Contest: Design the best subscreen(s)!

You heard me, folks. This is a Contest. Design the best subscreen possible for NeoFirst, and yours is the one we'll use.

Although I'm going to be very liberal with my decisions, here are a few "Guidelines."

• I'm currently pondering having each area have its own different subscreen, with its own theme based on the area that you're in.
• It's something new and exciting, and something you can think "Wow!" at.
• Design whatever you want, however you want. It just needs to work.
• The more entries you submit, the more ideas the rest of us get when we actually get to finalizing them.
• Your entry may be included, even if you don't "win," so try your best! You never know what'll happen. ;)
• You can submit them however you'd like. Screenshots, scans, mockups in MSPaint, .qst files, ... anything.
• .qst files are preferred. :sweat: *lol*
• Have fun with it. Seriously.

...

*Shoots a pistol into the air*

Go.

Rules For Submission:

• All submissions must NOT be a .bmp file. You can use www.irfanview.com to convert it to .gif
• All submissions should include both an active subscreen (The top part that pulls down when you activate the subscreen.) and the lower part that's always visible on the top of the screen as you play. If your submission is missing one of these, anothers' may be substituted if it matches.
• Store the images somewhere fast and reliable so they won't go down for whatever reason. I personally recommend www.photobucket.com. Imageshack is a good bet as well. If you have somewhere fast and reliable, host it there. Make sure it's convenient to display.
• Try to link to the image. It prevents a horizontal scroll bar from growing across the screen.
• Label your screenshots appropriately. It's nice to know what you intend to be what.

Very well, I'll be the first contestant.

I was going to just post the quest, but it's being buggy, so...

http://www.filespace.org/Cjc7988/SubscreenTopCjc.gif
Top subscreen
http://www.filespace.org/Cjc7988/SubscreenBottomCjc.gif
Status Bar
http://www.filespace.org/Cjc7988/Sub...DungeonCjc.gif
Dungeon Subscreen (Don't say it's boring, I'm going with a theme here)

EDIT: Quest removed temporarily for maintenence

EDIT2:Maintenence completed!
Look for SubscreenContestCjc.qst, right click 'View', and save the target. It's the 1.9mb file, the only quest file in the list.

EDIT3:Inspired by ShadowTiger's own impressive status bar, I've redone my own.

How do you get tiles in there from your tilepages, like how did he get the link in there?
How do you add new items, like the cane of byrna?

Well,
*grins*

I used empty Triforce containers to place tiles from my tileset, and then changed which tiles it referenced to.

And to add new items, go to 'new', select item, and then change the item property to "Cane of Bryna" or whatever you want it to be.


Now, for item cycling with the selectable items, it gets a bit tricky.

Position is a variable which says, Hey, this item is here!
Let's say you set the "Cane of Bryna" position to 15.
When you put that number into, oh lets say the boomerang's left slot, then when scrolling left to right the Cane of Bryna will go before the Boomerang. Likewise, you would need to put the boomerang's position number (Which happens to be 0) into the Cane of Bryna's right position slot, so that when cycling from right to left it goes boomerang then Cane of Bryna.



If you're creating one from scratch, you won't be able to directly implement it into the game. Rather, you'll be forced to duplicate it by hand into one of the 4 pre-generated subscreens before it appears in-game. Hopefully this will be fixed in later versions.

I love it, man. :) It's quite beautiful. ^^; It'd go great for a custom subscreen, and would indeed exhibit the extraordinary power of the subscreen editor.


...


Now check this one out.
http://users.sephiroth.ws/ST/zc/NewN...creenType1.GIF
It's obviously nowhere near finished, but I'm working steadily on it.

Of course, the passive subscreen will also have all the necessary indicators and the minimap. Obviously.

I wonder if this will start a new craze, like the faces did before.

And is the minimap truely necessary? I don't think I've used it outside of Zelda 1. In fact, removing it would make warping tricks even less conspicuous.

*Smiles Devilishly*
Hmm... I could get away with that.

Frankly, I would sort of agree with you that a minimap may not be necessary. Do keep in mind though, that many users would nearly prefer to have one, and NeoFirst will become a tileset in the future, so future users will have access to those custom subscreens as well.


EDIT: Thanks Cjc. My Subscreen At work.

Shadow Tiger, here's what I thought it was going to look like:
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2...entype2oc0.png
The part that is not obvious is that the yellow squares are triforces to simulate a "Game Progress Meter"
This is not my entry.
Edit: Woah! I just thought of an idea! We could put triforce pieces on Link's face and change the tiles to simulate...

...emotions! For example he goes from happy to no emotion to sad to angry to rage and finally to calm.

I'm impresseed at how quickly some of you are picking up on the subscreen editor. I can't wait to see what you do once you master it.
And for simplicity, you can use a tileblock instead of a Triforce container if you just want to throw some tiles in there.

Wow. Really impressive. I might just have to give it a go...

Well....
I didn't design this for neofirst, but figured I show you what I came up with so far anyway.

http://members.toast.net/mfreedom/gifs/sub4_ch3.gif

I don't know exactly how this measures up, but just to show what I've been up to.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/656/zelda001bc7.png

I didn't make this for the contest but what the hell. Howevere I'm having a lot of trouble getting large maps to appear (note the large empty right side space).

The bottom is NOT my custom passive screen. For some reason, the DMap won't allow me to choose which subscreen for passive. I think it's a bug, but I also think someone else addressed it already.

Well, I figured "what the heck?"...



Notes:
- Yeah, I know the NeoFirst forest temple doesn't really look like the original level 9...I didn't feel like copying the exact shape, and I wanted to see how well the maps would look with most of the map space filled anyway. :p
- QST file coming soon, I'll get on it once I finish this post. Actually, it'll probably be a zipped QSU if the beta 11 imports are working in that area, as those are quite small and I'm having trouble trying to upload a 2 meg file into my Filespace account... >_< (EDIT: It's up, get it right heah. W00t.)



Editor, top subscreen in overworld:
http://www.filespace.org/4matsy/zc_sub_neo1st_zq1.png



Editor, top subscreen in dungeon:
http://www.filespace.org/4matsy/zc_sub_neo1st_zq2.png



Editor, bottom subscreen:
http://www.filespace.org/4matsy/zc_sub_neo1st_zq3.png



In-game, overworld:
http://www.filespace.org/4matsy/zc_sub_neo1st_zc1.png



In-game, dungeon:
http://www.filespace.org/4matsy/zc_sub_neo1st_zc2.png

Those chains are a nice touch. ;)

Heh.

I decided to split up the automatically-equipped (left side, brown boxes) and B-button (right side, purple boxes) items by rough categories (raft/ladder/flippers/boots improve movement over certain terrain, candle/wand/lens/spells all suck up magic, etc.)

But after splitting each category into its own box, I thought, "hmm, this looks a bit TOO separated. How can I still more clearly show that all that stuff on the right side of the screen is for the B button, without squishing everything back together, when I don't even have enough room for text labels?"

The answer: connect the boxes. :p

http://chaoszc.501megs.com/images/zelda003.png

Nothing special and likely won't win but I thought I'd share. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cjc7988

Very well, I'll be the first contestant.

I was going to just post the quest, but it's being buggy, so...

http://www.filespace.org/Cjc7988/SubscreenTopCjc.gif

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Wow, a circular item wheel... very different! o_o Where did you get that round leaf design?...

Incidentally, I wanted to point out something: the bow and arrow in DoR was designed specifically to be used with the exactly-as-default "New Revision 2" subscreen, which places the arrow on top of the bow in such a way that my "Longbow" would be hidden by the "bow and arrow" icon EXCEPT for the little number "2" that peeks out from behind it on the bottom left.

Unless you work it in such a way that this occurs similarly, there is no reason to use the icons exactly as they are. For instance, the place between the bow and the bowstring in the icon is filled in with not-quite-black coloring. That can be omitted if you're a perfectionist.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Questions

http://chaoszc.501megs.com/images/zelda003.png

Nothing special and likely won't win but I thought I'd share. :)

---

The "Ability Meters" area is a little weird, and the "Manual Items" area is a little crammed, but otherwise it is very nice. :)

One issue, though: my leafy frames were never meant to be used in those CSets. CSet 5 only, pleez!

The round leaves are really just a segment of hair from IaN's Oracles Link face. I recolored the hair to be green and the skin to be brown, and then rotated it.
And the circular layout wasn't really my idea, it's the planned design for Twilight Princess's subscreen. I just borrowed it.

As for the bow icon, I wasn't really intending on using the Dance of Remembrance items anyway, it was just convenient at the time.

EDIT: Questions, you're missing the medallion of Light. Other than that, your layout is very nice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cjc7988

The round leaves are really just a segment of hair from IaN's Oracles Link face. I recolored the hair to be green and the skin to be brown, and then rotated it.

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Oh, really... pfft. I'd call you lazy, but it looks nice, so I have nothing to complain about. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cjc7988

And the circular layout wasn't really my idea, it's the planned design for Twilight Princess's subscreen. I just borrowed it.

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Interesting... I kinda like it. Where did you see a screenshot of the TP subscreen? Does the wheel itself rotate in Twilight Princess, or just the cursor?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cjc7988

As for the bow icon, I wasn't really intending on using the Dance of Remembrance items anyway, it was just convenient at the time.

---

:( *sniff*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Radien ZC

Interesting... I kinda like it. Where did you see a screenshot of the TP subscreen? Does the wheel itself rotate in Twilight Princess, or just the cursor?

---

You'd have to download a video of someone playing it. Or, check out my pic. ;)

[TP menu screen]

Well, that's the Wii version. You select the item with the cursor. The menu is the same in the GCN version (in a circle). The cursor moves, not the items.

To tell the truth, I don't really like Cjc's item circle. Sure it's showy, but the cursor is constrained to linear movement as a result - quickly accessing an item at the other side of the circle would require furious button-pressing. And (most importantly) it can't fit on the same screen as the large dungeon map, requiring the dungeon subscreen to be entirely reworked (and featuring a cramped-looking "item lemniscate" as a result).

(Taken from post here.)

...Here is the latest. It looks a lot better. I tried to go back and fill in the blanks pixel by pixel (where it needed it) as you can see, I missed some spots. If there is a way to underlay things so I can put something else, sexier than the purple fill in?

http://www.geocities.com/tobiasdx/sexyss1.gif

http://www.geocities.com/tobiasdx/sexyss2.gif


EDIT:
One more:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by From PureZC

http://www.geocities.com/tobiasdx/rexpimpss.gif

HE JUST WON'T STOP!! I know, right?

This is another version. This one was from scratch. I focused on tile blocks instead of 2x2 frames. I may make a "Subscreen 102" tutorial in the near future for slightly more advanced tricks. It'll be a HTML page with screenshots O=

It is very colorful. I will be fixing that 8x8 bar at the top tommorrow.

---

_L_, if you're clever enough with the subscreen editor and item position properties you can set it so pressing up or down moves you to the other side of the circle. I was just too lazy to do that at the time.
And I'll agree, the layout is a bit cramped. Maybe it's not right for Neofirst, but we have plenty of other subscreens to choose from, right?
------------------------------------------------------------
Pineconn/Radien, Twilight Princess has a one-up on my circle. As more items are added, it readjusts so that they are equadistant from each other. So, if you have two items one would be on top and the other on the bottom. But, if you got a third item, the one on the bottom would be shifted to the 8:15 position, and a new item would be added at the 3:45 position. ZC is incapable of that.
------------------------------------------------------------
Radien, don't feel bad. The DoR tileset is beautiful, I just wanted to make different icons for items (For when I make a quest of my own).
------------------------------------------------------------
Tobias_Daboi, your magic meter is cool. I like the subscreen with the tileblocks better than the 2x2 frames; it's more interesting.

https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/sub001.GIF https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/sub002.GIF

https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/sub003.GIF https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/sub005.gif

the last shot is the final revamped dungeon screen, only difference
in the Triforce screen will be the Magic Book tiles, from Rings back
to a book tile

Yikes, shadowfall1976's design looks awfully compelling.

Here's my entry for a passive subscreen.
http://users.sephiroth.ws/DartZaidyer/subscreen-coh.gif
20 hearts total. A and B graphics are from Mario & Luigi. Only rupees and level keys have permanent counters, weapon ammo is displayed when selected. If this design is used, I suggest giving it a decent-looking background or frame to go around it.

Hm. I like it, primarily because it's the easiest to implement. :p


Okay; I think it's about time to implement these, .. or at least get started on it.

If you want to see your design in NeoFirst, you'll need to give me the tiles you used. HOWEVER, I'm not accepting straight rips. You'll need to at least meet me halfway and rip them into the NeoFirst set so I at least won't have to recolor them. I'll put it all together myself if you'd like, but we all know that the tiles have to be in exactly the right positions first in each tileset, otherwise it just looks like total garbage when imported. (Just as if you would import a .til from the NewFirst set right into your Pure quest, fresh, without importing anything else. Yeah. You all know what that looks like. :rolleyes: (May we never see that again. - -. Amen.)

Now, here's what I think we can do.

I think that we can allot every subscreen here a tiles page. I'll go make a helluva lot of room in NeoFirst, so at least 50 straight pages in a row are free.

Then, I'll assign each subscreen here a tiles page. You'll have your tiles placed on that tiles page in your own copy of NeoFirst.


To recap:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to see your Subscreen in NeoFirst,
Here's what you need to do.

Download This Hollowed Out Copy Of NeoFirst

Look in this post for the number I will assign you. This is a TILES PAGE NUMBER. If you don't see your name here, then simply be patient, or Post in the thread. (Be sure to update your post once you see your name in this post with a tiles page number next to it.)

DO NOT use anyone else's Tiles Page. If two tiles pages overlap, PM me and I'll work it out. It'll end up looking like garbage.


Recolor everything in your subscreen to the NeoFirst's tileset.

Create Labels to show me which Cset everything should go into. If you don't have labels, it's harder to know what it should look like.

Use the Rip feature wherever possible, but only if the end result is how you want it to look. If it crashes for you, save, restart your PC, and try it again.


Okay. Now, when you've got all your graphics ripped sufficiently into this .qst file, take a screenshot of the full Tiles Page in every Cset that you want used. Name it something like:

YOURNAME_YourUniqueSubscreenName_CsetNumber.GIF

Please ... No PNG's or JPG's. ... ...

Yes, if you can convert it to a .GIF, I'd be grateful. .BMP's are acceptable, but GIF's are preferable. You can use www.irfanview.com to convert them fairly easily, FYI, if you don't already know how.


So once you've got the necessary screenshots, try to build your subscreen in that version using what you've recolored. Reproduce it to the best of your ability. Again, make sure 100% of the entire subscreen is using ONE SINGLE TILES PAGE, the one assigned to you. Otherwise it defeats the entire purpose of all of this. Then Export that as code.

Include the Code for your subscreen (Similarly named, so not to have the same generic name anyone else would use.)


So: Your .zip file should contain the following:

• A .sub file (The exported code for your subscreen.) for EACH of your subscreens that you're submitting. A seperate .sub file per each subscreen.
• A screenshot of the tiles page in Cset X.
• A screenshot of the tiles page in Cset X+1.
• A screenshot of the tiles page in Cset X+2.
• A screenshot of the tiles page in Cset X+Y. (You get the idea. As many Csets as necessary.)
• Optional: Text instructions on how to assemble it. Holy crap, if you include these, I'll love you forever.

If I see any screenshots "zelda001.bmp" or "mysubscreen.gif" I'll just assume that you weren't serious about having your subscreen getting in, and just use the included tiles for whatever I feel like. They might get in anyway, but probably not as a subscreen. Just name them as uniquely and logically as you can, okay? ;) Thanks. Really, thanks. Very much.





Again, if you don't see your name here yet, just be patient. I'll most definitely pop up eventually.

(BTW, if anyone knows how to pry your 21 month younger sister off of the PC from playing too many MMORPG's, installing them, trying them, and otherwise hogging the only PC in the house that can build NeoFirst, ... ... please tell me ... I'm getting desperate here. ;_; )

<------------------------------------------------>

Tiles Page 215 Through 216 - Cjc7988: Active, Passive,

Tiles Page 217 - Freedom : Active

Tiles Page 218 - Love For Fire: Active And Passive

Tiles Page 219 Through 220 - Hypercrash: Active Overworld, Active Dungeon, Passive, General Preview Overworld, General Preview Dungeon.

Tiles Page 221 - Questions: Active

Tiles Page 222 Through 224 - Rex Zemenhart / Tobias Dabois: Active Preview, Passive Preview, Active 2

Tiles Page 226 Through 231 - shadowfall1976: Active Overworld, Active Dungeon,

deleted

I think providing screens of individual CSets and instructions to assemble each subscreen is completely unnecessary. The .sub export will already have that information. Only the tilepage would be required.

https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/finalsub01.GIF https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/finalsub02.GIF

https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/finalsub03.GIF https://home.comcast.net/~shadowfall1976/finalsub04.GIF

since I don't use the minimap anymore on the bottom subscreen, I removed
the Compass from play, and moved the dungeon items down under the map
and it looks less cluttered now. and I worked the mini map into the overworld
subscreen, so I moved the God Stones down in a single row to make room for it.

and changed the bottom, from red to blue. so this is my final screen for this
Quest. I really don't see much more I need to change.

Exactly. Only the SUB file is neccessary in addition to the tilepage. All you'd have to do is set the tiles up right. Or better yet we could import the SUB into that Hollow quest. Set it up. And give the tilepage and reexported SUB to you. Then you'd import them and they'd be ready.

I've already allotted the necessary space in NeoFirst's tiles pages for the incoming tiles. :) The hollowed out copy is just so you can work in an environment that's very similar to NeoFirst's own. ... Virtually identical to it, in fact. So I'd really only need a screenshot of your tiles page's section, with the tiles page number included somewhere in there, then I rip it all in, and it rips perfectly, (It better. ;-p lol. ) so all the Csets are correct and such already, so I just import the .sub files and we're good to go.

Okay...

Besides I don't really need my tilepage since my subscreen has no custom tiles so could I just send you the SUB file and be done with it or what :p

Yes, that would be wonderful, thanks. :p I was thinking something along those lines. ^^; lol.

Well, after much contemplation I've decided that my subscreens aren't sufficient for a project of this caliber.
Also, most of the tiles I used were already from NeoFirst's Tileset.

However, 3 of them were customized (The Ribbed Health Bar, leaf circle, and giant A button. The B button was also recolored, but it's not technically customized).

I will import these into the file and you may use them as you please. Seeing as how the number of tiles this would require is very slim, I'll only be needing page 215.


CJC's Cetza Justified Controller Tiles (You said we needed unique names)


As there's no subscreen code attached with this, you can rip them to any page you please (Or not at all if you prefer). If you're putting them on p.215, place them at the top so you have room for other stuff later. It'll rip right in, so it shouldn't be a hassle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShadowTiger

Now, here's what I think we can do.

I think that we can allot every subscreen here a tiles page. I'll go make a helluva lot of room in NeoFirst, so at least 50 straight pages in a row are free.

Then, I'll assign each subscreen here a tiles page. You'll have your tiles placed on that tiles page in your own copy of NeoFirst.

(BTW, if anyone knows how to pry your 21 month younger sister off of the PC from playing too many MMORPG's, installing them, trying them, and otherwise hogging the only PC in the house that can build NeoFirst, ... ... please tell me ... I'm getting desperate here. ;_; )

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Well, ya may as well reserve a page for me. I'll likely show SOMETHING here, sooner or later. :p

...Is she hot? XD Seriously though, get her interested in something else. Like chatting online (*hint hint*). =P

Rakki, if you need a page, take p.216. I managed to fit all the tiles from mine on p.215, so 216 is empty.