[SUGGESTION] My Variables Menu Idea

Hi guys,

I know that you can change a truck load of settings in the 'advance settings' menu, but I think it's quite difficult to use, and you can easily get confused. So, I thought, why not have a similar menu (for things like weapons or physics) that is better organised and is easier to read?

Please see attached a quick mock-up I made (in Word) last night.

Cam

PS This is only a menu for the Electro. There would have to be a menu for all the other weapons too and then you have to make variable menus for other gameplay aspects like physics.
Still, it should just be a case of copying and pasting most of the code and changing the images and variables that don't apply to certain things (the shotgun, for example, doesn't reload, so there won't be a reload time variable).

Aww, no feedback?

There are quite a few cvars so making such menus would be a lot of work. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, it's just a lot of work for a feature that isn't as used as other customizations like the hud, etc.

Just as a cute little FYI, almost every engine has just as much customization available to developers but they close these once the game ships. Just exposing these the way they have was a great service to users already.

aww... it would be so much work ...

Thanks for the replies.

I was hoping that these menus could be used by people that aren't too familiar with typing in the cmd prompt/scrolling through 1000s of cvars to edit relatively basic settings for things like weapons and physics. These menus probably wouldn't use more than 5% of the total cvars.

Aside from the cvars, how much of a pain is it to implement this type of thing into Xonotic and create things like sliders and values that change depending on what you type, etc?

Just as a cute little FYI, almost every engine has just as much customization available to developers but they close these once the game ships. Just exposing these the way they have was a great service to users already.

I agree. Mods and hacks make PC gaming a whole lot more fun than console gaming.

the spirit of this is sound, but in reality editing those settings is fairly easy once you get into it. It would be easier, and just as effective, to set up a short guide to modifying cvars, with documentation about default values, and other usefull information that would make getting into this kind of development a little more clear.

EDIT: to clarify: in one place, such as a wiki. This information is out there, it just takes some digging to find.

What about this?

An easy to understand Cvar guide for newbies and non-techy people that is built into Xonotic. It allows people to copy and paste the cvars they want to edit using the search facility in the 'advance settings' menu. A direct link to the 'advanced settings' menu is included in the guide so people don't have to keep closing/opening windows.
The guide can be viewed outside of Xonotic, allowing people to input code straight into a config that they can load up.

Also, perhaps the 'advanced settings' menu could be structured so that you can select tabs that take you to settings that relate to bots, weapons, etc. One of the great things about Red Eclipse is that you can change variables with such ease - and it's user-friendly.

i like it

difficult to understand setting are "hidden" from menu access because they are difficult. Exposing a button for average joe with a mystical name that makes hes screen go black does not help anyone. Keep in mind this engine house myriads of option to support emulation and bug emulation and so forth as well as all the gfx and server options dating back to quake 1 and to this fairly modern platform. Honesty i would like to see less standard options. If you get into the hakker spirit of gpl, and your somewhat likely to given the game origin and community support for such thing, all the better. But before you get to that point, less options is better - imo.

I actually started a thread similar to this a while ago, check the following link. For the most part the advanced options are exactly that, ADVANCED. You can seriously screw up a lot of things if you mess around with them, but there are a few useful things in there including stuff that should be enabled default or added to the effects settings screen somewhere.

http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=1817

difficult to understand setting are "hidden" from menu access because they are difficult. Exposing a button for average joe with a mystical name that makes hes screen go black does not help anyone. Keep in mind this engine house myriads of option to support emulation and bug emulation and so forth as well as all the gfx and server options dating back to quake 1 and to this fairly modern platform. Honesty i would like to see less standard options. If you get into the hakker spirit of gpl, and your somewhat likely to given the game origin and community support for such thing, all the better. But before you get to that point, less options is better - imo.

I have to agree with tZork. Video games aren't like the rest of the hackersphere, you can't just hack together a game and expect it to blow the socks off of commercial titles. You get interesting things when you do, but it often feels, in the end, like a mesh together and a mess...althought the bazaar model works for some things very well (linux, webstuff), it doesn't fit well with the video games gamers expect.

So yeah, a cleaner appearance is better. The sin, however, is closing that to everyone else and not letting people tweak it if they want.

Anyhow, Xonotic cvar/command documentation is needed...if someone we're to take the time .

I'm hinting that you could do it. btw, if you really want. Not all development is mapping or coding

I messed around with some shotgun variables.
EDIT: I've made a video showing the changes I made to the shotgun. I've also made another video featuring a rapid-fire MinstaNex, an overpowered laser and a super-bouncy mortar. My upload speeds are pretty slow, but I'll try and upload them soon.