Needs a better main menu background

[tymofij]

Current UQM-MegaMod-Content/base/ui/hd/newgame-000.png is very noticeably an upscale of old 3DO main menu background image. It deviates from the very nice quality of the rest of art in the mod.

But that is not the only issue with it. The scene itself is messy and does not work in UQM menu. There are too many things in it. It is not clear why there are two Earths, one blue, one red, and two precursor starships. And also there is a dog fight going on in the left corner.

It all made sense in the original 3DO menu, where the Starship departing to Blue Earth signified "New Game", the dogfight signified "Super Melee", and the Starship near Enslaved Earth starbase signified "Load Game".

That logic does not apply anymore, as the menu items are now laid out vertically. So some other piece of art would be more appropriate.

[JoshuaPettus]

2 Earth's, whatever... it's just emphasis the duality in us all. :P Well, at least there aren't 2 precursor ships. The big ship is an earth cruiser. But I agree that it is messy, especially with what is going on on the bottom right. Perhaps it could be recreated with newer assets?

[tymofij]

In my opinion, recreating that surrealistic composition is not worth the effort. I thought about it but then I realized that this picture has simply outlived its purpose.

The game would look better with some other background art piece - there are a lot of good ones around. Or may be even a nebula from the Setup submenu - it already looks intriguing and neat.

[JHGuitarFreak]

I wanted to use UQM's main menu but scaled up as a sort of rebranding back into a community project as opposed to a sole personal project that it was before v0.8.0.85.

But the UQM main menu used a Star Trek inspired font so I took the time to figure out the font used for the 3DO main menu and used that instead.

NOW... Monkey's Paw time...

In keeping with the idea that MegaMod's main focus right now is being as faithful as possible to the original games whenever possible.

Here's a mockup of the DOS style main menu I just made

Of course based directly on the DOS main menu:

So the choice is between 3DO/UQM style or DOS style.

EDIT: Another idea is to switch between the two types of main menu depending on if DOS or 3DO menus are selected...

[JHGuitarFreak]

I went ahead and actually implemented this as a proof of concept:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/104330805/206880268-c7f65d07-5906-4228-89f0-e25bee02ed9c.mp4

Now that I'm done screwing around...

We could go back to using the StarBase as the background. Maybe make it animated.

[tymofij]

Hmm. I am in the demographic of people who played SC2 in 90s, and I have absolutely no nostalgia for that dark menu.

I enjoy UQM MegaMod greatly for it staying faithful to the original game content, while not being shy about implementing it better. HD redrawn graphics - awesome! Readable fonts instead of blocky ones - yes! Map improvements - absolutely! It's like that old great game, but overcoming technical limitations of the time.

If the game started introducing new races, plots, or mechanics - that's when it would become some other game, that is when it would starts diverging from faithfulness in my opinion.

So, to me, the current green menu represents the colorfulness and the adventure of the original game just right. I would not trade it for dark one and I do not think lots of people would. With HD content installed, UQM MegaMod looks like a quality 2D game. And it is worth keeping that bar up. Green menu with its fancy fonts, colorful background and transparency looks modern and great, just needs a better background picture. Dark and drab menu, on the other hand, seems like a step backwards.

I can look for or try to commission some background image, if you're open to the idea and do not prefer to pick something yourself.

[JHGuitarFreak]

Nah, I'll probably just leave it as it is.

At best I may go back to the StarBase main menu I had before but have it animated.