Outbreak Dev Thread

[Guncher]

If I had to pick, I'd pick left side.

[banshe]

Or, if this is a problem of having it in front of the action, toss it on the top corner close to the other.

[Anon989]

Or, if this is a problem of having it in front of the action, toss it on the top corner close to the other.

 

Yeah I probably should've asked that to begin with, is the reason (Tahkayun) you want it on the left a problem of it being in the way? Or just a preference?

[Nonsense667]

Generally the way I will layout my hud if given the choice (like in Second Life for instance) is: anything I want to be able to constantly keep my eye on goes to the top; anything I want to glance at and check will go on the bottom. That's just what's most comfortable for me anyways. As for left or right... no idea, hah... though yeah... for some reason left sounds better... it just does! 

 

Edit: I do like the hud though. And here's why those bars should be to the left: the gun is on the right. Simple as that. Easy to miss when the hud isn't actually shown on top of gameplay.

 

Edit: One more note about positioning things in either the top or the bottom. The thing is, although putting something at the top makes it easier to consistently keep your eye on it, it also makes it have a higher profile in your view; it's harder to not see. If it's placed on the bottom, when a player wants to zone out, it's easier to forget that hud bar exists. 

[Guncher]

 

Yeah I probably should've asked that to begin with, is the reason (Tahkayun) you want it on the left a problem of it being in the way? Or just a preference?

 

 

Just a personal preference. It feels kind of strange, having it on the right. But that's just me.

 

EDIT: Though it's not something I can't get used to. I'm fine with it on the right, I just prefer the left if given the choice.

[FallenWarrior]

 

 

Yeah I probably should've asked that to begin with, is the reason (Tahkayun) you want it on the left a problem of it being in the way? Or just a preference?

 

 

Just a personal preference. It feels kind of strange, having it on the right. But that's just me.

 

EDIT: Though it's not something I can't get used to. I'm fine with it on the right, I just prefer the left if given the choice.

 

 

Yeah, I prefer it on the left as well.

 

[biikaru]

I like less or no hud in games but if there must be hud I prefer it to the left as well.  Everyone will have their own preferences, maybe you can get that option in menu so the player can adjust it. 

 

You should also try getting an option in menu or a key to toggle the hud on/off, This is great for users to take pics/vids showing off your game or just playing all hardcore 

 

Read in your blog the hud has been giving you pain, hopefully that pain can be set aside soon cause what you have does look great, I do like the design.  The only way I can think to improve on it more would be to make all the bars(top and bottom) thinner to give more screenspace & then toss some cool effects on it.

[Anon989]

Huh, well I guess all that's left to do is move it on over to the other side. Also sorry about the slow progress on this, my gf has been trying to teach me the guitar which is cool and all, but damn is she persistent when it comes to making sure that I'm practicing lol. But yeah I'll try and get things finished up with it on Sunday/Monday since my Saturday is going to be busy.

[Anon989]

Hey quick post today, I got the HuD style almost nailed down, which was a massive pain in the ass for me to finally give it the go ahead. Also tried a bunch of more experimental designs my friend was suggesting the other day, but nothing really seemed to work for this. Oh well lol.

 

On a cool side note, I emailed a couple devs about designing HuDs and such and actually got a reply back from a dev at EA's DICE studio. He was insanely nice to talk with, as he was actually tasked with designing and researching HuDs. I learned quite a bit about the technical terms and got some ideas from him, which was again, really cool.

 

Anyways moving on, I'll try to have another preview of the WIP later tonight, but before I go just wanted to make a note of the changes I made:

• The Armor Status guy just above the stamina bars and such has been removed, I couldn't get it to not look so forced in so I removed it. I may do something similar when I get to the inventory/status stuff so he'll get to live on there lol.
• I moved the various bars and such to the lower left hand side following your requests
• I also shrank the shield bars/ED by like 25% following a request to shrink him down some more

[Anon989]

Damn, couldn't find the time to tweak the rest of it today . Expect the preview some time tomorrow then. Sorry about that.

[Anon989]

Updated WIP HuD I promised the other day, see below. (Also hope you guys like it ). Still need to find a place for the vision mode battery, but I'm working on it (Open to suggestions on placement for it btw).

 

edit

also lucky post number 333 for me lol.

[Nonsense667]

Sorry for the nit picking. 

 

But I think it would look better if the colors were more muted. The bottom bars looked fine when they were in greyscale, though of course other variants are possible. I'm just not a huge fan of the electric blue popping out so much at me, in both of the bars. :\

[Anon989]

Sorry for the nit picking. 

 

But I think it would look better if the colors were more muted. The bottom bars looked fine when they were in greyscale, though of course other variants are possible. I'm just not a huge fan of the electric blue popping out so much at me, in both of the bars. :\

 

Hmm...I'll play with the colors a bit, but I'm not making any promises lol. After all, I do want that cyber-ish look to it. Flat colors really didn't play right when I was making it. But like I said, I'll take another look at it if that's what you guys want. Maybe I'll desaturate it some or something idk, I'll toy around with it again lol.

 

edit

what about more of an orange theme? (see below)

 

double edit

Added some scan-lines to round out the effect a bit more, here it is below in both colors if that helps for comparisons. Also took down the old image linked here in this post since it's outta date.

[Guncher]

I really like the scan lines you've added in. They look especially great on the blue. As for the battery bar placement, I'm not sure what it will look like, but if it's on the small side, you could stick it vertically on the inside of the hud part (box "a") or outside (box "b"). If you're looking for a larger one, maybe connect it to that white part on the left side of the current bars, and have it integrate into that (box "c").

[Anon989]

I really like the scan lines you've added in. They look especially great on the blue. As for the battery bar placement, I'm not sure what it will look like, but if it's on the small side, you could stick it vertically on the inside of the hud part (box "a") or outside (box "b"). If you're looking for a larger one, maybe connect it to that white part on the left side of the current bars, and have it integrate into that (box "c").

 

C and B seem like decent spots, thanks for the input

 

edit

btw guys, so orange or blue? Both really look nice imo, but I'd like to get it figured out sooner rather than later so I can move on. So feel free to throw some more input here on which you like.

 

double edit

maybe I should do another poll, though this would be a much shorter one (I'm in a bit of a hurry to move along with this lol), but still would help to get an idea on which you guys prefer.

 

triple edit

Polls live at the blog, go vote please

http://outbreakgame.blogspot.com/

[Nonsense667]

I like blue, and even with that small reduction to the brightness, I think it looks a lot better. I'd still say make it just a bit more muted, but I know your against that. So.

[biikaru]

That's pretty cool you managed to discuss these matters with a dev from DICE, hope it continues to be a valuable source you can contact.

 

I took your pic and resized it to my native resolution of 1920x1080 & it's looking good, I would still like the bars and such to be even thinner but again it looks good & the difference is notable, please keep in mind this is coming from someone who just does not like HUD.  It will start to grow on me likely when you put some nice effects in or around it.

 

For the color of it I would choose something that clashes well with the overall colors in your game.  For example the default HUD in Fallout:NV seemed to go well with its environment or the green HUD in Fallout 3 matching its color tones.  This might be something you want to finalize when you have more environments built and textured to your liking.

 

However if i must choose, then go with blue. (was pink an option? heh  )

 

Looking forward to more of your game and videos!

 

 

 

 

[Brigade]

Wonder how the guy from DICE will react when he sees the released game.

[CharlieFoxxx]

I have a suggestion for the hud, if you would be willing, you could add a slider thing in the options like in fallout new vegas to change the color of the hud to what you like

 

and also some people are worrying about it getting in the way so you might add a little arrow thing on the hud that can be clicked to minimise the hud

[Anon989]

I like blue, and even with that small reduction to the brightness, I think it looks a lot better. I'd still say make it just a bit more muted, but I know your against that. So.

I have to stick by somethings sometimes (Otherwise progress is going to slow way too much lol). But still, I like to think I'm pretty open to suggestions most of the time lol.

 

That's pretty cool you managed to discuss these matters with a dev from DICE, hope it continues to be a valuable source you can contact.

 

I took your pic and resized it to my native resolution of 1920x1080 & it's looking good, I would still like the bars and such to be even thinner but again it looks good & the difference is notable, please keep in mind this is coming from someone who just does not like HUD.  It will start to grow on me likely when you put some nice effects in or around it.

 

For the color of it I would choose something that clashes well with the overall colors in your game.  For example the default HUD in Fallout:NV seemed to go well with its environment or the green HUD in Fallout 3 matching its color tones.  This might be something you want to finalize when you have more environments built and textured to your liking.

 

However if i must choose, then go with blue. (was pink an option? heh  )

 

Looking forward to more of your game and videos!

I actually got msgs back from a few more people just recently, it's really cool how approachable these guys are when it comes to questions and stuff.

Also which part would you like smaller still? The top bar or the lower left?

Yeah I tried to set it to a resolution that would scale well up and down. Glad to see that works (Though I'll prob increase the base resolution so it doesn't damage too much later on when someone up scales it)

lol never thought of pink, though I may have to make one now

 

Wonder how the guy from DICE will react when he sees the released game.

I wasn't too specific about the game itself for a good reason lol.

 

I have a suggestion for the hud, if you would be willing, you could add a slider thing in the options like in fallout new vegas to change the color of the hud to what you like

 

and also some people are worrying about it getting in the way so you might add a little arrow thing on the hud that can be clicked to minimise the hud

Hiding the HuD will be an option later on, as it's insanely easy to do with the udk. As for coloring it in game? Idk how exactly to do that, but I can look into and see if it's something I can handle.

[CharlieFoxxx]

 

 

 

I like blue, and even with that small reduction to the brightness, I think it looks a lot better. I'd still say make it just a bit more muted, but I know your against that. So.

I have to stick by somethings sometimes (Otherwise progress is going to slow way too much lol). But still, I like to think I'm pretty open to suggestions most of the time lol.
 

That's pretty cool you managed to discuss these matters with a dev from DICE, hope it continues to be a valuable source you can contact.
 
I took your pic and resized it to my native resolution of 1920x1080 & it's looking good, I would still like the bars and such to be even thinner but again it looks good & the difference is notable, please keep in mind this is coming from someone who just does not like HUD.  It will start to grow on me likely when you put some nice effects in or around it.
 
For the color of it I would choose something that clashes well with the overall colors in your game.  For example the default HUD in Fallout:NV seemed to go well with its environment or the green HUD in Fallout 3 matching its color tones.  This might be something you want to finalize when you have more environments built and textured to your liking.
 
However if i must choose, then go with blue. (was pink an option? heh  )
 
Looking forward to more of your game and videos!

I actually got msgs back from a few more people just recently, it's really cool how approachable these guys are when it comes to questions and stuff.
Also which part would you like smaller still? The top bar or the lower left?
Yeah I tried to set it to a resolution that would scale well up and down. Glad to see that works (Though I'll prob increase the base resolution so it doesn't damage too much later on when someone up scales it)
lol never thought of pink, though I may have to make one now
 

Wonder how the guy from DICE will react when he sees the released game.

I wasn't too specific about the game itself for a good reason lol.
 

I have a suggestion for the hud, if you would be willing, you could add a slider thing in the options like in fallout new vegas to change the color of the hud to what you like
 
and also some people are worrying about it getting in the way so you might add a little arrow thing on the hud that can be clicked to minimise the hud

Hiding the HuD will be an option later on, as it's insanely easy to do with the udk. As for coloring it in game? Idk how exactly to do that, but I can look into and see if it's something I can handle. 

 

Well, In fallout new vegas, not sure about fallout 3 as I haven't played in a while there are preset colors for the hud and pipboy in the options menu, green, orange, white, and blue and like the 2 examples of the hud you showed, they are already colored so you could make a slider in the options menu ti switch between them and any other versions you might want to add in the future...

[Anon989]

 

 

 

I like blue, and even with that small reduction to the brightness, I think it looks a lot better. I'd still say make it just a bit more muted, but I know your against that. So.

I have to stick by somethings sometimes (Otherwise progress is going to slow way too much lol). But still, I like to think I'm pretty open to suggestions most of the time lol.

 

That's pretty cool you managed to discuss these matters with a dev from DICE, hope it continues to be a valuable source you can contact.

 

I took your pic and resized it to my native resolution of 1920x1080 & it's looking good, I would still like the bars and such to be even thinner but again it looks good & the difference is notable, please keep in mind this is coming from someone who just does not like HUD.  It will start to grow on me likely when you put some nice effects in or around it.

 

For the color of it I would choose something that clashes well with the overall colors in your game.  For example the default HUD in Fallout:NV seemed to go well with its environment or the green HUD in Fallout 3 matching its color tones.  This might be something you want to finalize when you have more environments built and textured to your liking.

 

However if i must choose, then go with blue. (was pink an option? heh  )

 

Looking forward to more of your game and videos!

I actually got msgs back from a few more people just recently, it's really cool how approachable these guys are when it comes to questions and stuff.

Also which part would you like smaller still? The top bar or the lower left?

Yeah I tried to set it to a resolution that would scale well up and down. Glad to see that works (Though I'll prob increase the base resolution so it doesn't damage too much later on when someone up scales it)

lol never thought of pink, though I may have to make one now

 

Wonder how the guy from DICE will react when he sees the released game.

I wasn't too specific about the game itself for a good reason lol.

 

I have a suggestion for the hud, if you would be willing, you could add a slider thing in the options like in fallout new vegas to change the color of the hud to what you like

 

and also some people are worrying about it getting in the way so you might add a little arrow thing on the hud that can be clicked to minimise the hud

Hiding the HuD will be an option later on, as it's insanely easy to do with the udk. As for coloring it in game? Idk how exactly to do that, but I can look into and see if it's something I can handle. 

 

 

 

Well, In fallout new vegas, not sure about fallout 3 as I haven't played in a while there are preset colors for the hud and pipboy in the options menu, green, orange, white, and blue and like the 2 examples of the hud you showed, they are already colored so you could make a slider in the options menu ti switch between them and any other versions you might want to add in the future...

 

Yeah I know, I just need to look into it a bit further in the UDK to see how/if that's possible with it's HuD setup. So it definitely might be something I can do later

 

Also quick post, added the battery bar to it on the bottom left thanks to your suggestions. I'm going to spend some time drawing up how I want to do the inventory setup, so if you have any more suggestions to the hud before I move on to the next part, please let me know sooner rather than later.

 

[Anon989]

Hey I shrank the top bars/ED by another 10% after you guys suggested I shrink it a bit more. Is this a lil' better?

 

edit

Because of the quick way I shrank it, some things got jumbled around that I didn't notice right away. So feedback on the size is still fine, and I'll redo it in a little bit and repost the fixed version of it without those minor errors. Sorry about that lol.

[Nonsense667]

Looks Groovy McFabulous to me man!

 

... but seriously. It's fine. Ish.

[Anon989]

Looks Groovy McFabulous to me man!

 

... but seriously. It's fine. Ish.

 

Yeah the problem wasn't with resizing it like I thought tho, turns out it was photoshop bugging out on me. After I gave it a second look, I noticed the problem was more widespread than I initially thought (I've resized things this way before). So that ended up taking another 20-30 mins to track everything down to fix.

 

I will never resize that way again lol (even IF it may or may not have been the problem). Lesson Learned...sorta

 

edit

Im also going to be talking to my friend about the coding stuff, I mean I know he's been busy, but I would like to know he's at least poking around stuff. If he can't find the time, then I'll be subbing in for him I guess (Which I would really love to not have to do lol). Before I can fully implement the HuD, I'm going to need all the other parts (Stamina/Armor/Lust/etc) ready to move things along.

 

tldr

Basically, I'm getting to a point where his work will be needed to continue on my side of things. And there has been barely a mention of anything on his side for a while