M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

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Neil
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M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Neil »

Hello everyone!

We are going to work to set aside some resources so we can upgrade M3GA again.

I know this has been touched on before, but let's do it again so we can have a formalized checklist at the end. I would like the next round of upgrades to achieve the following:

1. Make M3GA easier to use.
2. Add functionality that doesn't yet exist.
3. Get more MTBS community involvement in its day to day activity.
4. Make M3GA a valuable and up to data resource for S-3D gamers looking for compatibility with their favorite solutions.

Please share your opinions and ideas below. Try to keep things in point form, and follow-up with descriptive text if necessary.

Regards,
Neil
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cybereality
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by cybereality »

I think having a dedicated section it including stereo screenshots would be really helpful. Maybe just two images per user: best-case and worst-case. I know, for example, when I am reading the reviews here on MTBS I usually weigh my decision more on the images than on the actual review text. So I think if users could see how the game looks it will be important to deciding if they want to buy it.
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by BlackShark »

M3DGA improvments are great news.

M3GA needs a few things, first native games need their own section (separated from drivers) they'll need new information to list the supported outputs we'll need both API based outputs (nvidia 3D vision, amd HD3D or new APIs as they are released) and directly supported outputs (side by side, over/under, checkerboard, etc...)

Add console versions as native versions. I'm not sure if they should be grouped in the same section as the PC native versions though, I would be better to keep M3DGA as compact as possible in order to make it easy to find information you want (don't spread it too much over a million pages) so if you could find a presentation that allows to present PC and console versions simultaneously in the native section, that would be great.

Maybe attach a discussion thread for each game like you do with the news.
Having one thread per driver seems too much to me, it would make information too difficult to find. I believe a single discussion thread per entire game (all drivers, and native PC & console) should be enough.
Why not attach the forum threads to each game ? (get rid of the separated game profile sections we currently have), merge the iZ3D, nvidia and DDD game profiles sections and put the console and native sections would have to be created all together with them, (when a new game is added to M3DGA, automatically create a forum thread called [M3DGA]<game-name> that will contain the user comments exactly like what happens with the news) have the first post of each game thread match the M3DGA per-game summary ?

Link the mtbs3d image gallery to M3DGA.
M3DGA should allow uploading pictures. The pics will automatically be copied to a special section in the MTBS gallery.
The shots should be organized per game and in two different sections per game : good looking and showing bugs.
For ease of use, uploading pictures should be possible both when filing a report and from the game's summary page.

Videos would probably be too heavy to host on MTBS. Maybe have a way to link youtube 3D videos to each game would be great too.
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Neil
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Neil »

Hi Guys,

Please feel free to go crazy with these ideas. Interface style, features, ease of use, layout - everything. It's much easier to plan things in advance rather than add things afterward. Point out the problems too. Maybe M3GA is too hard to use - what would make it easier? What would make it more appealing to use?

Regards,
Neil
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by BlackShark »

Let's see what I can think about.

data : subjective remark : "do you enjoy playing this game in 3D more than in 2D ? (thumb up / thumb down)"
data : operating system (is it really necessary ? it takes a lot of space for no big reason, I've never seen the result change with the operating system), maybe keep it when asking about the hardware used but don't show it on the game list (only show it on the report details page)

ease of use : add a button to submit a report at the top of the page (the complete game list is very long)
ease of use : make the "add report" link a button sticking at the top and bottom of the list, similar to a forum button, not just a big centred text.
ease of use : add a button to be able to add a report when on the game summary page (pre-file the game name from the game page the user was browsing)
ease of use : add a way to modify report or delete your own reports (if you made a mistake or if you found new bugs after filing the report)
ease of use : log-in information on the main m3ga page, provide a log-in/disconnect option on the main page
ease of use : ensure you always provide any required navigation information (title of what I am looking at) navigation links and buttons on all pages (back to mtbs main page, back to m3dga main list or back to game summary when looking at an individual report)
ease of use : in the big games list find a way to identify the games for which the user has filed reports (write them bold or add a small picture of some sort to mark the games)

presentation : M3GA is a part of MTBS3D, you should have the main mtbs3D navigation bar at all times when browsing M3GA
presentation : M3GA is difficult to access, make it link immediately to one of the M3GA page (intro or database) when clicking the M3GA name in the main menu bar (not just the submenu)
presentation : M3GA name change ? Imagine a newcomer finding this site and seeing they mysterious acronym, he wouldn't understand it and wouldn't be attracted to drag his cursor on it. What about "3D games database", or shorter "3D games DB" or something else a newcomer could identify and understand immediately just by looking at it's name.

presentation : when displaying all results/all drivers, show the average score and also each driver score in a separate column, maybe use a more compact presentation for the individual scores like just the score percentage written with the colour of the certification
presentation : when the main game list becomes very long, maybe it would be good to add a copy of the column names after a few results (every 30 entries for example)
presentation : have summary pages for each game showing some basic info about the game, screenshots, maybe the game box art, links to official website, etc... the latest reports for each driver which the user can expand if he wants to see previous reports, and the comments which I wrote about earlier.
presentation : have the summary page show the average results separated from each reports, write them bigger find the right place in the whole page presentation where it would be logic to find the average infos.
presentation : reduce the size of the certification column, how about using the picture of a medal (platinum/gold/silver/bronze) instead of the full letter name.
presentation : detailed report : change the presentation, have the game name on the page and a link back to the game summary, separate the important stuff (score, DX version, driver name) from the less important stuff (operating system, cpu/ram/gpu, driver version, GPU driver version, etc...), have the user comments in a separate box so that you can notice it quicker, if the user uploaded screenshots at the same time of the report, show them on the report.
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Neil
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Neil »

I added this stuff to the list.

It would be good if members can vote on results to determine whether or not submissions are legit or not. I've seen a number of titles getting top scores when they really don't perform that well. Any ideas for a fair algorithm?

Regards,
Neil
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by BlackShark »

Peer review is the best system invented to date.
What you need is more people filling more reports, so that more games get review from multiple people.
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Guig2000 »

I have to admit that submitting a game into M3GA often make my brain overheat.
It's very difficult to choose which is the case of the artifact I saw.

Maybe the M3GA guide should illustrate exactly the cases on the submitting tool and, on it, when the mouse goes over the description of a problem, a linked schematic or example should pop-up.


I've post for Shogun2, here the description of the problems, with my words:
General issues: shadows, like a in a lots of games, are in 2D and do have to be disabled.
Mouse pointer is windows GUI, so the right or left separation method is better.

Main menu: it seems there is no artifact, just it need a huge separation and a near 0 convergence.


Strategical map: Rivers, frontiers, roads and the ground of the cities are at wrong depth: not in 2D but they have a bad depth scale, so I think it can be easily corrected by profile. It's the main issue with the demo and make it hard to play in S3D.
The red or yellow color under units or cities when selecting them is at wrong depth. Not sure that is the same issue or they are at screen depth.

Battles: Globally works fine, but:
Light (fire) are shifted from the light source.
Reflection on water: bad shifting. I think it's a iZ3D bug because it does not appear with 3D vision.
Mini-map icons are shifted while they should not. I think can be corrected by iZ3D by game profile.
Here is my result in M3GA: http://www.mtbs3d.com/m3ga/index.php?sh ... id&val=861 After 3 reposting I'm not still sure it match.
Last edited by Guig2000 on Wed May 25, 2011 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Neil
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Neil »

Can you share some screenshots?

Nothing is perfect. :mrgreen:

Regards,
Neil
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Guig2000 »

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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by yuriythebest »

2. Add functionality that doesn't yet exist.
sounds good :)
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Zloth »

Well isn't this handy, right after I first join and put in my first ever submission!

1. Combine the manual and questions. I kept two browser windows up and popped back and forth between them.

2. You probably want it to be a bit less binary. For instance, trees gave me horrible problems in Ego Draconis. So much so that I kept 3D off for most of the game. The exact same problem existed in the Flames of Vengance expansion but that game takes place in a city with very few trees so I got to keep 3D on. It would be nice if the options of "rare", "occasional", "frequent", and "never" were given instead of yes/no. Heck, you could even give us a slider.

3. You could use a question on 3D pointers. At least with NVIDIA's drivers, having to pick objects that are more than a foot past screen depth is extremly difficult for me unless the pointer is 3D.

4. It would definitely be handy to have screenshot links, particularly when you want to illustrate a problem you are seeing. If you require a screenshot or two, that might serve as proof that the person has actually played the game, too. You'll have to make some decisions on what you want to let us link (nudity? really graphic violence? or worst of all - spoilers??) but it would sure help the ratings, IMHO.

5. Make sure you keep the comment section! It might even be worth allowing us to comment on each individual question in addtion to an overall comment.
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Re: M3GA Upgrade Requests (PC)

Post by Fredz »

I personaly like how was implemented the AppDB for Wine, which is a repository for Windows games that are playable on Linux. M3GA shouldn't work exactly the same way since they don't serve the same purpose, but there are ideas to steal there (screenshots, comments, multiple versions, howto, etc.).

See here for an example :
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... &iId=17591" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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