The Tournament Hub (Launcher)

[pmprog]

So as Foxblock and I were discussing this last night, the last mock I made is attached.

I'm using the banners from the C4A site, so I don't really get a square option.

 

[Mr_Loon]

So as Foxblock and I were discussing this last night, the last mock I made is attached.

I'm using the banners from the C4A site, so I don't really get a square option.

Looks good, very clean.

Would like to see an option to default to showing scores & ranks though.

Perhaps an overlay of an adjacent tile could be used for scores & ranks.

Keep up the good work, great to see a real community wide project coming to life.

 

[Neelix]

That does look good.     matches up well with the layout of the website too.

I find the button selection confusing though...  wouldn't you put the most common selections (play & details) on X and B?  (leaving Y for the 'fave/unfave' command)

- Neelix

 

[pmprog]

I find the button selection confusing though...  wouldn't you put the most common selections (play & details) on X and B?  (leaving Y for the 'fave/unfave' command)

Because I just copied and pasted the first images I picked out of the guihints folder. These mock ups shouldn't be taken too literally, just get a feel for the visual design. I'll let you know when there's something to actually "touch", then we'll sort out controls etc.

 

[Neelix]

aha! Thanks for the clarification.

- Neelix

 

[NearTao]

Had major success with getting HiToText running, once I hear back from skeezix I'll get him the details to run it on a server with my modified binaries.  Right now I'm working on getting an expect wrapper script or two around it to help him integrating into his system.

As an interesting side effect of using this program, technically we could then send .hi/.nv files back to the client and load high score data directly into the game.

I've got a few ideas for a rewrite of the tool as well... but first I want to see how the first update goes

 

[porg]

Dear pmprog!

Concerning creating a PND Launcher/Manager:

1) Everyone considering a start into this direction is very welcome to use my related interaction design guideline/vision, provided in the wiki: PND management workflow

2) Pandafe (a fullscreen launcher by nuhrin) has the very interesting approach (similar to yours) to consider both PNDs and ROMs as first citizens for managing, browsing and launching.

You may not even be aware of each other, and you may can be able to join your efforts

 

[skeezix]

Neartao .. Read way up in my threads, but i actually started day one with live updating the emu , but it royally screws with the games and crashes th..


Likewise, i had been sending scores down and manufacturing score tables but it makes it harder to figure out what scores player got when it sends it back .. I've been through most options


The big win is getting the game decoders without me doing it one by one


On phone here will check pm later; weekends are mostly family time, not much PC time

 

[porg]

eekends are mostly family time, not much PC time

@skeezix: Politically correct during the week … on the weekends … a rough guy!  

 

[NearTao]

skeezix... hopefully what I sent you is what you were looking for

 

[pmprog]

Dear pmprog!

Concerning creating a PND Launcher/Manager:

1) Everyone considering a start into this direction is very welcome to use my related interaction design guideline/vision, provided in the wiki: PND management workflow

2) Pandafe (a fullscreen launcher by nuhrin) has the very interesting approach (similar to yours) to consider both PNDs and ROMs as first citizens for managing, browsing and launching.

You may not even be aware of each other, and you may can be able to join your efforts

People indicated that they weren't interested in a merged Compo4All UI with general Pandora/PND Launcher. Maybe in the future...

 

[pmprog]

I had a bug with the Pandora locking up, but thanks to some running over SSH, I think I've fixed that now...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HvUXxJ5G-1Y?feature=oembed

 

[porg]

There's also a kind of temptation to cross in a general PND launcher so it's kind of like the MiniMenu, and possibly some PNDManager style functionality. 

1) Everyone considering to create a PND Launcher/Manager is very welcome to use my related interaction design guideline/vision, provided in the wiki: PND management workflow

2) Pandafe (a fullscreen launcher by nuhrin) has the very interesting approach (similar to yours) to consider both PNDs and ROMs as first citizens for managing, browsing and launching.

You may not even be aware of each other, and you may can be able to join your efforts

People indicated that they weren't interested in a merged Compo4All UI with general Pandora/PND Launcher. Maybe in the future...

I misunderstood! I falsely had thought that you intended a general launcher, but truly you intended to bring styles/patterns from general launchers into your Compo4All specific launcher UI. Good luck with it — am looking forward to your UI!

 

[pmprog]

I did think about - and want to - do that, however, people indicated they prefer a "C4A" only UI, so there you have it...

At the minute I'm just tackling a weird bug that makes the menu slower when all the images are already downloaded...

 

[pmprog]

An actual screen recording. It's running on my PC, but performance on the Pandora isn't too much different.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/L8ru2bCPBcw?feature=oembed

There's a couple of weird graphical glitches that I need to work out, but otherwise coming along nice IMO

 

[ptitSeb]

This is getting very nice !

 

[EvilDragon]

Neat

 

[traylorpark]

Oh my PMProg, this looks amazing! I think the landscape versions of the game banners look great as well, reminds me of the real arcade cabinet panels.

I had a thought, say I wasn't interested in playing all of these games, or having them all installed, and I only wanted to play Donkey Kong.

It might help improve useability and the user experience if only the roms you have installed show up with full color banners. Likewise, the banners for the games you don't have installed were darkened and desaturated

This way, when I played, Donkey Kong would take center stage in my experience with Compo4all. The darkened game banners would remind me which game I have yet to install, but not distract from my personal experience.

I'm sorry if you have discussed this before. I did notice that you have a "favorites" button. I don't know what the behavior for that is.

 

[pmprog]

Oh my PMProg, this looks amazing! I think the landscape versions of the game banners look great as well, reminds me of the real arcade cabinet panels.

I had a thought, say I wasn't interested in playing all of these games, or having them all installed, and I only wanted to play Donkey Kong.

It might help improve useability and the user experience if only the roms you have installed show up with full color banners. Likewise, the banners for the games you don't have installed were darkened and desaturated

This way, when I played, Donkey Kong would take center stage in my experience with Compo4all. The darkened game banners would remind me which game I have yet to install, but not distract from my personal experience.

I'm sorry if you have discussed this before. I did notice that you have a "favorites" button. I don't know what the behavior for that is.

Okay, so a little more detail on my plan with menu items:

1. You can "favourite" games, which will draw a little star somewhere on the item

2. If I can work out how to to tell if a game isn't present, the item will desaturate or darken - you'll also have the option to just hide the game completely

3. You can start typing part of a title, and it will filter off all games that don't match

Games sorting will be alphabetical or most played, however, favourites will always be pushed to the top, and uninstalled games always to the bottom

You will be able to control the menu to some degree with the touch screen, though most input shall be keyboard. I shall try and record a demo in the not too distant future. I need to sort out quite a few more things first

Cheers guys

 

[porg]

@pmprog

1) Wow, you got your UX concept sorted out! Looking forward to it!

2) Linguistics: You are an Englishman, sure know the solution.

You write "You can 'favourite' games".

Isn't there already the proper verb "to favor" for the noun "favourite"?

If true, then you could just say: "You can favor games".