Standardising a CTF HUD.

[YM]

Did you send him the prefab map? if you haven't yet I'll email him and send over one of the slate alpha maps, since thats where the mode originated.

I might do that anyway

 

[Randdalf]

Good show.

Let's hope this goes ahead

 

[bomc]

That's not a w00t w00t!

Thats not a w00t w00t either

 

[zpqrei]

Did you send him the prefab map? if you haven't yet I'll email him and send over one of the slate alpha maps, since thats where the mode originated.

I might do that anyway

I sent him over an example map. Don't worry

 

[Altaco]

I would LOVE the ability to make our own custom HUDs for our maps. I was the one who voted "other" as rather than asking valve if they could make that for us, I'd prefer to know how to do it ourselves, I have a custom gametype I'm working on for cp_confinement and am forced to use a CP icon for my intel, and game_text for scoring as you can see in the Current Hud Screenshot. Making graphics is not a problem, knowing how to implement them in game is another thing.

If we could do this ourselves, it would be just one step closer to being able to bring the wide variety for maps we had back in TFC, which is what made that game great!

I'm no programmer, but what I would like are new entities where we could modify the hud...

info_hud - would have fields for red vtf and blu vtf, and X and Y position. mainly used to create the stylized frames around the main hud elements.. This entity is required for any other info_hud entities to work, and disables standard CTF/CP/PL huds.

info_hud_ctf - entity that would add a round ctf pointer to the hud, has fields for X and Y, and an option to show it as neutral unless it is being carried (basically allowing the team color to be changed on the intel status, for neutral intel games). Also has a carried XY field, which will only show when the connected intel is being carried by the player). Most importantly it is connected to a named intelligence in order to function, to allow multiple intelligence if desired.

info_hud_cp - entity to add cp icons to the Hud, must be connected to a capture area to display, has options for materials for each team, including all locked states. all materials for all the states can be changed with addoutput commands. also has X Y and scale parameters.

info_hud_pl - this is trickier probably, as it would likely need to work as a path the cart icon would follow, to allow for circular payload hud setups... I don't know how that would work but it could possibly get its shape based on a simple custom model or something. but even without that, this would allow adding payload huds on custom X Y coordinates and scale to your custom Hud

info_hud_text - this works much like Game_text does when it comes for custom scores but uses the TF2 font, is limited in amount of characters, possibly only numbers, possibly text size (or scale) options... optionally this could be replaced by some kind of progress bar for each team, like the PLR hud without the carts and speed zones... this is just a way to allow custom scoring.

all of these entities (except the base info_hud entity, as only one is needed and should always be drawn on the bottom) would have an index field that would specify what level it should rendered at in relation to info_hud entities should they overlap. This also limits the amount of entities that can be rendered. 1 being on the bottom 9 being on the top, maximum of 10 custom hud elements displayed at one time (9 + 1 base layer from the base info_hud)

Nice thinking! I was hoping we could do something like this. I'm guessing it'd have to be limited so silly mapmakers don't make obnoxious huds that fill the whole screen. It could be limited to say, the bottom quarter of the screen.

For the custom PL hud, it could specify the location of each node then arrange them accordingly.

I love this idea. It would open tf2 up to so many new gamemodes.

 

[The Political Gamer]

I call for this being put in the next letter to Valve!

 

[Shmitz]

As long as we're discussing how to make HUD elements more flexible, info_hud_ctf should only be used for the icon that tells you if the intel is home, taken, or dropped. The radar itself should be info_hud_radar, and should be able to point at any entity you specify. That way on a CP map you could potentially stick it behind a CP icon to show players what direction that point is, or any number of other uses.

 

[Ravidge]

About the image in the first post: What happends if a mapper decides to have more than 2 captures per stage? Just something to consider... people will always experiment with things like that, and it should be supported.


A setup like the info_hud things discussed would be perfect, and allows for a lot of customization. I'd love to see that implemented (and all the sick maps to spawn from it)

 

[Ida]

I voted "Yes, but not what you suggested".

That's not to say I dislike your idea. It's very good. I'd just like to add that the blue bar on the bottom perhaps shouldn't be there, so that it won't mess up if you have, say, four points in one round. Also, the cap icons should not be square because most people are used to these squares filling gradually up; another shape, like a circle or an octagon or whatever, might help suggest that the point will cap instantly.

 

[zpqrei]

Yeah, that was just a concept, I'd planed to have as many caps available as possible on the bottom

 

[Armadillo of Doom]

Can't believe I missed this. Good show m8

 

[andysss456]

I really would like to see something come of this. When people were joining a playtest i was in today they were confused about the objective of the gamemode because the lack of a suitable hud.

This really is necessary to further the enjoyment of this hectic, chaotic, and awesome game mode.

 

[Inqwel]

I picked "other". I believe the push flag system hud should have more of a pl or plr stylized look, showing exactly how close the flag actually gets towards the point. The two capture point blocks are fine, and the arrow to point where the flag actually is, is necessary.

 

[Warchamp7]

Sooo any word on this zrq? It'd be totally awesome if they actually implemented something.

 

[zpqrei]

Sooo any word on this zrq? It'd be totally awesome if they actually implemented something.

I've emailed Robin, but the last response I received was on the 16th June. I'll send another email from my brand-spanking-new zpqrei@tf2maps.net email :3

 

[Forthex]

What does "wow" mean!? Can you say that what he's got in mind for the HUD is what we need/want?

 

[UKCS-Alias]

I also see the advantage that that hud can be used for CTF TC (still, it then would have the 2 flags on the side when both can attack).

And ofcourse there should be a counter in the ammount of times a CP has to be capped before its truly won (on the cp icon - simply counting down).

The same with the ammount of CPs. it shouldnt be forced to 2 but its limit should be 8 instead. Then it should also be able to track multiple flags. It might not look that perfect though but it should be possible (you know some people want multiple flags enabled per team).

Its however a very good idea for a hud as it allows many more options

 

[Ninjilla]

This would be badass! I didnt know Robin talked to people on Steam

 

[The Gentlemanne]

Any news so far?

 

[zpqrei]

Whoops, I didn't see the thread there, I appear to have BUMPED into it!

>.>
<.<
>.>


Anyways. Yes, the message from General Walker's office is true. It is being made.