OverClocked ReMix Design ?'s and Issues
 

Cribbed from djp's redesign on May 23, 2004, only with my handle added in, welcome to OC ReMix v4.2 (so-to-speak).

This design questions and issues thread continues where the old one left off. Please direct any and all questions and issues regarding OCR's current site design and interface here for djp to eventually attend to. Thanks for your help, and we all hope you enjoy the continuing development of OCR.

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To Do:

• Add Folding@Home group to sidebar
• Implementation of new avatars & mascots
• Revision of torrent listings (sent to aubrey)
• Expanded Site History
• Add publishers for Guild Wars (NCsoft), Max Payne (Gathering of Developers) and Pictionary (LJN)

Fixes:

• Groups only appears in sidebar when viewing Main Page
• Fix tab clicks from resetting vertical page position
• Fix of special characters displaying as code on front page and preview text
• DKC SPC/RSN link fixes
• Word "songs" needs to be capitalized in the window title; already properly capitalized everywhere else
• Clicking 50 or 100 on pagination for Songs does not change # of listings; works everywhere else
• Extend GameURLs of Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy Legend II, Final Fantasy Legend III, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest & Final Fantasy Tactics

Suggestions:

• Chipamp extension support suggestion by OverCoat
• Highlighting for "Download" tab?
• More content on "Review" tab?
• Judges decision tabs?

vBulletin:

• (possibly unable to be changed) Newly-read topics/posts sometimes not registering as read upon refresh (was problem in phpBB, possibly browser issue instead)
• (possibly unable to be changed) URL quirkiness in WYSIWYG
• Changes to 10-character/5,000-character/4-image limit in posts?
• Increase size of text for post previewing?
• Ability to (again) access mix writeups from top of Review threads?
• Implementation of auto-double post merge?
• More avatars shown per page in avatar selection?
• Colors/bolding of members in groups?
• Add redirect to homepage in vB forums "default" style
• Special character password issue? (could be old/fixed)

Can we get a list of the new mascots? I can get up to 150, but I saw another one not in those 15..

Dammit, now I have to turn off Rama's OCR-R skin to see what the hell is going on...

EDIT: Better, for definitely. But not better than black.

Slightly more compact and shiny-looking. I like it. Have the banners been removed from the top for good now? I usually have them adblocked, but the white space reserved for them was still there before.

And the search box is cute, too ^__^

Broke Rama's black skin a bit! :(

Looking good, but it's still just too bright for my poor virgin eyes.

So uh.....why does the forums feel...different?

2nd to last post in the old thread :( I'll just repost it:

For any future complaints: All that weird misalignment stuff? That's your old cache conflicting with the new images and formatting. Clear your cache and it should resolve all layout problems.

Any idea if/when the new avatars will be implemented?

Site looks good, by the way.

Good? It's great :D I love the tabs, and the search, and and and...-

Sorry if that sounds like sucking up, but I truly do love the new design. I'm ecstatic that the torrents are fixed, the front page looks nicer, it's all great. ...almost makes up for the travesty that is the Sidebar. :wink: :P
Can't wait to try out Chipamp and torrents. (My intnernet speed gets uncapped in another two days 8))

Im not entirely too keen on the Goolge Ads being between sandwhiched between the Remixes and Projects. I liked it better when the ads were on top.

Wow, what a way to be greeted to the morning, new OCR.

Kewl. I like the tabs for the store and for mixing.

I am afraid that I have to concur with Ninja-san, however.

Might wanna highlight that download tab. I had to look for it for about 30 seconds.

Same here. I thought it was going to be in the same place as before. STOP MOVING THE DOWNLOAD :P

Anyways, the words run off the side on the main site too, just fyi.

FINALLY 1500 IS OUT :D

Might wanna get a template ready to ctrl+v for the inevitable "WHAR TO DOWNLOAD?"

I disabled Rama's black-OCR to check out the main site properly. It all looks great except for the Site Projects being lined up next to the thread highlights and latest remixes, which I think looks a little untidy. Otherwise good.

I still prefer black-OCR, which is kinder on my little eye-bowls.

I found it straight away. You're all retarded.

Yeah, I was like "where's the download button" then remembered how everything's on tabs now and went "duh, over the write up" and there is was.

Download wasn't hard to find, but I concur with the sentiment that it would be nice if it stays where it is for a while. Some of us hadn't even had time to get used to the old new download placement.

I never really saw the problem with the old download button, because it was a BIG FUCKING ORANGE BUTTON that said download on it. The new one kind of blends in. And Watkinzez: Don't make fun of people just because they're at a lower spiritual plane than you. Cheeky bugger.

also, there are several ones that still need to be checked

Yeh, I lost the download too, found it pretty much straight away though. Good idea using the tabs, could use a bit less camouflage maybe. Site Projects and ads look a bit out of place (especially the ads) but I'll get used to them. When I heard about design changes, I thought the site was gonna come back fluoro pink or something. Wonder what colour is in store for us in the future?

ChipAmp is cool and all, but aren't SPC and PSF sample-based formats? Seems like a bit of a misnomer.

QFE. Can't scroll past them now because they're right there in the middle. I think if they were moved back to the top, that would allow more space for the site projects links. As is, everything there looks a little crowded. (And having the ads in the middle of the remix writeups is kinda distracting, too.) Is there any reason why they have to be there? Does it bring in more money?

Everything else looks awesome, as to be expected. The tabs are very functional.

Stop calling me retarded :(

I was just used to the orange download link it had after the sidebar came out.

Anyways, I'm having a bit of viewing problems here like



EDIT:

OMFG i cant read :(

Everything looks pretty good so far. I was hoping to see a different color but its cool.

But, I do have a problem with those ads. Can they be on the bottom of the screen instead? Its kind of messy.

Interesting setup.


Now, about that sidebar...

;)

This is a very debatable subject. Sites like Kohina.com's radio stream plays SNES tunes, as they are from a 16 bit system and just as oldschool and nostalgic as the Genesis, therefore they must be included in the chiptune scene.

I, however, disagree that .SPC and .PSF should be callled chiptunes for the sample-based reason, as they are not using a built-in sound chip to synthesize sounds. Sure the SNES has a built in white noise maker [If I remember right] but that was only used as SFX [Chrono Trigger, FF6].

For the sake of Chipamp though, I believe they should be included in the bundle. This pack was designed to play the source of all the arranged music on the site, and SNES/PSX accounts for quite a bit of that. And I just suggested that DJP include the BASS module plugin as well. Mods are all sample-based too, barring .s3m which can use AdLib/OPL-2.

I *tried* to point out in that initial description that some of the formats aren't truly "chiptunes", but ultimately this distinction is unimportant to the target audience, which is the average user who doesn't really care whether emulation or sample-playback is involved.

Good to see the VGM format's included with the ChipAmp pack. As good as GYM files are, there are a lot Genesis game tunes that it can't emulate well at all, that VGM can handle just fine (like basically anything from Technosoft, or Phantasy Star IV).



Edit: I've been running into a problem when I click the word "here" after making a post (the "Click here to view your message" one). Instead of the completed page, I'm taken to a white page with all the text that makes up the code for the page. And it happened again just now making this edit.

Thank-you for removing the information under the torrents, and thus removing the scroll bar. My mouse would always get stuck there when rolling with the scroll wheel :P

Now, will more people not use the torrents because they decide not to find the information on how to use them on their own, who knows.

I'm surrounded by retards.

(Like the new design btw; uses space more efficiently)

Clear your browser cache.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :sleepdepriv: :puppyeyes:

Wow, that shopzilla ad is annoying, like those graphic design ads that take up 1/3rd of the t.v. At least this one doesn't have the chance to take up valuable captioning or some dialogue with SFX.

But whatever keeps my OCR runnin'!

Whoops, that did it. Feeling pretty dumb now.

I realize this, but I feel a site with an actual focus on the subject should set the example by using the correct terminology. Otherwise, it'd be like Digitally Imported referring to all electronic music as "techno." :P

I distinctly remember there being *two* Pilotwings 64 remixes on this site. Now there's only Midnight Altitude, and the download-links for that one are all broken. I found the missing remix (Birdman ClearSkies http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00141/) by looking around supertux.com, but no such luck with Midnight Altitude :(

I like seeing more of the projects on the frontpage. Nice work on the redesign in general.

Always meant to bring this up, and the recent remix write-up ('The Koan of Drums') is a good example to go from.

My question is, why is the website news written in the middle of write ups?

You load OCR, and the main page never says anything to do with the site's recent events. But if you load a new remix write-up, all that unrelated news is right there. Not just on the same page.. in the same article.

Is there a reason for that? Doesn't it seem a tad.. unorganised? At least this particular remix IS djp's, so he can't be blamed for cluttering up the article on someone's work. But clutter is a good way to put it.. I see that write-up and I automatically start jumping paragraphs looking for where the related info begins. In this case, that's 5 of them. Five paragraphs that will always be off topic. In a year someone will click on that remix and will still have to see all that.

Frustrating to me anyway. Main page, news, not in write-ups. Please?



Other comments:
The tabs for download, reviews, etc are nice. Now that 'reviews' gets a whole tab/page, it would be nice to see more than 3 lines of the last reply appear on that page.

Is the 'chiptunes' tab going to have the relating chiptune, or will it always just be a plug for ChipAmp?

The write-up page definitely feels more messy than it used to. Its probably only those "Ads by Google" in the same text-space as the article that are making me notice so much. But it definitely feels more "Which part do I read" now.


Sorry for all the nitpicking, I'm like that. Good work maintaining such a site in the first place.

Valid question; currently using that space to emphasize activity on the forums, but may use it for announcements at some point. I *like* having the mix writeups read like an on-going, linear site blog of sorts, but certain announcements do warrant homepage status. Also looking at a mailing list for site news, etc. Whatever is done, I like having the gen disc. posts on the homepage & clearly visible, and don't want to get rid of them.

Well, everybody *thinks* they're a designer, and many don't think through ALL the numerous implications of site design, ad placement, etc. when they make suggestions.

Regarding more content on the reviews tab, I agree - perhaps even the latest three reviews, instead of just one, who said them, and when they were posted. You can get that from the thread, of course, but the point of the tab is to quickly sum up recent comments, so the extra space could definitely be taken advantage of.

The chiptunes tab was supposed to have a link to download the actual chiptune, when available, as well as links to other chiptune players. It's still going to, it's just something I didn't finish in time and thought could wait.