Scene Toolbar Icon Request

[crysthala]

Just the eye for first person, an eye replacing the camera in my previous orbit graphic, and an eye with wings for free cam? Would that work?

Also, I don't know much about this programming language you're using, but is it possible to do tooltips? I know icon choice is probably the most important facet of UI design, but it would be a great help to those who don't do well with visual metaphors to have a text display, as well. Just wondering.

[sirherrbatka]

That is not a problem at all from technical point of view. But tooltips are kinda annoying.

[crysthala]

Toggleable tooltips? So beginners can have a little reminder, and experts don't have to be annoyed by them. I'm just mentioning it because, even if we choose the best possible icons, some people don't have visual brains and will still have trouble remembering what does which thing.

Trying to draft the eye-based ones. Creeping me out. Eyes are creepy. Okay, here we go. First person, orbiting, and free, in that order:

creepy.jpg (23.91 KiB) Viewed 4205 times

Another thought: What if we just put, you know, text? "1st P," "Free." Or is this going to be released in multiple languages?

[Zini]

The buttons already have tooltips that explain in detail what the respective camera mode does. But if you need the tooltip to identify the button, then the icon on the button is useless.
We should avoid text. While I am currently not planning any localisation for OpenCS, it is certainly not impossible that this is going to happen.

Orbiting icon is still good and I like the free camera icon. The first person mode icon doesn't give any information though.

[crysthala]

Mmm, good point about the tooltips.

The problem with first person is that, in first person, you see the world, not a body part. And the world is constantly changing, so how do we represent that? I'm glad you like the others, though, shall I upload those?

[Zini]

Let's do them all in one batch.

About 1st person. Maybe turn the eye by 180 degree and then change the perspective a bit so you can still see that it is an eye. Maybe add a few rays coming from the eye that converge in the distance. Kinda like: This is your eye and you are looking at something in front of you. Just an idea. Not sure if that would work.

[Zini]

Even even better idea. Draw the eye seen from a point inside the eye; plus the rays mentioned above. That should say 1st person very clearly.

[crysthala]

I had done this:

lookingeye.png (6.45 KiB) Viewed 4190 times

I do like that second idea better, but it's difficult to pull off with only 48x48 pixels to work with. Here's my attempt.

insideeye.png (9.46 KiB) Viewed 4190 times

[Zini]

The first version has the same problem as before. The 1st person aspect isn't visible, because the eye isn't mostly looking away from the user.

The 2nd doesn't work for me. Keep in mind that the user will see all three icons at once when he is selecting a mode. We should use that by making the eye in the 3rd one look similar to the other two. New idea: Keep the eye from the other two (facing away) and make the white part somewhat transparent (so the blue and the black part are visible). Maybe position the view point either behind the eye or immediately above it.

[lysol]

I actually thought that the "guy with camera-head" idea that was mentioned earlier was very easy to understand. Guy with eyeball head-icon would give the same effect, although look a bit more creepy. Good if you want people to remember I guess...

An eye is a good metaphore. You look for something that lets you change the view. "Oh. An eye...". Then you've got three icons with eyes. An eyeballhead-person-icon (...) would give me this though: "This icon lets me walk around like a character in the game". The other two icons, which are great imo, would give me the thought that one lets me orbit around something, and the other lets me fly around. Just my two cents.