Hacking New GUI in a few weeks time!

[Gariscus]

Some time ago we made a post regarding an overhaul to the CycloDS GUI. We realise this was a rather long time ago, and we apologise for the lack of progress in this area. We've had our resources rather stretched, devoted to other areas of development - however, recently we have finally found time to pick up where we left off and are happy to announce that work on the updated GUI is well underway and we plan to release a build for alpha testing within the next few weeks. Following is a summary of what's done so far:

* Updates to the skinning system. This is still very much a WIP and will likely change depending on feedback we receive from our users, however so far we have made it possible to assign a different bitmap to the bottom screen for the main menu, game list, cheat list etc as well as adding the ability to assign custom icons for items which were previously fixed such as the folder icon, GBA icon etc. We're considering several other changes regarding skinning, please see below for further details
* There is now a pop-up menu which can be brought up in the game list screen, for performing various operations on the currently selected item such as managing SAV files, managing RTS files, managing cheats and basic file operations
* Cheat codes can now be managed using the pop-up menu, removing that annoying "Do you wish to enable cheats" prompt before running games
* A bookmark system has been added. Any ROM (game/homebrew) or folder can be bookmarked. We are still trying to decide on the best way to implement this and feedback regarding this would be much appreciated - please see below
* Basic file operations (copy/move/delete) have been added and are accessed through the game list pop-up menu
* The scrollbar now works correctly, and the overall touch control has been improved

We urgently need feedback regarding the best way to implement bookmarks. Currently, our plan is to have two bookmark display modes. The first mode would display each bookmark as a square icon (the same icon used in the game list display) placed above and below the 3 main buttons on the main screen. This has been requested by several people and works quite well, but is certainly not suitable for some skins. The second mode would modify the moonshell icon on the main screen so when selected, it would bring you to the bookmark screen. Here your bookmarks would be displayed, along with moonshell, in the same manner as the normal game list. The bookmark display mode could be toggled via the settings menu.

Regarding skinning, we've already made it possible to specify a different bottom bitmap for each screen and we've made it possible to use completely custom icons. A few more things we're considering is making it possible to move the buttons on the main menu around and making it possible to disable or change certain GUI elements such as the text on the top/bottom bars which would be more suitable for some skins. Also now that its possible to have a separate image for the game list, it may make sense to have an option in the skin to force the icon size to either large or small, as some skins may be designed to work exclusively with one icon size. We're open to suggestions with skinning, but please keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to retain compatibility with the vast library of existing skins so we're not willing to make any changes which would render any existing skins incompatible. Rather, we're trying to add functionality while allowing all existing skins to work and adding optional features which new v2 skins will be able to utilise.

Well, that's the status of the GUI overhaul so far. Please let us know what you think, especially considering the bookmark implementation!

http://www.teamcyclops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13187

 

[EyeZ]

The icing on the cake for the CycloDS!

 

[tinymonkeyt]

GASP! Finally news! I've already forgotten about their announcement since they never really delivered what they promised..

 

[Chrono_Tata]

Great news! And I thought they've already forgotten about this.

This has been a good week for Nintendo related news.

Now let's hope these "few weeks" don't turn into Duke-Nukem-Forever "few weeks".

 

[Hardkaare]

I'm excited to see this.

 

[jalaneme]

cool, i hope they don't break my themes, i want to keep my moonwalker one.

 

[Sumea]

GASP! Finally news! I've already forgotten about their announcement since they never really delivered what they promised..

Yeah, I remember that time too.

And for all seriousness to jakob, this is pretty hard to be a rip-off considering same ideas were thrown little over year ago on the cyclo forums, and most ideas are by USERS...


But; I am to see if it will challenge my cheating habit with acekard...

 

[KirovAir]

Finally!
This is really good news. Gogo Team Cyclops!

 

[ProtoKun7]

Acekard rip-off.

R4 was around before Acekard, right?

So Acekard is a blatant R4 rip-off.

 

[Dangy]

Acekard rip-off.

R4 was around before Acekard, right?

So Acekard is a blatant R4 rip-off.

Flawless logic is flawless.

 

[Sumea]

Acekard rip-off.

R4 was around before Acekard, right?

So Acekard is a blatant R4 rip-off.

Flawless logic is flawless.

Indeed...
And now he's here to **** US!!

 

[Trel]

cool, i hope they don't break my themes, i want to keep my moonwalker one.

If they do, I'm sure me or someone else could update it.

 

[gameguy95]

Now if only they would only make a cyclodsi

 

[leiger]

Acekard rip-off.

As has been posted above, the Team Cyclops GUI idea has been floating apart for the better part of one-and-a-half years. Several updates to the design since then have been through user suggestions.

If you really believe that Team Cyclops is "copying" the Acekard GUI (which they are not, I might add), you should realise that doing so is simply giving credit to those that originally designed those features (which wasn't even the Acekard team in the first place). By re-using a similar GUI design, they are saying "Yes, we agree that this is the best way to do this. Good idea." - Why not re-use elements of a GUI that have been proven to be successful?

QUOTE(jalaneme @ Mar 24 2010, 12:42 AM) cool, i hope they don't break my themes, i want to keep my moonwalker one.

Team Cyclops is dedicated to ensuring that all current themes for the CycloDS are compatible. As is mentioned in the post that Gariscus linked to:

"Rather, we're trying to add functionality while allowing all existing skins to work and adding optional features which new v2 skins will be able to utilise."

Therefore, there will be two versions of skins. Version 1 covers all current skins and Version 2 will support the newer, optional features that are a part of the new CycloDS GUI.

 

[mrSmiles]

if this had been announced much earlier i might not have gotten rid of my cyclods, but to me the new gui came too late

 

[purplesludge]

Yay now I have to hope my friend didn't lost my card over spring break.

 

[sfg]

Huh? People sold their Cyclo because of the UI?

What the hell?

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

No. People sold thier stuff because they moved onto the DSi as a primary handheld. In many cases, selling non-compatible flashcarts for something compatible with the DSi/LL/XL.