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News - 2023 New UI Thread (Tue March 21 Test "Re-Up" to live patch) (1 Viewer)

Sic

[sic]
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Test has been updated today with our current Live build. Additionally, we are releasing the new UI port to test. There are no new patch notes at this time. Everything but the UI should match Live.



As featured in the 2023 Roadmap, EverQuest's new UI engine is on track to launch in the coming weeks. But before we do that, we need to test it so both players and custom UI designers can have time to get used to the changes. Here's what everyone should know:
  • The new UI engine is not what you’d think of in a "UI revamp" - it should look very similar to the existing UI. The new engine enables different features like docking, scaling, and more options for creating and modifying the UI windows.
  • UI scaling is accessible by opening your Options window to find a scaling slider. You can also use the "/ui scale" command.
  • Only a few windows have been converted to the new UI engine; most should remain unchanged. The Inventory, Story, Quantity, and Window Selector windows have been converted to the new UI engine.
  • If you use the default UI, things should just work similarly to how they used to.
  • For custom UI creators, maintainers, and users: after patching the latest Test update from March 21, 2023, your EQ directory should have a new folder called "Layout Converter" This contains a tool you can install that is used to convert custom UI files into the new UI engine. (It doesn’t work 100% yet – we will add more information as this is worked on.)
  • If you use a custom UI, you do not have to immediately convert your UI files to the new UI engine. We are still supporting the old engine, however, if you want to use any features of the new UI, you'll need to convert your custom windows over to the new engine.
  • We’re still working out some of the bugs with the new engine, and we appreciate your patience and assistance with testing. Please let us know about any bugs you find with the changes to the UI in the New UI Bugs thread.
  • Some known issues:
    • All new / converted UI windows will stay on top of the old windows. - Won't fix, this is a limitation of running both UI engines concurrently.
    • Color does not change from green to red when all charges on an item are expended.
    • When an evolving item reaches 100% exp, the label does not disappear as expected but displays as 0%.
    • Converted UI elements do not appear when taking in-game screenshots.
    • Mouse look in windowed mode does not prevent mousing over the title bar.
That wraps things up for now. Know that this is certainly a work-in-progress, but this Test session will be immensely helpful as we continue to work on updating and improving the new UI engine. We will share more information about progress and when it launches in the near future.

Please let us know about any bugs you find with the changes to the UI in the New UI Bugs thread.
 
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Do you guys see (or anticipate) it breaking much, if anything on the MQ front? like big structural changes to how you would write new plugins or anything?
 
Do you guys see (or anticipate) it breaking much, if anything on the MQ front? like big structural changes to how you would write new plugins or anything?

I doubt it'll break anything. The changes i'd anticipate will be in line with what usually happens with patches to the game.

Is this what they are using?


Possibly. Too much speculation about this whole thing right now. Just have to wait and see! Honestly, what you linked doesn't look like something they would use based on past exposure to how the game is supported. But only time will tell!
 
Is this what they are using?

1679431296949.png

Looks like it. Appears in the EQ directory now.
Though, could have been added with a previous patch for all I know. I didn't have a comparison before patching and was sorted by date modified.
 
Do you guys see (or anticipate) it breaking much, if anything on the MQ front? like big structural changes to how you would write new plugins or anything?
Yes. I expect it to break more and more things as they move more interface elements to it

MQ accomplishes a lot of what it does by allowing you to interact with the UI programmatically.

This new system will prevent MQ from being able to read or interact with the UI
 
Yes. I expect it to break more and more things as they move more interface elements to it

MQ accomplishes a lot of what it does by allowing you to interact with the UI programmatically.

This new system will prevent MQ from being able to read or interact with the UI
That sounds scary for us as a community! Trusting and hoping that Yourself and the rest of the team that help and contribute ARE prepared for these upcoming changes.
 
The Dev post says they only changed a small part of it and the old ui is actually still there underneath. They will be changing it all out in steps. As of now, it allegedly looks exactly like the old UI. I am not on Test, so still awaiting someone to Screenshot it. ;)
 
It's identical except the font/text looks just a tad blurry compared to the old default. And it's only the inventory and selector window that is scalable with the new UI scale option. That's the only ones they have changed so far from what I can tell. You can go back to the old default by copying your Live default to the test folder and using it until they fix the bugs with it.
 
maybe it's cause I'm not super tech savvy but I don't even really understand why they're "updating" a 23 yr old game at this point it is what it is. i love it the way it is. putting makeup on Bea Arthur doesn't make her Megan Fox. but hey I also prefer pre-Luclin models and default UI ... perhaps I'm the minority here lol. this new UI stuff is giving me a rough feeling about DPG's ability to properly pull this off ... if it aint broke dont fix it
 
maybe it's cause I'm not super tech savvy but I don't even really understand why they're "updating" a 23 yr old game at this point it is what it is. i love it the way it is. putting makeup on Bea Arthur doesn't make her Megan Fox. but hey I also prefer pre-Luclin models and default UI ... perhaps I'm the minority here lol. this new UI stuff is giving me a rough feeling about DPG's ability to properly pull this off ... if it aint broke dont fix it
That is the problem most likely, stuff is broken and has been broken for a long time. Maybe they have new plans for upcoming expansions and they need to update the engine to something more modern. True-up patch that broke achievements and collections recently anyone?
 
maybe it's cause I'm not super tech savvy but I don't even really understand why they're "updating" a 23 yr old game at this point it is what it is. i love it the way it is. putting makeup on Bea Arthur doesn't make her Megan Fox. but hey I also prefer pre-Luclin models and default UI ... perhaps I'm the minority here lol. this new UI stuff is giving me a rough feeling about DPG's ability to properly pull this off ... if it aint broke dont fix it
My guess is for global 4k UI scalability. Thats a big feature that a lot of people wanted and evidently and for them it's easier to swap out the UI engine to make that possible then try to try and add that feature to the old XML based UI.
 
Moving to 64-bit , 4K scaling, modern style UI graphics with a lot more control, upcoming DX 11 is part of the small plan we know laid out in the roadmap thing, but what is the 5 year plan..if there is. I know, I know.. its still Verant underneath, But go with that thought, in 2 years, will we see more visual changes (like the new ice/lava stuff in ToV/CoV). Will one day baz changes finally happen? Will we see a new level of water/grass or lets say a new Befallen zone in 2 expansions from now and it will be far more detailed than the updated Commonlands and Freeport? In 4 years, the staff they hire now, will be rather good at all the new stuff they added lately, and a super expansion like the old days could be made. Hopium, I know. But its nice to dream it.
 
It's identical except the font/text looks just a tad blurry compared to the old default. And it's only the inventory and selector window that is scalable with the new UI scale option. That's the only ones they have changed so far from what I can tell. You can go back to the old default by copying your Live default to the test folder and using it until they fix the bugs with it.
blurrier!? how is that even possible
 
There's no way to prepare for the changes, they just have to be handled as they come up.
Best line evah @Knightly … that’s like meant to be in a movie. I’m stealing it for the next change request i get at work!

@Knightly vs change…
Monsters Inc Animation GIF by Disney Pixar
 
As featured in the 2023 Roadmap, EverQuest's new UI engine is on track to launch in the coming weeks. But before we do that, we need to test it so both players and custom UI designers can have time to get used to the changes. Here's what everyone should know:
  • The new UI engine is not what you’d think of in a "UI revamp" - it should look very similar to the existing UI. The new engine enables different features like docking, scaling, and more options for creating and modifying the UI windows.
  • UI scaling is accessible by opening your Options window to find a scaling slider. You can also use the "/ui scale" command.
  • Only a few windows have been converted to the new UI engine; most should remain unchanged. The Inventory, Story, Quantity, and Window Selector windows have been converted to the new UI engine.
  • If you use the default UI, things should just work similarly to how they used to.
  • For custom UI creators, maintainers, and users: after patching the latest Test update from March 21, 2023, your EQ directory should have a new folder called "Layout Converter" This contains a tool you can install that is used to convert custom UI files into the new UI engine. (It doesn’t work 100% yet – we will add more information as this is worked on.)
  • If you use a custom UI, you do not have to immediately convert your UI files to the new UI engine. We are still supporting the old engine, however, if you want to use any features of the new UI, you'll need to convert your custom windows over to the new engine.
  • We’re still working out some of the bugs with the new engine, and we appreciate your patience and assistance with testing. Please let us know about any bugs you find with the changes to the UI in the New UI Bugs thread.
  • Some known issues:
    • All new / converted UI windows will stay on top of the old windows. - Won't fix, this is a limitation of running both UI engines concurrently.
    • Color does not change from green to red when all charges on an item are expended.
    • When an evolving item reaches 100% exp, the label does not disappear as expected but displays as 0%.
    • Converted UI elements do not appear when taking in-game screenshots.
    • Mouse look in windowed mode does not prevent mousing over the title bar.
That wraps things up for now. Know that this is certainly a work-in-progress, but this Test session will be immensely helpful as we continue to work on updating and improving the new UI engine. We will share more information about progress and when it launches in the near future.

Please let us know about any bugs you find with the changes to the UI in the New UI Bugs thread.
 
Going to go out on a limb and assume they won't be using a GNU GPL for anything in EQ no matter how many petitions come in.
imgui isn't GPL. Many games already use imgui for their dev tools.

but, It isn't designed to be for a game's ui. Its meant for rapid prototyping and dev tools.
 
I know its a bit early, as its all new still, but I'm hoping that HTML5 will be stuff accessible for the Lua code to input to. I'm a bonehead, and you smarter guys will eventually figure out a manner, but seems that is what will be whats needed to enter input type and control window options and such the way we do now.
Here is an example from the company's webpage that might be something possible for EQ menu, once all is said and done. Hail to the King and others had animations I think, right? Never used it, but I saw the graphics before. But once DP has it working, AND once UI people at EQInterface and other places learn it, we might (lets say some months from now) see buttons like this:
1679506292200.png blah.. the animated gif saves a sstill PNG.....try this:
I used to teach Visual Effects and Animation for Movies and Games and I can see this moving forward as a way for DP to bring EQ into modern times and looking a bit (at least the option to make it from users) like modern UI for games.
 
I know its a bit early, as its all new still, but I'm hoping that HTML5 will be stuff accessible for the Lua code to input to. I'm a bonehead, and you smarter guys will eventually figure out a manner, but seems that is what will be whats needed to enter input type and control window options and such the way we do now.
Here is an example from the company's webpage that might be something possible for EQ menu, once all is said and done. Hail to the King and others had animations I think, right? Never used it, but I saw the graphics before. But once DP has it working, AND once UI people at EQInterface and other places learn it, we might (lets say some months from now) see buttons like this:
View attachment 47370 blah.. the animated gif saves a sstill PNG.....try this:
I used to teach Visual Effects and Animation for Movies and Games and I can see this moving forward as a way for DP to bring EQ into modern times and looking a bit (at least the option to make it from users) like modern UI for games.

The animated part of that looks like a video. the button is just the part that says "Start".

The UI is essentially just a webpage. its html, css, and javascript.
 
cybris hit the nail on the head -- right now scaling would have to be done individually on each UI element rather than handling it at the display level. Also, EQ UI development is stagnant and there's not many people learning how to do it. This way, you get some cross pollination effort in that people who know html/css/js (which generally means they can already do UIs) can now do UIs for EQ.

Not dissimilar for the reason we chose Lua as a scripting language. You get standardization and training materials for "free" and can work on extending it to suit your needs.
 
imgui isn't GPL. Many games already use imgui for their dev tools.

but, It isn't designed to be for a game's ui. Its meant for rapid prototyping and dev tools.
i see, i googled it and the first response was saying as much, but looking at it again it appears it was referencing a project that was using imgui and not imgui itself. Thnx for pointing it out.
 
Been trying to keep tabs on this thread. I was just curious as to what the consensus opinion is regarding these changes and the state of MQ and Lua scripting going forward.

Is this just another speed bump in the road, albeit a large speed bump, or is this an indirect way to curtail automation?

Like I said I was just curious as to how Brain, Sic, Chats, Hytiek, and others felt about the challenges these changes present, and the ability to overcome the hurdles.

Be well. Happy gaming.
 
Been trying to keep tabs on this thread. I was just curious as to what the consensus opinion is regarding these changes and the state of MQ and Lua scripting going forward.

Is this just another speed bump in the road, albeit a large speed bump, or is this an indirect way to curtail automation?

Like I said I was just curious as to how Brain, Sic, Chats, Hytiek, and others felt about the challenges these changes present, and the ability to overcome the hurdles.

Be well. Happy gaming.
i doubt there's a better team of 3 out there to handle these kinds of curveballs than brainiac, dannuic, and knightly. I'm personally confident if it can be worked around, it will be.

From my un/undereducated mind, the new UI is getting information somewhere, so hopefully we can get that information instead of trying to read it directly,

I doubt MQ has ever been in more capable hands - and I can't personally imagine something "too tough" for brain to be like "i guess i'll pack it in"
 
Thanks, Sic.

Speaking for myself, and perhaps a good portion of the community, the reassurance is greatly appreciated. The “Never Say Die” attitude is also greatly appreciated. I would imagine that way back when, MQ started as a hobby, but with some of the changes to EQ over the years, I hope that MQ has not become a second job.

I apologize to @Knightly. I inadvertently forgot to mention him in my previous post. 😇

Be well. Happy gaming.
 
The animated part of that looks like a video. the button is just the part that says "Start".

The UI is essentially just a webpage. its html, css, and javascript.
I agree, the button is just the button, the animated part is likely an animated gift or could be a small video file. My fault in simply saying a button like this. My meaning is that, as you said, its a web page essentially, and our buttons could eventually be very flashy, colorful, animated and menus and sub menus pop out with less clicking. Entire Ui color changing at your whim, versus now, design one Ui and have it a dark grey for all and design a red one for evil class or a green one for your rangers, etc. Somewhere between the Java and CSS, hockey's can link easier and hilariously might get a tiny bit closer to more automation. Gasp, haha.
Will have the users be able to make UI like mobile games, and flashy. We'll see, its just my speculation
 
I agree, the button is just the button, the animated part is likely an animated gift or could be a small video file. My fault in simply saying a button like this. My meaning is that, as you said, its a web page essentially, and our buttons could eventually be very flashy, colorful, animated and menus and sub menus pop out with less clicking. Entire Ui color changing at your whim, versus now, design one Ui and have it a dark grey for all and design a red one for evil class or a green one for your rangers, etc. Somewhere between the Java and CSS, hockey's can link easier and hilariously might get a tiny bit closer to more automation. Gasp, haha.
Will have the users be able to make UI like mobile games, and flashy. We'll see, its just my speculation
LOL the way you describe it, makes it sound UTTERLY awful!
 
***With all that said, we wanted to give you an update on the progress of our efforts to launch a new UI engine. Based on the extremely helpful feedback we’ve received so far, current bug issues, and other important data that has been gathered throughout this current testing session, we’ve decided to hold off on launching the new UI engine in April. Our current plan is to launch in May, which will allow us more time to ensure it’s a smoother transition. Our deepest and heartfelt thanks to all who have provided us with bug reports and feedback. And to all Norrathians, thank you for your patience while we work to get the new UI engine up and running.***


so will this be a problem for user's here ?
 
There are working on it a lot. This just in from yesterday's (May 15th) patch on test

*** UI ***

- Disabled the use of hyperlinks in new UI windows.
- Added support for loading custom UIs with the new UI engine via the loadskin command or the UISkin INI setting.
- Corrected the display of spell-gem as hotkeys.
- Fixed an issue where some UI elements would appear when loading in on a brand new character.
- Fixed an issue where an empty tooltip would display instead of nothing.
- Fixed the mail notification on the Selector Window to no longer indicate you always have unread mail.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent players from returning to the tutorial right after escaping.
- Updates /ui scale to have an upper boundary of 2.5.
 
Doubt it. Everything should continue to work as it has been...with regards to MQ. I am guessing on the EQ front it may hinder some things. But that will be from the game side only.
 
I highly doubt it will take the MQ team more than a few days to go thru everything that the EQ team has rolling out. MQ team is probably already working on checking the test update stuff out
 
I've got a feeling there is still a few issues, using Zliz's and updating it with their tool, I am still getting artifacts

This
you just bumped a thread from march. it is may and this is a test server re-up patch. and you're not even on test :p

there are several posts about eq's broken issues with this current patch tho.

yes this was a general "here is the new ui" thread, but there are several other threads and posts about the 5/17 update with the dbg ui being broken. there is no need to pm me about it. I also personally had ui problems, and i discovered the cause of it as my thread about how to work around the blnky green shows

 
News - 2023 New UI Thread (Tue March 21 Test "Re-Up" to live patch)

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