Official "Your HUD sucks and you should feel bad" Thread

Discussion in 'Art' started by Devourawr, Jun 18, 2016.

  1. Awpolt

    Awpolt Member

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    I agree with complete_ and very much like the way Nuclear Dawn did their UI. It's clean, simple, and to the point. It also has that futuristic style to it. I also suggest taking a look at Natural Selection 2's Player and Commander UI.
     
  2. LordDz_2

    LordDz_2 Strange things happens here

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    I like all the changes.

    People, it's your nostalgia talking that prevents ya from liking it. Stop that.
     
  3. complete_

    complete_ lamer

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    you're looking too far into it. people are comparing the ui to other games theyve played and highlighting things they like about empires ui and things they like about other games ui. nostalgia has nothing to do with it
     
  4. blizzerd

    blizzerd Member

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    A is A, not B... A has nothing to do with it
     
  5. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I've been posting alternate options in exploring in the developer chat but I probably should have been posting them here, my bad, I can do so in the morning.

    The one in the OP is old hat, please please pretty please don't think "the transparency is off on the ammo side" or "the numbers aren't in the exact positioning". I'm also most likely going to have a "max ammo per clip" thing as well, all my current ideas have that in them.

    I have absolutely no doubt deciding the infantry UI is the hardest part of the job and the one I'm going to be constantly changing my mind on because the infantry UI will decide how the rest of the UI will be designed, particularly commander view and most importantly the menus like vehicle production and the squad menu that sits on the left. I spend three hours every day designing new and different ones that I'm constantly unsatisfied with, and when I have one I like, I'll change the health and stamina bar to fit it too.

    Have faith and patience guys. I'm going to be very busy, and currently doing a little Soviet Union tour so very short on time and the deadline is very close, but I'm sure I'll have an acceptable one before we have to call it a day. It's only going to be infantry view though - any more, no promises, would have to be done in the patch afterwards.
     
  6. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I don't have time to put it in game and manually tweak the res files one pixel at a time to perfectly align everything BUT this is where we're going to go from here - no longer a 3D effect which fades in from the sides but a flat, projected "helmet hud" direction without going balls to the wall on it.

    Also most likely going to change the font to something more digital.
    Yes, this sucks because we're going back into the brenodi themed hud, but currently we can't have a hud which swaps depending on the team, and green looks godawful in game.
    Enjoy

    [​IMG]
     
  7. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    and a slightly orange yellow?
     
  8. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    Here ya go, I'll do green too. EDIT: please remember these are just PNG pictures - in game the glow is at least 2/3rds less visible

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    glow reduced blue

    [​IMG]

    full glow, NF (yes it makes no sense)

    [​IMG]

    nice dusty grey for those who hate fun

    [​IMG]
    the mace windu
    [​IMG]
    the gay pride DLC - only $49.99!!
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2016
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  9. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    I'll take the mace windu plz.
     
  10. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    That's not even the right colors! <.<
     
  11. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    Yeah the mace had a bit deeper purple than that.
     
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  12. LordDz_2

    LordDz_2 Strange things happens here

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    I want the Sweden (pride) gui.
     
  13. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    Looks like one of them cheap rugs ive seen at the carpet store.
     
  14. VulcanStorm

    VulcanStorm Developer Staff Member Moderator

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    @Devourawr I like them all actually... Is it possible to get them all in game, so you can choose between them?

    And since we can't have team based ui... I'd vouch for the grey one. Since it's team neutral
     
  15. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    Dev are you a russian "para"military fighter to just hop from ukrainian isp to a kazakh one?
     
  16. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I actually like the grey too - I might go with that. My only regret is you can't see the background as well in grey, which is actually my machine texture (that I totally didn't steal from the empires main menu) layered on top of a star map to give some nice shading and dots instead of a boring gradient.

    It also won't come out as well on snow maps but fuck it.

    You can just recolour them in photoshop by changing the hue to whatever you want, but as for ones you can manually change I don't think that's a possibility in terms of code - what I would like to do, provided I can actually finish some of this, which definitely won't be this patch, is to make an NF skin as well which isn't just a recolour, but a very different layout and style. somebody please for thee love of god remake the NF models

    Oh shit, it changes based on where I am now, rather than where the post was made? That's boring, I wanted this thread to be full of crazy flags.
     
  17. Awpolt

    Awpolt Member

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    Fiddled around with PVKII's HUD/UI. Very fluid and impressive. They've spent a lot effort on it. This is one of their strong points.

    https://trello.com/pvkiiteam -- Maybe we can do something similar to this?
     
  18. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I used to play PVK a few years back, but from memory the difference is they don't need to show too much. We need much more, such as a squad bar, what the commander is doing, and many menus for navigating between squads/vehicles/classes quickly, so that always has to be kept in mind when trying to design a new Empires UI. The current layout is actually fantastic, so it's mostly a new art direction we're going with.

    We're (I'm) having issues with placement and alignment - things are jumpy and annoying. The art is done, but hopefully the placement will be good to go by the 30th.

    I won't post screenshots of it yet, because the problem with showing people something half baked is they tend to not be forgiving on the "unfinished" part of it, but you'll all see when the patch comes out anyway.

    I am going with the grey one, BUT yes, I've been told it is possible to have the game change the hue, so players could have a palette and change the colours to anything they want. That won't be this patch though - it would require more work and time that we don't have unless we want to delay everything else. So short answer is no but long answer is maybe in one of the next couple patches.
     
  19. Awpolt

    Awpolt Member

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    I agree that the art-style needs a new direction. It needs to be unique and it needs to scream passion. PVKII does it well because their assets are always polished and HQ. They blend really well with the environments that they use them in. Everything feels like a well-oiled machine. We need that consistency and direction.

    Wasn't the HUD/UI going to be reworked using a different language? The current default way of doing it is a bit annoying I agree. A lot of it is currently hardcoded, if I remember correctly.

    Anyhow, it's great to see some progress on that front. Keep up the good work.
     
  20. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    Updated OP. Thanks everyone for encouraging the new look - in the next few versions you might be able to choose everything but the Sweden colours, if we can be bothered.

    That does mean it has to be a little blue so the hue can be changed to your liking in the "choose your own shitty colour" update - but seeing as the default HUD is way more blue, it's still a massive improvement.

    [​IMG]
     

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