I’ll keep it to the point. I don’t know what Photon UI means but I was unable to post under the default Feature Previews category.
I didn’t try everything just played a few hours.
Good:
The active module (spinning thingy) and on/off are clearer now, they were in some lightning conditions a bit hard to see.
Cargo level indicator is more visible, I never had a situation where it was very critical to see very fast but maybe in the next 20 years it will occur and then it will be useful.
Capacitor charge thing, while you’re already aware because you fitted the ship, it’s nice.
Neutral or not very important:
Getting extra sounds for stuff is great but it should either be optional or less. I don’t care about hearing when I activate my hardeners or AB or whatnit, I already know I did it. Some are also just weird and don’t seem to match the module. We shouldn’t have filler sounds just to have something for each module. Warnings makes sense, like a module burning out soon, hp low, or being scrambled, activating a module isn’t.
Somehow capacitor looks a bit like a star now, you need sunglasses to look at it. Brighter makes it more pronounced, flat design makes it feel like.. less substance, can’t explain, I feel less that my capacitor is running out, but at least functionally it’s not worse.
Maybe I’m used to it but weapons cycling while reloading was consistent with any type of weapon wait timer, so now filling up instead is hard to be perceived as an improvement. I see it as a minor tradeoff for making things fancier instead of functional and consistent.
Rack overload buttons are bigger now, which I can see how it may be useful, but you need 2 clicks instead of 1. Unsure if there is much time saved.
I notice the signal indicators were removed. While I never had mucbh use for them it’s interestinmg how new HUD takes more space while having less information.
Autopilot button is funnily small but nowadays autopilot gets you killed even in HS sometimes so this may very well be removed altogether…
Bad:
Shield, armour, hull - 3 “equal” semicircles were better. It gave a clear understanding of 100% to 0%. Now the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 visual display of one HP entity makes the ‘important’ bar (your tank) understated. In the old version the 2 largely irrelevant bars didn’t diminish the ‘main’ one. The notches gave somehow a better understanding of progression compared to the now flat design. (everything flat? really? this is not some new trendy phone app)
Speed bar being thinner makes it less visible. Also font looks smaller and less readable. It feels wergonomically worse than the old one. Unless you want to provide skins (which I don’t mind if they are optional), the primary function should be to show critical information and the non-functional design should come secondary instead. Warping message also got moved because of this. The whole thing occupies more space yet is less readable than it used to be? I don’t get the concept. You saved the 2 small notched semi-circles of HP (which was very space efficient) for this.
I think the whole hud is bigger and it seems like modules are too spaced out. For me Eve is a constant fight for screen real estate and I don’t appreciate things occupying more screen space than necessary. A certain module button size is good for occasional clicking, but the spacing could be way less. It’s just too wide. If anything I would have welcomed a few pixels less width so I can put small windows at the bottom better than before.
Safety dot got bigger which is clutter a bit, but it should not at least clutter UI on hover just click like before!