Instant HUD

Dghelneshi

<div class="IPBDescription">no more damage delay</div>This is a HUD mod making the health, armor and energy bars update instantly instead of gradually applying damage or energy drains over time. I also removed some unnecessary eye candy on the marine HUD and made the minimap transparent!

This is a short demonstration video if you don't really know what I'm talking about:
<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/utTQiTkDd94"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/utTQiTkDd94" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>

Screenshot of the new Minimap in action:
<img src="https://pickhost.eu/images/0005/1707/Translucent_Minimap_Screen.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Download & Installation instructions:
<b><a href="http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/mods/72/instanthud_w/_translucent_map/" target="_blank">InstantHUD @ DuplexGaming</a></b>

You can customize the map size by editing GUIMinimap.kBigSizeScale in line 27 of GUIMinimap.lua.

<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61111963/ChangeLog.txt" target="_blank">ChangeLog</a>

Dghelneshi

Updated for b195 and <b>IT'S ACTUALLY WORKING NOW</b>. The first version had a wrong folder structure due to me being incredibly dumb, making it not work at all.

Yuuki

Awesome, but I would call it a bug fix rather than a mod, dying with 30 hp really looks like a bug to me ;)

Stupid little thing like that make the game looks laggy when it's actually quite sharp.

Dghelneshi

Heh.
Thanks for your post in that thread on the general forums, pointing me to the issue and how to fix the alien side. I immediately thought "marines can't bee too hard either" (how wrong I was). I wouldn't have started the mod without your post.

I wish I had backed up the b194 files, though. I'd like to reimplement the "smaller big minimap" from last build for myself.

Soul_Rider

I've got b193 & b194 files, let me know what files you need :)

Dghelneshi

It's most likely only the GUIMinimap.lua from b194 I'd need.

Soul_Rider

Here you go :)

<a href="http://www.freefilehosting.net/guiminimap" target="_blank">http://www.freefilehosting.net/guiminimap</a>

Wilson

Nice work Dghelneshi. I'm gonna start using this :)

Dghelneshi

Thanks Soul Rider and thanks Wilson :)
Will reimplement the old Map now and maybe edit the marine minimap and make it an optional addition. (after the gather, have to play :P)
Will also try to implement some kind of translucent map if I'm able to.

<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61111963/InstantHUD_Map.zip" target="_blank">Old Minimap for InstantHUD</a>
This is the old (pre 195) map and marine minimap reimplemented and modded into InstantHUD. I'll make a separate download without InstantHUD if anyone should be interested (the marine minimap cannot be separated from the big map and will be buggy if you only use the old GUIMinimap.lua).
Installation instructions are the same, but the folder name is InstantHUD_Map, so update your shortcuts/launch options or just rename the folder.

<a href="http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/mods/71/instanthud_w/_translucent_map/" target="_blank">InstantHUD with Old + Translucent Map</a>
This is the old (pre 195) map with added translucency modded into InstantHUD. This is the new official version.
Installation instructions are the same, but the folder name is InstantHUD_TransMap, so update your shortcuts/launch options or just rename the folder.

Will now work on getting everything somewhat transparent with respect to how important different things are. The whole Minimap code is totally broken, though (at least from my perspective as a noob coder).

Dghelneshi

v0.3a (February 13th 2012):
- made base icons brighter to allow for more contrast
- added spectator icon for himself (if anyone wants just this without anything else, delete all files but NS2Utility.lua [looking at you, NS2HD!])
- changed all minimap colors for better contrast and/or looks (spec mode is much more clear now)
- fixed translucency to be only for big map

twiliteblue

Looks great! I'll try this tonight.

swalk

The link in the OP leads to the top 5 mods/maps.
You should use this link instead:
<a href="http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/mods/72/instanthud_w/_translucent_map/" target="_blank">http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/mo...ranslucent_map/</a>

Delta1

prob just me but i prefer the non-instant hud, gives more atmosphere then the instant heal etc >.>

Codeine

would this improve performance, if even the tiniest bit?

Dghelneshi

<!--quoteo(post=1903071:date=Feb 14 2012, 05:35 PM:name=Codeine)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codeine @ Feb 14 2012, 05:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1903071"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->would this improve performance, if even the tiniest bit?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The instant health update, yes, by around 0.00001fps
The new minimap, no, it would decrease performance by around 0.00001fps.
Seriously, it could even decrease by up to 0.1fps, but I cannot check any of this without having complete profiling data...


Thanks swalk, that was due to me accidentally deleting the mod earlier.


@Delta1: To each his own. Pure atmosphere could mean a lot of things, like removing the alien HUD completely, removing the scoreboard, removing chat, making aliens not speak English, etc. etc.
There would actually be a lot of other things I would change to improve atmosphere before adding something that is sometimes even confusing, destroying the atmosphere in the process.


If anyone has any suggestions about what to improve further, write a post!
I'd like to make another pass on the map colors, but it's incredibly hard finding enough visibly distinct colors without making it look silly. I first planned to make the structures of your own team have the base color of the enemy team (while the enemy team is always red), because that is the easiest way to create as much contrast as possible. I didn't do that, though, since it would be a bit confusing.

I kinda like the marine colors right now, but the alien colors look off. Since the marine base color is pretty dark, I could make structures somewhat bright and the players very bright.
The alien base color is rather bright, so I could not make the structures bright, too, so I made them pretty dark, which looks strange. The aliens themselves have to be <b>really</b> bright to stand out from the rest, so I set them to yellow instead of orange.
One simple fix would be to make the map background white, like the spectator one, but I'm not sure whether I want to do that.

I'd also like to run some sort of shader to do some more edge-enhancing and decrease the translucency in return.

Dghelneshi

Quick update for 196. <b><u>Please delete NS2Utility.lua from your mod folder!</u></b>

v0.32a (February 17th 2012):
- update for 196
- removed dependency on NS2Utility.lua, <b>so please delete it instead of just overwriting the folder</b>
- fixed respawning players counting as spectators (hopefully)

v0.33a (February 17th 2012):
- minor color tweak for alien buildings

Dghelneshi

Due to popular request, here's a patch to make the map size bigger again (like 195+):
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61111963/InstantHUD_BigTransMap.zip" target="_blank">InstantHUD Big Map Patch</a>

EDIT:
v0.34a (February 18th 2012):
- minor update for 197
- fixed zip download (it still included NS2Utility.lua)

swalk

<!--quoteo(post=1903071:date=Feb 14 2012, 05:35 PM:name=Codeine)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codeine @ Feb 14 2012, 05:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1903071"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->would this improve performance, if even the tiniest bit?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It can definitly improve your performance as alien lifeforms, as you will get instantly updated when you take damage.
The vanilla game needs this, it's very annoying dieing because you couldn't see how much health/adrenaline you actually had left to use.

Dghelneshi

I somehow managed to lose some of the updates for 195-197 while editing the files, which also broke the big map patch.

v0.4a (February 19th 2012):
- proper update for 197
- more color tweaks
- big map patch now fully functional

Xostean

the update to the big map patch has fixed the mini map.

Thank you sir

Flounder

If I just want to change the color of marine players and structures on the minimap and large map, what file do I need? Is there a way to make a minimod just for that?

Skie

Dghelneshi, I complained earlier about the minimap being too small, but then I realized that it has to do with the resolution because the minimap doesn't scale at all with it. This is why I had to make it a bit bigger for myself. At 1280x1024 your minimap looks about the right size, but at 1920x1200 it's quite tiny. But that will get fixed hopefully, in the future.

Same problem demonstrated with the non-modded minimap: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=116516&st=0&p=1905395&#entry1905395" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...p;#entry1905395</a>


<div align='center'>1920x1200</div>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/kIjlF.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />


<div align='center'>1280x800</div>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/AyFCg.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Dghelneshi

<!--quoteo(post=1905397:date=Feb 21 2012, 08:40 AM:name=Skie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Skie @ Feb 21 2012, 08:40 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1905397"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Dghelneshi, I complained earlier about the minimap being too small, but then I realized that it has to do with the resolution because the minimap doesn't scale at all with it. This is why I had to make it a bit bigger for myself. At 1280x1024 your minimap looks about the right size, but at 1920x1200 it's quite tiny. But that will get fixed hopefully, in the future.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, I might have a go at fixing that. Also, notice the marine minimap scaling in your screenshots.

<!--quoteo(post=1905251:date=Feb 20 2012, 09:37 PM:name=Flounder)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flounder @ Feb 20 2012, 09:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1905251"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If I just want to change the color of marine players and structures on the minimap and large map, what file do I need? Is there a way to make a minimod just for that?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you just want to change the colors, download the big map patch and delete everything but GUIMinimap.lua (you need the big map since changing size depends on two files, at least for the marine minimap).
If you only want marine colors changed, but not alien, or want no transparency, I'd have to make you a custom version.
If you want a go at it yourself, you can change the values in the "// DGH" section of the globals, from line 86 to 97. Color values are red, green, blue, alpha from 0.0 to 1.0, e.g. Color(1, 0.5, 0, 0.7) would be orange with 30% transparency.

I still want to make some console commands or rather sliders/color pickers in the menu, but I'm still very unexperienced and the NS2 code isn't exactly the most readable and straightforward one I've seen.

Dghelneshi

v0.5a (February 25th 2012):
- update for 198
- adopted UWE's new colors for the map (my old ugly code is still in place, but mostly commented out)

No scaling fix yet.

Flounder

Thanks for the reply about the marine colors. 198 makes the change unnecessary, though.

Nominous

Hi, I just wanted to say thank you for making this mod; it's proven very valuable to use. I was just wondering if you knew which code to change in order to move the hp/energy indicators for marines/aliens closer to the center of my screen and if it's possible to increase their size. I'm using a 1920 x 1080 resolution and it's tough keeping track of my hp during a heated firefight, especially as fade. Before anyone says, "newb", it's the same deal in TF2, where the default hp/ammo indicators are at the far corners of the screen, and plenty of HUD mods move them closer together.

Edit:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/o3bxH.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ugffk.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

After tinkering a bit in menumod\lua\Hud\Marine\GUIMarineStatus.lua and menumod\lua\GUIAlienHUD.lua, I've found it out. :) If anyone's curious, find and replace the following lines in the first lua file in order to move the marine hp/armor indicators and to make the text size a tad larger:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->GUIMarineStatus.kBackgroundPos = Vector(-1575, -200, 0)
GUIMarineStatus.kHealthFontSize = 32
GUIMarineStatus.kArmorFontSize = 29<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
In the second lua file, find and replace the following lines to resize the alien energy ball to match the hp indicator and to move them together:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->GUIAlienHUD.kHealthBackgroundOffset = Vector(700, -80, 0)
GUIAlienHUD.kEnergyBackgroundWidth = 128
GUIAlienHUD.kEnergyBackgroundHeight = 128
GUIAlienHUD.kEnergyBackgroundOffset = Vector(-GUIAlienHUD.kEnergyBackgroundWidth -700, -80, 0)<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

Skie

As you might have noticed from the dev tracker:

Gameplay task <b>[194] Delay between when damage is taken and when it shows up in your health bar</b> transitioned from Delivered to Accepted

You might want to rename your mod as a minimap mod or something for build 200. :)

Dghelneshi

Great to hear they're actually looking at removing it. :)

My mod will only contain minimap transparency then. Will probably do a rewrite to properly get rid of all the messed up code, since it's not needed anymore.

Argathor

Either way this mod has been really useful to many of us, thank you for taking the time to make it!

Dghelneshi

They increased the HUD animation speed somewhat in this build, but not enough for my tastes. I made them pretty much instant again (didn't completely delete the animation because it's harder to maintain for every patch).

I also have some experimental map scaling in place. It's a pretty bad attempt at a hack, but it works (mostly). I tried tying it to the resolution, but it wouldn't work properly.
To change the map scale, change "GUIMinimap.kBigSizeScale = 3" (line 27) in the GUIMinimap.lua to anything you like. 2 is the approximate size of the map before b195, for example.

Waypoint icons now scale with resolution, please report if they are too small or too big for 16:9 resolutions. I only have a very limited choice of resolutions to test.

v0.6a (March 16th 2012):
- update for b200
- experimental map and waypoint scaling
- fixed blips blinking red on attack

Dghelneshi

They've made the map scaling actually work in b201, so you can edit GUIMinimap.kBigSizeScale to your liking now. :D
I haven't made it scale by resolution automatically, since none of my attempts seemed right for all resolutions. Seems like I have to make a table with values for the various aspect ratios and scale those by the respective resolutions...

By the way, if you want smaller crosshair text size, edit "GUICrosshair.kFontSize" in GUICrosshair.lua (line 16). 32 is HUGE at 1280*1024, so I made it 18 for myself. It's not included in the mod yet, I will add scaling by resolution once I have the code in place for the map scaling and also update the experimental waypoint icon scaling.

v0.7a (March 24th 2012):
- update for b201
- map scaling inherent to b201 works!
- removed scanline effects from new marine minimap