HUD Improvements & Such Thread Thread - Vector Thrust

I remember once there was a conversation on how to improve the HUD somewhere in the older report post(TS homepage), so post ideas here and whatnots.

If possible, the lower right status bars should be replaced with more typical plane icon, and more importantly SPWs should be listed as their respective name instead of SEG. Oh yea, and an option to change HUD color in the option as well.

Also, I'd like to know whether things like PIP (Picture in picture) could be implemented in the future.

I have two things that I like to see the most.

First thing is a missile HUD UI. Right now, after you fire a missile, you don't know if the missile has re-appeared or not.

The second thing is the way damage is seen on the hud.
It isn't obvious enough right now that you have been hit.
It would be better if the screen shakes a little and the HUD goes red with a DAMAGE sign.

Erm... Here is some ideas on the older HUD thread: Indiedb.com

Having the ability to scale and change the position of the radar display would be nice, since playing on 1080 makes the display tiny and in the remote bottom left of the screen. It makes it difficult to discern the direction of enemy missiles. Having the ability to change the size of radar icons would also be nice too.

Edited by: IbizenThoth

I have some suggestions to improve the HUD after finally purchasing the game. As I'm playing on a fairly big screen, the HUD is way too small IMO

Points:

• Right now the radar box is WAY too small for me to make any real use out of it, even if I switch the map modes it's still really too small for me.
• The HUD really hampers situational awareness for me currently, on some missions, especially air-to-ground missions such as the airport mission, I can't tell exactly what I'm locked on to after I switch targets, the text for the locked on unit is way too small, I really suggest changing the font to a bigger one.
• Also I could suggest a tracking camera similar to AC6, that can really help in telling me exactly what I'm currently targeting, a NEXT TGT kind of information would be useful as well. Not sure if everyone would like this, so best if this is an optional feature

Edited by: DEathgod65

I'll go ahead and just throw in the general complaint of no HD text.

People who are running higher resolutions are having a bit of trouble reading.

Ah, one last addendum to my earlier complaint about the radar. The enemy icons tend to block out the fired missiles whenever there are a large number of enemies flying around, making it hard to judge where they are coming from.

There's also the minor secondary gripe about how I'd love to see a scaling targeting triangle, since turning in 3rd person results in the nose having gone past the targeted fighter by the time it appears on the screen.

Edited by: IbizenThoth

what if there was an option for a Air Force Delta/ Ace 6/ hawx style message were you see a picture or Icon of who your talking to?

Incoming missile indicator arrows could be a welcome addition IMHO.

...as long as it won't clutter the screen, of course.

An automatic/manual scaling feature depending on the resolution you have chosen in the options and a preview mode would be helpful.

Midsummersnow wrote: An automatic/manual scaling feature depending on the resolution you have chosen in the options and a preview mode would be helpful.

And more HUD customization option as well (HUD color, HUD style, etc)? Also, I vote for PiP feature as well.

Edited by: Nergal01

Thanks DEathgod65 for providing such detailed suggestion.
I agree that the current hud is compact and much more suited for lower resolutions. An improvement in the hud was already on the table for quite some time, also when making this improvement it will made in a way to allow the hud to be fully customizable and selectable in the options.

@ IbizenThoth, sorry can you explain me better your second issue I think I didn’t understood properly.

@ Jason_Zombolt yes, adding target information in the hud was already in mind for quite some time.

Well, the second issue is mostly to do with the fact that the camera for 3rd person works differently from cockpit and 1st person, in that the third person camera is designed to allow the plane to start tilting before the camera does, to instill a feeling of movement. By nature, this means that the plane's nose is tilted a few degrees off center from the camera.

This isn't a problem in of itself, but it does make simply following a target arrow somewhat problematic, when you can't tell how much further you have to turn in order to bring your nose to the target. Since by the time the you stop turning, since the enemy has entered your field of view, the plane's nose has already overshot him, resulting in a need to re-align the aircraft for a shot, which results in a second of time lost.

Since higher level AI will have erratic flight patterns, most will have already changed directions and begun a new flight path by the time you've brought your nose back around.

Now, in most cases, I would use cockpit or first person view to prevent this, as they are my favorite views, but it seems that I can only use the target lock button to camera track in 3rd person mode.

It's nothing wrong with the game per se, but a reason why I would like a scaled targeting arrow, and thinking about it more, I guess that it's a camera gripe.

Edited by: IbizenThoth

timeSymmetry wrote:
@ Jason_Zombolt yes, adding target information in the hud was already in mind for quite some time.

I was also including characters in my idea, like you can see a pic of the thing talking to you, be it pilot, plane or unknown

Would it be possible to make the bore sight follow the direction that the camera is pointed? Being able to turn the camera around and point it at an enemy to change targets would be much faster than clicking the change target ten times to switch target to the aircraft at your 6 oclock, since there's a preference for the targets to switch between aircraft in front of you.

Here's my lazy quick-draft of the HUD layout, suggestions and whatnots are welcomed. It basically mimics closely to AC's typical HUD view with possible add-ons (including a PiP camera that can also views characters talking to you)

V3000TT wrote: Here's my lazy quick-draft of the HUD layout, suggestions and whatnots are welcomed. It basically mimics closely to AC's typical HUD view with possible add-ons (including a PiP camera that can also views characters talking to you)

[image]

Yeah, the Ace Combat layout is tried and true…mainly because it's heavily based on real-world HUDs

Damn, just noticed I forgot putting the incoming missile direction indicator again

Here's my take on the HUD

The weird step ladder at thing at the top is to indicate the pitch axis for when you're tracking an enemy with your camera. The steps get wider as it gets further off bore, so that you can judge how far your nose is from the enemy. You line this up with the enemy and walk it in. The aircraft icon shows damage according to system (if the specific damage mutator is implemented).

The TGT direction arrow scales according to how far off bore the enemy is. The missile indicator works similarly, but grows shorter depending on whether the missile is lined up with your aircraft's Z axis. The missile direction indicator is solid when the missile is closing from the front hemisphere, and hollowed out if it approaches from the rear. The reason for the icon getting smaller when aligned with positive or negative Z axis is because the missile is more likely to hit if you continue on said axis.

The circle closer to the center is just the semi active missile guidance circle, while the outer circle indicates the radius beyond which it is impossible to get missile lock for standard missiles, which will vary depending on the particular weapon.

Strangely, Desura seems to squash any large-ish image horizontally... here's a link to the non-squeezed version.

Edited by: IbizenThoth

Also throwing in a suggestion for different HUDs for different aircraft. It's only natural that more advanced aircraft may have HUDs that look or behave differently than other aircraft. Additionally, I'd like to see some eye candy around the HUD, maybe self-diagnostic checks after your aircraft takes a hit, or just popping up periodically in the corner.

MyHatismyFriend wrote: maybe self-diagnostic checks after your aircraft takes a hit, or just popping up periodically in the corner.

Critical existence failure warnings popping on HUD with totally annoying sound too?

I don't think this sounds practical, but changing HUD when certain special function activated? (sorry, can't think of a good example)

Edited by: Nergal01

I may have missed something in the options somewhere, but it'd be nice to have the option of displaying centre part of the hud (pitch ladder etc) while in chase cam.

Somewhat off-topic, but possibly having some more loose camera chasing like in Joint Assault, and maybe even the HUD lagging slightly behind your aircraft as it makes a turn.

MyHatismyFriend wrote: Somewhat off-topic, but possibly having some more loose camera chasing like in Joint Assault, and maybe even the HUD lagging slightly behind your aircraft as it makes a turn.

Hell, good idea.

V3000TT wrote:

MyHatismyFriend wrote: maybe self-diagnostic checks after your aircraft takes a hit, or just popping up periodically in the corner.

Critical existence failure warnings popping on HUD with totally annoying sound too?

I don't think this sounds practical, but changing HUD when certain special function activated? (sorry, can't think of a good example)

The F-22, when in Low Probability of Intercept mode, changes its HUD because of the systems LPI switches off.

I don't remember exactly what HUD functions it turns off (radar is one of them, actually), but it turns off a few.