[torc]

any idea regarding new hud style for diaspora ? i'm working on a personal one. if you want i can post it once is complete

[kev11106]

Just to throw my 2 cents in guys...

  I'm begging you, please don't let it look like yet another Freespace mod. Suspension of disbelief and all that...

[newman]

Being worked on. We already have some working versions and we definitely won't have a FS2 hud, one of the reasons being exactly what kev11106 said.
Torc, once you have something to show regarding your hud, please do.

[torc]

thank you guys, really i just wanna give support or help and not transform  it in a freespace2 mod   ... so the hud will be completely done from scrath?

[newman]

Well, like I said in several other topics before, Diaspora will be as much of a FS2 mod as any game based on an Unreal 2 engine is an Unreal 2 mod. Nobody called Splinter cell an Unreal 2 mod, did they? It used Unreal 2 engine.. Apart from the heavily customized FS2 engine every single thing will be built from scratch. That does include the HUD.
For all intents and purposes, Diaspora will be it's own standalone game. Like I said, if you know how to get a HUD into FS2, please post your results, I'm curious what you'll come up with

[torc]

i'm workin' on it...   however i'm trying to add to the  locked reticle some lines and vectors
like this:    ---( o )---    
that helps to not lose orientation with trackir , so when tou turn your head and reticle disappear from the screen those lines tells you where the center is 
i think this must be a good idea for who don't use showship flag like me
PS: next time i'll post a screenschot.excuse my poor explanation  

[newman]

i'm workin' on it...   however i'm trying to add to the  locked reticle some lines and vectors
like this:    ---( o )---    
that helps to not lose orientation with trackir , so when tou turn your head and reticle disappear from the screen those lines tells you where the center is 
i think this must be a good idea for who don't use showship flag like me
PS: next time i'll post a screenschot.excuse my poor explanation  

That sounds good, but do keep in mind we'll have full 3d, high detail cockpits. The presence of the cockpit alone will be enough to tell you which way is forward. I do agree trackIR can get confusing without a cockpit, though.

[torc]

undarstood maybe some indicator ''outside'' the main monitor looks good! :)but in diaspora will be the option to play without cockpit view ? however i think  viper pilots have hud into helmet (otherwise why they have blue lights in hemets? consider my idea shuld be useful and preefy cool..

[newman]

We'll have both the HUD and cockpits, and you'll be able to turn cockpits off. Not sure why you'd want to, they add to the immersion for me, but you will be able to

[karajorma]

Actually I'm not certain about being able to turn them off. It opens a whole can of worms if we insist on making that possible.

[Shade]

I agree, actually. Cockpits really ought to stay put, at least for multi. In single-player, I'm rather less adamant about it.

[Morwen]

would be kind of cool if you can power down like Helo and Boomer did in the pilot episode and remain radar invisibility. Shattered Horizon had something like that and it was the coolest thing ever

[karajorma]

You probably won't be able to do that in R1. We're taking a long look at stealth for upcoming releases though as sooner or later we're going to have to add the Stealthstar and Blackbird to the game and the current stealth code really isn't up to it.

[Ace]

would be kind of cool if you can power down like Helo and Boomer did in the pilot episode and remain radar invisibility. Shattered Horizon had something like that and it was the coolest thing ever

Right now it's not implemented as a gameplay mechanic, but there is a mission that involves a stealth component (NOT FORCED! dear god we'd never force it!) with a Raptor.

[newman]

It's a bit different to actually shutting down to avoid detection, though. From a visual standpoint we'd have to have some sort of effect - like screens and indicator LEDs going dark in the cockpit. From a coding standpoint the AI would have to have a lot of trouble detecting craft that have shut down, no idea how difficult that part would be. Lastly we'd need some sort of a power up / power down sequence, hopefully with animated effects for screens turning on and off, etc. We could also have a "dark" mode where you just glide forward with most systems off to reduce visibility. Overall, a lot of work. But yea, would be cool.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

It's a bit different to actually shutting down to avoid detection, though. From a visual standpoint we'd have to have some sort of effect - like screens and indicator LEDs going dark in the cockpit. From a coding standpoint the AI would have to have a lot of trouble detecting craft that have shut down, no idea how difficult that part would be. Lastly we'd need some sort of a power up / power down sequence, hopefully with animated effects for screens turning on and off, etc. We could also have a "dark" mode where you just glide forward with most systems off to reduce visibility. Overall, a lot of work. But yea, would be cool.

Just switching on/off glowmaps via SEXP should get you a long way, I guess. It would also be a cool feature to have them fade in/out - I imagine with an extra argument to the de/activate-glowmaps SEXPs, that defaults to "false" (no fading) to maintain backwards compatibility. Though I have no idea how hard it would be to code that.

[newman]

Nah without the glow maps the screens would still be "on" they'd just look like they were on power saving mode Ideally we'd want an animated effect of the screens shutting down - the picture gets scaled down vertically until vertical size is zero. Similar to old TV's. They showed this a few times in the show...

[torc]

you're amazing guys.. really

[Angelus]

So, basically what would be needed is the ability to play anis and effs only once if needed and/ or assigning additional effs for startup/ shutdown.