Fluffy UI

I don't think this has been touched on yet, but why all the extra animations in the UI? Everything slides, fades, bounces, it's like using a Mac. All this stuff looks pretty, sure, but it seems to have a pretty detrimental effect on local framerates. Could we please have an option for static UI elements?

Oh? I didn't test it, but interesting that it does. So it seems not only does FPS effect GUI, but GUI effects FPS? Heh, funky.

Optional would be nice, even in the Debug would be good.

I personaly like it so doubt I'd be turning it off. But for others with slower computers etc. definitly.

Edit: Btw, what fades and bounces? I've noticed the inventory sliding, but not sure what you mean by fading and bouncing?

I don't have the preview version open in front of me, but I remember the buttons did a lot of unnecessary fading in and out. I'll double-check the bouncing thing later

That is a matter of opinion, which I do not share. I hate the mouseover glow, the pulsing lights on the process indicator bars, I loathe all forms of window and menu animation, and all the cutesy crap that programmers do to interfaces because theydon't know how to do useful programming and have no visual taste but they have to do something or they will get fired and dimwitted users like the stuff that slows things down because the longer it takes for a menu to appear the longer they have to figure out for the ten thousandth time what it does.

They have delayed the animated paperclip till 1.8, right?

They signed on a cartoon hippo instead.

I have it on good word that 1.7's internal codename was SL : Bling edition

LL, please make the flashy meant-to-be-pretty interface stuff optional. It's a barrier between user and usability. In my opinion the SL interface is generally horrible but it's getting hard to read with light text on a light highlight when you mouseover buttons and other bad ideas.

Sadly, I must respectfully disagree.

The UI must be made to look much more modern. This redesign is clearly a bold move in the direction of the Windows Vista default Slate/Luna/Avalon/Indigo motif, which is definitely the wave of the future. And SL must move forward into that future; we must have more transparency, more sliding and fading, more dancing baloney.

Performance be damned, says I. Full speed ahead!!

How else do you people expect SL to compete with There?

Wow, here I thought I was the only one who disliked gratuitous GUI animations (I run WinXP in classic mode, too)

BlackAdder, were you being sarcastic?

My goodness, I feel like I'm playing SL with a bunch of grinches and scrooges! I rather liked the sliding in the inventory, I found it more aesthetically pleasing on the eyeballs, kind of like a brain massage. I also liked the 'arrow' that appears when using the building grids. The SL interface should feel more like a posh hotel, not a prison!

Yes, a 'Use pleasing interface' option should be there somewhere, but yeesh.... I noticed no difference at all really in framerates, I found it quite steady and consistant... consistantly low, maybe, but consistant nonetheless!

Yay, I'm not the only one after all. ^_^
(though I run it with all visual options set to best performance too - hate those shadowed icon texts. Now if there only was a FVWM:ish substitute for Explorer... : )

edit: lest we go off-topic, lets say that there should indeed be an extra option to turn bling off - maybe in the debug menus a "Use UI animation" toggle or something.

Ummm..

yeah, ok.

Actually I find the changes pretty insignificant. I really don't care if the Inventory tree slides, fades, or barks like a seal. It's not making SL any slower on my 'puter. Though it couldn't really be any slower than it already is. Textures pretty much never render, and moving around in a world of transparent, grey prims gets pretty old pretty fast.

I quite seriously have given up on the main grid until I get a faster box or 2.0 is released with its improved engine...whichever comes first (smart money is on 2.0). The 1.2 Celeron-S with 512mb PC-100 SDRAM and GeForce FX 5500 128mb PCI just ain't making the cut anymore, not even on a T-1 line. But I can't see upgrading the mobo, CPU, and RAM just for SL. My system can easily handle even the most graphically high-end MMORPG's, with graphics at medium or high settings (medium for EQ2, AC2, MxO; high for AO, GW, L2, Ryzom, DAoC, AC1).

That stuff is really hard to read for me, I guess I must have the opposite kind of visual problem that whoever got them to put the mouseover glows. To me things are clearer when they have more contrast than when they have less.

I'm of (likely more than) two minds on this.

Yes, I appreciate reducing eye candy for speed's sake when the transitions take too long to do. Especially on Mac OS X, where unlike Windows XP, you simply cannot do away with some of those zoom effects.

The flipside for me is, it's like watching a fluid, hand-drawn animation: more frames per second to fill in the gaps, equalling a smoother experience. One example of this would be zooming with scroll wheel on the Map screen in 1.7 Preview. Another is watching inventory windows slide open.

But what's unnecessary to me? The way they made it in the IM window which is lagtrocious—specifically, having a relatively slow anim to scroll back and forth when you have many IM tabs and can't display all of them at once. I wish there were just rows for that purpose (I've made previous posts on the topic).

Seeing as how UI is a very particular thing, I want it to be the most liquid it can possibly be, but yes, I wonder if a "classic" mode for Second Life interface is in good order. At least a checkbox in Preferences sounds straightforward enough.

classic mode user here ^^
People, dont complain about the bling. New users are bound to love it... and we need more people in here.

I couldn't help but complain about it, blingy interfaces make me twitch

I wouldn't complain about the UI if the bling actually aided comprehension and useability. Bling for bling's sake is worse than no bling every time. An interface should ideally be unnoticed because it does its job without drawing attention to itself.

Not to mention that SL is so processor-intensive I'd prefer it didn't use my processor to make things harder to read.

The current interface makes me fantasize about Jan Tschichold holding Philip while Edward Tufte punches him.

Me and a couple of friends call winXP - Barbiefied windows, all big buttons and pretty things.... wich we never use ~ classic mode to

yes there should be a classic mode option, i dont need fluffy crap eating more of what little video power i do have.

back when windows2k came out everyone in our shop was like "ohh fading menus" the geewhiz factor lasted about 5 min.

and whomever made the moderen comment, you can do fading menus on a comadore64...
doesnt make it moderen

I use blackbox for windows, It's a very customisable but ultimately simple style.
I think we should be able to skin our own clients, or at least have a few options for the buttons and things