[crossfire] Improved/redone client.

[Alex Schultz]

Raphaël Quinet wrote:
> On Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:37:29 -0600, Alex Schultz <alex_sch at telus.net> wrote:
>   
>> Mark Wedel wrote:
>>     
>>> ==
>>> Make client fullscreen.
>>>
>>> Reasoning here is that most games run in fullscreen mode, so it becomes more 
>>> like most games.  It can also ensure that other applications are not grabbing 
>>> keystrokes/button presses (eg, window manager, etc), so if we tell the player to 
>>> press a key, we can know for sure that if the player presses that key, the 
>>> client gets it.  For lots of reasons, would still need to support a windowed 
>>> mode of operation.
>>>   
>>>       
>> Agreed here. Some other reasons for making it 'fullscreen-style', is
>> that it allows 'popups' or 'heads up display' like interface elements
>> somewhat nicer than a traditional widget system like gtk. It also frees
>> up interface design, possibly allowing better inventory controls than is
>> possible with traditional widgets.
>>     
>
> Well, sorry to disagree but I actually prefer to have the crossfire
> client using "traditional widgets".  Even if games can be considered
> as a special kind of application, I like to have all applications on
> my desktop using the same widgets and behaving in the same way.  For
> me, consistency is as important or even more important than the looks
> of an application.
>
> <snip>
Hmm, I consider those points for using "traditional widgets" to be valid
points, however using them creates a bit of a dilemma from my point of view.

One thing that I think would be highly beneficial would be making the
inventory easily controllable by keyboard controls. Sure one could use
traditional widget focus on it and do things that way, however even if
those were efficient controls (which they aren't IMHO), it would *not*
be consistent with the feel of the rest of the keyboard controls in the
game. To me, consistency within an application is much more important
than consistency with the rest of the desktop. So, one is forced to either:
 1. Make it inconsistent with the rest of the game's controls
 2. Modify the widget behavior and be inconsistent with widgets that
look exactly the same
 3. Or one could make new widgets that though arn't consistent with the
desktop, but wouldn't be confused with desktop widgets and would have
keyboard controls fitting in with the rest of the game.
 4. Leave out keyboard controls for such things

So #4 is the current behavior. Personally I would prefer behavior #3,
followed by #1, followed by #4, with the strongest dislike from #2.
I don't believe it is just a matter of inventory keyboard control, I
believe various aspects of the UI suffer from lack proper keyboard
control, and that use of "traditional widgets" and their notion of focus
eliminates the best solution in my opinion, the third one I listed.

At that, I believe this is a problem with having complex interfaces that
are primarily keyboard controlled implemented in any sort of
"traditional widget" system. Of course if you have any ideas on a way to
make something such as efficient keyboard controls that fit other game
controls, to work in such an environment, that might be interesting :)

Alex Schultz