[GD-Design] Configurable GUIs

[Brian H. <bri...@py...>]

Whilst toying with a simple RPG I've been working on in my spare time, I've 
run into a bit of a stumper when it comes to GUI design.

Originally I started out with the grand notion that the GUI would simply be 
a bunch of overlapping windows on top of a 3D desktop (i.e. the entire 
background was the local "situation" -- first person, top down, isometric, 
whatever, point being that it's not constrained to a smaller window).  This 
seemed to make intuitive sense.

Until, of course, it was implemented.  The control scheme is unbearable.

Most games I've seen fall under one of three GUI camps:

1.  effectively no GUI, the entire scene is 3D and interface elements tend 
to be non-interactive.  Most first person shooters are like this.

2.  hard coded GUI, where there's a display window and then a bunch of 
dressing that does things like show character stats, order units around, 
exit the game, bring up menus, etc.  Most RPGs and some flight sims are 
like this.

3. MDI style multiple-window system with tiling and overlapping windows, 
where the 3D view is "just another window"

The problem with #1 is that it's not a very friendly interface and it 
doesn't allow for a particularly rich interactive experience.

The problem with #2 is that, well, it's hard coded.  If you want a bigger 
chat window or a larger radar display, it's difficult to do within the 
constraints of a hardcoded layout (and make no doubt, the layout is 
hardcoded, because if it wasn't, it would be a #3 GUI).

The problem with #3 is that it becomes cluttered.  Quickly.  Overlapping 
windows make sense when you have a lot of documents that you toggle 
between, but by and large you're only operating on a single window at a 
time and the other windows can be ignored.  Works great for a word 
processor, but it's kinda sucky for a game.

So let's invent #4, the "central window with overlapping ancillary control 
panels" interface.  Basically imagine an RPG or flight sim where you can 
undock the chat, radar, health, etc. panels and move them and resize them 
at will.  For chat this is particularly nice (especially for an on-line 
game) where you want to make the windows nice and big (and possibly have 
several of them open) so you can interact with others.

The problem comes about due to the windows overlapping each other, which 
causes a point-and-click interface to go to complete hell.  Say your game 
is an RTS.  Your chat window is up because you're coordinating with your 
friends, but now an enemy unit appears under your chat window.  You try to 
click on the unit, but it simply "focuses" the chat window.  Bzzzt, that 
sucks.  But if clicking selects the unit under the chat window, how do you 
move the chat window -- by manipulating the title bar only?  That sucks too 
since it's unintuitive.  So do you force the user to dock/move the chat 
window out of the way?  That would seem cumbersome as hell (imagine 
constantly moving the chat window out of the way in order to click on 
various units on the screen).

I didn't realize that taking a simple UI and just extending it into "make 
it configurable" was so damn hard to design.

I'm leaning towards thinking that overlapping windows -- except for modal 
dialogs -- is a bad idea.  Alternatively, panels can be undocked and 
resized, but they are 'naturally' in a docked position so when the shit 
hits the fan, you can click on a "dock all windows" button and be back in a 
usable state.

Anyway, I'm curious what others think about this issue.

Brian