[WIP/ALPHA REL]Battle Interface Reconstruction

[Kudistos Megistos]

Did you read the bit about fitting with the rest of the game's visual style? Radical overhaul of the battle interface would make it look out of place with the speech boxes and the game's menu, which are the the same style. This will be especially noticeable if a different font is used. You'd have to do a complete overhaul of the game's menus and speech boxes as well.

And some people like the old style. Don't talk about your ideas as if they are objectively superior and anyone who disagrees has some sort of psychological disorder.

[Timber]

Relax guys, kranmer has already said he will release an original style one, and is looking into the possibility of making a new interface as well.

[Nightmarish]

Honestly, I prefer something new.  Yeah nostalgia blah blah blah.  Come on, we don't need frames or borders.  Give me the bare basics and I'm good.  I prefer the newer FF game battle interface style.

Quick mockup.  Easy, light, why not?  Just need to add the other stuff and it would look awesome.


It doesn't need to be all fat and take up the majority of the screen.

I actually like it. Might need a tweak but looks interesting.
Maybe both could be done and installed as the user wish.

[nikfrozty]

Honestly, I prefer something new.  Yeah nostalgia blah blah blah.  Come on, we don't need frames or borders.  Give me the bare basics and I'm good.  I prefer the newer FF game battle interface style.

Quick mockup.  Easy, light, why not?  Just need to add the other stuff and it would look awesome.


It doesn't need to be all fat and take up the majority of the screen.

I actually like it. Might need a tweak but looks interesting.
Maybe both could be done and installed as the user wish.

But if the text is done like that it will also change the text in the menu and field text right?? We'll just have to find a good replacement that can look good in the field and in battle.

[dragowulf]

Something like this:

[Mirenheart]

well, the shots are obviously Advent Children, but that would be an awesome interface mod to have. Especially in this day and age. Yeah, some people really enjoy sticking to the original, but not everyone does. Me, I don't care. I've played the game so much that I'm willing to try just about anything new for it.

[The Seer of Shadows]

Advent Children Complete, actually

That would be one ambitious overhaul project of the Battle "Inferface"

Apart from looking completely out of style with the rest of the game, you would have to edit... well, everything if you wanted to accomplish something remotely like that in game.

[3py0n]

wow that looks amazing haha so clean and well put-together.  It would even look like an actual game!!! lol too bad it's not But nice UI indeed.  Though some of it is not as intuitive like the numbers beside the summons (I don't know why but I just don't know what they stand for aside from MP used lol)  But I really love the look and feel...fan-freaking-tastic.

[nikfrozty]

I've been looking to the pics that was posted and I knew it was very hard to do but I found at least one thing that could be done now. Take a look at the hp/mp bars. Its colored blue but it has a little design in it like another texture. Can it be done in the game?? In the battle the limit bars are colored plain blue or red. It will definitely look good if it has a little design to it like other texture for some parts of the bar.

[The Seer of Shadows]

I doubt it, but I don't know for sure.  I like that idea, though.

Really, anything can be done to the game in theory.  It becomes a question of how tiresome the modding process would be, and whether or not anyone with the skills would actually be willing to do it.

[neox1234]

Hi! I have a little problen with the armorvil's Battle interface :S


The black borders between the windows.

How i can solve this? thanks.

PD:Srry for my bad english

[Kranmer]

@ neox1234
you need to enable the new battle interface in Aali's Driver, To do this open up the ff7_opengl.cfg and edit the line
new_battle_interface = off
to
new_battle_interface = on

@ dragowulf
well i have yet to find a way of moving linked things separately, Things like the names are linked so i can move the names as a whole anywhere i want, i can even edit the space between them (make them further apart or closer together) but i have yet to find a way of moving just 1 name at a time so the first picture is out of the question (for now at least, if anyone does know how to do it let me know). Plus like "Kudistos Megistos" pointed out to make it look like that i would also have to do a font and that is also something i have no intention of doing.
Also those 2nd pictures are a mock interface and currently it would be next to impossible for me to implement (i am not saying its impossible for anyone but far beyond me and my limited skills, try asking TA)

@ nikfrozty
I don't know where the graphic for the HP and MP bars are, i have found a value that can manipulate its colour (i mean it looks the exact same as before but a different colour like red or black), so making better HP and MP bars is beyond me (i can manipulate the size as well like in the first post in this topic but i cant add new stuff like your asking).

Also i thought i should let people know i have been busy on a few other things and i haven't made much progress with this, i am still working on it in my spare time but the white flash after certain spells is still alluding me. Hopefully soon i will have more spare time to finish this up and start work on a different interface.
I also still need to also figure out when i do a new interface what am i going to do with the barrier option, it disappears when the battle commands come up, so if i move it away from where it is currently you will constantly see it appear and disappear. So if anyone has any idea's on this please post them here. Thanks.

[sl1982]

I've been looking to the pics that was posted and I knew it was very hard to do but I found at least one thing that could be done now. Take a look at the hp/mp bars. Its colored blue but it has a little design in it like another texture. Can it be done in the game?? In the battle the limit bars are colored plain blue or red. It will definitely look good if it has a little design to it like other texture for some parts of the bar.

If you are using avalanche then just take a look at the images in there. I cant remember offhand which ones contain the hp.mp bars but they are there.

[neox1234]

@ neox1234
you need to enable the new battle interface in Aali's Driver, To do this open up the ff7_opengl.cfg and edit the line
new_battle_interface = off
to
new_battle_interface = on

@ dragowulf
well i have yet to find a way of moving linked things separately, Things like the names are linked so i can move the names as a whole anywhere i want, i can even edit the space between them (make them further apart or closer together) but i have yet to find a way of moving just 1 name at a time so the first picture is out of the question (for now at least, if anyone does know how to do it let me know). Plus like "Kudistos Megistos" pointed out to make it look like that i would also have to do a font and that is also something i have no intention of doing.
Also those 2nd pictures are a mock interface and currently it would be next to impossible for me to implement (i am not saying its impossible for anyone but far beyond me and my limited skills, try asking TA)

@ nikfrozty
I don't know where the graphic for the HP and MP bars are, i have found a value that can manipulate its colour (i mean it looks the exact same as before but a different colour like red or black), so making better HP and MP bars is beyond me (i can manipulate the size as well like in the first post in this topic but i cant add new stuff like your asking).

Also i thought i should let people know i have been busy on a few other things and i haven't made much progress with this, i am still working on it in my spare time but the white flash after certain spells is still alluding me. Hopefully soon i will have more spare time to finish this up and start work on a different interface.
I also still need to also figure out when i do a new interface what am i going to do with the barrier option, it disappears when the battle commands come up, so if i move it away from where it is currently you will constantly see it appear and disappear. So if anyone has any idea's on this please post them here. Thanks.

mm, ok thanks I will download the newest version of Aali's Driver because I have the one that comes with the remix patch, Thanks!
PD: srry for my bad english... xP

[Nightmarish]

Is it possible to make the boarders look like the window itself? It's a bit weird to have such a gap between the two windows.
Would actually be nice if we could turn the borders to look like the window itself instead of removing it.

Don't know if i'm explaining myself good enough.

[nikfrozty]

Is it possible to make the boarders look like the window itself? It's a bit weird to have such a gap between the two windows.
Would actually be nice if we could turn the borders to look like the window itself instead of removing it.

Don't know if i'm explaining myself good enough.

I think what you mean is connecting the two windows so that there will be no gap between them?? And you want to make the border of that part to be the window itself in order to do that.

[Nazta]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong...
Got Aaili's drivers [0.7.8b] + Avalanche.
But it seems the game isn't using the MenuArt folder at all.
{Thus changing the pngs doesn't do anything}

Anyone know why? :/
Thanks.

By the way, I LOVE the border-less battle menu. 

[nikfrozty]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong...
Got Aaili's drivers [0.7.8b] + Avalanche.
But it seems the game isn't using the MenuArt folder at all.
{Thus changing the pngs doesn't do anything}

Anyone know why? :/
Thanks.

By the way, I LOVE the border-less battle menu. 

I think changing the files in the texture folder will not work if you touch or modify the lgp first before the textures after you install the TA patch. Did you modify menu_us.lgp before changing the files in the texture folder?
BTW you posted on the wrong thread. It will be moved anyways but its best to be warned.

[Kranmer]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong...
Got Aaili's drivers [0.7.8b] + Avalanche.
But it seems the game isn't using the MenuArt folder at all.
{Thus changing the pngs doesn't do anything}

Anyone know why? :/
Thanks.

By the way, I LOVE the border-less battle menu. 

I think the answer is the menuart's are cached, so first delete the contents of the folder "cache" then change the PNG then boot the game and it should work.


Also for everyone else, i am not having any more luck with the white flash during certain spells and i am not having much luck removing the boarders from just the help bar (i can remove all boarders but i dont want to do that), so i may have to make a first beta without these things being sorted.

[Timber]

Also for everyone else, i am not having any more luck with the white flash during certain spells and i am not having much luck removing the boarders from just the help bar (i can remove all boarders but i dont want to do that), so i may have to make a first beta without these things being sorted.

A beta version would be great!
It's still an improvement over the normal 'new battle interface', which people use anyway, despite the flaws.

Also I noticed you didn't mention the 'eye opener', does that mean you managed to fix it?

[Kranmer]

Also for everyone else, i am not having any more luck with the white flash during certain spells and i am not having much luck removing the boarders from just the help bar (i can remove all boarders but i don't want to do that), so i may have to make a first beta without these things being sorted.

A beta version would be great!
It's still an improvement over the normal 'new battle interface', which people use anyway, despite the flaws.

Also I noticed you didn't mention the 'eye opener', does that mean you managed to fix it?

I haven't really sorted the eye opener yet, i personally think i have made it look a little better (this is my opinion, if you feel it looks crap the way i have done it just say and i will revert for the next version) but its not sorted, i have the values for it but i cant get it to look right (probably because it wasn't designed to go any lower), i will need to make a To-Do list when i get more time (its 1.20am here so i am not doing it now).
And remember this IS NOT FINISHED
anyway here is a Alpha release (it was going to be beta but since there is so much unfinished stuff i am calling it Alpha)
http://www.mediafire.com/?icin543yjdnqbjq
Also some quick notes,
1. This is needs to be used 1.02 and with Aali's Custom driver with New Battle Interface switched on to work correctly
2. This works with the Team Avalanche 0.9 and with the 9999 Limit Break YAMP patch (if you use the fix included for the YAMP patch, and the YAMP patch needs to be applied before this one) but this WILL NOT WORK with the built in 9999 patch in the latest version of Aali's Driver (this is because his values override mine).
3. This installer by default will patch the FF7.exe with my new battle interface, you don't need to select any settings, the settings are all optional just run the installer and it should detect where ff7 is installed but if not redirect it.
4. BACKUP YOUR EXE BEFORE USING THIS or use my backup setting in the installer.

And anyone who tries this please let me know how you get on, and any idea's on how to improve the patch or the installer are always welcome.

EDIT:-mediafire seems to be down right now so here is a mirror
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=18HHQAZ1

[Armorvil]

Awesome !! (and thank god for your mirror, by the way )

It looks perfect in my game, and I really don't know how you could improve it. I also like what you did with the eye-opener. It doesn't look weird when a battle starts anymore - even though there is still an horizontal line delimiting the battle interface. Combined with the modified PNGs I posted in this thread, I get this :



And I love it. Thank you very much for your hard work Kranmer, even though it's only an Alpha (!). I'm gonna enjoy this new patch tremendously. 

[Kranmer]

im glad its working for you Armorvil and i am also glad you like what i did with the eye opener, i was wondering what other people would think about it so thanks for that,
1 small thing though, on that screenshot the HP+MP bars seem to be going through the text and the time and limit bars should be further down since one appears to be cut off, this shouldnt be happening. Are you using Aali's custom driver 9999 Limit Break patch ? my patch isnt compatable with Aali's version yet, you need to use the original one,
If you are not using Aali's custom driver 9999 then there is a serious problem.

[Armorvil]

Yeah I was still using Aali's break 9999 limit, when I made this screenshot. I was so eager to try your patch, that I launched the game without checking my config first . And when you said "it's not compatible", I expected the game to crash or something, not to experience minor graphical glitches like those Of course, the HP / Time / Limit gauges are better placed with only Dziugo's break 9999 limit patch (and actually, I noticed that with Aali's, the gauges for the third character (Tifa in my screenshots) disappear completely. So yeah, you can't play with it enabled (too bad, I like the fact that the HP & MP bars were behind the numbers, in Cloud and Aeris' cases).

I edited my above post with a screenshot showing the real results. Now, if only the HP and MP bars could be removed... ...I think they make the bottom of the screen too busy, somehow.

[Kranmer]

Ah OK i should have maybe been a little more exact about what would happen if you used Aali's 9999, but yeah basically its just those glitches,
And That's a nice screenshot, its really looking a lot better now.
Well if the HP and MP bars really bug you that much i can make you a quick patch to get rid of them off screen if you want.

EDIT:-
Here is the HP+MP bar remover
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QBYCROUD
Let me know how you get on.