Settings App (python) Design

[royfalk]

Below is the design for the settings app screens.
Edit it directly. Discuss Below.
As you flesh this out, I'll develop what you decide.

For reference, here is a screenshot of the vsettings utility. At a minimum, we should be able to set each of the options that were settable with it. (And a few more that are missing)

Table of Contents

To do:

1. Add Joystick options - Mostly done but not sure how to do binding. When I installed my joystick, it just worked.
2. Add font options to "Graphics" Tab (bitmap/vector, and font point) - BMP is obsolete stuff. No reason to use anything but whatever is newest. Either vector or anti-aliased vector. When we move to imGui, this will be done automatically. It's funny they picked BMP to be the high quality font. I guess it was twenty five years ago.
3. Add Music on/off tickbox to "Audio"

Done:

1. Tabs
2. Simulation
3. Graphics Resolution / full screen
4. Physics / Game Accel
5. Geometry
6. Textures
7. Shaders
8. Add mouse options

Won't Fix/Do:

1. Add color depth to "Graphics" - I see no reason to support 16 bit color today. This should do until someone comes with 64 bit color.
2. Add Accelerated Visuals to "Graphics" - doesn't actually do what you think it does. It just sets a field in SDL2. GPU is automatically called by the OpenGL library.

Tabs

Simulation,Graphics, Audio, Control, Gameplay

Simulation

• Physics... Choice between: "Default", "Classic", "Realistic", "Ultrarealistic"

Label: Default
physics/game_accel=1

Label: Classic
physics/game_accel=2

Label: Realistic
physics/game_accel=0.3

Label: Ultrarealistic
physics/game_accel=0.1

• Computer Speed...

Edit
I think we can drop this one, no one plays on a 1Ghz computer anymore. Just ensure these values are set,
as they are from "Computer" part of the vegasettings.config file for anything higher than 1000MHz section:
audio/every_other_mount="false"
audio/max_single_sounds="12"
audio/max_total_soundse="32"

There seems to be more to the computer speed setting that I missed.
The following four variables are also set in the config file, in two segments:

<!-- #1000MHz
                        <var name="simulation_atom" value="0.05"/>
                        <var name="numoldsystems" value="2"/>
#end -->
<!-- #2000MHz -->
                        <var name="simulation_atom" value="0.04"/>
                        <var name="numoldsystems" value="4"/>
<!-- #end -->
<!-- #3000MHz
                        <var name="simulation_atom" value="0.03"/>
                        <var name="numoldsystems" value="4"/>
#end -->
<!-- #4000MHz
                        <var name="simulation_atom" value="0.02"/>
                        <var name="numoldsystems" value="5"/>
#end -->
<!-- #4000MHzPlus
                        <var name="simulation_atom" value="0.01"/>
                        <var name="numoldsystems" value="8"/>
#end -->

And:

<!-- #1000MHz
                        <var name="NumRunningSystems" value="2"/>
                        <var name="InactiveSystemTime" value=".5"/>
#end -->
<!-- #2000MHz    
                        <var name="NumRunningSystems" value="3"/>
                        <var name="InactiveSystemTime" value=".3"/>
#end -->
<!-- #3000MHz
                        <var name="NumRunningSystems" value="4"/>
                        <var name="InactiveSystemTime" value=".2"/>
#end -->
<!-- #4000MHz
                        <var name="NumRunningSystems" value="5"/>
                        <var name="InactiveSystemTime" value=".1"/>
#end -->
<!-- #4000MHzPlus -->
                        <var name="NumRunningSystems" value="8"/>
                        <var name="InactiveSystemTime" value=".05"/>
<!-- #end -->

• Autodocker

test/autodocker="false" (Boolean, seems like the default is "false")

• Censorship

This does not seem to have been ported to the new config.json. There is a variable called "loading_sprite" that can have a value of either "load_screen.ani" or "load_screen_censored.ani"

Graphics

• Full screen - You have this one in hand, but in vegastrike.config it also sets graphics/zfar

graphics/zfar...
There is some confusion here in the vegasettings.config, as this value is also set in "Geometry" No idea which takes precedence. I'd leave this one out, and just use the value set in geometry for now, and see how that works out. (They're generally lower, and might have a big impact on game performance.)

• Screen
• Scaling - Whether or not to scale to full screen/window. We'll need to discuss this one. Do we ever want to not scale to the window/screen?
• Resolution - You have this one in hand already
• Text: Choice between "Bitmap", "Vector", "Anti-aliased Vector"

Label: "Bitmap" sets
graphics/high_quality_font=true
graphics/high_quality_font_computer=true
graphics/font_antialias=false

Label: "Vector" sets
graphics/high_quality_font=false
graphics/high_quality_font_computer=false
graphics/font_antialias=false

Label: "Anti-aliased Vector" sets
graphics/high_quality_font=false
graphics/high_quality_font_computer=false
graphics/font_antialias=true
(We might want to rework this, maybe)**

• Font point
  graphics/font_point=[num], Tooltip: font size for antialiased fonts.

• Wireframe
  graphics/use_wireframe="false" (Boolean tick box, false as default)

• Geometry
  Choice between "Extreme", "Very High", "High", "Medium", "Low", "Retro"

"Extreme"
graphics/fog="true"
graphics/model_detail="10"
graphics/mipmap_detail="3"
graphics/reflection="true"
graphics/draw_star_body="true"
graphics/draw_star_glow="true"
graphics/high_quality_sprites="true"
graphics/blend_panels="true"
graphics/smooth_lines="true"
graphics/per_pixel_lighting="true"
graphics/specmap_with_reflection="true"
graphics/znear="8"
graphics/zfar="65536"
graphics/starblend="true"
graphics/point_sparkles="false"
graphics/background="true"
graphics/cockpit="true"
graphics/planet_detail="96"
graphics/jump_detail="16"

"Very High"
graphics/fog="true"
graphics/model_detail="3"
graphics/mipmap_detail="3"
graphics/reflection="true"
graphics/draw_star_body="false"
graphics/draw_star_glow="true"
graphics/high_quality_sprites="false"
graphics/blend_panels="true"
graphics/smooth_lines="true"
graphics/znear="8"
graphics/zfar="65536"
graphics/starblend="true"
graphics/point_sparkles="false"
graphics/background="true"
graphics/cockpit="true"
graphics/planet_detail="64"
graphics/jump_detail="16"

"High"
graphics/fog="true"
graphics/model_detail="1"
graphics/mipmap_detail="2"
graphics/reflection="true"
graphics/force_lighting="0"
graphics/draw_star_body="true"
graphics/draw_star_glow="true"
graphics/high_quality_sprites="false"
graphics/blend_panels="true"
graphics/smooth_lines="false"
graphics/znear="16"
graphics/zfar="32768"
graphics/starblend="true"
graphics/point_sparkles="false"
graphics/background="true"
graphics/cockpit="true"
graphics/planet_detail="48"
graphics/jump_detail="8"

"Medium"
graphics/fog="false"
graphics/model_detail="0.5"
graphics/mipmap_detail="2"
graphics/reflection="true"
graphics/force_lighting="0"
graphics/draw_star_body="true"
graphics/draw_star_glow="true"
graphics/high_quality_sprites="true"
graphics/blend_panels="true"
graphics/smooth_lines="false"
graphics/znear="16"
graphics/zfar="32768"
graphics/starblend="true"
graphics/point_sparkles="false"
graphics/background="true"
graphics/cockpit="true"
graphics/planet_detail="48"
graphics/jump_detail="8"

"Low"
graphics/fog="false"
graphics/model_detail="0.2"
graphics/mipmap_detail="2"
graphics/reflection="false"
graphics/force_lighting="0"
graphics/draw_star_body="true"
graphics/draw_star_glow="false"
graphics/high_quality_sprites="false"
graphics/blend_panels="true"
graphics/smooth_lines="false"
graphics/per_pixel_lighting="false"
graphics/znear="16"
graphics/zfar="32768"
graphics/starblend="false"
graphics/point_sparkles="true"
graphics/background="false"
graphics/cockpit="false"
graphics/planet_detail="48"
graphics/jump_detail="8"

"Retro"
graphics/fog="false"
graphics/model_detail="0.2"
graphics/mipmap_detail="2"
graphics/reflection="false"
graphics/force_lighting="0"
graphics/draw_star_body="false"
graphics/draw_star_glow="true"
graphics/high_quality_sprites="false"
graphics/blend_panels="true"
graphics/smooth_lines="false"
graphics/per_pixel_lighting="false"
graphics/znear="16"
graphics/zfar="32768"
graphics/starblend="false"
graphics/point_sparkles="true"
graphics/background="false"
graphics/cockpit="false"
graphics/planet_detail="24"
graphics/jump_detail="8"

• Textures

Choice between "Retro", "256", "512", "1024", "2048", "Unlimited"
"Retro"
graphics/max_texture_dimension="44"
graphics/max_movie_dimension="44"
graphics/max_cubemap_size="44"

"256"
graphics/max_texture_dimension="256"
graphics/max_movie_dimension="256"
graphics/max_cubemap_size="128"

"512"
graphics/max_texture_dimension="512"
graphics/max_movie_dimension="360"
graphics/max_cubemap_size="256"

"1024"
graphics/max_texture_dimension="1024"
graphics/max_movie_dimension="720"
graphics/max_cubemap_size="512"

"2048"
graphics/max_texture_dimension="2048"
graphics/max_movie_dimension="1024"
graphics/max_cubemap_size="1024"

"Unlimited"
graphics/max_texture_dimension="65536"
graphics/max_movie_dimension="1280"
graphics/max_cubemap_size="65536"

• Faction Textures

graphics/faction_dependant_textures=0/1 (Boolean tickbox)

• Shaders

Choice between: "Extreme", "Nicest", "Average", "Simple", "Simplest","On Board","No Shader"
"Extreme"
graphics/mac_shader_name="mac"
graphics/default_full_technique="5_ps3.0/default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="5_ps3.0/default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="6_ps4.0"

"Nicest"
graphics/mac_shader_name="mac"
graphics/default_full_technique="default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="5_ps3.0"

"Average"
graphics/mac_shader_name="mac"
graphics/default_full_technique="5_ps3.0/default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="5_ps3.0/default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="4_ps2.0"

"Simple"
graphics/mac_shader_name="maclite"
graphics/default_full_technique="5_ps3.0/default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="5_ps3.0/default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="3_arbfp"

"Simplest"
graphics/mac_shader_name="maclite"
graphics/default_full_technique="default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="2_ps1.4"

"On Board"
graphics/mac_shader_name="maclite"
graphics/default_full_technique="default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="1_ps1.2"

"No Shader"
graphics/mac_shader_name="maclite"
graphics/default_full_technique="default"
graphics/default_simple_technique="default_simple"
graphics/technique_set="0_fixed_gl"

• Color
  graphics/colordepth=[16/32] (Should be either of these values, default to 32 please)

• AcceleratedVisual
  graphics/gl_accelerated_visual=[true/false] (Boolean tickbox)

Audio

• Sound: Choice between: "No Sound", "My Sound Only", "All Sound"

"No Sound" sets
audio/positional=false

"My Sound Only" sets
audio/positional=true
audio/ai_sound=false

"All Sound" sets
audio/positional=true
audio/ai_sound=true

• MusicAndVolume: Choice between: "Music Off", "High Volume", "Medium Volume", "Low Volume"

"Music Off"
audio/music=false

"High Volume"
audio/music=true
audio/music_volume=".75"

"Medium Volume"
audio/music=true
audio/music_volume=".5"

"Low Volume"
audio/music=true
audio/music_volume=".25"

Control

• Mouse

Option between: "No mouse", "Mouse Warping", "Inv Mouse Warp", "Mouse Glide", "Inv Mouse Glide"
In config.json the mouse options are currently under "joystick". This should probably be moved to its own upper level setting, there are a few mouse options, apart from the bindings below.

"No Mouse" Binds the following:
bind mouse="0" player="1" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
var name="warp_mouse" value="false"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="40"

"Warp Mouse" Binds the following:
bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="true"
var name="warp_mouse" value="true"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="120"

"Inv Warp Mouse" binds the following:
bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="false"
var name="warp_mouse" value="true"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="120"

"Inv Glide Mouse" binds the following:
bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="false"
var name="mouse_cursor" value="true"
var name="reverse_mouse_spr" value="true"
var name="warp_mouse" value="false"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="40"

"Glide Mouse" binds the following:
bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="true"
var name="mouse_cursor" value="true"
var name="reverse_mouse_spr" value="false"
var name="warp_mouse" value="false"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="40"

• Joystick

Should have the option to disable/enable joystick as a whole.
Should be able to specify which axis does what.

My joystick has the normal x and y axes, then it has yaw and throttle showing up as two more axes, and its HAT switch are two more axes. In the old setup, I had to set yaw and throttle reversed, but this is a silly workaround, you should be able to set which axis does what directly.

So, at least X, Y, Yaw and Throttle needs to have axes that are settable in the config.
Something in the line of:
Joystick X Axis = 1
Joystick Y Axis = 2
Joystick Yaw Axis = 3
Joystick Throttle = 4
HAT X Axis = 5
HAT Y Axis = 6

A value of "0" or "" would mean disabled, and ignored by the game engine.

Joystick buttons all map to exactly a function that is also on the keyboard bindings.
It would make most sense to rename the "Keyboard" tab to "Bindings" tab.
Then along each function, have a box for the keyboard binding, and another box, usually empty, for the Joystick button binding for the same function.

• Keyboard
  No bindings as yet. Needs to be implemented, as well as option to set binding by pressing the key. (And the default bindings displayed)

Gameplay

• AI
• Player

[royfalk]

FYI - @BenjamenMeyer , @stephengtuggy

@evertvorster , @kheckwrecker - please edit the design above. For each line I need:

1. Path (mandatory). e.g. graphics/resolution
2. Control (optional). By default, bool => checkbox. Everything else => text field.
3. Tooltip text (optional)
4. Custom behavior. For example, changing the screen causes the supported resolution to change and the max resolution is automatically selected.

[evertvorster]

I made a start on what needs to be in the configuration app.

There seems to be the concept that some of the menu options sets several options at once. Also, some of the variables have cryptic names. As you might have guessed, I'm working through the vsettings app, and looking at the configuration file that it creates to see which options are set with each menu setting.

What I am noticing, though, is that some of the options that are set are almost constant, and so this might be a golden opportunity to re-work some of the settings to be more intuitive.

As mentioned elsewhere, the config file is a beast, and a bit much to do in one go. I'll do it section by section with little breaks in between. Once I have all the options mapped out, then I can move them around a bit and group them where it makes sense.
I'll give you a shout when I think it is ready for implementation.

[royfalk]

The current settings are mostly twenty years obsolete.

However, you can group other settings together.

Also, you can and should do one section at a time to give me something to work on.

[evertvorster]

Also, you can and should do one section at a time to give me something to work on.

When editing the design, I grouped the settings together.
Eg: Under the graphics setting, all the options that affect graphics are set. The only section I am at a loss at is control, as bindings do not seem to have been migrated to the new config.json yet.

While the numbers of each setting might be out of date, this is what vegastrike.config had, and this will be a good start off point, so that we have a working settings app that sets the settings to exactly what was set before.

[evertvorster]

OK, I've worked through the vegasettings and vegastrike.config files.

Updated the design for what should be in the tabs, and which options should be set to be near what vegasettings did.

Vegasettings was hiding a lot of the complexity of configuring Vega Strike, and I think that is a good thing. Of course, that means we have to do the complicated things here again, and just expose the simple options to the user.
In the future, it might be a good idea to have an Advanced mode where you can tune each of the settings that a button sets, and if possible we should think about that when implementing what a button sets.

As mentioned, keyboard/mouse/joystick bindings does not seem to have been implemented in config.json yet. If I'm wrong on this one, please tell me how to set bindings, and I'll work through those settings as well.

In the meantime, I'm not going to change the design any more, and as the options get implemented we can strike through the options to show what has been done to keep everything straight.

[stephengtuggy]

Yes. Thanks for doing this, @evertvorster .

[kheckwrecker]

One thing I would recommend is removing the "Game Start" options from the settings app. All of those options seem to me to be options that would be set by a developer for a custom game/campaign. I don't think any of the options are something an end user would ever need to set.

[stephengtuggy]

That's entirely possible.

[BenjamenMeyer]

That would probably be good for an Advanced or Developer section.

I do agree that an end-user is unlikely to use them unless they're helping to debug something, which would probably still be good to make/keep easy to set.

[kheckwrecker]

• Computer Speed...

I think we can drop this one, no one plays on a 1Ghz computer anymore. Just ensure these values are set, as they are from "Computer" part of the vegasettings.config file for anything higher than 1000MHz section: audio/every_other_mount="false" audio/max_single_sounds="12" audio/max_total_soundse="32"

I agree with removing this.

• Autodocker

test/autodocker="false" (Boolean, seems like the default is "false")

Does autodocker work? It is does, I think it should be included under the Docking options. If not, maybe it should be removed as an option?

• Censorship

This does not seem to have been ported to the new config.json. There is a variable called "loading_sprite" that can have a value of either "load_screen.ani" or "load_screen_censored.ani"

All this option does is block the display of some of the more "risque" screens during game startup. Frankly, given the state of the world and what you can see in other games nowadays, the supposedly risque screens are fairly tame. Maybe another option we can remove?

[stephengtuggy]

• Computer Speed...

I think we can drop this one, no one plays on a 1Ghz computer anymore. Just ensure these values are set, as they are from "Computer" part of the vegasettings.config file for anything higher than 1000MHz section: audio/every_other_mount="false" audio/max_single_sounds="12" audio/max_total_soundse="32"

I agree with removing this.

I'm not so sure. We can probably drop the 1GHz option, but maybe keep some of the in-between options for when the game is running on older hardware (such as my 2014-era MacBook Pro). The sim atom setting is pretty important, as is the setting for the number of inactive systems to simulate. I think we should keep these around, just drop the 1 GHz option at the lowest end of the spectrum.

• Autodocker

test/autodocker="false" (Boolean, seems like the default is "false")

Does autodocker work? It is does, I think it should be included under the Docking options. If not, maybe it should be removed as an option?

It was an experimental, work-in-progress feature. I'm not sure if it ever worked properly. Indeed, we should probably drop it.

• Censorship

This does not seem to have been ported to the new config.json. There is a variable called "loading_sprite" that can have a value of either "load_screen.ani" or "load_screen_censored.ani"

All this option does is block the display of some of the more "risque" screens during game startup. Frankly, given the state of the world and what you can see in other games nowadays, the supposedly risque screens are fairly tame. Maybe another option we can remove?

Agreed.

[evertvorster]

• Computer Speed...

I think we can drop this one, no one plays on a 1Ghz computer anymore. Just ensure these values are set, as they are from "Computer" part of the vegasettings.config file for anything higher than 1000MHz section: audio/every_other_mount="false" audio/max_single_sounds="12" audio/max_total_soundse="32"

I agree with removing this.

I'm not so sure. We can probably drop the 1GHz option, but maybe keep some of the in-between options for when the game is running on older hardware (such as my 2014-era MacBook Pro). The sim atom setting is pretty important, as is the setting for the number of inactive systems to simulate. I think we should keep these around, just drop the 1 GHz option at the lowest end of the spectrum.

Agreed.

• Censorship

This does not seem to have been ported to the new config.json. There is a variable called "loading_sprite" that can have a value of either "load_screen.ani" or "load_screen_censored.ani"

All this option does is block the display of some of the more "risque" screens during game startup. Frankly, given the state of the world and what you can see in other games nowadays, the supposedly risque screens are fairly tame. Maybe another option we can remove?

Agreed.

What is the cost of leaving it in? If I remember correctly this was added because some young kids were playing VS, and the parents felt that some of the opening scenes were too "Adult" for their kid. Seems pretty harmless to leave it in. Just because the world is going to hell in a handbasket does not mean that some parents are still not concerned with the content that their kids consume.

[stephengtuggy]

OK, I guess we could leave the loading screen censorship in. It's a very easy feature to leave implemented, seems to me.

[BenjamenMeyer]

Computer Speed...
I think we can drop this one, no one plays on a 1Ghz computer anymore. Just ensure these values are set, as they are from "Computer" part of the vegasettings.config file for anything higher than 1000MHz section: audio/every_other_mount="false" audio/max_single_sounds="12" audio/max_total_soundse="32"

I agree with removing this.

I was thinking about this for the graphics side of things too, but many games have moved to using a slider between less complex and more complex for different things - like how many vertexes are being calculated for graphics. This would probably be more useful than specifying the CPU speed, which we could probably auto-detect.

[stephengtuggy]

With regard to the Textures setting, all the options below 1024 should be dropped. I.e., Retro, 256, and 512. If you select one of these, the main menu doesn't work properly. See #334

[evertvorster]

Agreed.

[BenjamenMeyer]

Like with https://github.com/orgs/vegastrike/discussions/1212#discussioncomment-13544735 this should be flexible still. A slider probably does us better. yeah, most systems will probably handle 1024 no problem; but folks may still want to reduce based on their own systems.

[stephengtuggy]

Also, choosing a setting for Physics such as Realistic instead of the default causes the game to crash, IIRC. See #603 We might want to remove all of those settings except the default. Either that, or fix the crash.

[evertvorster]

The crash here should be investigated, IMHO, because, the code for adjusting the simulation "granularity" is there, it just does not work at the moment. This may be beneficial in the future.

[stephengtuggy]

Yeah, the Text settings are very poorly named. I would like to rework them. Have one setting with three possible values: Bitmap, Vector, and Anti-Aliased Vector. Have the second option be the default. And do away with the confusing and inaccurate "high quality font" terminology, etc.

[evertvorster]

Yeah, the Text settings are very poorly named. I would like to rework them. Have one setting with three possible values: Bitmap, Vector, and Anti-Aliased Vector. Have the second option be the default. And do away with the confusing and inaccurate "high quality font" terminology, etc.

This is something we can change behind the scenes on a later stage. As with the original vsettings app, there was just a button that changes the relevant settings in the config file, and exposed the three options you wrote about. It is also worth noting that the bitmap font ignores the font_point value, and it should probably be greyed out when bitmap is selected.

[stephengtuggy]

What do you guys think the default font size should be? I'm thinking 24 points or so. I think that should be big enough on most screens, without using up too much of the screen real estate. What are your thoughts?

[evertvorster]

Going by the vegastrike.config, font point of 16 is recommended for a display size of 1920 x 1080.

[BenjamenMeyer]

we probably should have a few font sizes for different uses. A 14pt or 16pt minimum size should be good for most text, but we may want to have other settings for various other things (think headers, banners, etc).

[stephengtuggy]

I have no idea what "wireframe" does.

[kheckwrecker]

I have no idea what "wireframe" does.

This is what I found in the Privateer Gemini Gold manual. Note the last line refers to "wireframe":

Video
This selection determines the level of visual detail Privateer Gemini Gold projects to your monitor. These settings affect
smoothness and rounding of objects, font style and anti-aliasing, sun halos, maximum texture size capability and
whether reflection capability is available.
• "Extreme Detail" – Highest detailing available including full smoothing, halo, texturing and reflection
capability available. Cockpits can be activated. Only high end video cards can operate at this setting without
affecting performance.
• "Very High Detail" – The main difference is a large reduction in the level of visual detail.
• "High Detail" – Further reduction in visual detail, and reduced lighting capability.
• "Medium Detail" – Visual detail reduced with nebula fog disabled.
• "Low Detail" – Reduced visual detail with no background detailing (black only) and cockpits no
longer available. All script is in reduced font size with no color differentiation. Light reflection is disabled with no
haloing effects.
• “Retro Detail” – Lowest detail with no texture usage (wireframe only).

Doesn't mean much to me, but thought maybe it would mean something more to you?

[stephengtuggy]

It should be noted that the vegasettings counterpart in PWCU groups the settings entirely differently. Might be worth studying that to see if we want to port over any of the additional options that are available there.

[stephengtuggy]

Or group things differently from how we have them today. Etc.

[evertvorster]

I already did some grouping, into the four tabs mentioned.
Once the button code is sorted out, I suppose moving them around is fairly easy.

[BenjamenMeyer]

it may be good to break the settings down into ranges:

Setting A

• Min: X
• Max: Y
• Default: Z

We could also add an interface type (drop down, slider) with a stepping (1, 2, ... N) method.
Probably something for a future iteration, but something to start thinking about.

[evertvorster]

OK, digging at the mouse options here. To document how the controls work, I'll put it all in a comment.

"No Mouse" Binds the following:

bind mouse="0" player="1" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
var name="warp_mouse" value="false"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="40"

"Warp Mouse" Binds the following:

bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="true"
var name="warp_mouse" value="true"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="120"

"Inv Warp Mouse" binds the following:

bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="false"
var name="warp_mouse" value="true"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="120"

"Inv Glide Mouse" binds the following:

bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="false"
var name="mouse_cursor" value="true"
var name="reverse_mouse_spr" value="true"
var name="warp_mouse" value="false"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="40"

"Glide Mouse" binds the following:

bind mouse="0" player="0" button="0" modifier="none" command="FireKey"
axis name="x" mouse="0" axis="0" inverse="false"
axis name="y" mouse="0" axis="1" inverse="true"
var name="mouse_cursor" value="true"
var name="reverse_mouse_spr" value="false"
var name="warp_mouse" value="false"
var name="mouse_sensitivity" value="40"

[BenjamenMeyer]

can we simplify the mouse settings?

Inverse should just be a matter of if a given axis is multiplied by -1 or not; we can probably reduce that to using a negative on the axis instead of having another setting.

[evertvorster]

Updated the design with joystick layout that makes sense to me. Check it over, please.

[royfalk]

Updated the design with joystick layout that makes sense to me. Check it over, please.

I'm sorry. It looks great but I don't understand what I'm supposed to do here.
How does this translate to the config.json joystick section?

I can understand mapping the buttons to certain functions but I don't understand either the left and right rectangles on the left or the axes on the right.

[evertvorster]

Hi there!
Thanks for the quick reply. In all honesty, I don't know either how exactly it should look in config.json.
We first need to port over the bindings interface. Then, also look into how it is possible to bind one action to multiple interfaces.
For instance, "Fire" is bound to the spacebar on the keyboard, Joystick button number 1, and also left mouse button.

I'm traveling again at the moment, and it will take me a little time to get to what should be in the config.json. First, I have to dig through the vegastrike.config to see how the joystick bindings worked. Also, how they were able to get one action bound to the keyboard, joystick and mouse at the same time.

Ah, the image I provided was of how the joystick interface looks like in KDE, just to show how the joystick I have is detected looks like. It is not meant as an example of how the configuration should look. Each desktop has their own joystick interface to show you what each of the axes and buttons are called.

In my example, one would wiggle the joystick to see which axes correspond to which movements on the joystick, and then type that value into the settings utility. So, the settings utility should just have the description of the action, and what should be bound to it.

[kheckwrecker]

I'm not sure that vegastrike.config ever had settings for the joystick axes. I thought it is just taken as a given what actions correspond to movement of the joystick on it's axes. Also, the user guide does have instructions for how to manually edit the bindings of the joystick buttons in vegastrike.config. It would be nice if this could actually be configurable in the new settings app. However, the problem I see is that not all joysticks have the same number of buttons, and it's probably out of scope for the settings app to auto-detect the number of buttons on an installed joystick. Just my opinion, but in the short-term, the joystick button bindings may have to be manually edited in config.json as well.

[evertvorster]

The old settings app did not handle joysticks very well, and necessitated manual editing of the vegastrike.config file. This was a bad thing. Since we are making a new settings app, we can tackle this issue at the same time.

You are right, at the moment auto-detecting the number of buttons is out of scope.
However, if there the joystick has fewer buttons than what is possible in the config, and you define a button that you can never push, it will not harm anything.

What I'm thinking of is something like this:

Instead of calling it keyboard bindings, we just call that tab "Bindings", and have the possibility of binding an action to a keyboard and a joystick button. This would allow for a joystick with far more buttons than any joystick on the market today, and no auto-detection necessary.

[evertvorster]

There are also mouse bindings, and these could possibly go on the same page as well.

As for axes, those are specific to joysticks, and need to be separate from the bindings page. My joystick has six axes, but if someone has a joystick with more, adding them in later should be fairly simple.

[stephengtuggy]

What do you mean about vegastrike.config not including joystick axes settings? It most certainly does include them! What's more, I'm positive that the vegasettings app has at least a limited set of choices for which axes mean what. One of the joystick options is joy_t_a_rev, which is the same as "3 axis joystick with throttle", only with the throttle axis swapped with one of the other axes. (I think the Z one.)

We don't necessarily need to set it up the exact same way in the new interface. Just noting what's there today. And I think we should include at least today's level of configurability, as a baseline.

[kheckwrecker]

"Instead of calling it keyboard bindings, we just call that tab "Bindings", and have the possibility of binding an action to a keyboard and a joystick button. This would allow for a joystick with far more buttons than any joystick on the market today, and no auto-detection necessary."

I agree, and I like the way you set it up. While we're at it, we might as well add a column for mouse as well, since some of those actions could just as easily be bound to a mouse button, and some users might prefer to use a mouse.

[kheckwrecker]

I tested out autodock with both a base and a planet, and as suspected, it doesn't work - you still have to hit "d" to dock. What's more, I would argue with the new "Simple Dock" feature, autodock is unnecessary. With Simple Dock, you just have to get within the set distance and hit "d" to dock. You don't even have to fly into the little green square anymore. For those reasons, I would recommend removing autodock from the settings app. It can always be added back if someone wants to get it working in the future.

[royfalk]

How about a combo box:

1. Normal dock
2. Auto-dock
3. Simple dock
   What do you think?

[kheckwrecker]

Since Normal dock is the default, the way you have it now is perfectly fine. If you want Simple dock, check the box. If not, it defaults to Normal dock. I'd remove Auto-dock as a choice altogether, since it doesn't work. I'd recommend that you just remove Test from the Advanced tab, and you'll be good to go.

[stephengtuggy]

+1 for removing Auto-dock. I've never seen it actually work. Let's scrap it.

[kheckwrecker]

I know it worked in Privateer Gemini Gold. Not saying we should have it here, just curious how they got it to work. For the record, I never really liked autodock - if you flew too close to a planet, you'd land, whether you wanted to or not.

[BenjamenMeyer]

IIRC @Loki1950 mentioned that AutoDock was buggy. I've always had it enabled but don't know that it ever actually did anything - I'm use to getting within range and hitting d to dock from my Privateer days.

If we have something that works and replaces it then I'm okay with removing it.