Ok, before I start would you mind answering all of these questions, so I don't end up making something you don't like or need: […]
Show full quote
FreddyV wrote on 2021-12-27, 13:45:
radiance32 wrote on 2021-12-25, 06:12:
PS: I will make up some photoshop mockups during the next few weeks and post them here...
Is there any existing software that has a UI you like that can serve as inspiration ?
Thanks,
There are really few graphical MOD Player on PC 😀
Ok, before I start would you mind answering all of these questions, so I don't end up making something you don't like or need:
1. Do you want a GUI for the file browsing / configuration part of the software, or, a GUI for the player part of the software, or, both ?
2. Since we're dealing with old machines, it's safe to assume there will be people with an 8086 or 286 system,
with a CGA card, or a hercules monochrome card, aswell as people with more modern cards like EGA,
and especially VGA and MCGA.
I could design a black and white only GUI (not greyscale, pure monochrome) for the CGA (640x200 mono) or
the Hercules (720x348 mono) for the CGA and Hercules equipped machines,
and either an EGA color (somehow try to make something nice looking with 640x350 16 colors) or
EGA greyscale (640x350x4bit and use only black, dark grey, light grey and white).
And finally for the VGA cards (640x480 256 colors) I could do the same as for EGA,
either a color UI with 256 colors or a more elaborate greyscale version, or, my preference:
just use the EGA version with 4 colors (black, dark grey, light grey and white)
What do you think about these 3 options ? Shall I design a black and white (CGA/hercules) and
greyscale (EGA/VGA) GUI ? Or, make a separate color version of the GUI for EGA and VGA???
Personally, since you want a lean/mean/efficient GUI, my personal preference would be the first option,
monochrome and greyscale (with 4 colors) only. We could add color in a future version,
as making designs for all these different modes right now is a lot of work and will slow things down considerably.
It's also much more efficient especially for a GUI for the player part to copy 4 bits to a pixel than 8 bits on VGA systems.
(we could use EGA mode on VGA systems, so the VGA card switches to 640x350x4bit and just use
the EGA grayscale UI with the 4 greyscale colors mentioned above)
Please let me know what you want and provide a detailed answer on this question as
it's really important for me to know before I start work on the design.
3. For the file selection / configuration part, Do you want to have windows that can me moved around / minimized / maximimed / resized,
or just a static design (same concept as the text UI of the current versions of Mod Master is).
4. Widgets ! As we will need to add widgets like buttons, scrollbars, textfields etc... Do you want me to design a set of custom widgets,
or do you want to use a specific design that looks like an operating system already out there,
eg, I could make them look like OSF/Motif widgets, Windows 3.11 Widgets, Windows 95 Widgets, etc...
Personally I'd like to design my own set of widgets, but please let me know what you think of this and what you'd like the most.
5. Do you want a menu bar on top (in the file selection / configuration GUI) with the typical File / Edit / View / Help pulldown menus and in the File menu
you'd have New / Open / Preferences / Save Preferences / Quit.
I won't be using those actual menu contents as they aren't correct for the application in question, but I can make a nice pulldown menu system
that we can add the required menu entries to after the design is finished and someone starts writing the code for the GUI.
6. Do you want me to design a logo for the application ? It can be shown either at startup, or, when a user goes to Help -> About,
and a window pops up with the credits (eg your details etc...) and the logo is shown.
I can design it in SVG vector format, so you can use it afterwards in a PDF manual or on your website where people can download the app.
So,
please let me know the answers to these 6 questions, as I can't start before I have your detailed opinion on those...
I would'nt want to put hours and hours of work into something that you won't like...
Cheers,
Radiance