Minimal or complex hud?

[ensiform]

That hud doesn't use .menu file code so yes it will need to be converted if that is what you want.

[razorace]

IMO, I like the one we have, but again, I'm open to change if that's what people want.

[madcatmach2]

im still in favor for a far cry style is small and simplistic and yet it looks good with the vertical bars and the one round thing

[ensiform]

I didn't even like Far Cry as a game... let alone its HUD. :<

[TheShaman]

(Yo, it's been a long time!)

 

I actually like huds that are simple, a red bar for the HP, a green bar for the armour, a blue bar for the force, a yellow bar for the DP, no bar for ammo, just a number, and under these bars, the ammount of HP etc should be displayed in its own colour (DP shouldnt be written in purple under a green bar, but green under green bar, or yellow under yellow bar, to have different colours for all things). As for Mishap, rainbow blue2red is fine, so you see your level of danger, no number is fine too, its just an indicator.

 

That should do fine, to me, no need to add mecanic-looking stuff all around and useless stuff.

[Maxstate]

We need something round and sturdy looking like the JO HUD, but maybe a bit bigger in size with bars around it.

 

Minimal huds just don't suit something like a star wars game and I think it just wouldn't feel right.

[TheShaman]

Well for my part, I've always prefered a cool bar, than a line of squares or even rounded, I prefer seeing what is left of my life or force as a progression bar.

[Tanqexe]

I'm trying to go for more of an LCD theme in terms of HUDs here, but this is rough design #1, which uses curves and places information to the sides where you won't have to look down; you can easily see how you're doing through peripheral vision (side-side peripheral vision is better than top or bottom). I'm wondering if I should make the curves a bit straighter, squish everything more to the sides, maybe make the bars and frames smaller. Easy to do in Photoshop.

 

TrueView w/ Clone Rifle | HUD explanation

Third Person view w/ lightsaber | HUD explanation

 

Another design based on this would be a vertical version, where everything looks straight, and a horizontal version where everything's arranged at the bottom as usual.

[TheShaman]

This is nice stuff, but there are a few things I don't understand.

-Why is it Energy/Force bar?

-Where would the fuel bar/cloak bar be?

-Where does the game get the pic of the item you are using from? I don't recall seein this seeker icon anywhere...

-The current force power icon is useless according to me, since I NEVER EVER use force powers like that. I got shortcuts for everything, which is far quicker than selecting the power and using it.

-The currect weapon thing is useless for saber, displaying the current stance is enough since you can't have a stance with melee or gun.

 

Else, I like the whole thing, the square mishap idea is good.

 

A few things to make it more nearly perfect:

Health in red !

Dodge in purple, Force in blue.

Then it will be lovely

[Maxstate]

Looks good but it might be a bit too obstructive. I don't know since I would have to try it ingame first. Maybe speak to UDM about crossing that with a JO hud? would be even nicer :

[Tanqexe]

- Hooboy, I don't know what I was smoking. Force Meter. Dunno why /energy is there.

- Now that you mention it, I can probably stick the cloak/fuel meter on the left side to balance out the HUD.

-It's not in the game, I just sketched it out in Photoshop.

-Current Force Power is for the benefit of people who do cycle through their force powers. I remember how it can be frustrating when current force power is set on Sense, and I pressed that button for Pull but end up losing 20 FP instead.

-Actually the Current Weapon tab came after UDM told me about how ensi's separated weapons into categories. Just something I was playing with (where you select weapons in categories instead of going through a whole crapload list of things to get to the weapon you want), and doesn't have to work that way. It can just be an empty spot reserved for Saber Form icons for now.

 

As for the colors...I don't like turning the HUD into a rainbowfest. Red is a really distracting color, and purple doesn't seem to want to fit into the low-key scheme.

 

Edit: I'd prefer keeping red as indicators for critical ranges for the HP, DP, and FP bars + MP indicator only.

[Maxstate]

But...but... rainbows...

[Tanqexe]

Have a Hard Gay, Max.

[TheShaman]

Well, again I'm for a simple hud, but to make the difference being the stats without having to look at them, having different colours is always good.

To be honest, the currect OJP 009u hud is fine, just one thing bugs me, the fact that DP has same colour as armor. Having it in the same colour as it's value is written in (purple) would make it fine for me.

Another thing, I'd even prefer having a vertical bar for HP and another for armor.

Just like DP, FP, and MP.

[Tanqexe]

Well, again I'm for a simple hud, but to make the difference being the stats without having to look at them, having different colours is always good.

To be honest, the currect OJP 009u hud is fine, just one thing bugs me, the fact that DP has same colour as armor. Having it in the same colour as it's value is written in (purple) would make it fine for me.

Another thing, I'd even prefer having a vertical bar for HP and another for armor.

Just like DP, FP, and MP.

 

The way I arranged it, in the heat of battle it will be easy to know what you're low on without having to actually focus your eyes on the bars. If you remember that top left is HP, bottom left is shield, top right is DP, bottom right is FP (and below that is MP), then color coding isn't really necessary. Out of the corner of your eyes you'll know pretty much where your stats stand. Add to that the color shift to red for HP, DP, FP, and MP, and you'll definitely know if you've reached critical on something because i.e. if you're getting red top right, it's DP; if it's bottom right it's FP; if it's top left it's HP.

 

I'm gonna tweak the width of each side and shrink the stuff overall so that the space within each frame doesn't go to waste, but this layout shouldn't be that obstructive because it's translucent, I've tested it against both light and dark environment screenshots and found it pretty easy on the eyes, and it will be very easy to tell stats without them standing out like a sore thumb or getting washed out by bright backgrounds.

[TheShaman]

Well it's a bit too big for me though. Maybe it's because I'm used to having a little hud on bottom, after years and years of JK2, JKA, and mods for them.

 

Here is a pic of the hud in 009u, followed by the same pic, edited by myself (took me a whole hour...argh) to show what I'd like to have.

 

ATM:

 

My dream:

 

Don't pay attention to the fact I totally made some parts dirty, cause I had to change a few things. Also, ignore that the HP and Armor are written very poorly, I can't do the same as it's written for Dodge, Force, and Mishap.

 

But this shows how I'd really like the hud.

[DarthDie]

Make sure you dont have it resize....it has a option for it when you upload.

[TheShaman]

I saw that option, and made sure it was disabled... and it was set on 320x240 anyway, this one is like... 80x60...

I'll resize it to 1024x768.

[ensiform]

You posted link to the thumbnails not the actual pix. :<

[TheShaman]

OH YESSSSSSSSS just gotta remove the .th

Thank you ensiform I love you ! *gives a yummy cookie*

[razorace]

My vote is for Tanqexe's design. It's totally like the HUD from Republic Commando, and I like that consistancy.

 

Two Suggestions:

- I would probably switch the positions of the shield and health meters. Shields should (in theory) deplete before health does. As such, I'd place shields on top for a logical progression of shields->health.

- Maybe switch the colors of the DP and FP meters? I personally like blue for FP myself. Very minor thou.

[Tanqexe]

My vote is for Tanqexe's design. It's totally like the HUD from Republic Commando, and I like that consistancy.

 

Two Suggestions:

- I would probably switch the positions of the shield and health meters. Shields should (in theory) deplete before health does. As such, I'd place shields on top for a logical progression of shields->health.

- Maybe switch the colors of the DP and FP meters? I personally like blue for FP myself. Very minor thou.

 

Yep, RC (and Metroid Prime actually) was the inspiration for the LCD HUD, good eye!

 

Both suggestions are very easy switches, and yeah they do make sense...oh, I forgot to mention that the bars drain towards the center line, but you're right about shields->health being a logical progression.

 

Question...how much trouble would it be to cycle weapon categories? For example, instead of cycling through a whole list of guns and throwables, maybe use mousewheel scroll to cycle saber/melee, light weapon (pistol), medium weapon (E-11, bowcaster, flechette), heavy weapon (rocket launcher, D-15, disruptor), and demolitions (det pack, thermal dets) then mousewheel click to cycle through each category's weapons. It'll be like arranging weapons as if they were lightsaber styles under the lightsaber weapon.

[TheShaman]

Disruptor is rather medium though.

 

Wait if I fully understand your idea, it means you'll select the type of weapon, and then use the sv_saberswitch button to change the weapon of the current type? isn't that a bit complicated?

Why not just display current weapon, and select it through the big list?

[Tanqexe]

It'll be much more organized, especially if you're in the middle of a firefight and you're looking for that one BFG that you need but you've got a looong list of weapons on your hands.

 

Let's say you need to switch from pistol to rocket launcher. Scroll wheel 2 times and you're there. Now if you've also bought the E-11, bowcaster, and flechette, and a disruptor, you'd normally have to scroll 4 times to get to your rocket launcher, and however many times in reverse. What if you do have a rocket launcher but you prefer switching between your E-11 and your clone rifle, leaving rocket launcher as last resort? Scroll once back and forth and you're there. If you need that rocket launcher then you scroll once, mousewheel click to set rocket launcher as your default heavy weapon.

[ensiform]

My vote is for Tanqexe's design. It's totally like the HUD from Republic Commando, and I like that consistancy.

 

Two Suggestions:

- I would probably switch the positions of the shield and health meters. Shields should (in theory) deplete before health does. As such, I'd place shields on top for a logical progression of shields->health.

- Maybe switch the colors of the DP and FP meters? I personally like blue for FP myself. Very minor thou.

 

However, shields don't always deplete or sometimes it takes from both with some damage flags.