Achievable improvements to the Triplea User Interface

[butterw]

@thedog said in Achievable improvements to the Triplea User Interface:

can the TripleA menu bar be merged onto the TripleA title bar?

That's likely difficult to do.

• can the TripleA status bar can be made narrower?

The player flag from the map is actually a sizing element. Assuming a 24x24 size player flag, the status bar ends up being about 30 pixels high, which is not unreasonable if its used as the main toolbar/info display.

[TheDog]

@butterw said in Achievable improvements to the Triplea User Interface:

Assuming a 24x24 size player flag, the status bar ends up being about 30 pixels high

Ahh, that explains it, my flags are 32x32, I will shrink them to 24x24.

[RogerCooper]

@butterw I would prefer to run TripleA (and most other applications) in windowed mode. I happily give a little screen space for easily switching programs.

[butterw]

@rogercooper Triplea will use windowed mode by default, a hotkey (F11) will allow to switch to fullscreen mode.

On windows you can switch applications with Alt-Tab or Win-tab.

[butterw]

• It's possible to make use of spare space in the menuBar and Bottombar.

This is the default Substance Graphite LookandFeel on my system. I've added a "Custom" menu to the right and also a "xxx" button and a "---" Label.

[TheDog]

@butterw
Or maybe remove the Menu Bar and replace with the main map screen?

The menu bar could be activated with something like;

• A right click
• Left and a Right click held together.
• Alt+M
• or?
  For a pop up menu?

[butterw]

@thedog
I expect some of the features discussed in this thread are achievable, some may even make it in a future TripleA release. Some have likely been tried previously and have failed. It's good to consider alternatives.
From a technical standpoint, the right hand side menu is an easy to add feature, my question is can it be useful, what can be put in it ?
A dynamic menu would be more difficult to handle, but maybe not impossible.
It's possible to add hotkeys:
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/pull/9296/files
but the interface shouldn't overly rely on them.

I will make a test build of my screen layout demo once it has progressed a bit for feedback (it is still in the early stages).

[TheDog]

@butterw

I agree with putting the menu headings in the the right hand panel, as this would not change the space used in the the right hand panel, but with modifications as below;

• Web & Help should be merged into one heading Help. Missing from here is About with the TripleA version and Java versions.
• Export & Debug should be merged into one heading Export

Then the menu heading will be short enough to not expand the right hand panel.

[butterw]

Remember Players feature

This not yet implemented feature would add a checkbox to remember the players set during the same session (until the map is changed).

This is useful when testing maps locally. Currently, each time you leave a game you have to setup the players again (they go back to the default value specified in the xml. This default value isn't specified in most maps, in which case the default value Human is used).

@thedog

• Web and Help menus should be merged.

[TheDog]

@butterw
Debug needs to able to Export, hence it should go under the Export heading.

At the moment for Debug you have to Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C to Select All and Copy to a text editor like Notepad++.

[butterw]

@thedog
Debug Menu seems to be empty but still present in v2.6. So I'm not sure what the current plan of the dev-team is with regard to the Debug menu and console

[TheDog]

@butterw
I think you have to do Game> Engine Settings> Testing Tab> Show Beta Feature = True

To see the Hard AI logs, you will need a restart of TripleA.

I think it will become a feature, as map makers use it to debug their scenarios and to work out what the AI thinks is of value to purchase in the purchase phase.

[LaFayette]

@butterw Re: remember players

A checkbox is unnecessary, the game could just remember the last setting.

The remember players was built into a swing based rewrite but we then opted to try and stick with an attempted JavaFX rewrite which then was put to the side.

One issue is the select players screen is written 3 times in the code. You could implement the feature thrice if you really wanted.

3.0 would very likely rewrite the initial UIs. I don't think there will be a 2.7, so it would make sense to focus UI redesign of the launch screens to be folded into 3.0. This is something to be debated in the 3.0 thread that is up.

[butterw]

@lafayette
Correct, the checkbox isn't needed, the game should just remember the current players (the players can be set to default to reset, and a new map will load its own defaults).
This is a useful feature, I'm hope it is included in v3.0, when the code for the launcher finally gets refactored.

[LaFayette]

@butterw Hard to say, the goal of 3.0 is going to be to rewrite the engine. It would be logical to have, the main priority is getting the design right so that we can update TripleA in a reasonable manner and get 3.0 launched before 2023.

[LaFayette]

Correction/clarification, the main goal of 3.0 is going to be to massively restructure the engine without rewriting it all, FWIW.. there is a significant difference in the two approaches.

[butterw]

@lafayette

A checkbox is unnecessary, the game could just remember the last setting.

The remember players was built into a swing based rewrite but we then opted to try and stick with an attempted JavaFX rewrite which then was put to the side.

One issue is the select players screen is written 3 times in the code. You could implement the feature thrice if you really wanted.

Do you have any pointers on how to achieve this ?
Does the TripleAFrame need to pass the player info to the panel with the player types or can the launcher just remember it ?

If you are playing a local game and leave the game (ex: maybe to reload a save game) the current player setup should be remembered.

[LaFayette]

@butterw See settingPersistence field in JMenuItemCheckBoxBuilder. Something similar could be done for a combo box.

I don't know to what extent it makes sense to start this unless you think you can be done very quickly. I'd like for us to start focusing on 2.6 QA and get that released and then tackle 3.0.

[butterw]

Menu update

@lafayette

• I can submit a pull-request for merging WebMenu with HelpMenu in v2.6.
  In the Help menu, my proposition is to shorten the title
  "Movement/Selection Help (Keyboard & Mouse)" to "Movement/Selection". The full title would appear in the dialog window.
• What about merging Debug with Export as suggested by @theDog ? The Debug Menu currently has a single entry (AI log).
• with v2.6.231 I'm getting a null pointer exception when I try to save Engine Settings/Testing.

[LaFayette]

@butterw Debug and export are quite different. Having the AI log appear in 'help' might be more appropriate. Not sure though offhand.

The "movement/selection" menu item title change sounds good.