Mon Apr 03, 2006 12:37 am
Now, that is an interesting option of having a separate display area as opposed to have it trailing the mouse whereever it moves.
Okay, I just fired up Paradox's Victoria, since I know their games make heavy use of roll-over text. I wanted to take a quick look, since I know that I have found it less distracting in their games. After this little test, here is why:
They implement two rollover text displays for most objects. The instantaneous rollover tends to be very small and terse. After a 2-3 second delay of the mouse being stationary, the rollover displays a much more extensive amount of information on the object beneath the mouse cursor.
I think its not really the rollover text which is objectionable or distracting about BoA, but rather the sheer size of the rollover text. This is probably more of an issue at lower resolutions too - I am at 1024x768. Okay, I just ran the game at 1600x1200 and the rollovers are completely unobtrusive at that resolution. Of course, I cannot read them, but that's another issue.
I think the Paradox approach might be the best, since I think having to glance back and forth is perhaps less ergonomic than having it at the mouse cursor. The 2-3 second delay shouldn't be a problem, since to really absorb the import of the information you are going to have to give it a few seconds anyway.
