Interface solution found maybe?

[w1lla]

Just downloaded all images ^^ want to set them as a desktop background

[novationx]

wow they look really nice!
Why didnt NADEO end up using them?

[w1lla]

As it was made during a specific timeframe according to his linkedin page in 3 years and 7 months between 2004 and 2008

[riolu]

So Valley had 3 different 3D models? The one shown in the artwork, then the CanyonCar which can be seen in the TrackMania² announcement trailer and the current ValleyCar.
Would love to see that artwork model in the next TM² environment, it looks really cool!

[tm2eddy0131]

Hi!

I was surfing through the web a little and found these nice pice of interface concepts!




Imo, the one with the canyon menu looks pretty damn intuitive!

Tell me and Nando what you think!

I like this interfaces ! but the 1 and 2 i'm not fan :/

[purification]

So, maniaplanet 3.1 is going to be released as mp4 is being prepared, time to debate about the future menu interface.

Lot of you think that the actual UI is nice. But it can get messy, thinking about the number of titles installed. And some of you want to acces options or else in less mouse clicks as possible. I thought a lot about this, I think that the UI is like forsaken, that it is the less important part of the game. Of course it is important, as well as the maniahome interface concept below :



Lot of games that I have played got 2D interface, much better than the current 3D layout. As you can see, I put some features I wished to see during mp3 beta phase, as well as the design I wish to see in the future. First of my wishes is :

A rolling-demo background
Yup. TMS, TMN, TMU, TMF... they got all their own rolling demo background. I really appreciate this feature in the games. The current one (clouds passing forward in a dark atmosphere) is not what I though as maniaplanet should be. Maniaplanet is a platform that gives creative powers to the players. Just add some punchy colours, as well as a dynamic 30s long rolling-demo. There's no better than a living menu in a game.


Keep using the old logos
The current logos of the four games don't fit at all. The problem is not that I don't like it, but this one or this former one is twice better than the emblem. Thunder/textures overlays on the name gives a better identity of the game itself, to the customer.This is french design

Sort titles per environnment
As I said for players having 50 titles for example, the title layout can be messy. In the current UI, you have to scroll down to access your installed titles. While keeping the current menu layout, I though to scroll down as well, but the titles could be sorted alphabetically, depending what environment you wish to play in. We can point between the main titles as Canyon, Stadium, and Valley, and the TM² title as well, in a nice horizontal carousel effect. Of course, we can find the server menu overlay in a click.

Background-task download
Lot of players don't get a same download speed, ADSL or optical fibre. Depending of the being downloaded titles, little as big one, it's pretty annoying looking at a progression bar, sometimes getting stuck or falling to 0 during a network cut.

Maniahome button in the middle of the screen
Maniaplanet is also a social game, in where a player can have over 50 buddies. The problem of this that it is not informative enough. For example, a player don't know the characters limit, which is 255. And if ever he reached it although he don't know it, he can have an error message, and see his message being deleted, which is pretty frustrating.

...and so many ideas that I don't wrote yet, and that I'll write them with a picture in this post/or thread soon.


Voilà.

[novationx]

design

Dude, I rly like the minimal look and I see you put a lot of thought into it.... Ive been trying to explain this to NADEO since 2012. " The design is important too", but its always at the bottom of the todo-list.

A good-looking bad game can sell better , than a bad-looking good game.

I fully support your design & It would be super awesome if they would find a professional solution for their portal: maniaplanet.
It simply looks not finished atm.

EDIT : typos fixed

[riolu]

That design looks so clean & user-friendly, even at first sight. Very good job on that one Puri, I'd love to see an animated version of this interface some day. In my head I can already imagine it working perfectly

At the top you can switch between the main games (TM, SM and QM). In the middle you can change between the different available environments (the rolling-demo in the background changing with the respective environment). Clicking on "open titles mosaic" fades in the other, custom-made title packs available for this environment.
Awesome concept in my eyes.

[purification]

A good-looking bad game can sell better , than a bad-looking good game.

This is where something is wrong, and I can't exactly explain...

[novationx]

A good-looking bad game can sell better , than a bad-looking good game.

This is where something is wrong, and I can't exactly explain...

I dont understand? You dont agree with what I am saying?