CGB Phase 2: Filter

Flows:

Main Menu → Multiplayer Menu → Custom Game Browser (Main Menu) → Filter
Main Menu → Multiplayer Menu → Custom Game Browser (Main Menu) → Quick Match (Searching) → Edit Filters
Main Menu → Multiplayer Menu → Custom Game Browser (Main Menu) → Browse → Edit Filters

01 Jun 2021 Flow Diagram

02 Jun 2021 Wireframes for Filter PC/STEAM on the left, XBOX on right

Functionality

When a user clicks on the Filter menu item from the main Custom Game Browser (CGB) menu, they will land on the Filter screen where they can configure their preferences.

Selecting the "Edit Filter" option from the Quick Match or Browse screens will also bring the user to the Filter screen. 

Options selected on the Filter screen are used for:

• Determining what games are searched for in Quick Match 
• Determining what games are displayed in Browse

Selections made on the Filter screen directly relate to the information displayed in the Filter Stats box that appears on the Quick Match screen. 

Saving filter preferences:

The last configured set of options should always be saved even after powering down. These should be written to UserSettings similarly to the reading and writing of session preferences.

Important Note About How Filter Screen is Built

Filter is not a dedicated menu screen, it is an overlay that goes on top of the Browse or Quick Match screens only.

If the user selects Filter from the Custom Game Browser Main Menu, they are actually going to the Browse screen with the Filter overlay on top of it. 

If the user selects Filter from the Custom Game Browser Main Menu and then hits the back button, they will go "back" to the Browse screen. Pressing back from the Browse screen will then take them to the Custom Game Browser Main Menu. 

If the user selects Edit Filters from the Quick Match menu, Filter will overlay over the Quick Match screen. Hitting the back button in this instance will take the user back to the Quick Match screen. 

The UMCCScreenManager currently closes the current screen and clears its context when a new one is pushed. The Store and StoreBundle screens use some bespoke behavior to retain the context of one when pushing the other. Adding a map of screens which follow this pattern to the screen factory data asset and applying similar behavior to the Filters screen is likely the best way to achieve this "overlay" behavior.

UI Elements

02 Jun 2021 Wireframes for Numbered UI Elements 

1. Category Title: Tells the user what category they are in
2. Menu Title: Tells the user what menu they are in
3. Filter Information: This shows the user how many game sessions match the filter preferences out of how many total game sessions there are
4. Active Selection Indicator: Helps show the user which option is currently selected
5. Active Selection Arrow(s) : Arrow(s) can appear in two ways: 
   1. For filter preferences that have additional selection options, this will appear as a single arrow pointing to the right (Example: Games Included in wireframe above)
   2. This will appear as a pair of arrows pointing in opposite directions for filter categories that are using the arrow stepper widget. (Example: Game Type in wireframe above)
6. Filter Categories: These are the different category of filters that the user can select options for. (See Filter Defaults and individual filter category sections for more details) Each filter category has three parts to their display:
   1. Filter Category name. Example: "Games Included"
   2. The current filter selection. Example: "Any" (In Filter Stats box this is the "Display Option" for each filter category. See Quick Match → Filter Stats Details in this document as an example)
   3. The Active Selection Arrow(s) when the filter category is currently selected. 
7. Selections Window: For every filter category that has additional selections the user needs to make, the options will appear in this window. Users can check the selections they want applied to their filters, or uncheck ones they don't want.
8. Game session header
9. Status Indicator, Rank and Nameplate: Players that have been found and are occupying a slot are displayed with:
   1. Nameplate with their username 
   2. Badge that represents their current rank
   3. If there is a status to display, there is a small icon indicating player's status. Example: Current wireframe shows that the player is away 
10. Advanced Settings: These are optional settings to help narrow down the game session results even more
    1. Tags are a pre-determined list that users can choose from
11. Tool Tips: Helps the user understand the current active selection 
12. Button Bar (See Button Bar Details): Navigation and options available to the user on this screen

Button Bar Details 

Shortcuts and functionality (bottom of screen, See #11 in UI Elements):

Filter Defaults & Options

When the user has not configured the filter preferences, Quick Match and Browse functionality will use the built in Filter Defaults. These are the predefined selections made for the user and can be changed when the user navigates to the Filter screen and manually configures new selections.

Here is a summary of the defaults for the filters (used in both quick match and browse):

• Games Included: Any
• Game Categories: Any
• Maps: Any
• Regions: Any
• Teams: Any
• Max Players: 16
• Tags (Off): Any

Invalid Filter Selections

11 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Invalid Selections

When a user attempts to go to a different filter category without having made valid selections, they will be prevented from doing so. 

Invalid selection is when a user has not picked ANY options in the filter category. The user must  select at least one option in each filter category. 

It will stay open on the current category that has the invalid selections and the display will say "Invalid Selection" as well as the filter information at the top letting the user know there's an error. 

The message will say "Invalid Selection, please correct errors" 

If the TAGS category is selected / active, then the user still must choose one option within that category in order for it to be a valid selection. This will filter the results accordingly. 

If the TAGS category is not selected, then it will act the same as if "All" or "Any" had been selected and the results will display any tags. 

Games Included

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Games Included PC/STEAM

Allows the user to choose which games they would like to include.

• If any of the titles are unchecked, the "ALL" also becomes unchecked.
• This section has an "ALL" option at the top. When toggled on, it selects all of the titles. 
• If the checked "ALL" is unchecked, the entire list of options is also unchecked. 

These are the possible display options reflected in the filter category: 

• ANY: If all the game titles are selected
• CUSTOM: If some of the game titles are selected
• [Name of Specific Game Title]: If only a single game title is selected 

Game Titles Not Installed

Even if the user does not have a specific game title installed, they will be able to select and include that game title as part of their filter preferences.

This is because we want the user to see that there's a lot of games available, in all sorts of titles in the Browse screen game listings. 

• Browse screen: When a user attempts to join a game session that has a game title they do not have installed, they will be prompted to install the game.
• Quick Match: Before the search even begins, as soon as the user enters the Quick Match screen, if they had selected titles in the filter preferences that they don't have installed, they will be prompted to install the games. 

Title Selections Impact Other Category Options

Depending on what game titles the user has selected, it will impact which options are available in the other filter categories. 

For example, if the user has only selected the game title, Halo 3, then: 

• Only game categories available for Halo 3 will be available for the user to select in the "Game Categories" filter category
• Only maps available for Halo 3 will be available for the user to select in the "Maps" filter category 

This follows pre-existing patterns of if / then logic surrounding title selections impacting game category and map selection options throughout MCC. 

The CareerDB GameInfo class exposes APIs on the  for retrieving categories (GetSupportedGameCategories) and map ids supported by a given game. 

Game Categories

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Game Categories Filter PC/STEAM

There is an option at the top for "ALL" to quickly select all of the game category options. 

• If game categories from the list are unchecked, the "ALL" also becomes unchecked.
• If  the checked "ALL" is unchecked by the user, all of the game category options also become unchecked.
• If "ALL" is checked, all of the map options also become selected. 

Allows the user to choose which base game categories they would like to include. These are the same categories pre-existing in other areas of MCC (such as in Matchmaking)

• ANY: If all game categories are selected
• CUSTOM: If some of the game categories are selected, but others are not
• [Name of Specific Game Category]: If only a single game category is selected 

Game Categories should be displayed alphabetically A - Z. 

Maps

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Maps Filter PC / STEAM

There is an option at the top for "ALL" to quickly select all of the map options:

• If maps from the list are unchecked, the "ALL" also becomes unchecked.
• If  the checked "ALL" is unchecked by the user, all of the map options also become unchecked.
• If "ALL" is checked, all of the map options also become selected. 

Allows the user to choose which base maps they would like to include. These are the same maps pre-existing in other areas of MCC. 

• ANY: If all maps selected
• CUSTOM: If some of the maps are selected, but others are not
• [Name of Specific Map]: If only a single map is selected 

Maps should be displayed in the established UI display order seen in other parts of MCC.

Regions

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Regions Filter PC / STEAM

There is an option at the top for "ALL" to quickly select all of the region options.

• If regions from the list are unchecked, the "ALL" also becomes unchecked.
• If  the checked "ALL" is unchecked by the user, all of the region options also become unchecked.
• If "ALL" is checked, all of the region options also become selected. 

Scrolling list with checkboxes. 

This is a dedicated server specific search. 

• ANY: If all regions are selected
• CUSTOM: If some of the regions are selected, but others are not
• [Name of Specific Region]: If only a single region is selected 

Regions should be displayed alphabetically A - Z. 

Teams

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Teams Filter PC/STEAM

Arrow stepper widget. Should include 3 settings. Specifies whether the game should include teams enabled or not. 

• ANY
• ENABLED
• DISABLED

Max Players

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe Max Players Filter PC/STEAM

Arrow stepper widget. Allows the user to specify the maximum number of players they want to play with. 

Options are:

• 2
• 4
• 8
• 16

Tags

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Tags Filter PC/STEAM

Tags is an optional filter. By default all of the tags are selected: 

• If tags from the list are unchecked, the "ALL" also becomes unchecked.
• If  the checked "ALL" is unchecked by the user, all of the tag options also become unchecked.
• If "ALL" is checked, all of the tag options also become selected. 

Users can select which tags they would like to include in their filter preferences.

• The list of tags is a predetermined list that users can choose from. 
• Users will not be able to create their own tags.
• Users will not be able to edit the list of tags. 
• The list of tags will need to be able to be easily modified / updated / configured. 

When tags is "active" or checked, then these selections will affect the results in Quick Match and the Browse screen.

If tags is not active or unchecked, then the selections will not affect the results. 

• ANY: If all tags are selected
• CUSTOM: If some of the tags are selected, but others are not
• [Name of Specific Tag]: If only a single tag is selected 

Tags should be displayed alphabetically A - Z. 

Tags (Predetermined List, Technical Details)

The following tags will be supported.

• Core Casual
• Core Competitive
• Mini Game

When creating a session, a user will choose a single tag to apply to a CGB Playlist Variant. These are an additional filtering axis which layer on top of the others. For example, Fiesta and MLG are both variants of Slayer with very different audiences. The former would be a Core Casual type of Slayer while the latter would be Core Competitive.

These tags should be defined by an enum in the UUIInterface namespace within UUICustomGamesBrowserInterface.hpp. We may add additional values to this enumeration over time based on feedback and player patterns.

Tags between CGB Variant Versions

CGB Variants that were created before Tags are implemented, will receive "Core Casual" as a default tag.

They will be informed through the build notes, and what other forms of messaging channels we can manage to let the users know that they need to update their CGB Variants if they wish to select one of the other tags to represent their CGB Variants. 

Adjustments to Existing Screens or Flows

CGB Main Menu

04 May 2021 Wireframe for Main Menu update PC/STEAM

Filter needs to be added to the main menu.

Browse Screen (Main)

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for main Browse screen update PC/STEAM

• Edit Filters button needs to be added to the Browse Screen 
• When the user is using default filters, the tooltip at the bottom will let them know
• When the user is using custom filter preferences, the tooltip at the bottom will let them know
• Edit Filters button on PC , Right Bumper | Edit Filters button on XBOX

Browse Screen (Main - No Sessions Found)

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Browse Screen when no sessions are found PC/STEAM

When a session can not be found and the session list on the Browse screen comes up empty, users will get a prompt letting them know that their session preferences may be too specific. 

They will be able to take the following actions: 

• Refresh the list: Tries again with the current filter preferences) 
• Use default filters: Tries again with the default filter preferences and doesn't overwrite the user's custom filters if they had made changes to the filter preferences) 
• Create Game: Takes the user to the create flow, starting from the game title selections screen) 
• Back: Returns the user to the browse screen

Session Details Screen

01 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Session Details Screen update PC/STEAM

Session Details Screen has several updates, which are outlined in a separate spec. 

But the change related to the Filters, is the addition of tag information in the session detail screen, as part of the variant details on the right hand side. 

Create Screen

01 Jun 2021  Wireframe for Create Screen update PC/STEAM

There's a few updates to the Create screen outlined in a separate spec, but one change specific to the Filters, is the addition of Tag information in the variant information display on the right hand side. 

Create Flow - Select Tags

01 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Select Tags screen update PC/STEAM

There's a few updates to the Create flow, outlined in a separate spec, but one change specific to the Filters, is the addition of the "Select Tags" screen in the Create Flow.

This will appear after the user has selected a Game Variant for their CGB Variant. 

Quick Match

02 Jun 2021 Wireframe for Quick Match screen PC/STEAM

Edit Filters button is also available to users on the Quick Match screen

Feedback & Update Notes

24 Sep 2021 

1. Deleted the "Limits the search to user specified regions from regions offered in Network options" line under filters. 

05 Jul 2021 

1. Updated the Invalid Filter Selections section to describe in more detail how this applies to TAGS category. 

17 Jun 2021 

1. Added information on what happens to existing CGB Variants when Tags are implemented. 

11 Jun 2021 

1. Added a section to address invalid filter selections
2. Maps order updated