HUDs in Multiplayer

[sia89]

I have seen the dev diary that showed in campaign the spartan's HUDs are based on what their helmets look like so that got me wondering and I haven't seen this anywhere else. Does this mean in multiplayer the helmet you pick will effect what your HUD looks like? That sounds really cool to me and would add an additional factor to picking helmets, I welcome thoughts and if anyone knows the answer please share.

[Unease Peanut]

I think it has already been confirmed (even in the same post you refrred to) that the HUD's in multiplayer will be the same for everyone for the sake of equal starts.

Still it'd be pretty neat to have in multiplayer. Maybe the visor color would actually change the HUD's color too.

 

I guess we'll just have to keep to the campaign for that.

[Twinreaper]

Historicaly the HUD's are two part items. Weapons have their own separate HUD widget assignment, and the player biped has it's located usually in the globals tags.

 

Now because each weapon has it's own HUD element such as weapon schematic, ammo and reticule, those elements cannot be edited usually because it is a shared resource. Now unless they use a script to allow editing and saving the meta data, it isn't going to happen. Same goes for player HUD elements.

 

To give you a better understanding of how the custom items work, all titles that allowed a player customizable appearance are editable fields located inside mainmenu.map. These particulad editable fields are of no real importance hacking/modding wise since altering anything inside of it is not related to multiplayer or campaign items that would make or break the experience.

 

Forge is done by editing the .scenario file located inside a map file. This is a small security concern because further editing or opening up of a scenario file would allow a multitude of editing to be done that could break the game or break the map file itself. All changed or edited scenario files are saved seperately since the map file itself cannot be really edited without a new signature.

 

But as I said before, nothing is strictly impossible editing wise but the amount of items or content that can be edited or implimented correctly is very small. This is why most major content add-ons or 3rd party content is usually mostly seen on the PC end with the use of actual tools and SDK's.

[sia89]

Historicaly the HUD's are two part items. Weapons have their own separate HUD widget assignment, and the player biped has it's located usually in the globals tags.

 

Now because each weapon has it's own HUD element such as weapon schematic, ammo and reticule, those elements cannot be edited usually because it is a shared resource. Now unless they use a script to allow editing and saving the meta data, it isn't going to happen. Same goes for player HUD elements.

 

To give you a better understanding of how the custom items work, all titles that allowed a player customizable appearance are editable fields located inside mainmenu.map. These particulad editable fields are of no real importance hacking/modding wise since altering anything inside of it is not related to multiplayer or campaign items that would make or break the experience.

 

Forge is done by editing the .scenario file located inside a map file. This is a small security concern because further editing or opening up of a scenario file would allow a multitude of editing to be done that could break the game or break the map file itself. All changed or edited scenario files are saved seperately since the map file itself cannot be really edited without a new signature.

 

But as I said before, nothing is strictly impossible editing wise but the amount of items or content that can be edited or implimented correctly is very small. This is why most major content add-ons or 3rd party content is usually mostly seen on the PC end with the use of actual tools and SDK's.

 

With all that said the fact that they have the campaign character's having different HUDs means that they have at least laid the ground work for allowing something like this in Multiplayer, I mean they could reuse the HUD elements they built for campaign and then make more for the various other helmets that you can choose from and then just make a variable that stores which assets to load for the HUD based on the name of the helmet chosen. Yes it would be more work but I think it would be very cool and add more depth to armor choice than just pure aesthetics. 

I think it has already been confirmed (even in the same post you refrred to) that the HUD's in multiplayer will be the same for everyone for the sake of equal starts.

Still it'd be pretty neat to have in multiplayer. Maybe the visor color would actually change the HUD's color too.

 

I guess we'll just have to keep to the campaign for that.

 

I don't think it would be unfair if they did something like this any more than picking what gun your loadout starts with it would just allow you to pick a HUD that works more with your preferred play style just like you can pick the gun that works with your preferred play style within the given options.

[Twinreaper]

You greatly underestimate how much work is involved and don't understand anything I tried to explain. At this point ot would be more beneficial for you to do some Blam! Engone homework and see how tags work.....then relay the ideas.

[Goldenboy Ace]

Hud design is such a huge part of feeling immersed, it's a bummer that it won't be included in multiplayer. But at the same time yea equal starts oblige I guess.