HUD and Menu Revamp In the Works? Also Shaders.

[subby]

I think someone may have touched on this already, but I view the current default cockpit as something of the order of what you get when you sit in the drivers seat of a car. Sure, there are a lot of dials, needles, lights and things. You can drive the car with only the speedometer, or the fuel gauge, but you really do need all of them to drive the car properly.

Agreed 100% , and anyway you don't have to look at them anyway...I remember in the old days the constant questions about what rubber was but when tank and then I made it easier to understand when we had a basic hud up, we no longer had those incessant same questions.

[orm]

It's a bit like Linux versus Windows. Many users flock to Windows because it doesn't require them to read documentation, it doesn't require them to configure much, and it "just works". Linux on the other hand (yes, even Ubuntu) requires configuration, it requires one to read documentation, requires alot of TLC, and most of all requires patience because it will almost never "just work"; patience the majority of computer users today don't possess.

and then there's macintosh </3

Maybe your lightcycle windshields get tinted progressively more red with more rubber spent. Speed I like as a needle gauge, just as in automobiles, that seem to make sense to me. I don't have much to say on brakes since I don't really pay much attention to them, maybe I should start. Perhaps everything else could go onto a pull up screen, like the score sheet is?

here's a quick mockup

I like the idea of the rubber being displayed like most FPS's do their regenerating health. A white flash (red is too fps, this isn't blood, this is a core dump ;] so maybe their cycle's color even?) as the player dies would quickly teach them to associate a bright screen with being near death. Maybe some cycle gibs would be pretty cool to add to. The idea is this, good HUD design relies on the player looking around the screen as little as possible. English speakers/readers tend to look from left to right, so putting all relevant information on the lower left of the screen would make sense as that is where we tend to look first. In the current default HUD we unconsciously look at the rubber meter before the speedometer. Putting all information in it's little corner frees up not only the rest of the screen, but the time spent looking for information we need to play the game.

[Jonathan]

What's funny here is that Armagetron is probably one of the best games to play without a HUD. I never felt crippled when I disabled the HUD or when it simply wasn't in the game yet. Playing without also actually raises awareness, and it's more immersive without that clutter.

Some comments on the last post in particular: red isn't just blood, it's a general sign of 'danger'. Maybe in the end it got that way because blood is red, but that doesn't matter. I also don't think people would be happy if you seal their fate by blocking their screens when they're about to die.

If you really saw rubber best in its corner that wouldn't be so bad for your own gameplay. Rubber is too important, in several ways.

I don't mean to sound too detrimental, I just don't really like this.

[Phytotron]

I'm with Jonathan. You can see some screenshots of my HUD in the Random Screenshots Thread. I've got time, ping, and framerate tucked in the upper-right. I've got smaller text in the console (and am constantly pressing Page Down). The only gauge I have on screen is the rubber meter, and I've positioned that at the lower left to where only the needle itself is visible (when at zero, it lays right on the edge of the screen). And that's only for general reference. Most times I don't even pay attention to it; learning to go by feel is better, as is minimising concern with rubber in general. (I think it's a bad sign that so many players these days are hung up on the rubber meter. "OMG, I died at 11.3!" "Don't grind past 3.8!") And, of course, the conception of rubber usage as equivalent to health depletion and regeneration is quite objectionable.

I don't need the brake meter as I never play in servers with them, and if and when I do I still don't use it; even if I used it, I still think getting a feel for it would be better. And I've never seen any purpose at all to the speed meter, or the "fastest" display, for that matter.

[subby]

The fastest player and speed was never ment to be anything serious just a bit of fun, it's a game after all

When I put the HUD together originally I based it on analogue because thats what most cars have ( and I like it that way), I'm not a graphic artist and it was never supposed to be an end solution - but it bloody well worked!

EDIT: In fact I had never used OpenGL before that

[Word]

rubber meter, fps and time is enough; nobody needs it to play, it's just an extra bit of information.

[Concord]

one can use camera_custom_back/rise_fromspeed essentially as a speed meter.

When you go incam, it gets more interesting.

[orm]

I hate to be the devils advocate here, but I personally have found the first person cam to be the most effective. In tight corridors, I am able to more easily see where an opening is.

Viewmodel. That's all I'm saying.

[Concord]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHL_MgT9hak

this a short video demonstrating my incam cockpit. The two short vertical ones move along the horizontal and represent time_to_impact_right/left. I've tuned it so that they come together at the center only when you cannot turn without dying. I find them most useful to know if you've gotten ahead of someone, or when to turn around the outside of corner.

The diagonal line above the center is a needle gauge for speed

the long vertical line right beneath center is a time_to_impact_front, it's pretty useless other than indicating whether or not your going to run into that kink up ahead. It's set to shrink upwards.

The horizontal dash immediately at the bottom of that is a rubber meter. It moves vertically from the bottom of the front_impact to the top of the speed gauge.

[sinewav]

Wow dude, that's crazy.

[CruZ]

its awesome, even if the moving indicators in front of the cycle would disturb me, because i would be inclined to look on them instead of focusing on my cycle ...

[Concord]

I've found that with incam looking around the screen doesn't take your eye off your cycle like it does with another camera.

[Word]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHL_MgT9hak

this a short video demonstrating my incam cockpit.

HAHA INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE
i once made a soundpack for that


edit: this post should probably be deleted and serve as a youtube comment

[Phytotron]

one can use camera_custom_back/rise_fromspeed essentially as a speed meter.

True of the smart cam as well, of course (something that actually has always bugged me a bit, especially in the way the angle flattens out with increased speed).

When you go incam, it gets more interesting.

Auto-incam with internal camera movement enabled, even more so.

[saragei]

(...) When you go incam, it gets more interesting.

seALion just made a server where the server defined cam makes use of this. At first it's on a quite high point-of-view, when action grows it sinks to (almost) incam. Forgot the name, something with "cat" in it. I haven't known of server defined cams before btw. Well, I know and love sinewav's incam-only-server but it forces the server-defined cam on you, AL's just gives you an option to choose.