Pathnode and User Interface Watchdog Thread

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Daryk, Dec 31, 2012.

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  1. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    I just started a new game with 7.6, and it seems the text is a little low in most of the character stat blocks (everything below XP on the character inventory screen). Numbers touching the bottom of the box look a bit odd because there seems to be an excess of room at the top.
     
  2. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    PATHFINDING

    As you know, as of version 7.6.0 of the modpack, most large maps have been repathnoded to abide by a very strict grid in favor of 'routes,' or preferred modes of getting from point A to B such as by following a path or road. The maps that have been repathnoded are:

    • Hickory Branch exterior
    • Quarry exterior
    • Verbobonc Exterior
    • Verbobonc City Hall
    • Welkwood Bog Exterior
    • Water Node
    • Hommlet Exterior and WotGS
    • Moathouse Exterior
    • Temple Interior
    • Temple Entrance
    • Temple House
    • Temple Tower
    • Coliseum
    • Emridy Meadows
    • Imeryds Run
    • Moathouse Cave Exit
    • Nulb Exterior
    • Random Forest
    • Random Forest Road
    • Random Riverside
    • Random Riverside Road
    • Random Scrub
    • Random Scrub Road
    • Temple Deserted Farm
    This may sound like a wonderful thing, but it will almost surely not be perfect. Without delving into too technical a discussion, a strict grid would work great for a map that had absolutely no obstructions. However, pathnodes cannot exist in blocked tiles, so any map with an obstruction (basically all of them) will feature places where there are nodes missing from the grid. Once that happens, the pathnoding system attempts to compensate and starts searching for alternative routes. That's when your characters start moving in odd patterns and bizarre trajectories.

    Here's a simple example image:

    diagram.jpg

    Grey lines are tiles. Grey dots are pathnodes. The black dot party at top right goes to the blue dot destination at bottom left without issue, because there are no obstructions. But the violet dot party at top left is not so lucky. There is an evil obstruction of death and associated blocking tile in their way. As you can see, they therefore do not get to their bottom right blue dot destination without issue. :sadblinky

    The good-ish news is that we may be able to optimize particularly egregious instances of this happening by basically breaking the strict grid rule and adding a route to get around the obstruction. If you find really really bad cases of pathfinding on any of the maps listed above, here's what you should do:

    1. Take a screenshot of the map and post it here.
    2. Describe how the pathfinding is failing.

    USER INTERFACE

    As you also know, as of v 7.6.0 we are seeing various updated user interfaces. If you see any issues with these (text out of boundaries, weird artifacts, weird colors like pink, text in odd places, etc.) do like above:

    1. Take a screenshot of the UI and post it here.
    2. Describe what is wrong with the UI.

    Thanks. :)
     
  3. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Can you post a screen?
     
  4. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    I'll give it a shot. Either way I'll report back here in a few.

    EDIT: It only took me half a dozen tries to get windowed mode working this time, so I count that as a win. If I've done the attachment right, you can see how the EXP and LEV fields have their numbers properly centered, while everything below pushes the numbers to the bottom of the box. If EXP and LEV were also at the bottom, it would at least be consistent, but I think vertically centered looks cleaner.
     

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    Last edited: Dec 31, 2012
  5. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    stat.jpg

    Okay, thanks. How does this look? Bear in mind that we're talking about adjustments of single pixels here, so if something still looks slightly not perfectly centered, bumping it up another single pixel would probably make it look the same way to the opposite. Also bear in mind that the horizontal positioning needs to be somewhat approximate, as different letters are of different widths in most fonts, including Priory. (i.e. there is no absolute horizontal position with a variable width font.)

    I is narrower than E in the forum's Arial font, for example, but not Courier New - I, E.

    ps. This is also one of those weird eye trickery things, because in reality the stat and its output fields are no longer on a level plane in my fixed version, whereas before they were. I believe its some element of the output box that influences the brain confusion. ;) Likewise, if we move the stat description up to match the centered position of the output, it then looks vertically off-center even though it's not. Wacky. :p
     
  6. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    That looks much better, thanks! I think they were off by just a pixel for some reason. I probably wouldn't have said anything if the EXP and LEV blocks were the same way, but the inconsistency was enough to merit comment.
     
  7. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    Looking at Gaear's screenshot in post #5 of this thread, all of the numbers (including the numbers in the EXP and LEV rectangles) still need to be moved upwards 1 or more pixels in order to be truly vertically centred within the rectangles.
     
  8. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    Maybe it's just my zoom level (or lack thereof), but I think there may only be two pixels of head room left in those boxes, and it looks like there's only one pixel gap at the bottom. I'm not sure it can get any better than Gaear made it.
     
  9. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Daryk is correct, though actually there is one pixel on both top and bottom. Some numbers/letters just don't use an extra pixel on the top, so moving them up another pixel would just bias them toward the top. See image below zoomed to maximum magnification and with a grid to demonstrate the specifics. The grid is on the scale of a single pixel. The numbers 2 and 8 have a one pixel border on top and bottom, while 1, 4, and 7 don't use an extra pixel on the top.

    max.jpg

    i.e, this is as good as it gets. Be happy people, it looks ten times better than the old way. :p Here's a real-size side-by-side to remind you.

    sideby.jpg
     
  10. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    The side by side comparison really drives it home, thanks Gaear! One comment (not complaint): I just noticed how much faster the die rolling window is scrolling due to the larger font. Not even my three letter named characters fit on one line of text in that window anymore.
     
  11. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    I still like the old one. :p

    Don't be hate'n .... it's just my preference, maybe it's the darker letters that appeal to me.
     
  12. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    I bet if Gaear changed the colour of those rectangular borders (around the numbers in his new interface) to the same dark blue colour that he used for the rectangles that contain the words and abbreviations and acronyms, and reduced the thickness of the rectangular borders (around the numbers), then his new interface would be even better than the old interface! Here's hoping!

    Also, my personal preference is for only the first letter of a word to be upper case (i.e. a capital) and for all of the rest of the letters in words to be lower case (obviously, this doesn't apply to the acronyms like HP and AC). This is how street sign makers do the lettering in their signs because it is the quickest way to read words in a sign. I HATE reading words that consist of all upper case (i.e. capital) letters (pun intended).
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2013
  13. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Sorry people but I'm not going to nit that thing at every request or statement of a lack of affection for #3d4fbb, etc., etc. You're just going to have to jump in for the big win and learn to love it for the sake of the playing public, even if it's not your personal best 100% perfect configuration of perfectness that floats your personal boat to the point of sublime delight and so on. ;)

    With that, let's direct this thread back to its original purpose please - reporting problems with pathnodes and UI.
     
  14. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    GaaaaH!

    My boat of sublime perfect perfectness has sprung a leak! :p

    Here's a picture showing the numbers being a little misaligned in the xp tables.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Okay, good call. And fixed! :thumbsup:
     
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