https://talk.dengine.net/ Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:46:08 +0000 en User Interface — dengine Forums https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2671/mouse-pointer-trails Tue, 05 Feb 2019 01:27:06 +0000 User Interface yydanoyy 2671@/discussions https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2605/2-1-unstable-2836-override-for-addon-incompatibilities-does-not-work Sat, 20 Oct 2018 09:32:59 +0000 User Interface deus-ex 2605@/discussions
First thing I notice is, that while now a notification text about "missing addons" is shown at the related game slot, at the same time the usually visible button to access the mods management dialog is unavailable. Instead the user has to find out that he is required, contrary to the regular use of the launcher, to right-click the game slot to open a context menu where the entry "Mods..." can be selected. It does not make much sense to me, that the mod management access button gets hidden, when the user gets requested by the launcher to actually go there to "fix" something.

Next thing I notice, after I had removed all invalid addon entries and re-added the same unchanged addons to the game, that I'm not able to load my savegame, due to "missing addons". So I'm looking at the modified in-game loading screen, where pressing the ALT key to ignore and continue no longer works, instead now a switch can be flipped to "ignore incompatibilities". But how to proceed from there? There is no load or continue button available, you can only cycle between the "ignore incompatibilities" and "Cancel" button.

Overall this addon incompatibility safety system has caused more headaches and trouble than it has done anything good.]]> https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2486/making-the-ui-easier-add-on-management Sat, 09 Sep 2017 06:35:35 +0000 User Interface skyjake 2486@/discussions does it have to be SO OBSCURE/HArd to manage addons?.]]> https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2043/menu-headers-on-long-menus-could-scroll Sun, 28 Jun 2015 23:51:38 +0000 User Interface Vermil 2043@/discussions
Well, I debate that it would be cool if that happened with all ui menus if they scroll off the top/bottom of the screen, that their exit button scrolls down with the top/bottom of the screen.]]> https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2030/add-a-scroll-bar-to-taskbar-menus Sun, 14 Jun 2015 10:30:12 +0000 User Interface Vermil 2030@/discussions
Just so users realize they can scroll them and that they aren't cut off.]]> https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2024/some-basic-suggestions-for-improving-the-usability-of-home Sat, 06 Jun 2015 21:12:17 +0000 User Interface Vermil 2024@/discussions
1. Colour the boxes based off the game they are for (i.e Heretic save games are green boxed etc)?

2. One each section of the UI reaches a certain amount of rows vertically, expand horizontally (i.e add columns), rather than continue to add more rows?

3. Minimum contents option: an option to reduce the amount of information displayed in the boxes to the bare minimum, in order to fit more on the page (i.e for save games, the contents could be minimized to purely the name of the save game, maybe with a capital S in front of it to identify it as a save game)?]]> https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2026/how-practical-is-it-for-the-ui-to-use-more-mouse-buttons Sun, 07 Jun 2015 09:42:47 +0000 User Interface Vermil 2026@/discussions https://talk.dengine.net/discussion/2022/why-is-snowberry-going-away-faq Sat, 06 Jun 2015 18:47:48 +0000 User Interface skyjake 2022@/discussions
Doomsday has been using a separate launcher application since its inception. The role of the launcher has been to configure the engine (at least those settings that have been difficult or impossible to change at runtime), select which external resource files to use, and manage your custom game configurations. This has meant that Doomsday itself has had no knowledge or understanding of these concepts. Consequently, Doomsday's development has been held back when it comes to handling resources: it can't determine exactly what set of resources was used when a savegame was created, making it unable to confirm if the correct resources are present when later loading the game. Multiplayer games may depend on gameplay-changing resources, too, and those must be in use on all participants. Doomsday also can't provide any type of UI related to resource management — like selecting which set of 3D models should be used — because it only knows about the low-level individual DED, DeHackEd, WAD and other data files.

Removing the frontend is a big change, though, and if you have been normally using the unstable builds, you may want to reconsider and switch to the stable ones until we can rebuild the needed functionality into the engine. Much of the required basic UI already exists in the form of the Home screen (Ring Zero) UI, where you can see available games, saved games, and public MP servers. Before version 2.0 can hit stable status, the Home screen will also offer functionality to set up your own game configurations and manage/browse add-ons and resource packs. However, Snowberry had several features that may not be that important — our goal is not to rebuild Snowberry into the engine, but to move forward and create a better UI that truly matches your needs.

There are also technical reasons why having Snowberry around has been problematic. It is written in Python and uses the wxWidgets UI framework, while the engine itself is C++ and uses Qt — having many requirements makes dealing with the code base more difficult. Python's advantage is platform independence (and I really like it as a language!), however distributing applications written in it is challenging. This kind of apps need to be wrapped using special tools that include the Python parser along with any needed extra libraries. Unfortunately, the process is quite different on each of the platforms that Doomsday supports, so it has added to the maintenance burden. (Particularly on OS X where the code signing requirements are getting ever stricter.) Python itself is transitioning from version 2 to 3, and Snowberry is still fully Python 2 based. Finally, now that Doomsday has switched to CMake and uses CPack for packaging, Snowberry's distribution scripts would need to be rewritten before it can be deployed using the new mechanism.

TL;DR — We are dropping Snowberry because it hinders Doomsday's growth, and because there are several technical issues that can be avoided if we get rid of it.

This subforum exists so you can work with us to provide feedback about which of Snowberry's features you find valuable, and what new kind of things you would like to be able to do regarding game configurations and add-on/resource pack management. Please join us in the discussion!]]>