What flasche said. That might help you in working on it. Photoshop should have such a feature in it's newer versions. (Can't remember the name though.) Concerning the changes: I would move the vehicle limit, wages and resources back up top again. Keep the bottom reserved to stuff that concerns the player as an individual and leave what concerns the team at the top. The exception there being the wages up top, because they are so closely related to the resources. // Since you posted already since my last post: Put all your layers in a layer folder and let the skew effect affect that folder. That way you have the effect, but don't loose your individual layer effects.
also for the final version, please release two, one with and one without backgrounds (i think it looks much better without ove: )
It's hard to keep the above mentioned information on top without making the right of the HUD look cluttered, but I'll see what I can do. And thanks for your suggestions, I will keep everything flat in the original psd. It's up to the mod how it would be curved . Also, the background is a single layer, so you can just turn its visibility off.
i just fear that its too much work and it will stay flat even though curved looks so fucking awesome and well yes, once the hud is html ofc i can easily change it ...
My main concern is, there's way too much information that needs to be displayed, which makes it extremely hard to keep the HUD from being cluttered. I'm still struggling to figure out proper locations for all the elements.
it wont be much better then this one - and the minimap is already a tad small http://i1.minus.com/ibbYBHzPk0N9i5.png
Aesthetically speaking, I can't really judge, because I'm not really a creative person. Functionalitywise, these are things to keep in mind: Consider what information needs to be quick-referenced and what doesn't, make such information stand out accordingly. I need to see my health in a hurry far more often than I need to see tickets and gametime, so obviously my health needs to be clearer. A very thin line probably won't suffice here. Regardless of how nice and modern it makes the HUD look, the minimap will need to stay in colour. Generally speaking, the less wasted space and gaps the better. Big HUD boxes with small amounts of information within them isn't ideal. I'm referring mainly to the squad menu on the previous page. I'd prefer to keep things tight and compact, regardless of the visual effect. Consider where the information is actually being kept. Keeping stuff in the corners and along the top of the UI is ideal because it's not where you're going to be looking. I personally would find having info at the bottom-centre of the screen quite distracting. Besides that, I'm thoroughly impressed. Daruck has been doing UI concepts in HTML but I assume you've been using Photoshop or whatever. The UI we use will be in HTML, so I'd recommend speaking to Daruck and working out something between the pair of you. I really hope you can work with us, this all looks fantastic.
Thank you very much for the suggestions and the offer to work with you. I will adjust the HUD according to your suggestions and communicate with Daruck after I've settled on a final design. Meanwhile, check out my concepts for the team selection screen: Default: http://i.minus.com/iE4qKO5gpkIfh.png When hovering a choice: http://i.minus.com/ibgX9MMLiHlVxN.png
hey maybe its just me but i do like the information on the bottom. less cluttered together also can you upload the main menu image here: http://i5.minus.com/ib2lP3w3STC3bU.png im just about sick of the default one (so ugly)
Just for reference the actual textures that become the minimap for each map are made by the mapper more or less as an afterthought and are totally unstandardized when it comes to color, style, and the borders for rectangular minimaps.
Yeah, that is exactly why I first chose to make the minimap grayscale. @complete_ Here you go: http://i5.minus.com/iH54apzFIIesS.png
It sounds a bit daffy, but if you compare the screens, the one with the info at bottom mid is actually less immersive because it looks like an overlay, rather than almost part of the visual sphere. That is...it feels more like an extra layer in front of you, rather than enhanced vision. Some things I wanted to point out are; you can probably truncate vehicles to VEH, people will get it, and you don't need a "Game Time" heading because as it's counting people will get what it is. On another note (and this isn't really related) but something pretty strange is that we call resources...well, resources. Except that it's a numerical number. It's not like 50 wood or 200 energy or anything like that. It acts exactly like currency and it's pretty much the only currency the game has, so...it doesn't make sense to call it resources. Not that saying "res" isn't easy and effective...but, on the other hand, if we just made up an acronym for RES like Reusable Energy Source (just an example), we could do away with the whole "resources" and just put res. I'm not really trying to nitpick, it's just a strange thing. Especially since wages is in resources ^_-
Now that you've said it, same goes for me. I also get headaches from that. Reason why i cant stand blur,hdr,bloom and STALKER's visuals.
My latest design, based on a number of recent suggestions: (and sorry for forgetting to color the minimap again. I'll make sure the final design has a color map)
Yeah, thats pretty good idea IMO. Having it called something else, or like you said Reusable Energy Source. I like that and the fact that we wouldnt have to care about the shortened name :D I would say it might give empires a bit more spirit. Just like C&C has Tiberium. Something more unique to empires. This is exactly what I was saying. I probably care more about the stamina bar tho. In intense fight, its pretty damn hard to manage stamina. And looking at it while fighting wouldnt be too good for you many times. So thats why the bars and thats why make them bigger. So that you can just see it peripherally while fighting. Overall I would rather prefer the HUD to be more useful/efficient rather than good looking, if its a question of trading between those two. Just one example could be, that when I play CS my HUD is about 5cm away from the border. So that my eyes dont travel too much for the radar/hp/etc.. and things are closer together, so that its easier to see it without really looking. It doesnt look very nice, but I have noticed many improvements after getting used to it. Not bad, but personally I dont really like the backdrops. The version without them just seems to look much better when you compare them. But I get that you need to make things visible on bright backgrounds. Just saying. Really hoping to see this one finished Keep up the good work. EDIT: oh actually, Iam not sure if I like that box with the tickets/etc.. being right next to the minimap. Its sticking out a lot and I think it would take me some time to get used to it. I liked that one classic in the top right corner. There isnt really any info that you would need to have easily/quickly readable IMO. And mostly the thing, that it covers a lot of screen unnecessarily.
This is definitely the direction I was hoping for. A lot tighter, a more concise. But you can definitely go further with it. Try to avoid blocks that aren't in the corners. In fact, as far as I know, the minimap and squad menu should be the only "blocks" rather than strips or whatever, so other stuff like the information you put to the left of the minimap should be reshaped. Also consider the use of icons, which could help save even more space. And like someone said, breaking up the stamina bar would be helpful. The issue with Empires is, we need to show a lot of information on the least amount of HUD possible. The more we can squish stuff, and keep it away from the centre of the screen, the better.
