The Mana World Forums

the virtaul joystick doesnt work, the buttons are not clear what they do,
why not use something like this controls ?

Actually, the screenshot uses too specific buttons.

Button A and B can be reconfigured. A big Blue and small red buttons would be better:
Anyway, feel free to code it (but do respect the license)

(I took a screenshot from Shelterra the Sky World but I think Crystareino have a better example of touchpad controls - but not in responsiveness)

We need an better interface for mobile, lets collect the points here that are preventing a great mobile experience.

I believe in a good mobile interface so we can also get players on the upcoming linux phones like the pinephone and the librem 5.

The main points that annoy me are:

- Transport Encryption is a must, at least for the credentials (to protect from public unencrypted WiFi)
- Controls and virtual joystick feel unnatural and sometimes the joystick stops working.
- I would appreciate independent scaling of UI and game world.

- Open windows as new screens instead (we don't have enough space on mobile)
- opening the bank would give you a split screen between bank and inventory for example.

- an option to remember server passwords should be there on mobile.

Generally its better to aim for a usable default before making everything customizable by the user IMHO.

Let's collect ideas here.
PS: This should not be a thing that we just give to 4144 to do, I'm ready to help on this even though I don't know C++ yet.

Keep in mind that both TMWA and ManaPlus were developed when there was no economical/social crisis and damn small screens. Probably its graphical interface weren't developed with common GUI framework like Qt or similar so I believe that developing it for mobile devices can be quite resource and time intensive.
You better use a PC that's a device that will hardly be superseded by trends and ManaPlus can run even on older or cheaper PCs: only needs a lot of patience.

With Source of Tales we attempted a more mobile friendly UI (Qt Quick based) (see http://www.sourceoftales.org/screenshots.html for screenshots). Since the Mana and Manaplus interface was started based on the guichan library, porting it would be a huge effort. With Qt Quick we managed to get a fairly nice UI within very short time (though there is still a LOT to do). With the more primitive guichan we would be nowhere close.

We structured the client in a way that parts could be used as libraries. So things like map rendering does not need to be rewritten. So if anyone is interested into using those components for a mobile friendly TMW client, it would be possible to find a way to share them (I would be glad to help).

Regards,
Ablu

I also do believe we need a more mobile friendly client based on qt-quick or maybe something like godot if we want to survive for another 15 years. However I'm pretty sure we currently have no developer who has the skills, the time and the motivation to write one.

If someone steps up and starts working on this he will have my full support.

Hello, in this post, I'm saying as Moubootaur Legends Admin (and not as TMW Admin), so I'll put it under spoiler tags.