December 10, 2014 3:33 AM CET
Greetings fellow future SBrick users.
I tried to post this in the Profile suggestions official group but it was a bit too long.
So here it is in full.
I feel that there will be no best case user interface because of the beauty of SBrick's infinite uses.With that in mind I would suggest a GUI editor that could be made and adjusted to each projects needs.I see the GUI creation going something like this:New project selected from main screen.New project form:- Name (of the project)- Backdrop image (loaded from image collection on device)- Layout style dropdown selector
Examples key: Grey: Control surface White: Home, run/stop, edit, and other main app controls. Yellow: Secondary ( or more ) control surfaces (swap to main surface area) Blue: Area separators, adjustable position- Start (project button)Layout builder screen:User selected background in the main control surface area scaled to fit.An overlay grid on the surface for control placement ( edit mode ).- pinch the screen to adjust the cell size of the grid- control placement centred in cell or on grid lineAdding controls:Press and hold on screen to add a new control at that location.New control form:Control type: Slider: 0 to max Linear ( Gas pedal ) 0 at centre ( Steering ) etc. Slider options: - Name of control - Max power % - Power on a curve (y/n) - Curve adjuster - Return to start on finger lift (y/n) - Reverse power - Link to other control(s) - Load image - Rotate control 90,180,270 deg - etc. Dial: Same as slider but different graphics Button: - Name of control - Max power % ( light intensity ) - On/off or pulse? - pulse editor ( how long on, how long off, number of times or loop ) - Link to other control(s) - Load image - Rotate control 90,180,270 deg - etc. Etc.Edit control after placement with single press on screen.Edit control form:- Nudge on grid left, right, up, down- Centre on grid cell or grid line- and all the other control optionsMain app controls:Home: Return to app home, prompted to save project if in edit mode.Run: Default mode on loading of a project.Edit: Select edit mode to change something.Options: Set soft controls to SBicks, grid options, image scaling options, etcSecondary ( or more ) control surfaces:These additional control surfaces could be swapped with whatever is in the main area.Examples might be a train track layout on the main screen with different engines being swapped out for control as needed.Or if the secondary areas were enlarged, controls could be put in them for each engine.Perhaps the secondary surfaces could be scrolled to show 3 engines with 2 more being out of view.Another example may be a crane GUI where the main controls for the crane are in the main area and a secondary surface is swapped there to drive the crane.If you made it this far then you can see I would like to be able to make my own art assets and be able to place them and fine tune the controls on my own.It would be nice to have a fully rounded out service for GUIs which could be made by the community and maintained by SBrick for all to share and learn from.GUIs: Complete packages: - Cars / trucks - Cranes - Misc - etc. Custom control profiles: - Sliders - Buttons - Lights - Misc Custom art: - Backdrops - Sliders - Dials - etc. Hopefully some of this made sense.Regards,KentM
