Remove Irrlicht GUI gradients

[siliconsniffer]

This PR is related to #15826, see this discussion #6733 (comment).

Disclaimer: I have close to zero experience with irrlicht, this is a first hands-on experience for me.

To do/discuss

This PR is a Work in Progress. As far as I can tell the main concerns are:

• missing contrast, could be mitigated with different brightness
• harder to recognize separate buttons in groups of buttons
• main menu tab color
• harder to distinguish from text fields, needs to still look clickable
• addition of colors
• 9-slice

Screenshots

RE: removing the faux 3d stuff - let's keep that in.

#15826 (comment)

[SmallJoker]

This PR does generally the same as #13718.

My opinion on this topic is unchanged since #13718 (comment). An API or the use of 9-sliced images might be needed to cover most use-cases and personal preferences.

[appgurueu]

This PR does generally the same as #13718.

It looks like this PR addresses at least one major concern (contrast) which was brought up on the original PR by about four different people, and addressing more concerns is planned.

I prefer the current buttons. Others may prefer flat ones.

Most people seem to prefer flat ones (see e.g. the reactions on roller's PR).

A general solution would IMO be to use 9slice drawing for all buttons so that games and players could overwrite the textures (normal, hover, press) on demand.

The problem of button stylability is already pretty much solved as far as games are concerned. Try e.g. Mineclonia.

The question that remains is how default buttons, in the main menu, before the user has done any configuration, should look. The default should look appealing to most (first time) users, and currently it just doesn't.

People don't want to have to configure the GUI of an application to look okay. Some applications let you choose a theme, many don't. I don't think we should maintain multiple themes or a bunch of settings, or introduce something like a "mainmenu texture pack" or direct users to edit some files if they want the main menu to look okay.

It is on us to sensibly choose this default, like any other default, and this was, as far as I know, never done: We just inherited the Irrlicht default styles.

And I don't think the gradient is currently the best approximation of what people expect buttons to look like.

[Zughy]

Concerning the 3rd screen: the red X might work but I wouldn't make the Login button green (definitely not that green, but anyway it can be argued that register and login bear the same weight - so same colour)

[siliconsniffer]

Concerning the 3rd screen: the red X might work but I wouldn't make the Login button green (definitely not that green, but anyway it can be argued that register and login bear the same weight - so same colour)

Thanks for your feedback. Keep in mind that this was just an "experiment", I wouldn't merge it like that either.
The green background color was a personal note, since the "default action" i.e. pressing enter triggers the login (if there is a username of course) - but that's by no means necessary and I completely agree that the color isn't fitting really well.
The red button might need some adjustment though, maybe change it to a regular instead of an image_button?
A more subtle red would also be beneficial.

[siliconsniffer]

Although I was previously more on the "let's find a compromise" side of things, I totally agree with @appgurueu.
It's, in my opinion, not feasible to find a compromise for the few people that prefer the gradients without creating an overly complicated solution for something that is meant to be provisional anyway.

In my opinion, we should move forward with this with only minor (e.g., color or contrast) changes before stalling again.
Maybe this could go into the RC? If enough people are upset by the change we can still roll it back.
In the end, this choice is upsetting people either way, but as appgurueu said, it's on us to choose the default.

[sfan5]

So here's the devtest formspec:

It looks fine, but why did the tabs change color? -> EGDC_3D_FACE affects more than just buttons

re the open points:

addition of colors

out of scope.

9-slice

not sure what this means. we're editing the built-in button style, the option to use 9-slice for styling already exists.

[sfan5]

minimally testable proposal with the other color:

(the tabs change color too but it's more subtle)

diff --git a/irr/src/CGUISkin.cpp b/irr/src/CGUISkin.cpp
--- a/irr/src/CGUISkin.cpp
+++ b/irr/src/CGUISkin.cpp
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ CGUISkin::CGUISkin(EGUI_SKIN_TYPE type, video::IVideoDriver* driver)
        {
                Colors[EGDC_3D_DARK_SHADOW]     = video::SColor(101,50,50,50);
                Colors[EGDC_3D_SHADOW]          = video::SColor(101,130,130,130);
-               Colors[EGDC_3D_FACE]            = video::SColor(220,100,100,100);
+               Colors[EGDC_3D_FACE]            = video::SColor(185,85,85,85);
                Colors[EGDC_3D_HIGH_LIGHT]      = video::SColor(101,255,255,255);
                Colors[EGDC_3D_LIGHT]           = video::SColor(101,210,210,210);
                Colors[EGDC_ACTIVE_BORDER]      = video::SColor(101,16,14,115);
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ CGUISkin::CGUISkin(EGUI_SKIN_TYPE type, video::IVideoDriver* driver)
        for (u32 i=0; i<EGDF_COUNT; ++i)
                Fonts[i] = 0;
 
-       UseGradient = (Type == EGST_WINDOWS_METALLIC) || (Type == EGST_BURNING_SKIN) ;
+       UseGradient = false;
 }
 
 

[sfan5]

Fundamentally we should do this.
The GUI style is still not pretty but it's no longer offensively ugly.

[siliconsniffer]

It looks fine, but why did the tabs change color? -> EGDC_3D_FACE affects more than just buttons

I can't tell, not familiar with how irrlicht actually works under the hood, but that has been noted multiple times already.

re the open points:

9-slice

not sure what this means. we're editing the built-in button style, the option to use 9-slice for styling already exists.

If I understood him correctly, @SmallJoker brought it up because he found that buttons are harder to distinguish from text fields with this change (see #13718 (comment)). Maybe this could be moved into a separate PR together with a discussion about the addition of colors?

@Zughy also spoke in favor of leaving the colors untouched for now (#15826 (comment)). Crossed it off the list.

[appgurueu]

can't tell, not familiar with how irrlicht actually works under the hood

See CGUISkin::drawColored3DTabButton

[siliconsniffer]

Will look into it, thanks for pointing it out.
What is the plan with this now? Put it in the RC?
Edit: Ah, just saw the ongoing meeting. Will ask there.

[Desour]

How can you get the round buttons back in a game?

(For my (unchanged) opinion on this, see #13718 (comment).)

[siliconsniffer]

I don't think formspec styling supports gradients, I guess you would need to have a gradient texture and use image_buttons.

[sfan5]

How can you get the round buttons back in a game?

9-slice may be able to emulate it to some degree, but since it's texturing vs. perfectly smooth vertex colors it will be subpar.
Personally I don't consider this a problem.

[grorp]

Can confirm that the new color proposed by sfan5 should be the one in the middle of the old gradient. That makes sense.

original PR

my new color proposal

sfan5's newest color proposal

The newest color is somewhat in the middle between the other two. Fine by me.

[grorp]

I agree that this is an improvement.

[appgurueu]

I still support this.

p.s. when squashing, make sure to preserve at least co-authorship attribution for rollerozxa.

[nauta-turbidus]

I don't think ripping out the gradient code is a good idea really. Disable it by default, sure, if you want it. I personally like the gradients, I don't understand the criticism, but I don't care that much either. Rip out? Why?

[sfan5]

What would be the advantage of keeping it? It's dead code either way.

[nauta-turbidus]

What would be the advantage of keeping it? It's dead code either way.

Allow modders to enable it in formspecs on purpose...?

[MisterE123]

I'm glad for this change

[sfan5]

What would be the advantage of keeping it? It's dead code either way.

Allow modders to enable it in formspecs on purpose...?

We decided that we didn't want this.

[appgurueu]

We decided that we didn't want this.

I agree that it's not important, but I genuinely think using 9-slice for this should probably work okay (I see no good reason why it wouldn't, an image of a gradient with reasonable resolution should be scaled reasonably - the filter isn't even very important). It probably won't match the current gradients pixel-perfectly but it should very similar if done right.

I'm too lazy to recreate an ugly button style using 9-slice though.

[Montandalar]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But 9-slices for gradients it will be. Those don't take much memory/storage anyway. And you might want a different gradient algorithm/colour stops anyway.

[farooqkz]

Hello. I recently did a git pull, re-compiled and saw the change. New buttons are much better. I appreciate it @siliconsniffer! Keep up the good work!