Guys, PNGs support alpha. The ones in use have alpha channels. Photoshop is just kind of stupid about working with them, although I do it from photoshop. Ray uses Paint Shop Pro, which is kinda better at dealing with things like that, although it's not as good from a purely artistic standpoint.

I like the idea of putting a cargo indicator on the right side (like "4 / 20 cu" or something, I assume).

I knew about the color problems, but we didn't get a chance to fix them before release. Since I'm mostly working from home, I haven't really been getting to test changes until.. well, they're released. I could, it's just involved to download a new client every time. So anyway, I have a laundry list of stuff I want to change / fix, now that I've gotten to use it for awhile, instead of just staring at a mockup in photoshop.

Ok, I've discovered how to save pngs with an alpha channel. Unfortunately that isn't changing the fact that the background is now black ingame.

Thank you very much, incarnate.

If anyone figures out how to make Photoshop be less stupid about it, please post the answer/solution here.

You got it to work LC? I got photoshop to save a png with Alpha Channels, but it didn't change anything ingame.

Nope, Snax; I couldn't even manage to get it to show me a white box! I have no idea what I did wrong -- I added skin=skin/ to config.ini and I changed some of the new png graphics. I can modify the old GUI-HUD, but none of my changes to the new one took...

I agree with Antz. It is an awesome looking hud (although the station interface is a bit hard to figure out) but the font sizes could be a bit bigger. Great HUD!

Admiral Stan

I have 2 types of cargo widgets in my holds. I press o. The window that pops out only has 3 dots in it. They look like 2x2 pixel white dots. I think this is a bug.

Also, the target's ship type appears in the old place and the new place...

The old place needs to be removed.

The white dot thing is intentional. If you have "overflow" from the main cargo display, it shows the white dots to indicate there's more in the extended display. However, the dots are always shown in the extended display.

(response to General thread)

Hmm, I had the distance thing lower before, but moved it up to not overlap the new damage indicators. I could have it overlap (which is rare anyway), or just move it below the bar and then put the "Location" up by the skill graph. I think there's room there for it, and that'll match up better with the next-generation PDA/Station interface. Will it bother people if the current sector is in the right-hand corner instead of under the bar?

Like any change, I think moving the current sector to the top-right corner would take a little getting used to, but I wouldn't think much and having the various GUIs more similar would probably be an improvement. Think about it:

Newb: "Where am I?"
Vet: "Are you in a station or in space?"
-- OR
Vet: "The sector you are currently in is in the top-right corner of the screen."

Yeah, that was my initial thinking. The problem is more one of expansion.. the names of systems can be rather large at times. But I'll see what I can do.

ALSO: for people trying to mod their HUDs, see here:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/14658?page=2#184234

Oh, and this deals with the station interface and not the HUD, but why is the station's faction listed twice in the station window. IE:

Armand's Dilligence (Itani Capitol)
an Itani station

Wouldn't this make more sense:

Armand's Dilligence
an Itani Capitol Station

It would, except that the whole region is going to be replaced with another module once the graphics are ready; ray knows this, and so didn't bother to fix it.

Let's keep this thread on-topic and specific to the HUD only please.

I've not read any of this thread, but I have a HUD suggestion. Instead of havign two radars, could we have a "traditional" radar design? And instead of the second radar, a wireframe model of the targetted object (complete with relative orientation)?

Similar, but not exactly like this:
http://www.activewin.com/reviews/software/games/f/images/freespace2_2.jpg

The wireframe could also be colored to indicate damaged areas similar to the way our self wire-frame does. And in the case of asteroids, with a proper scanner, colored t indicate temperature?

OK, time for a screenshot with freehand drawn red arrows everyone!

http://oussik.com/vo/hud.png

I seem to be having the problem with fonts being too small because I play on a relatively small monitor with a relatively high resolution.

What if the directional damage indicators were to flash on the outside of the powerbars rather than inside? This would free up the area around the crosshairs and make it less distracting when aiming.

Zyl,

In my opinion, the dual radar thing is one of the greatest things in VO's HUD setup. Sure, new players don't get it at first, but once they hear about 'left = forward, right = aft' they have no problems with it.

The way we have now is more precise than a radar with only one display can ever be, the reason being that a single radar display can only display a 'flattened' 2d image of the plane with your ship in the center. The 2-display method has a coverage of almost the entire threedimensional space surrounding your ship (except a blind 'ring' where the two hemispheres meet, which is okay), granted, the forward and aft image are flattened as well, but 'depth' is simulated by the intensity of the dots.

We've always intended to make optional radar designs available eventually, but I don't think we'll have time for that soon. The two-radar method is pretty fundamental to our game, and will probably always be the default (for the record, it's also pretty "traditional", having been used in X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and other games).

The "selected ship" type display, wireframe, etc.. is also a good idea. There are some things that might be a bit funky, like having the selected ship pop around due to network updates, since distance objects are not prioritized as highly as nearby ones, and changing the protocol to take into account what-ship-the-user-has-selected would be both strange and probably.. bad. But anyway, aside from network jumpyness, there's nothing wrong with it, and we'll probably integrate something like that eventually.

We also really need to redo the damage indication system (not to mention how damage works in the game, period) which will probably result in new options like this.

I agree with Toshiro , the present radar system works well. The dot brightness varying to indicate distance is simple and intuitive.

I do like the overall unobtrusive style of the new HUD , a few tweaks and it will be great.

The "Press F1 for help" message is on by default to help new players, and is manually switched off once you get accustomed to the controls. If that was made into a group of labels such as "front radar " rear radar" , "speed " , etc it would help new players get used to the HUD and ease them through the tutorials. Its not really a problem at the moment , but when the game becomes more populous anything which helps new players get used to the game will encourage them to stay .

Cheers

Ecka

That is a wonderful idea Ecka. VO's interface does so much it's like a visual overload until you know when and where to focus for various activities. Labels for the new players would be great.