New HUD Layout!

[Mall Ninja]

Originally Posted by xstortionist

I'm looking at this hud and my eyes do not know what to look at first. What goes on the section that says "work in progress" ? Why is the character icon in the hud itself? I don't think you need that to be honest. You know who you are playing as, so why put it in the hud? It just causes more distractions. Plus what if you are playing with multiple people? Where will your co op player be placed at?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that whatever was in the work in progress area was/is something they didn't want us to see yet. Considering this game is an independent title with only two full timers (at the time of this thread) that is in pre-pre-alpha, I think it is fairly reasonable not to expect them to show us everything. The character Icon is there because it was there in Titan Quest; in that game you could hover over it to see info about your char. However, I agree that it doesn't seem a good fit in this HUD. When playing with multiple people in Titan Quest, their health/energy bars appeared on the side of the screen along with your pets' health, I expect the same in Grim Dawn.

Originally Posted by xstortionist

The health bar and green bar is taking up way too much real estate. I believe that you could consolidate that area to make the icons below bigger.

The map on the right hand side should not be placed above everything else. It's very small and I believe the team could come up with a better design idea for the map itself. Placing it on the hud doesn't seem very logical. Why should I have to focus my eyes towards the bottom right hand side of the screen to see where I am at? I believe you should consider placing it in the top right hand corner, so you can have more centered focus.

Personally, I like the health bar to be large and very noticeable in an ARPG; that way I can tell what my health is without looking at it. But the icons do seem a bit on the small side. As far as the map is concerned, I agree, it can go back up on the right hand side. But I'm fairly sure that they have already considered placing it in the upper right- seeing as that's where it was in Titan Quest. Which is why the name of this thread is new HUD. Although I would probably prefer an upper-right map, I understand why they placed it at the bottom. As others have stated earlier in the thread, you would have to look up and down frequently.

Originally Posted by xstortionist

The bevels used on the left and right hand sides could use a lot of work. It looks like someone opened up photoshop and applied some default styles to the elements.

The red and green bar look a bit out of place when compared to the rest of the screen. I believe there could be more depth added to the colors. Right now when I look at them, I'm thinking Christmas in July.

The number "47" is not aligned correctly. Try centering it both horizontal and vertical. Also, what does the number represent? It's not a 100% clear, and it should be... especially considering this is the first time I've seen the game (looks great by the way!).

"The art is just a rough pass I did to get it implemented but eventually we'll have an artist give it a going-over." - Medierra, right above the picture.

I'm sure that the colors, bevels, and number centering will all be improved when the team has the time. I assume the 47 is the character level, which isn't entirely necessary and can probably be removed imo.

Originally Posted by xstortionist

There looks to be some kind of menu items on the lower right hand corner of the hud. I believe these items could be dissolved and placed in a menu when you hit the ESC key on your keyboard. It's taking up some unnecessary real estate right now.

Is that a small clock under the circular character section of the hud? What is that there for? Is there a specific reason?

The menu items all appear to be the same non-game pausing items that appeared in Titan Quest. From left to right (I'm guessing here): Party options, chat, tutorial tips, and the pause menu, which can also be accessed by hitting escape. Three of these don't stop the game, so it makes sense to have the ability to interact with them outside of the pause menu. The clock, if it's the same as in TQ, will tell the time when hovered over. Not a necessity, but a nice little feature that doesn't seem to be taking up much room. Hope I answered some of your questions/concerns.

*Edit: Sorry bout the wall of text, I didn't realize I was rambling that long

[PsychoGenetiX]

Looks great, but if I can add a few tips as a designer, with all due respect, it's a tad too grungy and some of the colors don't add up. The health and energy bars, for example. The highlights (white reflection on the top of the health bar itself to make it look like it's a glass bar) on them are grey.

Try to either make the highlights brighter or even red, because when they're grey they kinda' screw around with the colors inside the bars and it makes it look low quality.

If it's not a bother or anything, if you want to make it look better, make the grungy dirt on the entirety of the HUD be made up out of smaller particles. It connects better to 3D graphics, and makes the whole experience look more high-res.

The text on the energy bar is better as white than yellow. Don't make it yellow. yellow + green makes it feel like my character runs on slime instead of energy. and the font could be a tad rounded to fit the round edges of the HUD.

Now while the HUD looks great for a start right now, you could also move a little away from Diablo's original HUD and separate it into two halves on the opposing ends of the screen, or even 3 like it was in Titan Quest. You could even go creative with it like most new games that have been coming out, but I don't recommend that. The less HUD you have on your screen, the more immersed you get.

My two cents

The art is just a rough pass I did

I see. Good to know you'll be bringing an artist on board! Looks like you're making great progress so far though.

[yerkyerk]

Originally Posted by PsychoGenetiX

Now while the HUD looks great for a start right now, you could also move a little away from Diablo's original HUD and separate it into two halves on the opposing ends of the screen, or even 3 like it was in Titan Quest. You could even go creative with it like most new games that have been coming out, but I don't recommend that. The less HUD you have on your screen, the more immersed you get

The problem with splitting up the HUD has several disadvantages
1. The focus is lost. In TQ, you had to look up for health management and down for health pots and skill cooldowns. That's just not very handy. The biggest disadvantage, imho.

2. With highscreen resolutions, the distance between the HUD elements could become too big; this was apparantly the case in TQ. Now, not everyone plays in ultra HD, but it might cause some problems in the future when native resolution goes up. Lowres vs highres.

3. As you said, the less HUD, the more immersed you get. Having pieces of HUD everywhere kinda counters the immersion.

[Kyon]

Originally Posted by yerkyerk

The problem with splitting up the HUD has several disadvantages
1. The focus is lost. In TQ, you had to look up for health management and down for health pots and skill cooldowns. That's just not very handy. The biggest disadvantage, imho.

2. With highscreen resolutions, the distance between the HUD elements could become too big; this was apparantly the case in TQ. Now, not everyone plays in ultra HD, but it might cause some problems in the future when native resolution goes up. Lowres vs highres.

3. As you said, the less HUD, the more immersed you get. Having pieces of HUD everywhere kinda counters the immersion.

Yes this is completely true Splitting is a bad idea .

[GremlinGamer]

Hi, I have seen several different suggestions for movements of several features of the HUD, so when there is time, would it be possible to seperate the different elements into their own modules? such as health and resource bar, the minimap, etc. If there is time for this, each player could rearrange the HUD to their own prefferance, rather than everyone accepting the general opinion of which way is best.

[yerkyerk]

Well, it has been asked before;

Originally Posted by medierra

It would actually be somewhat costly, especially given that we have existing UI code that we can just reorient to change the configuration. Giving users the ability to change the orientation of things would require us to redo everything from scratch and would present a lot of potential issues. The easy way is to license middle-ware like Scaleform. It is fairly expensive just to license though and then we'd need to put more programmer, designer and artist time into implementation.

TQ's HUD however, is configurable by modders; the Soulvizier mod uses a Diablo style HUD mod, as seen here.

[GremlinGamer]

Ah, I see. Well personally, I like the HUD as it is. The only changes I would make would be to remove what I assume is the level box with the 47 in it, and put that in an area within the character portrait as to lengthen the health and resource bars, and also move the HUD along to the left slightly, and put the minimap next to it, rather than popping out like it currently is.

[FabioFLX]

Originally Posted by yerkyerk

[...]

I also think that the life/mana bars should be down in the main hud. It's good. Instead for the map I think a lot different.
Even on TQ I don't use the little map in the right-top.
Infacts, I think that a translucent map that overlaps the center of the screen while players press the [TAB] key may be enough.

[Profssrfink]

Meh,

I'd like to see a simpler HUD design. Perhaps even being able to hide the HUD would be nice. Im pretty sure I will be able to hot key everything or macro what I need. That being said the health / energy bars are a little thick for my taste. The rusty look needs to be toned down and refined so its not so low rez and nausea inducing. Some colors and textures in games make me feel nauseous. I would almost cut in half the HUD size (thinner) and push the health and energy bars off to the left/right of the HUD. I know that's too Diabloesque/PoE, but it works.

I also noticed a clock in the bottom left. I would definitely make that a digital clock and put that in a transparent font up in the upper left or right of the screen. Its too small to be really useful and blends in too well with the other colors.

I know its been said but the picture of the character needs to go. Perhaps a split health/energy globe in its place.

The mini map is fine.

[pearljamming]

Can't wait to see this once they get someone to do the art :O