121 replies to this topic

[erathic]

Post Wreckage : + Template download here



Post facility Update :

Immersive HUD suggestion





Old

Spoiler

i know that the "menus all over the screen" is somehow part of the "mech" experience and feel, but i find it very obtrusive, to the point that sometimes it can be annoying during fights or and alter the visual experience of the real-time environement and action happening on-screen.I know the game is in beta and hopefully things will change, however here's a little sketch reflecting what i'm expecting for future HUD updates.

Global/ settings :

• Options (in the settings) to hide/display Killfeed and killmsg (xp gains)
  
• PER CLASS HUD, A-B-C class have minor graphical and positions variations
  
• Colorblind support (Beefsweat)

In-game behavior :

• Refine the "Enemy Sighted" marker (updated in the Tech patch!)
  
• Split tchat box and Killfeed
  
• Most HUD placed in less view-obtrusive positions (corners / over or integrated as cockpit elements)
  
• Add little transparency on all HUD elements
  
• small Icons to replace "killed by" /suicides text replace it with Mech type ie: SCT
  
• Xp gains, etc.. Not in the critical line of sight
  
• Enemy spotting outline disappears as soon as the mech doing the spotting breaks line-of-sight. (WarlordZ)
  
• spotted enemies wich are out of sight and out of radar displayed on a border line of the radar(updated in the Tech patch!)
  
• Out of radar allies displayed on the same radar border line(updated in the Tech patch!)
  
• Better minimap (updated in the Tech patch!)
  
• Spotted : blink fast  + an " ! " in the center
  
• Number of players in each team displayed at the side of the minimap
  
• Move some elements to the FULL MAP Interface (so it become for used/tactical)
  
• Numbered grid cells on the full map
  
• Less intrusive assets rendered on the HUD in Siege and MA modes(The_Silencer)
  
• Reinforcing the logics on when harvesting EUs and/or when to defend/dominate structures on the map, via graying out or higlighting the EU display and combining visuals in between HUD and radar in order to highlight actions to follow(The_Silencer)
  
• "noisy" wave-sounds and one flashing red circle into an integrated display in the cockpit to handle "incomings" (The_Silencer)
  
• Chassis type indicator (for mech recognition) (N0stalgia) (updated in the Tech patch!)
  
• Tactical and taunt command roses

Cusomizations : HUD "cosmetics" :

• PER MECH HUD color choice (cost HC)
  
• HUD themes "skins" : Prosk/sentium, etc.. Clans skins maybe _ (Cost MC)
  
• Cockpit voices : Male / Female / Robot / Ellen McLain / etc.. (Cost MC)
  
• Cockpit decoration: Laila bubblehead or (bikini) photo/  dangling dices/ Sentium energydrink can,etc..

Latest update :Work in progress








Old :

Spoiler

Green versionOld suggestion:

Edited by erathic, December 13 2013 - 11:22 PM.

[KaszaWspraju]

Someone here should be jealous .

Much better, simpler, no 3d icons on the screen, nicely set directions in silos icons.

Missing only the heatbars on cockpit.

• Option (in the settings) to hide/display bullet infos about gained XP and bonus
  
• Choosing a screen color in options change HUD too
  
• Static enemy spotted text/ option to remove it
  
• Bold Outlined spotted mech
  
• Most HUD placed in less view-obtrusive positions (corners / over cockpit elements)
  
• little transparency on all HUD elements
  
• ALL THIS !

Edited by KaszaWspraju, March 09 2013 - 06:06 PM.

[WarlordZ]

I like all of the changes except the minimap being on the left side. I prefer it on the right like in every other game.  Everything else is a general improvement.

Just wondering, where would you put chat in your design_

[OddaC]

I particularly like where the 'x killed x' messages are. In their current form, they don't feel like a part of the rest of the HUD at all, which is occasionally distracting.

[The_Eldritch_Abomination]

Not bad at all.

No more giant ENEMY SIGHTED obstructing our view...

[Pirits]

Seeing the outline of a bad-guy behind a wall would be a bit over powered, wouldn't one think_

And turning all holographic signatures on your HUD to your custom color would be nice.

I could make everything match the fuel gauge! Or turn it green to match the green.

[WarlordZ]

Pirits, on March 09 2013 - 08:12 PM, said:

Seeing the outline of a bad-guy behind a wall would be a bit over powered, wouldn't one think_

No, as long as the outline is either:
A: static based on the mech's position at the time of the spotting
or
B: disappears as soon as the mech doing the spotting breaks line-of-sight.

Of course, the outline should also disappear quickly regardless.  It provides some possibility of unit identification as well as making it easier to gauge target distance, but with proper design it shouldn't provide location information at times that the current system wouldn't.

Edited by WarlordZ, March 09 2013 - 09:05 PM.

[erathic]

Here's another attempt,

• Map switched back to top-right
  
• Tchat box to top-left displaying the 3 latest msg (and fade-off if none)
  
• Xp gains, etc.. bottom center (again, fade when none)
  
• Weapon Heat (squares) and charge/reload (continuous line) dynamic display displayed on left and right of the central aiming thing
  
• On-screen FOV spotted enemies displayed with a red outline
  
• OFF FOV spotted enemies pop on a marker on the "sigh-line" indicating : position and altitude
  
• Everything in red (text/icons) is enemy related and white is team related

[erathic]

Minimal version : No "Enemy Sighted" Overlay indicator, spotted enemies are only marked on the radar/map or with a small triangle/arrow, if close enough, name is displayed

[WarlordZ]

Having the objective indicators and the map sharing that corner results in all map info on the screen being over there.  It might help newbies understand the UI better if we put all of the navigation aids in one place.

Putting xp info in the cockpit is a nice touch, as it puts all of that "pilot-centric" info where the pilot is.

Your new heat bar design is interesting.  It's much more minimalistic and sleek and obscures less of the screen.  Part of me wonders whether it might be too sleek considering hawken's junkyard aesthetic, but I'm not really decided one way or another so don't take this as a complaint.

Now that I've thought about the whole "enemy spotted" thing and had a bit more sleep, I think an outline that updates while maintaining LOS would actually be OP, as friendlies could easily line up a shot while rounding the corner.  I guess I was too tired last night to think of that.  A static outline should still be fine, though I wouldn't object to your simple arrow indicator either.  Anything but the blasted orb.

Edited by WarlordZ, March 10 2013 - 04:37 PM.

[KaszaWspraju]

Here a small comparison is wrong with the current hud:

KaszaWspraju, on February 07 2013 - 04:07 PM, said:

I wanted to write own theme but connects here.

Hud has a lot of unnecessary elements, dual function, obstructions view staff, and junk information.

Many of them can be fixed very easily by adding a feature on / off in the game menu.

A few examples:

• Picture explains a lot, is the effect of the crossing area eg AA. A bit of bother and the flash of light element, tired eyes, distracting.
  
  
• Wall of text. Five lines of text (max i see 8) in the center of the screen confirming the frag, plus the total amount of XP under it and also text chat with confirm the kill. In combat is a completely redundant and covers a large portion of the screen Fix it, please, let me turn off this junk info, on / of in the options.  
  
• Here, the following two examples of how 3D icons hide important information:

• AA icon obscures enemies on minmap:
  
• Icon silos obscure my view on HP:Again, let us turn off the presence of these icons in the options.
  
• This probably does not need to explain:

• 
  
• Blue orbs in in the center of vision. Please also pay attention to the chat on the left side. How many of you are able to read, in the course of the game, two lines below the text: Kazma killed Luckyfish.
  
• Wall of text plus blue orb in in the center of vision:

The worst part is that all of the above examples messes and information overload may occur all at once or a few at a time. They really need to work on a clean design HUD, and add the feature on / off in the game menu, information which are not relevant to us or interfere with the game or obscure the center of the screen.

EDIT
Why resign with these great, fits perfectly to the whole Hawken, tag enemies and friends

Here, much more clearly visible "odometer" and the amount EU he has.


@Beefsweat
I got this beast Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 230sb. 4:3 I play on 1600x1200.

note: blue orb was fix.

Particularly regret that the devs gave up the option on the last picture, a real shame. Compared to what we have now, ehh ... and  heatbars on cockpit, the worst change in Hawken. Sad panda.  


Propose changes by @erathic much clean view of from the cockpit.

Quote

On-screen FOV spotted enemies displayed with a red outline

Total would be enough small "diamond" over mech.

Edited by KaszaWspraju, March 10 2013 - 05:10 PM.

[KaszaWspraju]

erathic, on March 10 2013 - 03:38 PM, said:

Minimal version : No "Enemy Sighted" Overlay indicator, spotted enemies are only marked on the radar/map or with a small triangle/arrow, if close enough, name is displayed

You are getting closer.. Good work, I hope that someone from the Dev team to see this and draw conclusions.

Edited by KaszaWspraju, March 11 2013 - 03:23 AM.

[erathic]

Thanks for posting theses pics and informations here !

Theses old markers looks good AND usable, i wonder why they took that away,(was them that bad_)
a little lighter/more subtle version of them would be perfect.

Edited by erathic, March 11 2013 - 04:58 AM.

[SilentJacket]

enemy sighted silhouette is a bit gimmicky

I'd keep it to the original

[KaszaWspraju]

SilentJacket, on March 11 2013 - 08:17 AM, said:

enemy sighted silhouette is a bit gimmicky

I'd keep it to the original

Hmm.. here clearly shows the amount of EU and distance in meters from the marked mech, at present, it is hardly readable. Of course, the need to work on it a little, or just saturate colors more. Is also the nature of Hawken more than a white thing, the only thing that there's useful is a  HP bar.

Edited by KaszaWspraju, March 11 2013 - 09:53 AM.

[Beefsweat]

erathic, on March 11 2013 - 04:57 AM, said:

Thanks for posting theses pics and informations here !

Theses old markers looks good AND usable, i wonder why they took that away,(was them that bad_)
a little lighter/more subtle version of them would be perfect.

They changed that UI style because it's fairly illegible and confusing in a non-moving setting and near totally illegible in a moving one. Plus it's utterly unreadable for most colorblind folks, especially someone like me who's red/green colorblind (hawken already uses tons of those colors everywhere, most of the maps look pretty awful to me).

[KaszaWspraju]

With all due respect for the colorblind option should be used in a graphical menu, which already does a lot of games, rather than removing cool staff form game.

Quote

They changed that UI style because it's fairly illegible and confusing in a non-moving setting and near totally illegible in a moving one.

I do not understand what's causing this :"illegible and confusing".  Could you expand on it somehow _

I see there clear 4 elements, name, eu, meters, hp bar. The colors are faded, but it can be changed.
The current enemy/friend marker used in the game, I can only see hp and name.

Edited by KaszaWspraju, March 11 2013 - 10:25 AM.

[Beefsweat]

KaszaWspraju, on March 11 2013 - 10:20 AM, said:

I do not understand what's causing this :"illegible and confusing".  Could you expand on it somehow _

Honestly, just look at the picture. I'm not sure how anybody could read that, much less in heavy combat. That UI style is very hard to read because every element is incredibly small, thin and transparent, and almost totally blends in with the natural colors of the environment with the exception of the red armor meter. That does not lend itself to legibility at all. Look at Cupcake and PolygonPusher fighting each other, that's an absolute mess. The titles for "turret" and "sleepydog" are totally illegible, had to look at the video again to actually see what they said.

EDIT: sorry for minor derailing, there's good work being done here to improve the HUD

Edited by Beefsweat, March 11 2013 - 10:40 AM.

[KaszaWspraju]

Quote

That UI style is very hard to read because every element is incredibly small, thin and transparent,

Current components are even smaller.

Quote

transparent, and almost totally blends in with the natural colors of the environment with the exception of the red armor meter.

This is the part , to a certain extent, I agree , but it is easy to adapt. Color Saturation slider and transparency.



Thank you for the clarification, but I hope that we agree on the fact that hud requires a lot of work.

Edited by KaszaWspraju, March 11 2013 - 10:41 AM.

[JCBeastie]

I don't really understand why they dropped the weapon heat indicators on the cockpit pillars; put that back and free up some UI space.

I am really liking the look of the OPs HUD but the fade-out RADAR bothers me, would prefer it a bit more crisp.