Re: SDL interface ideas (fwd)

[James McCann <jmccann at WOLFENET dot com>]

> 
> > >Panels will always be opaque.
> > 
> > Do you mean it's impossible to have translucent panels? One thing that I
> > think would be very suitable for translucency is the unit info and
> > mouseover panes, provided we have a bold font in a glowing color that is
> > visible against most terrains. This would give us back some valuable screen
> > real estate. Too bad if it can't be done. Perhaps this text could just be
> > drawn in a glowing color in the bottom part of the map, without having a
> > separate pane for it? This would make things very simple, and also neat.
> 
> If a panel is semi-permanent, then sooner or later the action is
> going to end up trying to happen underneath it.  Even a text-only
> display is going to be a problem, and what if there were buttons
> with images in the panel?  You'd be seeing a battleship in the
> water, but actually it's just a button to build one.  While there's
> no obstacle to trying translucent panels as an experiment, I suspect
> we'll just rediscover what the commercial developers have apparently
> discovered already - permanent see-through displays don't work well,
> the main exception is HUDs in flight simulators.  (HUDs work because
> they are very thin and light, so nothing is obscured.)
> 

I think text messages are a good candidate for transparency.  How about a
mechanism which has a few lines of text displayed by default, but if you 
press some key, it pulls down more text.  Maybe page up and page down to let 
you look through more of the text, and escape to banish it.  The number of
lines displayed be default could be an individual preference perhaps, w/ a 
default like 3 or so.

I also think that alpha transparency might be a good effect for some 
dialogs.  For instance the example re. a ship in the water would not
be confused/ w/ a game ship if there were alpha transparency.  I don't know
if alpha transparency is feasible or if there is direct support for it in
SDL.

Here is my idea of an ideal interface for the Operation Cobra scenario:


------------------------------------------------------------------------
the such and such misses your so and so                        ?     | T 
the such and such hits your so and so                                | A
                                                                     | B

                                                                     | T
                                                                     | A
                                                                     | B

                                                             -----------
                                                             |  Unit   .
                       M A I N   M A P                       |  Info
                                                             |
                                                             -----------


                                                             -----------
                                                             |         .
                                                             | Mini
                                                             | Map
                                                             |
                                                             |
                                                             |
                                                             |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brief status line w/ configurable info and a few buttons, maybe at top?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tabs on the right would expand to other displays, which would 
probably be opaque.  The dots represent a little "iconify" button to 
banish a display. For a game w/ no production, you don't need to see
the unit list all of the time.  In a game w/ production, you only need
to see the unit list when you are about to set production, or because
you want to refer to it.