User Interface

2. User Interface

This chapter describes the visible structure of Oxide.

Main windows

Oxide uses three viewports:

• Main window
• Settings window
• Debug Terminal window

The main window is always the root viewport. The Settings and Debug Terminal windows are detached secondary viewports.

Splash screen

At startup, Oxide displays a splash screen with:

• the bundled logo
• an animated pulse effect
• the current version number
• a transparent / decorless splash viewport

After the splash finishes, the main UI takes over.

Main window layout

The main window is split into three areas:

Top bar

The top bar contains:

• Game
• Emulator
• Video
• Controls
• Shortcuts
• Debug
• Theme indicator / theme cycle button

This is the main access point for runtime actions such as loading ROMs, pausing, toggling fullscreen, save states, and opening tabs of the settings window directly.

Central display panel

The center of the application renders:

• the CHIP-8 framebuffer
• pause overlay
• temporary status overlays/messages

Display sizing depends on video_scale unless fullscreen or viewport constraints take over.

Bottom bar

The bottom status bar summarizes runtime state, including:

• application version
• ROM information
• running / paused state
• CPU speed information
• FPS-related information
• volume / sound state

Detached windows

Settings window

The Settings window is a detached viewport with tabs and footer actions.

Debug Terminal

The Debug Terminal is another detached viewport used for logs, searching, exporting, and test reporting.

UI behavior philosophy

Oxide is designed around:

• direct desktop-style menus
• detached utility windows
• configurable runtime behavior
• visible status feedback
• minimal interruption while emulation is running