Add a setting to choose between different UI (desktop, mobile)

[PaddleStroke]

Hey guys,
I played a bit on my android smartphone to OpenMW port OpenMicroWave, and it was really very awesome.
The one thing that is making the whole thing not so good is the user interface. As morrowind UI is not convenient for mobile use : buttons are small, text is small, when you open the menu with maps, inventory, stats and spells, they all look too small.

It would be really awesome if OpenMW could have an additional setting in the game settings menu to choose interface. Then to be able to pick between desktop and mobile interfaces.

Mobile interface could look like the xbox interface.

What do you think?

[akortunov]

We can add such setting, but someone should come and implement mobile/XBox UI first. There are no volunteers so far.
From what I can tell, Android users are pretty fine with current UI, so they are not going to design a separate one as well.

[PaddleStroke]

I think android users do with it, but probably lot think it's not optimal. I think there just isn't many user with the skills to make that UI.
Even for people who have software dev capabilities, approaching a new project as big as openMW feels overwhelming.

I'd like to make such a UI but I have no clues how to do it. If you can give me some explanation about how the UI is implemented and how to customize it I can give it a go!

[akortunov]

If you can give me some explanation about how the UI is implemented and how to customize it I can give it a go!

Layout files in the XML format and logic written on C++.

[PaddleStroke]

If you can give me some explanation about how the UI is implemented and how to customize it I can give it a go!

Layout files in the XML format and logic written on C++.

Thanks,
Can you please tell me where this is implemented in the git folder?

I think I found them. Can you please confirm if that's right :
GUI (xml files) : https://gitlab.com/OpenMW/openmw/-/tree ... iles/mygui
CPP : https://gitlab.com/OpenMW/openmw/-/tree ... mw%2Fmwgui

Question : Can I modify the xml files without having to build the project?

[Capostrophic]

You don't have to rebuild the project if you only modify the layout files, but it's not like you'll be able to do much with the GUI through adjusting them.

[PaddleStroke]

Yes indeed as it would need adding some buttons.
I think the main issue is that currently when you open the menu, you have the 4 windows (stat, inventory, map and spells) that open. And each of them is too small. So the main idea would just be to have one boxe with 4 tabs intead. Also maybe changing the buttons dimensions and text size.

Question : for example in https://gitlab.com/OpenMW/openmw/-/blob ... dow.layout

Code: Select all

  <Widget type="Window" skin="MW_Window_Pinnable" layer="Windows" position="0 0 500 342" name="_Main">

"0 0 500 342" what are those units? Meaning what is the maximum values?

[Capostrophic]

The first pair of values is the 2D coordinates of the widget's upper left corner in pixels (horizontal and vertical), where the origin is upper left corner of the screen or the parent widget. The second pair of values is the dimensions of the widget in pixels as well (width and height). MyGUI is probably very liberal with the coordinates, you should keep them sensible on your own.