Test Update 07/11/2023 - Patch Notes and Discussions

This is exactly what they need to do. If they add anything else to that mess they just created then its not going to work right. Hello, you can't put more stuff on a broken UI and expect it to work. Its broke. New stuff put on it will be broke.

Did I mention the whole thing is broke?

I think they should just update it so that you can choose to use the old UI if you have issues with the new or just want to use the old. The new UI can stay in place but make it so that players can easily switch to the old as they choose.

I think the players that do not have the bug/problem with the new UI have no clue really.

Its not a "choice" that a large portion of players are forced to revert to the old UI to play the game. Its the only way we can still play. I have heard very few, if any, players who are using the old UI out of preference or choice.

This would be like giving someone with a brand new boat some paddles and telling them that is how you power the boat while others who bought the same boat get a really nice 3000 turbo jet engine.

I understand that which is why I think they should have allowed the option to switch back to the old UI so that they can get around these problems. As it is any user that is having these problems needs to create a custom UI to do this or add the window items to their existing custom UI.

There is nothing we can do at this point to make the new UI usable for everyone but having the ability to easily switch back to the old UI would help.

The problem with the number of players who have gone over to the old UI rather than the new, are likely to want to keep what they have now rather than switch to the new. I certainly don't want to go over to the new one, I have no need of interlocking windows or a change in the windows sizes.

Many of us have been forced into using the old UI due to the inventory window always being on top. It annoys me every time I decide to play a different char.

The new UI has annoyed me and made me resent it so much I want nothing to do with it ever.

Hopefully once they get the bugs worked out you won't notice any real difference in the UI

I like the idea of a new UI, and support the decision to update. I believe Angelina gave directions on how to switch back to the old UI.

I would like some indication on what we can change on the new UI. There is little documentation, and the UI conversion tool does not seem to work. Even converting the default UI fails.

If we could fix things ourselves, I think this would go smoother. I am not getting any feedback on the EQInterface forums, so I'm kind of lost on my own. At this point I'm just working with the old UI system and creating a 4K UI for my own use. This is providing me valuable experience, so I'm OK with it.

There are some things that need to change in the new UI. For example, gauges should no longer have text components. We cannot control them, and I see most UIs just set a textoffset which sends gauge text off into the weeds. Then they overlay a label on top. This makes sense. Please do not try to make one control do two different things.

PS: One more thing: It would be great if we knew what controls were modified/overridden by the client. I can get some idea by opening the client in a hex editor and searching for UI component names. In a pinch, I can edit that name and observe a change in the UI. It is frustrating to try to create a UI and then have the client override my choices.

Some controls are governed by the client entirely: For example, the cascading spell menu which appears off of the casting window. This has a fixed size font which we cannot override. On a 4K display this is unusable.

First off the UI conversion tool is only designed for converting windows that the dev team has already converted to the new UI system, that means it will only work on those 4 windows for now. That being said it is still likely going to have issues with custom UI items depending on how they are made.

Also the UI conversion project is supposed to keep the windows basically the same as they are now unless there are parts that will not work under the new system.

As for the documentation I wouldn't expect any of that until most if not all of the windows are converted as there are likely still things changing about how the new windows will be coded and what is needed.

First off, the UI conversion tool doesn't convert anything period. It does not work to convert anything, and thus all claims that it ever did was an outright lie.

The only windows it will ever convert are the ones that the devs have converted over to the new UI but people seem to think it was designed to convert all windows over at launch without the need for the devs to do anything.

It does not even convert those. What part of that do you not understand? Literally, no one is calling for it to convert any window that is not already moved to the new UI. Everyone other than you is saying that the converter doesn't work on any windows at all and specifically any of the windows which are already converted.

Saying that the converter will only convert windows that have already been moved over to the new UI is a red herring to this discussion.

So the 'UI Converter' will only convert windows that have already been manually converted ?
Did I get that right ?

So, what, exactly, does it convert ?

If it only 'converts' windows that have already been converted to the new UI, what exactly is the point ?

That is basically saying that every custom UI has to be rewritten from scratch once every window has been manually converted to the new UI.

No, what I stated specifically was saying that for windows which have already been moved to the new GAMEFACE engine, the converter was supposed to be capable of converting the SUITE files (both default and custom) to the new GAMEFACE format. The converter cannot do that for either default or custom files currently.

I would go even further to say that the converter should be able to convert all files regardless of whether that windows has been converted yet, with features that are exclusive to specific windows being excluded. The converter should be looking at the existing xml files for SUITE and translating them to the equivalent html5 files for GAMEFACE. I also think that the converter should be moving the various referenced image files and other secondary files and moving them to the appropriate locations within the GAMEFACE UI folders.

The entire UI engine rollout has been an utter failure, no matter what anyone says. It never should have went to live, period. We should have been capable of converting the windows that have been moved over before anything went live at the very least. Further we should have had a complete walkthrough of how to convert each of the windows manually. We lack too much vital information, all of which makes the new system a failure from the start.

What is your point exactly? The entire point of my comments on that was because people kept making claims that it should have converted every window even if the developers had not yet done the work on them yet. With all the bugs around the new UI is it really surprising that there are also bugs around the conversion tool as well?

It is designed to help UI makers convert their custom windows to the new system so they don't need to recode them all by hand?

One more lost initiative, that ends up as a net negative for them.

It's, by far, not the first time they have started something with the community 'all-in' and ready to roll with the concept, and the company themselves aren't ready.

THE CONVERTER: was supposed to convert existing custom UI's (in SUITE format) to the new (GAMEFACE format). If the converted windows didn't work, that would be a wealth of errors provided by players (for free to the devs). Things they could have used to wring out the system.

A converter that doesn't work at all (as this one fails at), is worse than useless. Because the people who were excited to help work with the new UI development get discouraged.

And the dragging on and on with no new windows (as promised) or no new updates beyond what the one dev was kind enough to give a while ago, is discouraging as well.

...
One more thing.

Many people's confusion over what the converter is even supposed to be for is just proof this was dismally, or not at all, communicated to the people who would help the small staff they have most.

Locking this thread as it's strayed a bit off topic.

To give a final point of clarification though, the window converter's goal is to convert an old XML file into the new HTML format. That portion of a window conversion is only a small fraction of the work needed to convert from the old to new engine. We're aware that the tool isn't meeting that goal currently.

We're continuing to work on fixing bugs with existing windows and building out the new engine's capabilities to support more conversions. A lack of public patch notes isn't an indication that work isn't being done on the new UI engine.