How large should a UI be at the most? Post your opinion.

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Chris-S wrote:
ENV1 wrote:How large should a static (i.e. non-resizable) UI be at the most.
Resolution doubles each few years, so a modern UI should be resizable.
But mine only doubled on the x axis. Why wide screen? What's my age again?

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Chris-S wrote:
ENV1 wrote:How large should a static (i.e. non-resizable) UI be at the most.
Resolution doubles each few years, so a modern UI should be resizable.
Should be, yeah.

But what if they arent?

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A lot of U-he plugins have several size options. Not exactly chopped liver...

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I think multiple size options for skins are a far better solution than resizable vector based (aka, self-drawn in software) graphics.

Resizing the GUI to every possible size in pixels or fractions of pixels just doesn't make sense, for anyone, ever. It is possible you have a weird size or many weird sizes, but they're specific concrete values, not variable!

Until we invent a monitor you can stretch with fully dynamic resolution, there just isn't going to be much justification for dynamically resizable GUIs.

Just look at the result of this on platforms like android! The result is that every GUI in every size looks like crap. None of them are fine-tuned for a particular resolution, unless they are specially designed for it. That is possible, but now we're right back to multiple sizes of skins.
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Bigger than "too small", and not bigger than "almost too large".

Optional sizes is a nice feature where appropriate, and retina resolutions is starting to be important at least on the Mac platform.

I like a synth GUI to be large so I can comfortably work at it from a little distance from the monitor, I'm not worried about taking up too much screen space - if I'm working with a synth, I *want* it to be able to take up the full (or a sizeable portion of) the screen in general...

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bought a new mid-range laptop lately ... max resolution is 1366x768

so ya, it should fit on that imo. I mean, ideally it shouldn't even swallow up all of that space.

ultimately i think plugins should come with a choice of gui sizes if it's not within their skillset to provide a vector based scalable type of deal.

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I must fit two of these on HD monitor (1920 x 1080). This means 960 pixels width would be max.
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aciddose wrote:I think multiple size options for skins are a far better solution than resizable vector based (aka, self-drawn in software) graphics.

Resizing the GUI to every possible size in pixels or fractions of pixels just doesn't make sense, for anyone, ever. It is possible you have a weird size or many weird sizes, but they're specific concrete values, not variable!

Until we invent a monitor you can stretch with fully dynamic resolution, there just isn't going to be much justification for dynamically resizable GUIs.

Just look at the result of this on platforms like android! The result is that every GUI in every size looks like crap. None of them are fine-tuned for a particular resolution, unless they are specially designed for it. That is possible, but now we're right back to multiple sizes of skins.
Why would resizable vector based automatically mean "Resizing the GUI to every possible size in pixels or fractions of pixels".
What's wrong with a vector based GUI ... to just make it bigger or smaller?

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T-CM11 wrote:What's wrong with a vector based GUI ... to just make it bigger or smaller?
It can work for some things, but a vector approach constrains some of what you can do graphically, which doesn't make it viable for all things. With a non-vector approach, the best solution for now is to have multiple asset sizes, so you can then offer a range of GUI sizes, and it will be this way for some time to come.

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beely wrote: It can work for some things, but a vector approach constrains some of what you can do graphically.
Everything you can make with pixels, you can make with vectors. After all, a pixel can be represented by 4 vectors (for some textures e.g. - not that you'd necessarily want to do that, but it's possible). It doesn't have to be all Valhalla-minimal, and it's definitely a different approach and expertise in designing.

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T-CM11 wrote:
beely wrote:It can work for some things, but a vector approach constrains some of what you can do graphically.
Everything you can make with pixels, you can make with vectors.
I didn't say it wasn't possible, I said the design is constrained by it.

Currently with bitmaps, all you have to do is copy a previously made bitmap to the screen. If you wanted a vector display engine that could do *everything* you could do with bitmaps, you'd either have to build it in from scratch, modify and existing one, or wait until there was something reasonably portable in the OS's of all the platforms you want to support. And the performance would be worse too as there is a lot more that happens in the rendering.

And that's why in the main, the current plugins that use a vector-display engine have reasonably simple graphics, ones that the existing solutions can handle reasonably well.

A decade down the line, the current computing environment may well be different, but it's how it is for now and for the near future.

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I want a synth GUI to be full screenable.

I also want the programmers to argue about how that'll get done.

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Full screen option would be great ... other than that I just need it fit on my 1440 x 900 screen.

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Offering 2, or more sizes, or a resizable GUI are probably the best two solutions for users imho.

As for tabbed GUIs, it really depends on the number of controls you have on an unit. Non tabbed GUIs are ok for very simple units requiring few knobs, sliders, labels and misc controls. But for more complex units, it's just .... impossible. :shrug:

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I just want to be able to read the controls.

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