Smart Way to Graphically Represent a Number?

[First Spear]

I have 16 two-digit numbers I need to represent on a screen. The values must share screen real estate with the rest of the game.

 

I am trying to think through a way to graphically represent the numbers so they take a minimum amount of cards and of course not use any MOBs.

 

One idea I had was to make a vertical "thermometer", with a full tile representing 100% of a number, and an empty tile representing zero. Another screen could show an accurate numeric value. This might keep the display more compact, but I think I would have to hold in GRAM eight images to represent each stage of the thermometer - unless it's straightforward to draw/change a tile in GRAM in code.

 

 

I'm open to all ideas.

 

 

I'm using IntyBASIC, don't know if that adds or removes constraints to what I want to attempt.

 

Thanks.

 

[intvnut]

You can use a mixture of GRAM and GROM tiles. See GROM tiles 0, 203, 209 and 95 for 0%, 25%, 50% and 100%. The rest you could fill in with 5 GRAM tiles for 12.5%, 37.5%, 62.5%, 75% and 87.5%. The only downside of using the GROM tiles is that they give you bars that are 8px wide, and you might want bars that are only 6px or 7px wide (to give some visual separation). If you want narrower bars, then you're better off just using GRAM tiles.

 

If you're using FGBG mode, you're forced to use GRAM tiles here.

 

Drawing a fixed set of tiles in GRAM and reusing them means you could display any number of quantities on screen with these 'thermometers,' and still use the same amount of GRAM. If you try to dedicate a GRAM tile to each 'thermometer', you need to synchronize with the VBlank interrupt (a WAIT statement) and manipulate GRAM. (Not sure if IntyBASIC's GRAM-update primitives help you here.)

 

Updating pictures in GRAM could be a win if you had only a handful of quantities to display, but the whole reason you're doing this is that you have many quantities to display. :-)

[freewheel]

Graphics aside, I would question the utility of having 16 different values displayed at once. As a gamer, it just sounds like one of those overly-complicated games that I'd avoid. It's just information overload. Unless you're trying to develop a hyper-realistic flight simulator or something.

 

Depending on what you're trying to convey to a player, there are sometimes entirely different ways of presenting complex info. Color, texture, sound, shape, etc. If you're legitimately trying to have the player pay attention to 16 discrete values *during actual gameplay*, you may be a bit of a sadist

[intvnut]

My first thought was "Character sheet?" I recall Phantasy Star 2 had those, and I largely ignored them other than to check what level my character was, and maybe relative stats. Even then, it only had a half dozen stats to consider.

 

I did have another thought on displaying 2-digit numbers. I don't know how easy this is in IntyBASIC, but if you're willing to use 16 GRAM cards for this while it's onscreen, you can pack two digits into one card fairly easily with a condensed font. It may be easiest to write a bit of assembly to handle that efficiently though. If you look at how Centipede displays its score, it uses this technique.

[freewheel]

I was thinking character stats too - but that's an awful lot. Even on modern platforms I find games are a bit tedious when you have more than about a half-dozen things to care about.

 

And he mentioned that it has to be onscreen along with other stuff. Personally, I wouldn't want to have to see all of that while playing the game. It would just distract and waste screen real estate.

 

That being said, I have no idea what it's for so I should probably stop shitting all over the idea I'm more of a Zelda over Ultima kinda guy anyway, so my take on it might be coming from a completely different viewpoint. I HAVE had the thought of a Bard's Tale port - the tile-based screen would work well here - and even with that you'd have to do some font condensing.

[+DZ-Jay]

Graphics aside, I would question the utility of having 16 different values displayed at once. As a gamer, it just sounds like one of those overly-complicated games that I'd avoid. It's just information overload. Unless you're trying to develop a hyper-realistic flight simulator or something.

 

Depending on what you're trying to convey to a player, there are sometimes entirely different ways of presenting complex info. Color, texture, sound, shape, etc. If you're legitimately trying to have the player pay attention to 16 discrete values *during actual gameplay*, you may be a bit of a sadist

 

 

I agree.

 

 

My first thought was "Character sheet?" I recall Phantasy Star 2 had those, and I largely ignored them other than to check what level my character was, and maybe relative stats. Even then, it only had a half dozen stats to consider.

 

I did have another thought on displaying 2-digit numbers. I don't know how easy this is in IntyBASIC, but if you're willing to use 16 GRAM cards for this while it's onscreen, you can pack two digits into one card fairly easily with a condensed font. It may be easiest to write a bit of assembly to handle that efficiently though. If you look at how Centipede displays its score, it uses this technique.

 

I'm with you, I mainly ignore those character sheets unless I can read them with clear details outside the critical game play. That is, if there is a dedicated "stats" screen that can give me a clear read out.

 

Using colours or graphics for this in an Intellivision is mostly useless, since there aren't useful colour gradients in the palette, and the resolution and game field do not support much detail. You could offer a three or four colour spectrum (e.g., white, yellow, orange, red) to represent high, medium, and low status. This serves the purpose of providing immediate useful information, at a glance.

 

Additionally, you could have a dedicated "character stats" screen with all 16 values in properly detailed gauges (either long bars or numeric digits) so that the player may study his actual character attributes at leisure and with greater depth. To keep the pace of the game, you could prevent this screen from being used during combat or other critical stage.

 

I was going to suggest a similar concept to what AD&D does for the arrows: a "clicking" counter that tells you the quantity of arrows in your inventory. However, you'll be hard-pressed to find 16 input buttons to dedicate to each metric, without making the interface more complicated and arcane.

 

-dZ.

Edited January 7, 2015 by DZ-Jay

[First Spear]

If I didn't want feedback,I wouldn't have asked the question. I am OK with criticism about doing 16 gauges at all.

 

I appreciate everything here. While I don't plan to actually *do* something with a ton of stats on the screen, I want to pose an extreme example to get the thinking juices going.

 

I like the idea of color pseudo-gradient. I like the idea of arrow-clicks.

 

Because the memory (storage) limit has largely been lifted in recent times, and because there are many more knowledgeable people that are willing to share ideas, I like to think about how issues can be solved that would be completely unthinkable years ago.

 

So... Thanks!