu
UI Reborn
With SUI first I couldn’t get Yeneko or UI Reborn to work. Colourised icons did work.
When I put Yeneko in first I got Radial menu and some of UI reborn. Pic 1 below is opening screen using UIReborn colour scheme.
I want to say it’s using the Yeneko font but don’t really know.
Pic 2 in game shows Yeneko font and box sizes/placement with UI Reborn in top right for the Journal etc. Not sure where the coloured spells are coming from but they aren’t as large as in the normal UI Reborn UI. I think that’s because they are constrained by the Yeneko box sizes? But again I really don’t know.
In all, it’s not far away ( for me) from something quite decent although I’m not sure that the colour scheme of the boxes top right ( journal etc - what is that called?) is very tasteful along with the brighter spell colours. However, if you look at the radial menu under this regime (Pic 3) it goes downhill quickly. As @NWShacker said you really need an overall look for this to work, rather than patching bits together. .
Thanks again. Will try that later today. It’s not vital - just fun playing around with the look. As long as everything is in the override it can easily be removed. All the various packages are colour tagged so I know which file belongs to which.
I reckon most of my problems with the radial menu would be solved by just removing transparency entirely for all its options. If the icon was against on top of a black circle it would be very easy to see. It’s not as obvious if it’s the PC’s radial as it isn’t usually against a busy background but if you right click on an item in the inventory it’s very difficult to see exactly what’s going on. Not sure why it has to be a “radial” menu either. Would a normal pull down non-transparent menu appearing at the side of the PC/item not be clearer?
radial menu stand out better
