Custom HUD?

Ok, im trying to make a custom HUD, and im having a bit of problems. I have no clue what to do :confused:

Here is what ive found thus far:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitrousoxide

In the cyborg_mp.unit_hud_interface tag there is an option at the top to choose where the HUD will be baised (top right, bottom left, etc.). By default, it is set to top right. To make the HUD that I did, I set that to bottom left. Making new HUD items isn't as hard as it seems. Bungie implemented their HUD items in bitmaps that have multiple HUD items all on one page of a sequence. I find it much easier to make all new bitmaps for each new item and reference them in the cyborg_mp.unit_hud_interface tag accordingly.

To make new items, you need to make a new bitmap in Photoshop (or your editor of choice) that is a decent amount of pixels (256*128 usually works nice). Fill the canvas with all black, and begin your editing with any color along the grey scale (colors will not show up correctly). Create your item here, and when you are finished (or want to test), do a 'select all' (ctrl+a) and copy it (ctrl+c). Go into the 'channels' tab in the 'layers' box (or whatever it's called) and create a new channel. It will be called 'alpha 1' by default, you can leave it like that. Paste into that channel and then adjust the contrast to your liking, brighter white for more opaque in game, blacker for more transparent.

Also, regarding the alpha, when you are creating the filler part of the health bar (the stuff that goes away when you get hit), in the alpha channel, you must make this gradient in the direction you want the filler to move. For example, for my health bar, when it recharges, it moves from left to right. What I did, was I made the filler horizontally gradient, dark grey to the left, light grey to the right (never put pure black or pure white in the filler's alpha, it comes out looking very strange). If I was home, I'd post pictures, but I'm at school. I'll post pictures later.

Compile your bitmaps in tool, and open them in Guerilla. Make them '32 bit color', save, and recompile them. Now, in the cyborg_mp.unit_hud_interface tag, look at the bitmaps already referenced there so you know which ones to reference (so you know which one is the outline, which one is the filler). Reference your bitmaps and make sure you set the sequence index to zero [0].

Save the tag, close it and reopen it. At the top, click 'view HUD'. If it looks somewhat like what you intended, then it will probably look right in game. If not, j00 fuxxored! (or maybe I left something out )

Compile your map and test!

---

Ok, so ive tried this and had doubts. I can do reticles and ammo meters fine so heres my question. Do i have the 1 pixel width border around the bitmap? And do i really have to paste my image into the alpha channel. And how do i setup the gradients for the bar to move down on my health and shield bars?

Please and thanks for any help :)

~PlasX

For the gradien you need to set the brighter part to be the first part of the meter to deplete

For exemple if you want the shield meter to deplete from the right to the left, make it so the brighter part of the gradient is on the right, darker on the left. That's how the shield meter work. Same for health and the flashlight.

Yea, but i set that up in the alpha channel correct? And for the meter colors (not the gradient) dont translate into halo, so i need to do it in grayscale and set the tags to what color?

And what about that blue pixel border?

You always need a blue pixel boarder on sprites. Your hud sprites should be greyscale. There is a part in the tag that lets you choose the colour. The Alpha is the transparency. You don't have an alpha, you don't have anything show up. The health meter thingy that goes down goes from brightest to darkest, and is a separate sprite I think.

A seperate sprite? Polar Bear told me its just like making a ammo meter, so now im like completely confused. I guess ill just try till i get it right :/

Ok, i looked at the tags, and the HUD is made up by 4 bitmaps. A shield bar, a shield gradient, the health bars, and a health gradient. THe shield gradient is just a solid bar. The health gradient, is one color for each bar, similar to that of an ammo meter. I think i can do this now, but how do i combine 4 bitmaps into 1 like that?

Ok, im looking at the unit hud interface tags, and i see i can use a shield outline bitmap, a shield bar bitmap, a health outline bitmap, and a shield bar bitmap. Now all i gotta do is figure out how to make these (which i think i know) then make em.

When I said separate sprite I didn't mean separate bitmaps. There is a tutorial on Halowiki by steelIXB about sprites. It tells you how to do it.

I made a test HUD, and its 256 x 128, but when i compile it, it says:

skipping bitmap with non-power-of-two dimensions #245x#116#1

Edit, if i remove my blue border from my bitmaps, its compiles. Look:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a31/plasbianx/HUD.jpg

:D! My First HUD (a crappy one Non the less) is done. Now to move onto something more detailed.

Good to here you figured this out and you are sharing your discovery.

I can use this bit of knowledge for my vehicle hud, Thanks.

NP. Ive actually just made about 4 more today. And im gonna use camtasia to record a vid on how to do the meters. Its actually really simple. Just 1 bitmap for the outline, one for the meter.

Heres one i made just for fun (wasnt aiming for looks, just threw something together in a few seconds):
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a31/plasbianx/HUD2.jpg

I figured out how to line them up right, and also im working on getting the health bars to go into the bottom half of that health bar, which should be easy.

Pretty cool. :)