F10 visual refresh — GoldenEye dossier styling (proposal)

Status: superseded by D363 after user playtest — the dossier/paper concept below was implemented as D362, then replaced with a dark watch-green/Bank Gothic version. This is the historical proposal for a port-layer F10 overlay proposal, not a replacement for GE's pause watch or the front-end PC Options screen. Reference surfaces: src/game/front.c constructor_menu15_cheat/frontSetupMenuBackground, the existing port/src/frontoptions.c cheat-list-inspired options screen, and GE's in-stage watch. Current overlay: port/src/optionsoverlay.c optionsOverlayEmit, overlayRowAtY, sliderBarSpan, maxVisibleRows.

1. Direction and boundaries

Make F10 read as an MI6 dossier laid over the game scene, not a generic SDL debug panel: dark translucent scrim, warm paper/ivory content card, black Zurich-style menu text, red for active options/slider fills and an occasional muted gold title/accent. The front-end PC Options already uses GE's actual 3D folder and Zurich text; use it as the visual reference, not as a display-list dependency. In-stage F10 must remain an inexpensive flat 2D overlay: no loading a 3D wallet model, new ROM assets, front-end init functions or src/game modifications. Preserve the current two-level category -> settings navigation and the shared settings/commit API.

The initial port-only implementation lives in optionsOverlayEmit() and uses one shared OvLayout for both 320x240 stage and 440x330 front canvases. Headless captures live under scratch/d362-test/ (not distributed). Manual visual review on a bright stage and controller/mouse feel-check remain owed.

2. Concrete visual hierarchy

Backdrop/card: keep an adjustable translucent dim over the scene; replace the opaque blue-black rectangle with a near-opaque ivory panel (subtle border and one offset shadow). Do not mimic the actual folder texture unless a later, measured prototype proves the simple card insufficient. Preserve legible contrast against both dark and bright levels, including safe-area crop and widescreen pillarboxes.
Masthead: small gold/black MI6 / OPTIONS or PC OPTIONS heading, fine black rule (a restrained CLASSIFIED stamp can be added later if measured text fits) rather than a blue title/instruction block. Keep the category name on the same page above its first setting, especially INPUT over Mouse sensitivity.
Root: numbered 1. Input ... 5. Video, GE's dossier/menu numbering and title case as on frontoptions.c; a narrow translucent dark selection box behind the focused item. Category order and labels stay unchanged in the shared row table; casing is presentation-only.
Section: a compact PREVIOUS/Back tab, title and optional (Profile N) annotation, then two columns: label at left, value at right. Unselected values in black, active/toggled values in GE's dark red (0xA00000FF is the cheat-screen reference). Slider tracks are thin charcoal with a red fill and an obvious knob; show the numerical value outside the bar. A mixed-scope (per profile) marker must remain legible without colliding with the value column; measure it and, if necessary, use a small second line rather than silently removing the distinction.
Actions: Reset retains its two-press/three-second confirmation and displays CONFIRM in red only while armed. Quit remains visually distinct from resets (and retains its existing activation semantics). Back/Close affordances should match the actual click targets, not become decoration.
Footer: one quiet, short line for mouse/arrows/controller, with an explicit ESC: Back / F10: Close cue. No newly invented glyphs or fonts that may be missing from the game's text bank. FPS readout is independent.

Suggested layout sketch (not pixel positions):

  MI6  /  PC OPTIONS                         CLOSE
  -----------------------------------------------
  PREVIOUS     GRAPHICS
  Anti-aliasing                            2x
  Texture filter                     Bilinear
  Draw distance         [------|----]     50/100
  ...
  Reset to defaults                     [ENTER]
  ESC Back  /  F10 Close

3. Implementation boundaries

Extract a port-only layout helper for fonts, palette, panel rectangles and spacing; preserve rows[], rowAdjust, persistence, file scoping, reset logic and input bindings. Use GE's loaded Zurich Bold font for body only after validating it exists on both stage and front contexts; Bank Gothic can remain a fallback/header font. Text clipping must use the whole viewport as textRender expects.
Replace only the fill/text passes in optionsOverlayEmit() first. Emit fills before text as currently, reset GBI state explicitly and keep OV_BUF_CMDS/DL size bounds. Avoid mutable texture uploads or new assets.
One shared geometry calculation must drive panel/card positions, maxVisibleRows, row Y, slider-bar span, close/back hitboxes, and overlayRowAtY. In particular, don't change visual row spacing without updating hit-testing (D304/D316), and don't use naive OS-window pixel mapping instead of gfx_get_ui_screen_rect (D316/D335). When a page scrolls, keep its section title visible; a clipped row cannot be clicked.
Use measured text widths to reserve space for values, Confirm, (Profile N) and restart markers. At 320x240, allow scrolling/short contextual hints, not overlapping text or tiny glyphs. At 440x330 and ultrawide, centre or constrain the card rather than stretching the columns across the entire viewport.
Make any GE-like UI sound effects opt-in to a separate follow-up: F10 runs in controller polling, and D361 prohibits game save/audio calls from that thread. A cosmetic refresh must not reintroduce that lockup.

4. Acceptance gates

Compare screenshots with the existing front Options/cheat dossier and the in-stage watch; user reviews the live palette/layout before closing the task.
Native 320x240, front-end 440x330, windowed 4:3, 16:9 and 21:9, fullscreen, safe-area crop on/off: INPUT title visible; no text clipping, unreadable values, wrong hitboxes, phantom/duplicated bottom rows or overflow in the display list. Check graphics's longest labels and AUDIO's per-profile markers with and without a valid file.
Mouse click/drag/wheel, arrows and D-pad/stick, ESC back, F10/Start/X close, focused/armed reset, and quit action all behave exactly as before. F10 Audio on file select still commits via D361's game-thread queue; test both fresh and existing EEPROM without altering the user's save (backup/restore for probes).
With overlay closed, append no panel DL and retain existing golden frame hashes (unless FPS display is explicitly enabled). Run ./build-pc.sh ntsc-final, link/duplicate-symbol checks, front-end + stage smoke, GE_WSPROBE_F10FRONT and targeted live playtest. Log the result in docs/dev/findings.md after implementation, not in advance.

5. Explicit non-goals

No fullscreen 3D folder in gameplay, changes to the N64 watch, new config keys, row wording/value changes, save-format changes, controller remapping, new persistent assets, or src/game behavioral edits. The front-end PC Options screen is a visual reference, not part of the first styling patch; harmonizing its tiny decorative details is a later optional pass.

7.3 KiB Raw Blame History