ID:153609
 
When you take a look back, the devs of BYOND have really really evolved.

Back in the day...Everyone used panels. The games that were considered, 'AWESOME' used panels. I think Panels are extinct now and make games look unprofessional. I also like a game with no BYONDED out things and lots of Heads Up Items.

Because I got so frustrated that not many of the 'BEST' 'OLD' programmers use HUDs I'm going to make an HUD library where all you have to do is::

HUD
Button
icon = 'buttonico.dmi'
icon_state = "up"
Click()
icon_state = "down"
//Enter various response-verb code here


Is that easy or what??

No more typing out 4 lines of code just to make an HUD system. Anyway...another feature to add is meters.

They will be a seperate node under HUD. They will have built in update procs and such. Tell me if you want me to release this library, 'cuz i no i cud'. I know several features, and I know it would stop making HUD systems in larger projects.
Because I got so frustrated that not many of the 'BEST' 'OLD' programmers use HUDs I'm going to make an HUD library where all you have to do is::

I use HUDs. I just haven't released any games. =)
ManDroid13 wrote:
Back in the day...Everyone used panels. The games that were considered, 'AWESOME' used panels. I think Panels are extinct now and make games look unprofessional. I also like a game with no BYONDED out things and lots of Heads Up Items.

It looks unprofessional for a baseball player to walk out on the field wearing a suit and tie. Does that mean that office workers should wear baseball uniforms to work?

The big complaints about panels looking unprofessional come from comparing apples to oranges. BYOND does not have its own native fullscreen mode; trying to emulate games that are built for a fullscreen engine is silly. Would BYOND be better if it had the capability to do such things? Sure. Does that make it a good idea to try and cram an entire screen's worth of information into a little postcard-size box in the corner of your screen? No.

The first question you should ask yourself when designing the disply aspects of your interface is not "Does this look professional?" It should be "Is this the smoothest, most intuitive way of displaying this information to the player?" A professional keeps themselves informed of their options and can adapt them to different situations as the circumstances demand. Writing off a powerful and useful tool just because it has some rough edges... that's unprofessional.
In response to Leftley
Leftley wrote:
It looks unprofessional for a baseball player to walk out on the field wearing a suit and tie. Does that mean that office workers should wear baseball uniforms to work?

The big complaints about panels looking unprofessional come from comparing apples to oranges. BYOND does not have its own native fullscreen mode; trying to emulate games that are built for a fullscreen engine is silly. Would BYOND be better if it had the capability to do such things? Sure. Does that make it a good idea to try and cram an entire screen's worth of information into a little postcard-size box in the corner of your screen? No.

The first question you should ask yourself when designing the disply aspects of your interface is not "Does this look professional?" It should be "Is this the smoothest, most intuitive way of displaying this information to the player?" A professional keeps themselves informed of their options and can adapt them to different situations as the circumstances demand. Writing off a powerful and useful tool just because it has some rough edges... that's unprofessional.


Sorry Leftley, but I think you misunderstood me quite a bit.
In response to ManDroid13
Had you actually read his post, you'd realize that its actually the other way around. Your point was that statpanels are dead and unprofessional, therefore HUDs should always be used to replace them because they are far superior. However, there may be instances in which the statpanel is better than using a HUD that you hadn't considered.

Yes, HUDs can look nice. So can statpanels. However, most people make crummy statpanels. Heck, people make crummy looking HUDs too. Statpanels have advantages over HUDs. Some games display a lot of information in the statpanel, and that information needs to be kept up-to-date. Statpanels typically generate no lag, and automatically refresh. HUDs tend to get laggy if you have a lot of screen objects, and you'd have to manually refresh them.
In response to Crispy
Crispy wrote:
http://developer.byond.com/hub/Crispy/HeadsUp =)

Looks interesting, but a nit: It would be really helpful if libraries would list the API and even possibly all the doc in their info. It's very hard to know whether it's worth checking out a library going by just a name and a blurb...
In response to OneFishDown
I feel so bad now. I created all this controversy... I am sorry Leftley. Sorry OFD.
In response to ManDroid13
ManDroid13 wrote:
I feel so bad now. I created all this controversy... I am sorry Leftley. Sorry OFD.

Your underlying intention--making HUDs easier to make and more accessible--is still a good one, and I do think that you should still go through with it (unless what you were planning was too similar to Crispy's project and you don't feel like duplicating it just for its own sake); just don't get too caught up on it. Screen objects are one of the cooler features built into BYOND's engine, but that doesn't make its other features useless.
In response to Leftley
Leftley wrote:
Your underlying intention--making HUDs easier to make and more accessible--is still a good one, and I do think that you should still go through with it (unless what you were planning was too similar to Crispy's project and you don't feel like duplicating it just for its own sake); just don't get too caught up on it. Screen objects are one of the cooler features built into BYOND's engine, but that doesn't make its other features useless.

I agree, though, with the basic idea that if it works for you game to do it as a HUD item then you should do so barring lag problems.

Many games just feel more immediate and immersive when you aren't ping ponging between map and panels.

But panels are very valuable for some games, and extremely valuable for the debugging process, making it easy to list lots of debugging commands and display state about the world.

Also I find them quite useful for prototyping. Put the initial functionality into panels, then when things are worked out, move it to the map.
In response to OneFishDown
OneFishDown wrote:
[snip] Statpanels have advantages over HUDs. [snip]

I completely agree with you there. As a real-world example: Yahtzee uses statpanels to display score sheets. It would have taken far too long and be far too unwieldy if I'd put them on the HUD (besides cluttering up the display). I could have put them in the browser, but it's still not as convenient as having them all nicely tabbed.

Deadron - Fine, fine. *goes off to do some copying and pasting* =)