Improving the base screens' visuals

[Skitso]

I appreciate the effort made in all the base screen background images (laboratory, research etc), and while they are more than fine as they are, to be frank, they are not quite at the same level as other visual elements in this game are.

I'm pretty sure you are not going to be redrawing them any more, but I made a quick test with blurring, slightly dimming and adding vignette into them and it already looks much more polished. What you think?

-EDIT: You've actually already added a bit similar blur effect to the storage screen so maybe this is already planned? 

My version:

... and original for comparison:

Edited December 17, 2022 by Skitso

[Chris]

Yeah, the painted screen backgrounds are of slightly variable quality in places, although I think overall the get the job done OK.

Many of our new UI concepts do indeed use a blurred background, although we've only implemented it on the Stores screen thus far. This is mostly done to allow the player to focus on the UI more than to hide the painted background, though, which is why we've chosen to use an animation to transition from the full image to a blurred version. That way the player gets a flash of the full art before it blurs.

My big concern with it is inconsistency, though, given the UI is more integrated with the background in some screens than others. We're probably not going to want to blur the background art on the Geoscape, the Main Base screen, the Soldier Equip screen, the Aircraft screen. So we'd only be blurring the background on just over half of them and I do wonder if that's going to seem a bit weird and inconsistent.

That said, overall I do think the blurred backgrounds are an improvement on some screens, because it cuts down a lot on the visual noise and makes the UI much more readable as a result. Although you're sort of cheating there because you've also added a drop shadow to the UI, which gives it even more pop but makes everything feel less "real" because you're breaking perspective to create that layered effect.

I'm very much not a fan of the vignette though. I feel like if the entire UI is now black (which it will be) you have to be very careful about not darkening or washing out the rest of the scene otherwise you're going to have a game that looks very gloomy indeed.

[Skitso]

Double post

Edited December 17, 2022 by Skitso

[Skitso]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

Many of our new UI concepts do indeed use a blurred background, although we've only implemented it on the Stores screen thus far. This is mostly done to allow the player to focus on the UI more than to hide the painted background, though, which is why we've chosen to use an animation to transition from the full image to a blurred version. That way the player gets a flash of the full art before it blurs.

My big concern with it is inconsistency, though, given the UI is more integrated with the background in some screens than others. We're probably not going to want to blur the background art on the Geoscape, the Main Base screen, the Soldier Equip screen, the Aircraft screen. So we'd only be blurring the background on just over half of them and I do wonder if that's going to seem a bit weird and inconsistent.

That said, overall I do think the blurred backgrounds are an improvement on some screens, because it cuts down a lot on the visual noise and makes the UI much more readable as a result. Although you're sort of cheating there because you've also added a drop shadow to the UI, which gives it even more pop but makes everything feel less "real" because you're breaking perspective to create that layered effect.

Agree 100% on all points. Backgrounds are just too busy and take the players' focus from the important parts of the UI. So just go for it, I think the inconsistency is not something you need to worry about - you just blur al the background images with depth. You might be able to add blur to equip screen too if you limit the blur to the space behind the paper doll and leave the front area (bottom of the screen) in focus.

For better consistency, aircraft screen should be completely remade in the same format as the soldier equip screen, but that's another story altogether.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Skitso