[brullov]

I've created a visual modification for Mapster32 which changes old effector icons to new, more comprehensible images. I completely understand that after so many years people got used to the original icons, but it was still fun to make.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Attached File(s)

•  mapster_ui_v1.0.zip (1.1MB)
  Number of downloads: 112

[jkas789]

Ooooooh nice. Thanks Brullov!

[Reaper_Man]

I love the look of the icons, but won't having the base color being greyscale instead of palette safe blue make it impossible to see at-a-glance if they are using higher palette numbers?

[brullov]

Reaper_Man, on 10 February 2023 - 09:39 PM, said:

I love the look of the icons, but won't having the base color being greyscale instead of palette safe blue make it impossible to see at-a-glance if they are using higher palette numbers?

Thanks! I thought about it and usually, pals are 1-10, aren't they?

[Reaper_Man]

My immediate thought is spawning PAL 21 enemies, like Liz Captains and miniboss Battlelords, via RESPAWN. Those would appear as red with a blue color scheme but wouldn't be obvious with greyscale icons. Mods may also make custom use of system effectors with other pals, IE different color LOCATORS signifying different "tracks".

[brullov]

Good point. I will think if I can improve it somehow.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Great job man! At first I thought that you somehow managed to assign a different icon to each type (lotag) of the sector effector, but as far as I can tell it's just a replacement for the original icons, and I'm a fan of custom oldschool icons. Once long ago I tried to do a set of custom effector icons myself, although those were nowhere near yours regarding quality, as they were simply some letters redrawn in a different style.

My only criticism is your choice of grayscale on a black background. As stated before, it will not display all available palswaps properly. A dark blue background with rounded corners would fit better imo. Also the activator icon isn't very intuitive. Is it supposed to be a button, a transistor or some other component?

[oasiz]

If you ever get around on doing more icons, it's pretty easy to do a script that would replace each SE lotag to another picnum.
This is a non-destructive visual thing that I already did for the SW mapster toolkit.
In my case I used a lot of colour on the icons to make them stand apart too, plus often I removed the backgorund itself.
The system basically allows you replace with any existing picnum loaded in editor, manipulate it's other visuals and even duplicate it (i.e. different dimension text floating on top of the sprite itself).
Example in SW would be that I added a floating "MULTI" text for sprites tagged as multiplayer-only or show enemy spawns visually as transparent "ghosts" together with the actual respawn sprite.

Down the line when I finally get to do more work on the "grand unified duke3d script" I've been working on, the plan has always been to visually indicate stuff like this so I'd definitely be interested on using such if it was made.


I do recommend having a letter in some shape or form as all guides will refer to each sprite by their name.
Even as a veteran, it leaves less second guessing.


SE = Wrench is good
Activator = Button is great
Touchplate = Something that indicates a trap/trip is missing here, first it made me think of speed shoes = gpspeed
Activatorlocked = perfect
Musicandfx = Speaker works, perhaps adding a sound wave or two would be my personal preference
Locator = good, perhaps one suggestion is to have a trail and "X marks the spot" style motif?
Cycler = If doing SE specific ones, maybe I would tie it somehow
Masterswitch = Kind of works, but if doing SE then might overlap with SE13. Masterswitches do a lot more than just SEENINE triggers
Respawn = Works, personal preference is closer to monster, current design looks a bit robot-like (pal doesn't help here).
Gpspeed = While time is related, I feel that I would prefer speed motif than time as this can even determine distance for things like bridges.

[brullov]

Jan Satcitananda, on 12 February 2023 - 03:33 AM, said:

Great job man! At first I thought that you somehow managed to assign a different icon to each type (lotag) of the sector effector, but as far as I can tell it's just a replacement for the original icons, and I'm a fan of custom oldschool icons. Once long ago I tried to do a set of custom effector icons myself, although those were nowhere near yours regarding quality, as they were simply some letters redrawn in a different style.

My only criticism is your choice of grayscale on a black background. As stated before, it will not display all available palswaps properly. A dark blue background with rounded corners would fit better imo. Also the activator icon isn't very intuitive. Is it supposed to be a button, a transistor or some other component?

Thank you, my friend. I plan to work around the pal problem and release the update. The activator icon is a finger pressing the button

oasiz, on 12 February 2023 - 04:52 AM, said:

If you ever get around on doing more icons, it's pretty easy to do a script that would replace each SE lotag to another picnum.
This is a non-destructive visual thing that I already did for the SW mapster toolkit.
In my case I used a lot of colour on the icons to make them stand apart too, plus often I removed the backgorund itself.
The system basically allows you replace with any existing picnum loaded in editor, manipulate it's other visuals and even duplicate it (i.e. different dimension text floating on top of the sprite itself).
Example in SW would be that I added a floating "MULTI" text for sprites tagged as multiplayer-only or show enemy spawns visually as transparent "ghosts" together with the actual respawn sprite.

Down the line when I finally get to do more work on the "grand unified duke3d script" I've been working on, the plan has always been to visually indicate stuff like this so I'd definitely be interested on using such if it was made.


I do recommend having a letter in some shape or form as all guides will refer to each sprite by their name.
Even as a veteran, it leaves less second guessing.


SE = Wrench is good
Activator = Button is great
Touchplate = Something that indicates a trap/trip is missing here, first it made me think of speed shoes = gpspeed
Activatorlocked = perfect
Musicandfx = Speaker works, perhaps adding a sound wave or two would be my personal preference
Locator = good, perhaps one suggestion is to have a trail and "X marks the spot" style motif?
Cycler = If doing SE specific ones, maybe I would tie it somehow
Masterswitch = Kind of works, but if doing SE then might overlap with SE13. Masterswitches do a lot more than just SEENINE triggers
Respawn = Works, personal preference is closer to monster, current design looks a bit robot-like (pal doesn't help here).
Gpspeed = While time is related, I feel that I would prefer speed motif than time as this can even determine distance for things like bridges.

I am definitely interested in doing more, it is nice to have more icons for different SE effects. I was thinking about the Ion Fury update but looks like I have more work for Duke. I'd like to avoid using letters as icons because the original intention of this mod is to replace them with objects and symbols. However, I really like the idea of floating text! It could be very handy and look accurate, fitting the art style.

[brullov]

I have two solutions to add palette identifiers. Which one do you prefer? I like the second variant, but obviously, it will be harder to see from the distance.

[oasiz]

I recommend function before form. Even when it comes to text. You're essentially asking people to learn new symbols entirely that have next to no connection to what they learned before.
I guess the best analogue is like using a different language to express the same thing.

Ultimately the most important function is that they tell what they are instantly.
Having something on the side is like trying to hunt windows based on their titlebar instead of contents.

Our approach in Fury is mixed here and I think symbols are better in the end when approaching from a more fresh perspective (i.e. SE turned into actual representations of their actions).
I would maybe still have SE as a subtitle even in those cases...

Anyway that's my two cents on the matter

EDIT: Oh yeah, for PAL, having the black BG tint with "full swap" or other pals might help

[brullov]

Working on my next update. Now all SE effects will have their own icon. Exclamation marks are for unfinished effects which cause bugs, and glitches. Question marks are for non-existent lotag value (e.g. if you put '177' instead of '17').

[Mark]

Sound, doors and light switch are about the only ones I can identify. I applaud the effort and hope it becomes useful to others. But I'm too set in my ways with the existing icons to learn these. Newer mappers might though.

I'm guessing I will feel the same way if a GUI comes out for Mapster.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[brullov]

Voxel test. Now you can see the palette applied as well as the sprite face direction (there is an arrow on top and bottom).

[brullov]

M32 UI 2.0 is OUT!

• 46 unique ST and SE icons;
• Blockout texture for prototyping;
• Turn your effectors into cute voxels;
• Control effector's look on the fly — switch between sprites and voxels. Don't like when voxels rotate on selection? Turn it off!

Huge thanks to:

RichardStorm for scripting voxels, their look control, and quotes.
Danukem for scripting the banner.
oasiz for general inspiration, scripting unique SE icons, and scripting support.

Attached File(s)

•  m32_ui_2.0.zip (258.66K)
  Number of downloads: 117

[Reaper_Man]

Not sure how difficult this would be, but if a user has the spinning voxels enabled, it might be worth switching the voxel to one without the arrow on top. As you said that is to indicate the direction the voxel is facing, it becomes basically useless in spin mode.

Or maybe simpler, don't allow the handful of SEs where direction actually matters to ever spin.

[Doom64hunter]

This is super cool and would definitely be useful for updated/future level editors as well. Definitely saving these.

[brullov]

Thank you very much! I did some proper testing of the mod and I have to say that unfortunately voxels are not useful. It's much better to work with sprites. However, custom icons are great. I got used to them pretty quickly and they made my mapping process easier and more comfortable.