User Interface Theme

[PandaMangix]

What do you guys think of the CK3 UI theme?

Anyone feel the UI theme or background color is too dark / grey ? darker than CK2

And the the window pane shape is too bland rectangular, compared to its predecessor

[Thorstorm]

I love it it's a sexy UI right there.
Personally I'm very happy they went for the darker theme, modern and more relaxed.

[CaptainSpacetime]

Yeah i like the look of it. I didn't play too much of CK2, and i think the kinda horrible UI was one of the reasons...so yeah excited about the cleaner ck3 look.

Also i'd rather have it a bit too dark than the blinding white of the imperator ui.

[Rhyagelle]

I think it is really, really good. Personally I cannot look at light colors, it hurts too much. I appreciate the dark color they went with, and the overall design. Very clear and intuitive!

[The Former]

I really like it. CK2's UI used to hurt my eyes. It was flavorful, sure, but there was so much going on that it distracted from the information being presented.

A recent Paradox Plaza discussion actually presented a side-by-side that really sold it for me.

https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/599068/1598062413350.png

https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/599067/1598062383428.png

(Poster noted that the CK3 caps were taken from Youtube, so they're fuzzy.)

Here are a couple of my own comparisons. Do excuse how ugly they are, I put them together quickly.

Various windows compared[i.imgur.com]

Cultural UI distinction compared[i.imgur.com]

[Stalindlrp]

I think I have played to much CK2 tbh, the CK2 UI tells me so much more at a glance. i can tell for instance that the flanks are in various fight stages and based on loss rate can mostly tell the tactic in usage atm. i can say the new ui is easier to new players to tell what is going on though.

[The Former]

Originally posted by Stalindlrp:

I think I have played to much CK2 tbh, the CK2 UI tells me so much more at a glance. i can tell for instance that the flanks are in various fight stages and based on loss rate can mostly tell the tactic in usage atm. i can say the new ui is easier to new players to tell what is going on though.

You can see all this in the new UI as well, for what it's worth. Tactics appear beneath each commander, while the battle phase appears at the bottom center of the battle UI. I agree that it's not where we're used to it being, though. We veterans will definitely have to acclimate to the new positions and icons of things for a bit.

[Mokka]

Dark > light coloured UI everytime, my eyes are too used to dark mode nowadays

[David McMurdo]

I really love CK 3's interface. The CK 2 interface is just an absolute mess of numbers and icons, especially with all of the DLCs. CK 3's interface just looks so clean by comparison.

[Knavery]

Anytime they can hide loads of text and numbers underneath pretty pictures, I'm happy. Make it less cluttered, but make the information available to users that want to see it.

[mbpoblet]

It most definitely is too damn dark. Everything is very slightly different tones of dark brown.

It looks like it's running under a very heavy sepia filter, with contrast, gamma, and brightness turned all the way down... but the artwork dev diaries show that the very artwork itself is a collection of dark brown smudges, reminiscent of Goya's black paintings.

I hope we at least get a gamma slider so that we can tell the various shades of dark brown appart, though that won't help with the absolute lack of any kind of contrast whatsoever (it's like some weird and very specific form of brain damage has erased the very concept of contrast itself from the minds of the developers and artists).

Some charitable soul will definitely have to reprocess all the artwork to try to bring up the contrast and saturation (inasmuch as that'll be possible when the artwork is mainly brown) and release it as a bugfix mod for the game to be playable without severe eyestrain.

[dulany67]

Originally posted by mbpoblet:

It most definitely is too damn dark. Everything is very slightly different tones of dark brown.

It looks like it's running under a very heavy sepia filter, with contrast, gamma, and brightness turned all the way down... but the artwork dev diaries show that the very artwork itself is a collection of dark brown smudges, reminiscent of Goya's black paintings.

I hope we at least get a gamma slider so that we can tell the various shades of dark brown appart, though that won't help with the absolute lack of any kind of contrast whatsoever (it's like some weird and very specific form of brain damage has erased the very concept of contrast itself from the minds of the developers and artists).

Some charitable soul will definitely have to reprocess all the artwork to try to bring up the contrast and saturation (inasmuch as that'll be possible when the artwork is mainly brown) and release it as a bugfix mod for the game to be playable without severe eyestrain.

There are two types of people in the world: those who like dark mode and those who don't.

Probably has to do with differences in eyesight.

[Arrwmkr]

Love it looks sooo much better, love the dark theme

[The Former]

Originally posted by mbpoblet:

It most definitely is too damn dark. Everything is very slightly different tones of dark brown.

It looks like it's running under a very heavy sepia filter, with contrast, gamma, and brightness turned all the way down... but the artwork dev diaries show that the very artwork itself is a collection of dark brown smudges, reminiscent of Goya's black paintings.

I hope we at least get a gamma slider so that we can tell the various shades of dark brown appart, though that won't help with the absolute lack of any kind of contrast whatsoever (it's like some weird and very specific form of brain damage has erased the very concept of contrast itself from the minds of the developers and artists).

Some charitable soul will definitely have to reprocess all the artwork to try to bring up the contrast and saturation (inasmuch as that'll be possible when the artwork is mainly brown) and release it as a bugfix mod for the game to be playable without severe eyestrain.

While I wouldn't mind an increase in contrast, if done well... I believe you're exaggerating overmuch.

Compare side-by-side to Goya.[i.imgur.com] You'll find a vast difference. The backgrounds are a bit washed out, perhaps, but they want to be; the focus is on the character, not the scenery.

Compare CK3 to CK2.[i.imgur.com] You'll find the number of colors hasn't diminished; in fact, I daresay it's improved. The only difference is that the primary color has shifted from black-on-bright-beige to white-on-dark-blue.

Here I point out all the colors present in this one UI screen[i.imgur.com] which aren't some shade of dark brown. The image is deliberately set against one of the duller, darker browns color picked directly from the character backdrop to show just how many colors are actually in this shot.

I personally am very pleased with CK3's UI.

[Rhyagelle]

There's no way that it is "too dark".

[NeeLot]

Now I started to wonder if any of the UI elements change depending on what kind of religion and government type is being played as.

Either way, I do appreciate how much cleaner it looks when compared to CK2.