RTS Hud

ID:151605
 
Jan 10 2010, 2:33 am
Hi, I'm just enquiring on how i should do the hud in my RTS.

I was thinking of doing either one of these.

Statpanel Hud or Onscreen Hud.

Statpanel Hud would only show up if you have a building or a unit selected but the map might not show.

Wheras onscreen hud is always there and has a map in it.

I dunno which one is easier to do in programming terms.
Jan 10 2010, 3:12 am
If it works with your game, as in you don't need a lot of text-based information being displayed, you may be better off going with a screen objects HUD since if your interface is comprised entirely of screen objects, you can get clean looking full-screen game.

Resizing the full screen doesn't work so well with other controls besides the map, although you might be able to get away with throwing a chat area in there.
Jan 10 2010, 3:24 am
In response to Foomer
Hmm, Yes that's not a bad idea. Making my game to be able to be full screen and i could have the chat inside the game similar to Resident Evil by Ruben7.
Jan 10 2010, 7:06 am
In response to Foomer
What's the problem with full screen and controls?

ts
Jan 10 2010, 8:35 am
In response to Tsfreaks
The map window stretches gracefully when the entire game is contained within it. Other controls generally do not stretch so well - the fonts remain a constant size, and the controls will change height/width ratios while the map will maintain a constant height/width.
Jan 10 2010, 8:57 am
In response to Foomer
So, everything is fine when you don't stretch your controls though right?

ts
Jan 10 2010, 9:40 am
In response to Tsfreaks
Yes, but its pretty hard to get full screen on varying resolutions without stretching the controls.
Jan 10 2010, 10:17 am
In response to Foomer
I raise an eyebrow to this.

Regardless of your resolution or how you resize the window, you can perfectly position your controls to always be on the edges of your map (which auto sizes).

Your buttons would of course always remain the same size. If you have doubts about this, perhaps I can share how I do that.

I must misunderstand which is expected due to the simplicity of this scenario.
ts





Jan 10 2010, 11:10 am
In response to Tsfreaks
You can't coordinate controls that change their aspect ratio with a control that doesn't (the map). You'll always end up with large black edges on the sides of the map. You can try to work that in by using black in most of your interface elements, but you'll still get large sections of black nothingness in your interface.

You can try fiddling around with making the interface for Clone Wars stretch to fill the screen.
Jan 10 2010, 2:51 pm
In response to Foomer
Another alternative is to use a child control so players can adjust the splitter to get rid of the black map edges. I do this in most of my games. The splitter value will save with the skin so it's not something players have to do constantly.
Jan 10 2010, 4:16 pm
In response to ACWraith
Having to manually adjust the interface to fit your resolution seems like a pretty tacky way of doing it if you ask me.