Wakeupbrandon, any plans to work with DarN on a real UI mod?

Right now, someone (respectfully won't be named at the moment) is working on getting the SWF/Flash Files decompiled just to see what we can do. I'm really up for working with anyone who's passionate about this stuff.

I'm even thinking about just skinning the current UI to get a feel and learn my way around. Sure it won't be as flashy, but it'll give some insight into what's possible and what can easily be tweaked or find out what the tech limitations are. Most of my time is wrapped up in other freelance work at the moment so it's unrealistic for me to really be able to put any large chunks of time around something of this scale.

The grid view looks amazing. Just need to change the colouring to something a bit more medieval/fantasy.

THIS is what the PC version should have been. Hell all versions.
I would feel shamed if i was involved in making the in game UI after seeing this thread.

Yes. Yes.
Y
E
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Well said. There is no excuse.

I highly approve of this!

That looks amazing! Keep up the creativity and your enthusiasm!

Wow...that's awesome.

This is a really good design. You kept the sleekness of the current UI but brought back the functionality from previous installments and their modded versions. Now of course, this is just a picture. The tricky part is to actually code it :'(

mad props OP. Looks amazing, and it's the best start we've had!

DO WANT DO WANT! need this

If this can be succesfully made into a working model, I would certainly be using.

Excellent design concept.

I have a couple big concerns regarding the use of icons:

1) You're generating massive workload creating icons for every item in game.

2) Custom-made objects in mods will not distribute with icons. That leaves the user to either make their own or beg and plead for artists to do so on their behalf.

It's just a cumbersome addition to the game's structure that you don't really need to make for yourself. Instead I'd recommend that if it won't bog down performance is to display 3-d models inside that icon space. If it won't work it won't work, but it's an idea at least.

I have to agree there. While it may look great, it would not be feasible to achieve. However, I really enjoyed the http://i.imgur.com/LvUlP.jpg that had regular lists of items.

Keep up the good work guys, I hope to see a UI like this someday

Greetz,

Milt

No need to be political. 5-year olds with crayons could design a better UI than Bethesda did with Skyrim, and we all know it.

Perhaps the process of creating thumbnails could be batched by some custom third party app... (Tes5IconGen? )
That might be preferable.

You literally cannot make enough icons that are discernible enough to symbolise the myriad effects that an amulet could have, and thats assuming the amulet only has ONE effect. Bedwyr hit the nail on the head, this is a massive and unnecessary workload, and as I said it doesnt even work well to quickly identify items, Morrowind's inventory system was a horrible mess to find the items I wanted.

I agree with these points that have been raised. A good UI should be
-sortable
-searchable
-better categorised
-informative at a glance
-efficient (minimal "clicks" to get to any given section of the UI)

Icons achieve none of those things whilst adding
- massive workload
- probable confusion (how do i know pink is good against dragons? are you going to bundle a manual?)
- compatability issues with mods that add items

to the OP I know I sound really negative, sorry. I really like those mock-up interfaces they look very nice, I just disagree with the usability of icons. I found your other version with short text descriptions and vital stats in the list far better.

The inventory definitely needs some mechanical features added, such as the sorting and searching which is in the mockups perhaps even further categorisation.

Though I think equipped items should appear completely separated from the other list, rather than at the top of it(on the right of the item render / character render?) clicking (or moving the selection to the right with keys / stick would move the pointer to that list, where you can click to de-equip an item. This would mean moving to your currently equipped items is one key press away from any item in the list, and not X key presses. Where x is how many items you are down the list.

Similar to how using a calculator for basic math is slower than doing it in your head, searching is actually slower unless the list is really large - you need to select the search box and then type in the name to be searched for. Takes a few seconds. Instead, you could just select it directly, unless the list is too large. Making the search field ready for typing immediately would be a terrible idea, as it would mean you can't use the keyboard to navigate the menu, which will slow everything down even further.

As for why the icons would be identical - because a UI mod isn't going to be able to add new, unique icons for every item in the game plus all the ones added by mods. It'll have to use the model files for the icons, and there simply are not all that many unique models of amulet/ring/potion/etc.

Now yes, I'd be happy if there was the option for a search field and icon interface, but I won't use a UI mod unless it includes a list-based interface.

EDIT: And, as Scorpius mentions, we already have an example of an icon-based interface - Morrowind's. It took forever to find the correct potion or amulet in it. Not cool.

You don't have to use any UI mods. We're not going to come to your house and force you to change from the vanilla UI at the point of an elven dagger.

It's OK to not like the goal of the thread, but it would be much more considerate to just leave us to it and not derail, thanks.

No, I just need enough for a single player's expected inventory contents - no point distinguishing between two different fire resistance amulets by much if all they differ in is the name. If two still share the same icon by accident, no problem - that's just two you have to hover the mouse over or move the cursor to to check, not a dozen or more. And you can always allow players to customise the appearance of the icons.


You're getting it the wrong way around. Search box (Which you don't need to select, that would be stupid. Just start typing, and it'll search. Use arrow keys, and it'll navigate. Both aren't mutually exclusive.) is the computerised alternative - that's the "calculator" in your comparison.

I'll say it again there are http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Magical_Effects to make meaningful variations for.

Pretty much. It's one of very few things I'm not impressed with. It's not terrible but it's dumbed down to Hell...

Awesome concept man, hope it will become reality one day. I love the grid version!

No, we don't all know, what you stated is an opinion, and insulting.

My opinion is It is a fine interface if you navigate it via arrow keys / sticks. it has some shortcomings like I mentioned before, such as better sorting, and detailed information not being visible in the list but the separation of categories is good.

The difference is I stated my opinion without making insulting generalisations.