UI graphics enhancement question / suggestion

[DeepWell]

I think that the user interface could be improved with some graphical enhancements. I tried to search about this online but I didn’t find much at all so maybe people are not that interested in this but I’d like to implement those in my games. I will list them here starting from the most important to the least important.

1 Font sizes
2 Unit icon size
3 City resource bar
4 Action buttons / build buttons size
5 Cottage, Hamlet, Village, Town scale
6 Unit scale

1 Font sizes

I already managed to change the font sizes and the difference can be seen in the pictures above. Eyes are more pleased with a bigger font.

2 Unit icon size

Bigger icons would be easier to recognize and the upgrade arrows and other symbols easier to notice.

3 City resource bar

Resources on the right picture version are neatly listed so they are quick to spot and look better. Drop down menus help to sort resources. The right picture is taken from History Rewritten mod.

4 Action buttons / build buttons size

This is more about aesthetics than practicality. The city build icons are actually nice to look at and it would do them justice if they were bigger. Bigger icons would enhance their recognizability a bit too. Same goes with the unit action buttons.

5 Cottage, Hamlet, Village, Town scale

Cottages, hamlets, villages and towns are a slightly difficult to spot on the map. I would like these to be rescaled to be a bit bigger.

6 Unit scale

I think the units would look better if they were bigger. Not much practicality here, that would be just for the looks.

So I would like to know how to rescale those things for my copy of the mod. I think with simple instructions it would be reasonably easy for me to do all the changes except the resource bar. If these would be implemented in the actual public version then I don’t need instructions, I will just wait for someone else to do it. Thanks!

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

It's not really easy to customize interface in Civ 4, unlike what one might think from moldability of everything else. With regard to font sizes, you can try the stuff recommended here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/font-size-changes.528487/

Unit scale is easy to adjust, but tedious, as it's set for each individual unit in CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml

Cottages and such are trickier - one can adjust their scale, but they are actually composed of individual buildings, so if each of them is scaled up, they'll start overlapping and it will look rather ugly.

Buttons in city interface are actually displayed at their native resolutions - so scaling them up (even if it were easy, which it isn't) would only make them blurrier.

Also, I remember there being a scaling tool, this IIRC: https://www.moddb.com/downloads/civscale, but I never tried using it with the mod.

 

[DeepWell]

Alright, thanks for the clearance!

Thank you and everyone involved so much for the piece of art that this mod is! I thought at first that it's too complex for me but then I loaded my old savegame and I have had a great time with it.

 

[robbyextreme]

I use a transparent black UI if anyone wants to download it. Am I the only one who thinks the default blue doesn't fit the game at all?

 

[DeepWell]

I use a transparent black UI if anyone wants to download it. Am I the only one who thinks the default blue doesn't fit the game at all?

I think the blue is just fine. The black looks kinda space themed. I might like dark grey.