HUD Remastered

[Kine]

1. ship info bars, i dont look at them much. when i do, i have the time to so i don’t mind my eyes having to move away off-center to find them.

 

could you post a sample of it being around the top center radar instead of center-center screen? pretty please

 

i dont like multi colored bars either too distracting BUT

having them transparent as they decrease isn’t eye catching enough to signal that i’m in trouble.

how about the normal blue for ‘filled’ and red backdrop occupying the space that was emptied … i hope that made english.

 

2. you know what is more attention grabbing than buffs / debuffs? Medals earned

if only buff / debuffs were just as noticeable. down along the bottom is just as invisible as it is now if not worse.

 

 

good effort btw.

[6093927]

Yup Astraal just summed it all up! So I guess I am done with xKostyan. that was going to be ANOTHER 4 paragraph and it would all go back to, “fly freespace 2 hud and then you will understand what you are missing.”

 

Kine…ahhh lets see here.

You are talking health shield and energy at the top of the screen? Ya I can do that. Move it up to the radar…hmm I can keep the circle set up and “set” it around the radar…or do …3 bars? Ill have to fiddle and post it.

 

and the bars 2 colors Blue for good and red for f***ed.

 

The issues I can already see with this… is the HUD makes these things hard to see as is, moving them up will make it easier still to miss them…maybe on the side of the screen? let me tweak some stuff and post it for you

 

Medals earned…hmmm The problem with that is if you get hit with 5 buffs/debuffs (and if you fly with me, you will get at least 2 at game start then more when we hit the enemy…and thats just me as a command ship, what about healers? ECMs? etc) that will be…distracting and very hard to keep up with.

The sound effect is annoying as well.

 

 

UPDATE

 

Ok the first thing I see is the status bars help “Center” your eye…moveing them up like that isnt very good…the red for drained energy is an awesome idea IMO though!  Ill go and make the bars at the top as well and post it here, but I think all I can safely take from this is the drained energy is shown “red”.

 

Still, tell me whatcha all think everyone!

 

p.s. that was a fast and dirty photoshop job, so chill on the “art looks sorta ehhh” please

 

“It’s all about consistency, and what makes a child or dog secure: order, clarity - all those things.”

       - Jane Siberry

[4242384]

Yup Astraal just summed it all up! So I guess I am done with xKostyan. that was going to be ANOTHER 4 paragraph and it would all go back to, “fly freespace 2 hud and then you will understand what you are missing.”

i have flown Descent Freespace 2, heck i flew original Elite, god i am old! It was different time, different hardware, different monitors, different view. 

[6093927]

Oh then you know what we are talking about, so whats the issue? you know whats wrong with the current HUD…are you trolling me? : 3 

 

“My reality is the misconception about me.”

       -Tori Spelling

[5308311]

Ok the first thing I see is the status bars help “Center” your eye…moveing them up like that isnt very good…the red for drained energy is an awesome idea IMO though!  Ill go and make the bars at the top as well and post it here, but I think all I can safely take from this is the drained energy is shown “red”.

 

The red is awesome. Also i don’t think a top-center health / energy bar display works, i would confuse it with enemy’s status (thats where most target locks appear in most MMOs, so it will definitely have that sort of impact on some of us).

 

Eventually try this order:

> bottom: passive mods line

> above that line: weapons line, just as it is now, maybe a smaller special ability icon, like the same size with the weapons’ icons and with spacing between it and the rest since they are different functions

> above weapons: active mods with shortcut display

> above active mods: status bars - shield and hull on the center-right, energy and speed at the center-left, some space between them

> above status bars: negative effects on one side, positive effects on the other - if it gets too crowded jump them back at top as they are

 

Reticle: keep an outline to mark the front of your ship around which the enemy ships whereabouts are shown on the grid, as well as beacons, emp bombs etc. - pretty much the same thing as now, but cleared of the status bars so you can see better what’s in front of you. Also, try a dark shade below the reticle lines and a more intense color - start with red, green and blue (just one at a time of them, not all at once, no rainbows pls )

 

Radar: no idea, needs more places to be set at and judge. I think personally i would find it comfortable lower-right corner.

 

Why i placed everything at the bottom is because your ship is shown there, so it already takes out part of the viewing field. However, just like the in-game tip says: ‘Typically, a ship’s blind spot is below it’ and i agree to that. Maybe a little distance between the bottom of the screen and the rest of the stuff. Still, the half-front of the ship should be visible at close zoom so you know where you’re headed at, especially when you’re about to take an engi warpgate because it’s your ship’s position it calculates which way to warp you.

 

A little comment to people saying you cannot lose track of your reticle: yes you can. If you are shooting from a distance and there happens to be a white / white-blue background or so much activity you have no clue what you’re looking at, you’re half way lost. If you are in close combat and everything moves so fast it’s about to give you a seizure… well, 80% of the time you struggle to find your reticle and move it on top of the target’s motion prediction indicator to shoot - that if you can keep up with it.

[5308311]

Oh then you know what we are talking about, so whats the issue? you know whats wrong with the current HUD…are you trolling me? : 3 

 

I would say the first and foremost problem currently is the ‘transparency’ of the HUD if i can say it that way. All the display lines are barely visible, it’s not different colors that are the problem imo, but their own display, they need extra width, and not to clobber the center, maybe some transparency (not much). Try this variant too on top of the shaded backgrounds i mentioned earlier.

 

EDIT: Kostyan, possibly the freespace hud was an easier one to make (and yea, it was done right), i feel like there is a great difference between the pace of the 2 games, star conflict being faster. So yea, it’s a harder job to make the hud properly readable here where inty’s give people a back strain

[4242384]

Comrade! I find current HUD very efficient, not nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but some small things that could be improved upon to make it more Efficient, not more “pleasant”/“cool”/“badass looking”, Efficient, here are things that i believe make it ultimately optimal efficient hud

a) Distance to your current target

b) radar in bottom center

Just come up with these 2 more:

c) distance indication under missile marker, if you have more then 1 missile flying at you - just display closest missile to you, a it might disbalance missiles, but it would be awesome!

d) distance under marker that indicates how many enemies locked on you, again to closest one. Because having 6 locks on you is a panic, but 6 locks with 4-5k distance to closest one is not.

Thats it, the rest is just looks that are not necessary or will lead to reduction of efficiency of a  current HUD

[6093927]

Damn you guys are rocking my world!, I am going to pass out and work on all this when I wake up (been up for 20ish hours already), but keep it coming and I will keep posting pics for you too tweak!

 

props to both of you these are GREAT ideas! : D

 

“Epic creation comes from groups in search of perfection!”

           -Wayne Baird

[5308311]

Comrade! I find current HUD very efficient, not nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but some small things that could be improved upon to make it more Efficient, not more “pleasant”/“cool”/“badass looking”, Efficient, here are things that i believe make it ultimately optimal efficient hud

a) Distance to your current target

b) radar in bottom center

Just come up with these 2 more:

c) distance indication under missile marker, if you have more then 1 missile flying at you - just display closest missile to you, a it might disbalance missiles, but it would be awesome!

d) distance under marker that indicates how many enemies locked on you, again to closest one. Because having 6 locks on you is a panic, but 6 locks with 4-5k distance to closest one is not.

Thats it, the rest is just looks that are not necessary or will lead to reduction of efficiency of a  current HUD

 

True, doesnt need to be badass, needs to be readable.

 

a) distance to current target when target is not on screen is definitely needed

b) radar in bottom center, i agree to that since it becomes really easy to track positions on screen / grid because they are both centered (i would ask the devs to increase radar display range, right now i don’t even see targets in my shooting range at times)

c) YES - this would improve missile shield type of modules usage, i see too many people misusing them - also to take note, an extra (and different) distance marker from a sniper torpedo? direction of incoming missile is also something

d) YES

 

Another addition from me, coming from recent eve online updates, and that is the ‘who is shooting me’ tweak. When someone targets you your hud displays a yellow box around the enemy ship which becomes red if it starts shooting, and while he is shooting at you there is a red pulse-per-shot blinking inside the bracket with different intensities depending on how hard he hits you (no pulse if he misses). Right now enemies targeting you just have their current brackets slightly slightly flash, but almost invisible. I would like to see this in SC.

 

 

Gotta finish this with 1 of my daily advices to people (gonna put it in my sig i think since it is something lacking on the forum):

When you try to outline an idea to someone or tell them something they should know ALWAYS say WHY is it so. In that way your point has an explanation upon which a logical argument and bash of ideas can be held (friendly or not is at your own choice ), and don’t forget to ask yourself WHY something is the way it is / needs to be / is wanted to be > sometimes you find the answer before you even ask.

[6093927]

Two things, The new HUD you all talked about Free space style, and a Virgin (mostly) image others can use to photoshop ideas and post them.

 

 

The Blue arrows point to your squad mates and show basic health/distance.  (red dot means they are dead/respawning)

The Green arrow points to a friendly you want to Escort. (like the captain or your healer)…again health distance

The BIG red arrow points to the guy your targeting …health distance

The little red arrows are people who are targeting you.  (maybe make the red arrows bigger or smaller based on distance?)

The BIG yellow arrow is closest missile. 

The little yellow arrows are other missiles. (Again make the arrows bigger or smaller based on distance?)

 

6 locks is how many are locking on to you and distance to closest enemy.

 

MISSILE warning should flash and show the distance to missile.

 

passing out now that I got this off my head.  tell me what you think…

 

 

 

 

“Sleep is for the weak!”

      - Army humor : )

[6093927]

Also check out the thread!

 

“Losing Track of Your Aiming Reticle? Make it More Noticable!”

 

“I am not a thing; my name is Leonard Church, and you shall fear my LASER FACE!.”

      -Lenard Church

[Kine]

 

 

perfect for me

[6093927]

Whatcha think of the new tweak? we can always move stuff up or down but I’m talking colors and Aim.

 

Hmm think I am switching over to the Green Cross hairs, whatcha all think?

 

White is your target lock, red is whose locked on you.

 

 

“Aim high, and you won’t shoot your foot off.”

         -Phyllis Diller

[Kine]

 

With notifications

 

 

Flew a couple matches earlier, this time keeping aware of which parts of the screen I look at and consider important:

 

 

1. Border along the TOP is the most important for me when flying, aiming and dogfighting. Even the top left and right corners. If I had a choice I would like the entire section clear of any instruments.

 

2. Because I find that part of the screen real estate important, anything popping up anywhere along there I find annoying enough to notice. Perfect for notifications. As long as they fade out moments after.

 

3. Buffs and Debuffs Icons are simply invisible to my brain. They are on the part of the screen where I detect images and silhouttes ie. where I look for ships and ship icons. So any graphic in the center screen would just disappear from my eyes as my brain filter info for more important things (like frigates). I believe they need to be moved somewhere else - near other icons that I DO notice prolly make better sense.

 

4. Thanks to global chat, my brain have also developed the ability to make the bottom left corner to disappear. Strangely - so do the bottom right. I don’t find modules need priority screen placement. Bottom right would be fine.

 

5. Radar - Bottom Center - Very noticeable spot but also least amount of on-screen information coz all you see is the back end of your ship. Perfect location for the radar. In-fact, if the ship model isn’t there onscreen, I could even pretend the radar was the ship and navigate using just that. Perfect.

 

6. Circular shape of radar conveniently provide locations for enemy and missile locks A & B

 

7. I like the idea of ship info bars around the radar. Unobtrusive compared to being right in Center - Center. Equally as noticeable down there as it is in middle of the screen - shouldn’t be an issue.

 

8. Scoreboard should be lowered a few pixels so the new, ‘along-the-border-locator-arrows’ can move about without clashing.

 

9. New Addition - A duplicate of the latest chat text in top 1/3 of the screen. Icons might not be noticeable, but annoying text are. Good for making sure people see team chat. A new text line will ‘push’ the last one down where it will fade out after 2 seconds. Latest text line disappear after say,… 10 seconds if it doesn’t get pushed down.

 

10. Time in top center. It’s far right corner atm.

 

 

 

 

[edit]

 

• dual color spinning reticle is good

• no opinion on colors of all the other things

[6093927]

My god…that was murder…ok…here it is…is this what you are saying you want? (and next time use 1920x1080P that pic was small!)

 

 

P.S. A3? 1B?

 

 

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

        -Confucius

[Kine]

thank you

 

1. distance to current target above radar better?

 

2. distance to squad member might sound cool, but when those numbers start spiraling around the screen it’s gonna be annoying. Static numbers beside their names might be better but personally I’d have them turned off what with a better radar to find them with

 

3. might also want to try and do a sample for a 1024x768 and 720p screen. see how the UI scales.

[6093927]

1. It is an idea but the problem is instead of drawing your eye to the arrow pointing to the target it it puts changing digets in front of you. (its all about controlling where the Eye wants to look, so you can naturally draw them to the target in a dog fight. put the info where they need it when they need it…and try and keep the center hud clear unless info needs to be there.)

 

2. I made the numbers on distance to squad mates smaller so you have to look at it to see it for this very reason, you have to glance/look at it to know if your getting to far away, otherwise it should be too small to draw your eye.  Making a option to turn it off is also a good idea.

 

3. Lowering the resolution will only make it a little fuzzy. I can read text at 720p resolution in SC so I am not worried about being able to read the larger text or Icons we have put on the screen.

 

Buuuut it would look like this.

 

 

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

         -Mark Twain

[Kine]

i meant lower in-game resolution - ie. UI appearing bigger.

[6093927]

Little confused, the image above was the same thing just at a lower resolution 0.0

 

“Hey… Everyone is looking at me… I love when they do that! Hi, everybody!”

       - Michel J Caboose

[5308311]

Little confused, the image above was the same thing just at a lower resolution 0.0

 He means every UI piece (radar, hp bars, energy, arrows etc) would appear double-sized for example, not blurred / pixelated. To make an example, make the background 1/3 smaller and keep all the UI elements as they are in size, just move them to their place.

 

The reticle has been refined in the other thread, let’s use that, soldier’s done a good job.

 

 

 

This looks pretty much well thought over, however the module area bothers me. Probably putting weapons on the B spot and actice mods on A? Passives can stay bottom right. Eventually add squad info bottom right? Pilot names with ship icon and hp bars? Or the screen that shows the locked enemy ship (this would be bad i think)?

Buffs will sometimes need 2 columns, there are moments i get more than 6 buffs, let’s add 2 injected combat boosters and cap bonus plus overdrive => huge list.

 

[http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/topic/20052-hud-remastered/page-2#entry204225](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/20052-hud-remastered/page-2#entry204225)

 

What Kine said, the lock on distance should be moved from the bottom of the radar to the top of it; STILL, right now we get 2 icons for ship and missile lock ons, maybe just a number for distance and a number for their count for each would be enough (you know, those 2 triangles appearing below energy / speed bars - enemy ship lock ons - and below hp bars - missile lock ons). Numbers below and to the side should suffice.

Since i’m in the center area, HP amounts would be better represented as percentages, rather than absolute amounts. Gives a better idea how much you’ve got left / missing. Complicated numbers should stay on paper, not in battle. Energy and speed number displays are fine. They all need a shaded background like soldier solved for the reticle in the other thread.

 

The kill feed could use icons of the used weapon between the player names ‘who killed who’.

 

I just noticed the beacon icon. I believe they are good as they are now, they just need display priority. Other objects that need this are: emp bombs, emp carriers, captains, targeted ship’s motion prediction reticle etc. of the kind. Right now they are sorted by distance which is bad, I can’t see where i have to shoot my target at…

 

And to go crazy, i think i would love a voice over calling out different warnings / heads up. Modules coming out of cooldown to be announced for example and other things happening to your ship, like buffs, debuffs (or the effects you receive without too many details, just saying ‘speed bonus received’ or ‘targeting systems jammed’ etc), being locked and missiles are already in as warning sounds. HP bar announcers like ‘Shields low’ or ‘Energy low’ would be great too. I wouldn’t mind them overlapping either. This can help you notice stuff easier (i know i would ).

If you want an example, search for a fan made video for eve, Vital Signs to get a brief idea. Especially pay attention to the overlapping of announcers, you still understand the effects the ship is suffering. What do you think?