new Maniacs of Noise site, too proc. demanding? [Archive]

momentus

05-15-2002, 10:32 PM

nice site.... wow. I really like a lot of the things you've done. The little men jumping out of the plane were a nice touch, as was the dos-like interface object.

To answer your question, I'm on a P4 1.5 windows XP IE 6 system and it runs beautifully. I did not notice any jerking or slowing at all.

I have a concern though about the top left navigation buttons. I was in the dos-like window mode and pressed those buttons and did not notice that they unlock more content, I just saw the background change. If I hadn't of checked out the site a second time I never would have noticed the rest of the content. Even though you have explicit directions on using the 'cams' I didn't read them because the font was hard to make out, the colour was kind of faded, so I just assumed it wasn't anything important. And when in the track select screen, I presume they're all the same track for now until you change that because even after the buffering stopped blinking it was still playing the same track.

It's really a nice site. When I came back the second time I actually wanted to watch the intro (which is rare, believe me). Well done.

WeZzy

05-16-2002, 04:52 PM

Hey guys,

Thanks for the comments.. Here follow some reactions(also from multiple forums):

>maybe have the site center in the browser. to me it always looks like a mistake, when it's stuck in the upper left corner like that.

True, this URL is for testing purposes only. The final SWF is going to be placed in a minimal background for mood.

>i would extend the text box down. unless your going to use the space at the bottom, use it.

Good point! I'll extend the height of the textbox.

>does the text have to be BOLD. it's kind of overpowering.

Ok, but when it's not bold it's kind of skinny.. Pitty there's nothing inbetween (at least not when using device fonts)

>i like the 3d stuff, but a better smoother transition between sections would take it to the next level.

I disagree. In a normal camsystem, switching from one cam to another always carries along some sort of screen flicker. When switching cams the view "falls" in place. Open for debate so feel free to attack me on this thought :)

>i didnt find the nav to acually get to other content..

True, I am thinking of putting it into the "intro", just like the way I incorporated the hints to the usage of the console.

>some of you fonts are blurred, too small or just hardly readable. be careful to align all the coordinates of your fonts to integer values (whole numbers).

I noticed this, on my system (winXP) it all looks correct. Small indeed but very readable. In Win98/2000 the fonts are hard to read, Im looking for a solution for this. Probably it's the clearText from Microsoft incorporated into WinXP that corrects the text. I think adjusting the text to a slightly higher size is the solution. All text are device fonts so I thought every system would render it readable. Wrong!! :) The alignment is on whole numbers everywhere btw.

> it would be nice if i would now what i click before i actually click on a link

Normally I also hate it when there's no description. We want this site to speak for itself that's why we didn't use text in the menu's. There are only a few animations right now but when the code is all correct it's gonne conatin a load more of animations that (together) build some kind of story throughout all the camshots. A little support-site for quick information is going to be linked to this one. Since the Maniacs of Noise make music mostly for the gaming industry we are trying to heighten the site to that level instead of a straight-forward information site. It's the mood that counts.

>the intro looks nice, real creative, but is really slow...looks like you put a lot of work into that and would be a shame if everyone just skipped it to get to the page.

True! Our main concern is also the sluggish flash. On my system (P4-2Ghz, 1Gb of RIMM) it all looks ok but on my home system(P2-450, 512MB) it's a snail. The intro is not there to be an intro but when the site's finished it's going to be rather large in filesize so the intro is some sort of an excuse to give the visitor something to look at during the preload (the whole intro is in fact a preloader)

>Over all its a great site, have you figured out what is eating up your CPU? If you find what are the causes i would like to know.

I really don't know. My guess it's just all the things that are going on at once that make it a CPU eater. All the text are device fonts rather than text rendered by Flash and that's allready a big load of the processor. If we find a way of smoothing the load I will be sure to let you guys hear it.

>I have a concern though about the top left navigation buttons. I was in the dos-like window mode and pressed those buttons and did not notice that they unlock more content, I just saw the background change

Good point. Didn't notice it myself cause I know what's going on (obviously). Maybe I'll collapse the commandprompt automatically when you switch cams (only the commandprompt, not the whole console)

>And when in the track select screen, I presume they're all the same track for now until you change that because even after the buffering stopped blinking it was still playing the same track

Good guess.. It's only one track right now..

>put a bit more work into it and it'll be great
>some nifty stuff there just maybe pull it together a little more

Thanks, we are trying to pull things together and smoothen the experience. But first we're trying to make it less intensive.

Thanks for the comments,

And please! Keep 'em coming..

WeZzy