As you may know, is it possible to run Maniaplanet in 3D and Virtual Reality (i.e Occulus Rift) mode.
I'll give few tips to make a manialink (site or ingame interface) which is VR-friendly.
The content displayed via an Occulus Rift for example is centered on the foreground of the screen whatever you're looking at (the 2D interface (used for the manialink for example) is following the movements of the head). Moreover the border of the 2D interface are less visible (on the case of ingame User Interface, else the border is a lot visible for a "standard" manialink).
Take also note that when the VR (HMD) mode is activated, the useable surface to display to player is reduced from (-160, -90)/(160,90) to (-90, -90)/(90, 90) !.
Opaque backgroud for content (like a background for a menu or an options) aren't rendered very well in VR-mode. Choose a semi-transparent colour which is way more classy when you look it through a VR device.
If you try to create an ingame VR UI, as for manialink, center the info, hide all the content of the standard UI which are located next to the borders (speed meter, timer) and keep the screen as clean as possible. Put very few 2D elements on the UI, disable the labels above the characters/cars and you'll start to have a pleasant experience in VR.
Another thing specific to the VR topic is that the texts need to be bigger than usual since the resolution is (for now) pretty low because the screen is really close to the eyes and makes the pixels very visible which may make the texts hard to read. So choose the fonts which are quite thick (like the labels "TextButtonBig" or "TextButtonMedium").
It's quite difficult to navigate in the manialink with the mouse and the keyboard when you've a VR headset on the head. That's why it's important to activate the pad navigation by adding the line EnableMenuNavigation(Bool EnableInputs, Bool WithAutoFocus, Control AutoBackControl) on your manialink code.
EnableInputs: Enbale the gamepad navigation
WithAutoFocus: Enable the automatic focus on controls (with the gamepad and the keyboard)
AutoBackControl: Control to automatically click when the player hit the key ESC or the B button of the gamepad
If EnableInputs is True, the inputs which aren't used for the automatic navigation will be sent to the script.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<manialink version="3">
<!-- MyManialink code -->
<script><!--
main()
{
declare CMlFrame Frame_Resume <=> (Page.MainFrame .GetFirstChild("Frame_Resume") as CMlFrame);
declare CMlFrame Frame_General <=> (Page.MainFrame .GetFirstChild("Frame_General") as CMlFrame);
declare CMlQuad Button_Resume <=> (Frame_Resume .GetFirstChild("Button_Bg") as CMlQuad);
declare CMlLabel Label_Resume <=> (Frame_Resume .GetFirstChild("Label_Text") as CMlLabel);
declare CMlFrame Frame_Quit <=> (Page.MainFrame .GetFirstChild("Frame_Quit") as CMlFrame);
declare CMlQuad Button_Quit <=> (Frame_Quit .GetFirstChild("Button_Bg") as CMlQuad);
declare CMlLabel Label_Quit <=> (Frame_Quit .GetFirstChild("Label_Text") as CMlLabel);
Label_Resume .Value = "RESUME";
Label_Quit .Value = "QUIT";
declare netwrite Boolean Net_StartMenuOpen for UI;
declare Boolean Pre_StartMenuOpen;
Net_StartMenuOpen = False;
Pre_StartMenuOpen = True;
declare LatestPressMenuButton = Now;
EnableMenuNavigation(False, True, Button_Resume);
while (True)
{
yield;
LibManialink_AnimLoop();
Net_StartMenuOpen = PageIsVisible;
// log(Now^"> "^Net_MenuOpen);
if(Pre_StartMenuOpen != Net_StartMenuOpen) {
if(Net_StartMenuOpen) {
LibManialink_SetTargetScale (Frame_General, 0.8);
LibManialink_PresetAnimInsert (Frame_General, 0, 500, "ElasticOut");
Audio.PlaySoundEvent(CAudioManager::ELibSound::ShowMenu, 0, -5.);
} else {
LibManialink_SetTargetScale (Frame_General, 0.0);
LibManialink_PresetAnimInsert (Frame_General, 0, 500, "ElasticOut");
// Audio.PlaySoundEvent(CAudioManager::ELibSound::HideMenu, 0, -5.);
}
Pre_StartMenuOpen = Net_StartMenuOpen;
}
foreach (Event in PendingEvents)
{
if (Event.Type == CMlEvent::Type::MouseClick)
{
if (Event.Control == Button_Resume) {
CloseInGameMenu(CMlScriptIngame::EInGameMenuResult::Resume);
}
if (Event.Control == Button_Quit) {
CloseInGameMenu(CMlScriptIngame::EInGameMenuResult::Quit);
}
} else if (Event.Type == CMlEvent::Type::MouseOver) {
Audio.PlaySoundEvent(CAudioManager::ELibSound::Focus, 0, 3.);
}
}
}
}
--></script>
</manialink>EnableMenuNavigationInputsAutoFocus will allow the player to cycle automatically with the gamepad between all the controls including an URL (manialink or web), an action or with the scriptevents parameter set to true.
The default cycle between the buttons is basic but you can code one manually if you want to customize the experience. In that case, you should use the parameter EnableMenuNavigationInputs instead of EnableMenuNavigationInputsAutoFocus.