MTA:SA Main Menu / GUI.

[x86]

Good night!

I was thinking about a brand new MTA:SA main menu, new structure, new background ?

I've assigned the 3D menu scene rewrite to myself. Maybe i'll think about the normal main menu rewrite..

Maybe you guys have any ideas?

[darkdreamingdan]

I began a rewrite of the main menu already, with the loading screen happening while on the main menu - this would mean we could present real scenes in the main menu just like HL2. However, I encountered some problems along the way on that front.

I am strongly against the reintroduction of the 3D scene, just because of the massive amounts of problems it caused on so many departments. It is just simply not worth going through all of that again.

eAi has designed some very nice new backgrounds, and I briefly investigated adding a twitter feed onto the main menu as well.

As for GUI, we've had some very nice community designs:

[Ransom]

I am strongly against the reintroduction of the 3D scene, just because of the massive amounts of problems it caused on so many departments. It is just simply not worth going through all of that again.

Even if off by default with a warning?

[x86]

I am strongly against the reintroduction of the 3D scene, just because of the massive amounts of problems it caused on so many departments. It is just simply not worth going through all of that again.

I'll rewrite the 3D scene, maybe not exact the same.. need to think about the plans.

[eAi]

I think an in-game main menu would make more sense to me.

And we need news on the main menu too.

[x86]

I think an in-game main menu would make more sense to me.

And we need news on the main menu too.

The old main menu of MTA:Race was nice (the buttons at the left).

[darkdreamingdan]

I am strongly against the reintroduction of the 3D scene, just because of the massive amounts of problems it caused on so many departments. It is just simply not worth going through all of that again.

Even if off by default with a warning?

What's the point in putting so much effort into a menu that we have to turn off by default? Why not aim for something that's practical and shiny, that everyone can see?

[eAi]

I am strongly against the reintroduction of the 3D scene, just because of the massive amounts of problems it caused on so many departments. It is just simply not worth going through all of that again.

Even if off by default with a warning?

What's the point in putting so much effort into a menu that we have to turn off by default? Why not aim for something that's practical and shiny, that everyone can see?

Exactly. It was nice when we had it before, but it caused more trouble than it's worth. Loading straight into game makes far more sense.

[Ransom]

I am strongly against the reintroduction of the 3D scene, just because of the massive amounts of problems it caused on so many departments. It is just simply not worth going through all of that again.

Even if off by default with a warning?

What's the point in putting so much effort into a menu that we have to turn off by default? Why not aim for something that's practical and shiny, that everyone can see?

That is why I am suggesting it stay, because all the work was already done to make it possible. Some people really thought it was cool... me included. If you mean a major overhaul then I guess there isn't a place for it anymore.

[eAi]

It was really cool, but I don't think it was necessary or that it has a place now. I think there's much much more important things that anyone who is capable of programming can do.

[x86]

Hehe, can't create a branch!

[Winky]

Then we could better load the game and create something in there with a local resource(?). Something like Half Life 2 menu. But I agree there are more important things to do.

[eAi]

Local resources would be a nice thing to support anyway, so maybe, someone with a week or so of time could look at adding support for this.

[x86]

I would like to make:

Default main menu: just the same (I think), and the background should be a random screen of your mta screenshots, or making it even dynamic..

Dynamic main menu: rewrite

[Winky]

Why would we rewrite that old dynamic menu when we could use the ingame functions to create a (dynamic) menu? (e.g camera functions, peds, vehicles) Then there shouldn't be any compatibility issues...

[Zango]

I liked Winky's suggestion, I made an example (it's pretty boring though, only camera moving around cities)

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/7479 ... inmenu.png

fade a circling camera in around a city when player has isMainMenuActive true (requires static.png as alpha layer)

looks win

the total blackness on startup doesn't look bad either

[dzek (varez)]

fade a circling camera in around a city when player has isMainMenuActive true (requires static.png as alpha layer)

wut? for what you need any png? there is fadeCamera function, that black box you can draw with dx functions, so?

[Deltanic]

I really like the idea of 3d scene in the menu, with something what Zango said. We could use different positions, so the client will see everytime a new scene and he won't get bored.

And, San Andreas needs to be loaded when MTA starts for that. This makes onPlayerConnect unneeded, since the player will join directly. That will force us to put the parameters of the event in onPlayerJoin, which will provide us with easier scripting.

Though, if the old type of 3d scene is coming back, that was in DM, I am strongly against it. I really didn't like that scene, and it was very crashy. And it was always the same > boring

[Zango]

fade a circling camera in around a city when player has isMainMenuActive true (requires static.png as alpha layer)

wut? for what you need any png? there is fadeCamera function, that black box you can draw with dx functions, so?

I think we're misunderstanding each other

I created this test on my local, when local player has the main menu activated, the camera is set to circle a around a city (like seen on picture) and back to player when he gets out

In order for the local player to gain of this effect, his static.png needs to be transparent (it's just a demonstrative test)

The slightly box behind mta 1.1 header is one I did myself beforehand

[Zango]

Video support update:

personally, I don't know whether I held toward a static/non-ingame menu or one like this

Both has positives, you can maybe get a bit 'too much' if the menu is also from ingame, I don't know really

I guess the positives on having an inside-game featured thing is the world being loaded, remarkable quicker loading when joining a server

[x86]

Hm, i like the idea of your video Zango..

Maybe doing something like GTA:IV for the MTA:SA credits

[MX_Master]

waste of game performance, every time the game should load and draws a lot of game objects just for it to be background of the pause menu

[Zango]

particularly users with less powerful computers will suffer lag from this, true

I remember the dynamic 3D menu on my laptop was hell, because of the performance. Getting in-game and launching the main menu would be a relief because it was static

I consider, something like this, maybe toggleable option? (because it doesn't lag at all on my rather shit system)

But seriously though, a PC which can't render some skyscrapers with lowdistance fog above 15 FPS atleast, must've be unable to play MTA properly anyways.

[12p]

I think there should be some kind of "selection" on the Settings Menu, so player with bad PCs can choose the normal background, and don't suffer lag.

[Zango]

I think there should be some kind of "selection" on the Settings Menu, so player with bad PCs can choose the normal background, and don't suffer lag.

I also thought of, the first time user runs main menu, if his FPS is below a certain threshold it sets a static image instead, and informs him

but if the user's PC can't render that, he ain't gonna have a continual good experience in MTA on the other hand