Playing with the HUD design

[Andrey A. Ugolnik]

That's the problem with KleptoHUD. Just try one of my HUDs instead...

But i like KleptoHUD vision - it not overlap 1/3 of screen and has all important information.

[Killer Wolf]

what's the little wasp-looking thing under the shields indicators? i noticed it on my Cobra HUD last night too.

[Captain Hesperus]

what's the little wasp-looking thing under the shields indicators? i noticed it on my Cobra HUD last night too.

The little green 'wasp' above the scanner and next to the shields is the fuel scoop activity icon. When scooping cargo or sun-skimming, it flashes from top to bottom. When the cargo bay is full, it's bottom-most segment appears red.

Captain Hesperus
"That red segment is so comforting to me. A full cargo bay is almost heaven. Heaven is a 2000% profit!"

[Killer Wolf]

oh....yeah.... once you said, it stands out immediately as a Fuel Scoop dunnit? :-/
i'd call it my wasp indicator. i like the image of taking 35 tons of wasps to Isinor. there *could* be a market for them, you never know.

[TGHC]

what's the little wasp-looking thing under the shields indicators? I noticed it on my Cobra HUD last night too.

As Captain Hesperus says, it's the scoop activity indicator, whilst it is very handy and useful, I do think it's appearance/design could be improved, it's the only visual part of the HUD I don't like.

[Dr. Nil]

As Captain Hesperus says, it's the scoop activity indicator, whilst it is very handy and useful, I do think it's appearance/design could be improved, it's the only visual part of the HUD I don't like.

I think that the HUD should be more customizable.

Wasn't everything (including bars) drawn from an image file in the olden days?

If so, why was this idea dropped?

The HUD is still way too Lego for my taste. I'd like to see some meaner HUDs.

[Killer Wolf]

"I'd like to see some meaner HUDs"

me too! but no one's posted any how-to's or tips

[LittleBear]

Check out Milink's Uruta Mk III and Mk IV on Oosat2. Nice well blanced ships with really cool HUDS!

[Dr. Nil]

"I'd like to see some meaner HUDs"

me too! but no one's posted any how-to's or tips

Take a look at ...\Oolite\oolite.app\Contents\Resources\Config\hud.plist

The comments should explain everything. If there's more (don't remember if the default hud.plist has anything on placing an image file), it's to be found in other hud.plist files eg. in Dr HUD. Prepare for some trial and error getting the graphics exactly where you want them.

Please do post a how-to, if you come up with anything beyond this.

@LB: They do look nice indeed. It would still be nice to have more control over the HUD design though. Like the ability to decide the direction dials move in (I'd like to be able reverse the movement of a particular dial) and the option to use graphics for the dials themselves and to decide the stacking order of dials and legend. And of course to have control of how sights are drawn and be able to use graphics for sights (that go away on trade screens etc.) and control the the placement size and font of the HUD messages with the hud.plist.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

"I'd like to see some meaner HUDs"

me too! but no one's posted any how-to's or tips

Take a look at ...\Oolite\oolite.app\Contents\Resources\Config\hud.plist

The comments should explain everything. If there's more (don't remember if the default hud.plist has anything on placing an image file), it's to be found in other hud.plist files eg. in Dr HUD. Prepare for some trial and error getting the graphics exactly where you want them.

Please do post a how-to, if you come up with anything beyond this.

@LB: They do look nice indeed. It would still be nice to have more control over the HUD design though. Like the ability to decide the direction dials move in (I'd like to be able reverse the movement of a particular dial) and the option to use graphics for the dial themselves and to decide the stacking order of dials and legend. And of course to have control of how sights are drawn and be able to use graphics for sights (that go away on trade screens etc.) and control the the placement size and font of the HUD messages with the hud.plist.

The bar format on instruments is a limiting factor. It gets the job done, but there's only so much that can be done with placing bars.

I'de like the ability to use piechart dials, analogue meters, and digital percentage readouts. (The latter can be easily implimented, methinks.)
As well as everything Doc mentioned.

[TGHC]

digital percentage readouts. (The latter can be easily implimented, methinks.)

That would be cool for cargo space......... used/total........20/35

[NHMick]

Good point, Murgh. I changed it a little for the released version, but I must also say that the image above looks worse than it really was because of the resizing...

Still, the new version of the HUD is available at Oosat2 (http://oosat.alioth.net/node/50) and the package also includes a version for the standard Cobra Mk 3 - read the description to learn how it can be made to appear in the game if you do not already know:



Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a better looking render of the standard Cobra... In fact, in order to make this HUD available for some other ships, I'd basically need some nice looking renders of the ships from above - I don't have the models for Wings (the ones at Oosat do not include the textures) so I cannot make them myself...

I'd really like to add this HUD to my ship (currently a SuperCobra), but I don't know where to drop in the reference to the .plist, or where to place the modified hud.plist file... can anybody post a "how-to"?

[Wolfwood]

I'd really like to add this HUD to my ship (currently a SuperCobra), but I don't know where to drop in the reference to the .plist, or where to place the modified hud.plist file... can anybody post a "how-to"?

1st option: If you are using Win or Linux, the easiest way to do that is to simply enter the cobra_courier.oxp\Config\ directory and rename the cobra3-hud.plist to hud.plist

This will effectively give the hud to all ships in the game, but that should not matter as long as you keep to the cobra lineage (other ships with specifically designed huds would still have their own huds).

2nd option: There's a simple way to give the hud to supercobra specifically as well, though. In this case, you want to enter the supercobra's Config directory and edit the file shipdata.plist. Under supercobra-player, you will find a line like this:

<key>hud</key>
<string>hud.plist</string>

simply change it to this:

<key>hud</key>
<string>cobra3-hud.plist</string>

and it should work (as long as you have cobra_courier.oxp installed).

[NHMick]

Thanks Wolfwood... I actually am using MacOSX, and I figured out that I had to change the read/write permissions on the main config folder to make changes there. Once I got that figured out, I was able to simply make a backup copy of the hud.plist, and then copy in the Cobra3-hud.plist into the directory; then I changed the SuperCobra player specs as you mentioned.

Thanks! And cool HUD, by the way. Now I have to learn how to keep my eyes on the crosshairs and not on the dashboard...

[NHMick]

I'd really like to add this HUD to my ship (currently a SuperCobra), but I don't know where to drop in the reference to the .plist, or where to place the modified hud.plist file... can anybody post a "how-to"?

1st option: If you are using Win or Linux, the easiest way to do that is to simply enter the cobra_courier.oxp\Config\ directory and rename the cobra3-hud.plist to hud.plist

This will effectively give the hud to all ships in the game, but that should not matter as long as you keep to the cobra lineage (other ships with specifically designed huds would still have their own huds).

2nd option: There's a simple way to give the hud to supercobra specifically as well, though. In this case, you want to enter the supercobra's Config directory and edit the file shipdata.plist. Under supercobra-player, you will find a line like this:

<key>hud</key>
<string>hud.plist</string>

simply change it to this:

<key>hud</key>
<string>cobra3-hud.plist</string>

and it should work (as long as you have cobra_courier.oxp installed).

I was able to set it up without installing the whole cobra_courier.oxp. Since I use a Mac I had to first right-click on the Oolite application icon and select "show package contents". Then I followed these steps (which might help someone else at some point)

1. made a backup copy of the existing hud.plist in the Applications/Oolite/config folder (in case of a mistake, or to revert to the old hud later for any reason)
2. Copied cobra3-hud.plist from cobra_courier.oxp folder into the Oolite/config folder, and renamed it hud.plist

As you pointed out, this changes the hud for all player ships. To change it just for my SuperCobra I essentially did your 2nd option, with the exception that I copied just the cobra3-hud.plist instead of installing the entire cobra_courier.oxp. I did the following:

1. Copy cobra3-hud.plist into the Applications/Oolite/config folder
2. Edit the shipdata.plist file in the SuperCobra.oxp folder, as you describe.


Anyway, it looks pretty cool, thanks for the mod.