Proposal new GUI ATT 0.25 beta 15

[Wizard17]

Okay, her's a new GUI design for the new ATT...
I started this thread in order to get the participation of whoever is interested discussing a much more usefull GUI-layout for ATITool. The existing layout is kinda outdated and all the new features on the new cards kinda require a re-design... To keep it still as campact as possible I've come up with the following design... Remember, this is just a starting point,
any comments are welcome...

- The idea is to have as many profiles next to oneanother as the user likes. It would enable
him to have a 2D and a 3D profile next to eachother. It would enable a crossfire-user to
have a 2D profile for each card next to one another. This design simply means a whole lot
less clicking and going through combo-boxes
- Every profile starts out with the basic sliders for core- and memory-freq.
The user is then allowed to add whatever sliders are available for that card, and can thus
make his own personal view of a profile. If there are more sliders than fit, the scrollbar
makes it possible to scroll the window. Alternatively, the user can re-size the main-window
horizontally to make everything fit the way he wants. As a last alternative there's a
"slidebar" in between every profile, enabling sliding to right to show more of 1st profile or
right to show more of 2nd profile, etc.

 

[b1lk1]

that looks nice! I am going crossfire soon and would appreciate that setup for sure.

 

[POGE]

Download ResHacker and do it yourself. Then post the .exe file here.

 

[Bull Dog]

That looks quite good Wizzard17. At the moment, I'm having a hard time thinking of any critisims. Looks good, looks good.

Edit: Typed wrong name, force of habit..... :shadedshu

 

[W1zzard]

good stuff there. i'm not sure if we can fit all card related settings in such a horizontal scrolling pane. think gamma, fans, monitoring settings, memory timings

 

[Thermopylae_480]

I don't think all possible settings in one scrolling pane would be all that great. How often do you need to make Gamma adjustments? There are some options that you just don't use all that much, that don't need to be in a convientient location. I do like the other re-designed interface in the first post though.

 

[Brama]

I do appreciate this new look.
Hope to see soon a beta.
Bye,

 

[W1zzard]

any suggstions on how these less used functions could be accessed?

 

[gR3iF]

make a button left?
so that u have a window for clocks and volts
one for ati tool settings
and one for fan and gamma+ driver optimations settings

 

[CjStaal]

Download ResHacker and do it yourself. Then post the .exe file here.

You can't modify how a exe displays things from just modding a dll... the GUI itself needs to be rewritten... and writing gui's suck asssssss. (First hand experience trying to write a GUI in C++, never doing that again)

 

[cmberry20]

why not have a pop out tool bar on the side. Have several buttons or tabs on the r/h side that when clicked open up a another windows with voltage settings, fans settings etc.
Keeps the gui unclutter if people dont want the extra tools but for those that do its only one click away.

 

[Wizard17]

I don't think all possible settings in one scrolling pane would be all that great. How often do you need to make Gamma adjustments? There are some options that you just don't use all that much, that don't need to be in a convientient location. I do like the other re-designed interface in the first post though.

Now that's the exact issue... If you work like me, you work one thing at a time...
The idea is NOT to have ALL settings in one pane at a time, the idea is to let the user choose and ONLY have those settings in the pane that he needs at any given time, with the flexibility to change it later on (since alot of times, requirements change over time...)

Suppose you want to adjust your fan-settings, all you have to do is expand the Fan-settings (in one click and go fashion clicking the rightmost expand-plussign to drop down a menu where you choose Fan Control, et voila, there's your fan-settings (see attach!)) into the pane... Now you can work on those and you simply leave it at that for as long as needed... Not needed anymore and you want to go OCing (using volts) again? Okay, collapse the fan-settings, expand the voltage-settings and there you go... I agree that having ALL settings expanded would not be very convenient, since it would require too much space, but, if users would want it that way, filling up their screen from left to right, could do so and be happy ;-)... Others can use it the way I said above. The whole advantage is the freedom it creates, everyone can make every profile-pane the way he/she likes it. To continue a little bit with the design, this was just the first step. Second step would be to address the issues W1zzard raises here. I think all settings as they exist now in ATITool can be split up into (And pardon me, I have a X1900XTX, so don't know if I miss things here for other cards)
Global settings (apply to whole ATITool):
- Overclocking
- Artifact Scanning
- Temperature Monitoring
- Startup (although could be discarded if simply replaced by commandline option, much
more flexible and gives the ability to switch profiles from commandline)
- 3D Detection, this on/off setting is global, however, the rest should become profile-
settings, ie. 2D profile has a sound attached to it
Every profile has an inclusion/exclusion-list, see below
- Driver Tweaks (even xfire use only one driver as far as I know)
- Miscellaneous:
This could include a novice/expert-mode, novice-mode meaning nothing works until you
save it, set it, or confirm it, whatever, expert-mode being no saving, immediate setting,
just only a close-box (Except maybe for really dangerous settings)...

These Global Settings could be placed in a combo-box where you now see the Global Settings button in my drawing, see attachment. Then the settings would appear instead of the temp-graph and buttons you see now (kinda superimpose over that area with a close-box)

Profile settings:
- Fan control moves into sliders, like I said, all or individual controls can be
expanded/collapsed
- Voltage control same thing
- Gamma control also

So only profile-settings left are? Well, don't know, maybe W1zzard has any ideas, he knows more different cards then I do (only one to be exact LOL)
Anyway, these could then be accessed from the combo-box with the profile name

There's only one thing I don't like yet, one thing I haven't figured out how to make easy to use/access yet, and that's how to assign hotkeys to various functions

About 3D-profile switching settings:
I'm suggesting to have a global list with all apps (left pane), another representing the apps for that profile, ie. you have 6 games, trl.exe, cmr5.exe, doom3.exe, quake4.exe,x3.exe,CoD2SP_s.exe

You want:
doom3.exe, quake4.exe to use profile 3D
cmr5.exe,x3.exe,CoD2SP_s.exe to use profile Overdrive
trl.exe to use profile Turbo

I assume the left pane (apps.) gets filled automatically as apps. get detected (if not, use can add or remove apps.), in which case it would be possible for ATITool to raise a dialog asking to assign the new app. to which profile (Much like a firewall raises a dialog to ask if program x may access the internet or not), maybe this could be a setting in Miscellaneous...!

The left pane lists all apps and the right pane is the current profile inclusionlist, so we want CoD2SP_s.exe to start profile Overdrive, so we would add it like shown in second attachment...

This way, any program not assigned to a profile will effectively be ignored, no need for an exclusionlist anymore... The advantage is that you can start different profiles for different programs, as alot of programs really don't always need full power...

 

[Wizard17]

any suggstions on how these less used functions could be accessed?

What is less used? How many times do you use the windows calculator? Never? Well, I do alot... What's important to you is not necessarily important to me and vice versa... That's the neat thing about a setup like this, it can satisfy anyone... At least for the majority then... This is still just a first sketch ya know... LOL

 

[Wizard17]

why not have a pop out tool bar on the side. Have several buttons or tabs on the r/h side that when clicked open up a another windows with voltage settings, fans settings etc.
Keeps the gui unclutter if people dont want the extra tools but for those that do its only one click away.

That's exactly NOT the idea here. The program I used to draw this (a dialog designer) is like that. It has the actual dialog window, then it has a window for the dialog controls, another for the dialog control properties, another for the dialog window properties, etc. If you start switching windows then, it becomes a big cluttery mess... My idea is to keep everything, with exception of the 3D view, INSIDE the program main window, nice, clean and neat...

Hainvg it your way means you will have to click EVERY single time you start ATITool and want to use a certain function. With this design, you set it up the way you like, and next time you start ATITool, it's right there to use, just the way you want to have it... ;-)
Yeah, sorry, man, I'm really lazy when it comes to clicking... LOL

 

[Urlyin]

Wizard17 are you saying, just to swap out panels per say? I kind of like that idea ... a fan panel, overclocking panel, etc... swap them out for which ever function you choose to view ..

 

[Wizard17]

Wizard17 are you saying, just to swap out panels per say? I kind of like that idea ... a fan panel, overclocking panel, etc... swap them out for which ever function you choose to view ..

Well, swap them out? I don't mean it exactly like that, but you could do so with 2 clicks... One to collapse what you don't want, another to expand what you do want... But you could also have both... You could have ALL panels open, but that's not handy since it would mean you'll have to expand the window from left to right and then still everything wouldn't fit so you'd have to scroll...
There could be an option in Miscellaneous to enable swapping of panels instead of collapsing/expanding a panel, yeah, that wuold be easy to do...

I like your term "panel" since it fairly well describes what it is, yeah...! Thanks for that...
So, for every "profile-view" I'm seeing a:
- Clocks Panel
- Voltage Panel
- Fan Panel
- Gamma Panel
- Any new functionality W1zzard can come up with

The "Global Panel" would have:
- Overclocking Settings Panel
- Artifact Scanning Panel
- Temperature Monitoring Panel
- Driver Tweaks Panel
- Miscellaneous Panel
- Any new functionality W1zzard can come up with

 

[Urlyin]

maybe swap was a poor choice of words .. but yeah, open & close the combination of panels you pefer to view ... for instance in the pic you posted I see two panels on the right .... panel one I can scroll to my selection and panel two I can scroll to my selection ... make sense? Leaving me with my preference of viewing panels ..

 

[Wizard17]

maybe swap was a poor choice of words .. but yeah, open & close the combination of panels you pefer to view ... for instance in the pic you posted I see two panels on the right .... panel one I can scroll to my selection and panel two I can scroll to my selection ... make sense? Leaving me with my preference of viewing panels ..

Party right... YOu forgot the function og the collapse/expansion buttons... Assuming you have all panels open and "lined up" one after the other (in the order you prefer) than you're right and you could scroll to the panel of your choice... But it's not a all or nothing thing... You could definitely close the panels you don't ever use or seldom use... (Like in my case the Gamma-panel, I never use Gamma settings)...

In short, you could make any combination of panels, in the order you want...

 

[W1zzard]

i dont like the idea how having different pro/intermediate/noob modes

not sure where driver tweaks should go .. what if you have one nvidia and one ati card?

i use the windows calculator at lot too

 

[W1zzard]

need to relocate the sensor readouts into a vertical location so that any number between 0 and 6 to 10 can be stacked

what about sensors on multiple cards?

 

[Wizard17]

i dont like the idea how having different pro/intermediate/noob modes

not sure where driver tweaks should go .. what if you have one nvidia and one ati card?

i use the windows calculator at lot too

need to relocate the sensor readouts into a vertical location so that any number between 0 and 6 to 10 can be stacked

what about sensors on multiple cards?

noob/PRO-modes
Okay, you do have a "Disable Warnings" checkbox now on the voltage page. Actually that's kinda what I meant with it. So view my remarks about noob/pro modes in that light and you'll understand.

Driver tweaks
I honestly don't think you can have 1 NVidia and 1 ATI in same system both with it's own driver (how you command which card is going to render a game?)...
But in the event that you can, simply move the Driver Tweaks in the Card's Combo-box...

Glad to hear I'm not the only one using the calc. alot... LOL

Sensors:
Well, that's a bit problematic.
It would be easy to simply move the sensors (vertically, stacked) to the left hand side of every profile-view, but that creates another problem:
xfire:
No problem here, left profile-view shows card 1, right view shows card 2 sensors

xfire or single:
In case you decide to have 2 or more profile-views of the same card (ie. 2D, 3D, Overdrive) you get possible problem of having to draw the same sensors 2 or 3 times... I don't know how much overhead or CPU-time drawing those numbers would be, but it possibly could be more then necessary...
Alternatively, you could draw them to the left or right hand side of the "Global Settings" panel, vertically stacked, and then simply show the sensors from the card in there that's currently active in the active profile-view
(You can have only one profile-view active at any one time (ofcourse), but simlpy clicking inside a profile-area or changing a slider in there or so would switch that profile active and the other one inactive. The one active would then get it's sensors drawn...
Disadvantage of this is of course that if you have two cards, you cannot see all sensors of both cards at the same time... (Although the temps of both could still be drawn in the temp-graph simoultaneously)
BTW, what you've done with Systool is neat: Let the user choose which sensors to show as tray-icons... That would be neat in ATITool too! I'm now using Systool next to ATITool sololy for that feature!

Active profile-view
Having more than one profile-view creates another "problem" that needs to be addressed..
How do you dael with it? Suppose I have 2D and 3D profile next to eachother...
Card is now set to 2D profile.
If I click in 3D profile, what should happen? Should card be set to 3D-profile? Or should that be done as soon as you actually change something, not sooner? Or should it be done only after making a profile active and then clicking the "Set" button?
Well, these are conciderations that either you, W1zzard, will have to make, or you leave it up to the user by providing options for it in the "global miscellaneous panel"... I would prefer the "activate but only set when I change something" setting...
Alternatively you could forget the idea of multiple profile-views next to eachother, but that means you get two different looking versions of ATITool:
ATITool with two profile-views for xfire, multi-card owners, and
ATITool with one profile-view for single card.

I think my initial idea of multiple profile-views, being it for single or multiple card configs is more flexible, also to the user.

xfire brings another "smart" idea:
You could have one profile-view, and let it apply to both cards at the same time the same way...
Ofcourse, that choice should then be made available from the card-combobox...
But I think alot of xfire owners would find that very neat...!
Even neater would then be to have every setting in profile-view (being it slider, fan, whatever) rightclickable with the option of turning "linked xfire-mode" off for that setting only... That way, you could easily have "only" the settings you want "linked" to both cards.

What I like about this setup is it's tremendous flexibility...
Possibilities are endless... ;-)

 

[Chris L]

Are you going to incorporate more mobo compadibility into this Beta?

 

[Wizard17]

I found that, while trying to OC the card, you should be able to VERY QUICKLY close the 3D View if things go wrong (OCed too high, especially mem., when you see artifacts). This can save you from the card crashing! Then all you have to do is switch clocks to say 2D and back to your OCing profile, and you could continue...

For this reason, I kept the "SHow 3D View" button seperate, assuming it would open the 3D view in another window (as it does now)...

However, it would simply be possible to have another panel in there with the 3D view too, that would really make the whole thing complete, but I acknowledge the problem of not being able then to quickly close it if things go wrong...!

Don't know how you guys think about that...?

 

[KennyT772]

why not have a artifact rendering limit before atitool will just reset clocks and close the panel? like when half the 3dwindow is yellow it just resets clocks and shuts the window..?
im liking the current design though. i was kinda wishing it had a drop down box where you could pick: clocks, timings, fan controll, driver settings, ect and then it replace the clock settings instead of clicking the settings button every time you want to change fan settings..

 

[Janchu88]

will 0.25b15 have X1800GTO support? i need GTO support