• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

MSFS20 What sort of madman invented this UI?

A

Anthony31

Messages
1,120
Country
australia
Visit pretty much any modern website and if confronted with this you would think that you could click and drag to scroll horizontally or at the least there would be big left and right arrows that appeared at the edges if you hovered your mouse over them. But not MSFS. For reasons best known only to Asobo the < > buttons above the aircraft list are non-functional and the scroll bar at the bottom (which is the only method to scroll) is a whole 6 pixels thick. Arrgghhh.

Image1.jpg
 
That is odd, they have the arrow buttons there but they are ineffective. I would say that's a bug. And yes those very large 6 pixel scroll bars are very annoying.
 
The UI was designed to work with XBox :/ That's not the only annoying thing about the menu design - the My Hangar - Change Aircraft / Change Livery flow makes me want to hurt people ;)
 
Don't even get me started on the Hangar, ravenn22. I really don't know how that works. I assume there is some way to rotate your view but all I could manage by clicking and pressing every key on my keyboard was to close the doors (don't know how I did that or how to open them again) and switch to a view directly behind the aircraft.

And why, when I try to set a keyboard assignment, doesn't it let me overwrite the previous assignment. I have to track down that assignment separately and delete it.

Of course, the thing that has really set me off lately has been key assignments. The aircraft I am making at the moment is using the new fuel system (for reasons). While it's a nice new system none of the events associated with it have key assignments. If you want to turn on a fuel pump for example then the fuel pump key assignment doesn't work because that only works on the old fuel system. So, to keep users who like to use keyboard assignments instead of mouse clicking on the VC happy, I have to write a simconnect gauge to capture FUEL_PUMP and TOGGLE_ELECT_FUEL_PUMP events so I can send out a 1 (>K:FUELSYSTEM_PUMP_TOGGLE) event.
 
Anthony31 said:
So, to keep users who like to use keyboard assignments instead of mouse clicking on the VC happy, I have to write a simconnect gauge to capture FUEL_PUMP and TOGGLE_ELECT_FUEL_PUMP events so I can send out a 1 (>K:FUELSYSTEM_PUMP_TOGGLE) event.
Click to expand...
Do you get a lot of those? I mean to get a clientele of elite simmers who refuse to spoil the immersion by mouse clicking, would really "add that extra layer of immersion" to my developing, to say the least, n e way,
Anthony31 said:
I assume there is some way to rotate your view but all I could manage by clicking and pressing every key on my keyboard was to close the doors (don't know how I did that or how to open them again)
Click to expand...
all you have to do is wait, the doors simulate a looping animation. As to views, do you have Google?
 
=rk= said:
Do you get a lot of those? I mean to get a clientele of elite simmers who refuse to spoil the immersion by mouse clicking, would really "add that extra layer of immersion" to my developing, to say the least, n e way,
Click to expand...
Plenty of people with home cockpit setups who want to have everything key controllable. There's a reason FSUIPC is quite popular.

=rk= said:
all you have to do is wait, the doors simulate a looping animation. As to views, do you have Google?
Click to expand...
Good UI should be intuitive and useable without having to Google. If a user has to Google how to use your game then you have failed as a UI designer and should seek other forms of employment.
 
Anthony31 said:
Plenty of people with home cockpit setups who want to have everything key controllable. There's a reason FSUIPC is quite popular.


Good UI should be intuitive and useable without having to Google. If a user has to Google how to use your game then you have failed as a UI designer and should seek other forms of employment.
Click to expand...
If a user can't naturally figure out a "user interface," it is a failed schema, but a user is expected to intuitively tap arcane key combinations, instead of little knobs with the name "windshield wiper" on them. What do you tell them about a virtual cockpit, "ok, now look up and left to the windshield wiper knob as you type 'wx+4m7'"?

Your intuitive ability to distinguish orientation directional keys, from observation directional keys, must be absolutely supernatural, however your conclusive powers seem somewhat pedestrian. Since you've defined this UI designer to be failed, there should be a better, more profitable UI, that people are purchasing instead. The person that developed MSFS failed and needs better employment.

Also, It sounds like software to interface home cockpits is the reason Pete Dowson wrote FSUIPC. You would probably be amazed to find out that FSUIPC forms a integration between MANY softwares and the various iterations of the MS flight sim franchise. I've never actually used a "home cockpit," besides this one. Sometimes my chair tilts, maybe even falls out from under me, when I'm in a really intense dogfight, but overall, this office chair is pretty immersive to me. I first used FSUIPC about 12 years ago, for AICarriers and was surprised to see I needed it in MSFS about 2 days after I installed it, for editing airports with ADE.

Personally, I always wonder why people stop at just the dashboard. I mean, you bolt some box to your desk, monitor here, monitor there, throttles, yoke... I'm not married, so I got a stewardess costume for my Chihuahua and I got a Rick and Morty Pass the Butter Robot that I am trying to reconfigure to deliver me coffee precisely when I reach cruising altitude.
 
Those arrows are their to scroll the type of aircraft you want, obviously, they are not in use as there are currently only 6. When more types of aircraft are released on the sim, this will populate and eventually run off-screen allowing you to use those arrows.
Don't mean to sound cocky, but you can see by just looking at the UI that the arrows are not meant for scrolling through aircraft, it's on a completely different menu grouping Aircraft TYPE not Aircraft SELECTION.
 
Well, well, well, I guess someone at Asobo was listening (lol, yes I know no one was listening) because they've reorganised the aircraft selection screen in yesterday's big update. Maybe the old screen didn't work on Xbox?

Instead of the sideways scrolling selection that only shows 4 aircraft at a time there is a new vertical scrolling grid 4 wide by 3 high. Much more intuitive to use and easier to find your desired aircraft with 12 thumbnails on screen at once.

Now, if only someone could explain why the Options screen in-game can only be closed with a mouse click on RESUME instead of using the ESC key like it used to be.
 
Anthony31 said:
Well, well, well, I guess someone at Asobo was listening (lol, yes I know no one was listening) because they've reorganised the aircraft selection screen in yesterday's big update. Maybe the old screen didn't work on Xbox?

Instead of the sideways scrolling selection that only shows 4 aircraft at a time there is a new vertical scrolling grid 4 wide by 3 high. Much more intuitive to use and easier to find your desired aircraft with 12 thumbnails on screen at once.

Now, if only someone could explain why the Options screen in-game can only be closed with a mouse click on RESUME instead of using the ESC key like it used to be.
Click to expand...

That feels like a bug.
There's a few UI/UX issues with SU5 - like R Mouse look while flying disables your flight controls.
I don't really like that they buried World Map Filters under "More" - that's a pretty important function to have hidden. Obviously, I think the filter settings should be saved, as well - I always want POIs hidden and airspace shown.
I'm seeing mix/match PC and XBox controller prompts on the menu buttons. ( I do have a controller plugged in for drone cam and working in the editor - but it used to change the UI to whatever input you used last )

Also, the top menu handle bar ( in flight ) not going away is also a bug. There's a work around by pressing any Arrow key, but obviously - it's back the second you touch the mouse again. I finally grabbed the 3rd party mod that removes the handle bar completely until you mouse over the exact spot for the menus - it's heaven.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top