Silicum V2.1 HUD & Interface modification

[Viper]

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Hi guys,


This is the Silicum v2.0 HUD & Interface modification.

With close to 200 redesigned graphical elements, the Silicum v2.0 mod is a complete redesign of the game's HUD and most interface elements in a non-intrusive, glassy style. It's goal is not to improve upon the already exceptionally well designed graphics in the game, but to provide for an alternative style.

It features a completely new HUD, redesigned from scratch and a game interface overhaul.
This includes menu windows, menu buttons, new mouse pointers, text bars, slider bars, the chat box window, all the chat window buttons, an optional new font, etc.
The game main menu and its sub menus have not been modified.

I have also included a couple of specific features to make navigating a bit easier:

• Blue markers on the rotating compass on the top of the HUD to mark station entrances.
  If you turn your ship so that one of the blue markers on the compass is aligned with the center compass line and jump to a station, you will fly right into one of the entrances.
• 1, 5 and 10 degree incremented markers on the pitch ladder.
• A horizontal line on the 0 degree marker of the pitch ladder which helps with leveling out the ship by aligning the line with the markers on the central HUD sight.
• Clear red markers on the 90 degree markers on the pitch ladder, to indicate the ship is fully vertical.

There are two versions of the mod: a version for the game's default cockpit, and a version with the Perch cockpit.
I have not designed the Perch cockpit - this awesome design is the work of ijon. You can download the Perch cockpit >>HERE<< separately, but if you download the Silicum v2 [Perch cockpit], it's included in the download.
For the Perch version of the Silicum v2 mod, I have made a couple of slight changes to the texture of the Perch cockpit, so as to give it a metallic appearance and make the rest of the colors fit the Silicum colors.

Optionally, you can also add the custom font and a custom sound pack for the gun sounds and the afterburner. The download links and instructions are below.
Please note that this font is slightly smaller than the original Evochron Mercenary fonts, so I could imagine that on smaller screens or for people with limited eyesight this might cause problems.


Download links:
>> Silicum v2.0 [Default cockpit] <<
>> Sililcum v2.0 [Perch cockpit] <<
>> Silicum font <<
>> Afterburner and gun sounds <<
>> Afterburner sounds <<
>> Gun sounds <<


Instructions:

• HUD & Interface mod:
  • Download the .rar file via the link above.
  • Unzip the .rar file into your main game folder (the one that has the game's .EXE in it), or to anywhere else and copy/paste the 'hud' and 'loading' folders into your main game's folder.
• Font:
  • Download the .rar file via the link above.
  • Unzip the .rar file into your main game folder (the one that has the game's .EXE in it), or to anywhere else and copy/paste the font and the .txt file into your main game's folder.
  • Delete the two default fonts called evochronfont.ttf and evochronfont2.ttf. To be honest I'm not sure if this is required, but I did it just to keep my game files clean. If you prefer not to delete them, you can for example create a folder in your game's main folder, call it 'Original fonts' or whatever, and put them in there. The game won't pick up on them then.
• Sound mod:
  • Download the .rar file via the link above. If you want to use either the afterburner or gun sounds separately, please refer to this post further down the thread.
  • Unzip the .rar file, it will produce a number of .wav audio files. Create a 'sounds' folder in your main game's main folder (the one that has the game's .EXE in it) if you don't already have one, and copy/paste the audio files into it.

Below are some screenshots to give an impression.


Enjoy the mod!


Menu windows / interface:



Default cockpit and HUD:



Perch cockpit and HUD:




~ Viper.


[Update May 23rd 2013: download links updated]

[Edited on 5-23-2013 by Viper]

[-splosives-]

Looks like the target issue is gone. I really like this hud. Funny how you changed the loading screen.
I guess I'll always have to be reminded who made my hud .

[sapperhedge]

Great Job on the Hud Viper, I am totally going to pretend I am the Stainless Steel Rat.

[Viper]

Glad you guys like it.

If you'd rather not use the loading screen, you can easily stop it by simply removing the 'loading' folder from your game files.

[Daedalus]

Ill try it as soon as I can! This is slick!

[Viper]

One thing I did plan to do, but just totally forgot about somewhere down the road: adding a custom font to the mod. So last night I finally looked into that and eventually found a nicely fitting font. It proved a bit more tedious than I anticipated; although I have a pretty large collection of fonts myself for graphics purposes (2500+), finding a font that looked right with the right size settings wasn't as easy as I thought.

Anyways, here it is. It's called Venus Rising. For people who notice that the font has copyright: don't worry, I checked the license agreement and it's fine to use it in a game (although the agreement is pretty ridiculous for a free font). Although I have named the download link and .rar file 'Silicum' font to prevent confusion with other fonts, I have left the original name of the font itself untouched.

Download link:
>> Silicum font <<

Instructions:
- Download the .rar file via the link above. Note that it contains the font called VenusRising-Regular.ttf as well as a text file called 'setfont.txt'.
- Unzip the .rar file into your main game folder (the one that has the game's .EXE in it), or to anywhere else and copy/paste the font and the .txt file into your main game's folder.
- Delete the two default fonts called evochronfont.ttf and evochronfont2.ttf. To be honest I'm not sure if this is required, but I did it just to keep my game files clean. If you prefer not to delete them, you can for example create a folder in your game's main folder, call it 'Original fonts' or whatever, and put them in there. The game won't pick up on them then.

This font is slightly smaller than the original Evochron Mercenary fonts, so I could imagine that on smaller screens or for people with limited eyesight this might cause problems. Probably a good thing I didn't include this font to the Silicum v2 mod by default.
Below are a few screenshots to give an example of how the font looks in game. I hope you can see it well enough on the screenies.


If you decide to use it, enjoy.

For screenshots showing examples of how the font looks in game, please refer to the first post in this thread.



[Update May 23 2013: download link updated]

[Edited on 5-23-2013 by Viper]

[8rennus]

Viper, I've been workin' on a combination of your previous HUD and Maximilien's most recent Cockpit for v2.X compatibility, and I decided to mix in your latest HUD, and w/your permission I would like to upload the results for public access.

I'll post screens as soon as I get the chance.

[Viper]

Sure you can mate, but please make your own thread. But only because we both love FireFly / Serenity! Just kidding of course.

[Edited on 12-8-2012 by Viper]

[8rennus]

Thanks Viper.

[Viper]

I figured I'd have a go at creating a custom sound for the afterburner. It was quite fun, I recorded the sound of our vacuum cleaner, and then added a couple of freely available sound fx from freesound.com, put it all together in Audacity and played around with the settings until I got what I was looking for.

I ended up with the result you can hear in the video below.
I already used a couple of custom sounds for my weapons, which I got from one of the Freelancer mods I still had on my computer. They're also demonstrated in the vid:

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You can download the afterburner or gun sounds separately, or download it as one sound pack.

Download links:
>> Afterburner and gun sounds <<
>> Afterburner sounds <<
>> Gun sounds <<

I'll update the first post to feature the sounds mod and instructions as well.

Enjoy.


~ Viper.

[Edited on 12-22-2012 by Viper]

[MiaZ]

Very cool sound effects

[Marvin]

Kind'a gives it that Atari feeling, doesn't it?

[Viper]

Thanks Miaz. I noticed there's a split second of silence, probably when the game switches from the afterburner startup sound to the loop sound, but I don't know why. The sounds don't have any blanks at all in it. Can anyone confirm he's hearing this as well?

[Viper]

I've updated the Silicum sounds with a slightly changed version. The biggest difference being I turned down the volume of the jet engine like sound (which is in reality our vacuum cleaner lol) by 15%. I found it to be a bit too intrusive. Turning it down has the benefit that the other elements from the sound effect seem to come to the foreground a bit more, especially the 'pressure release / dump valve'-like hissing sound you hear when you disengage the afterburner.

Oh and the video has also been updated so you can hear the difference.

[Edited on 12-22-2012 by Viper]

[Viper]

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Because of an interest in a blue version, as well as requested compatibility with Maximillien's cockpit, I have made a couple of changes to the previous v2 (now called v2.0) version.

The most significant changes are that whereas the v2.0 version was mostly black and white, all the elements in v2.1 have a blue tint to them.
Also, v2.1 is now fully compatible with Maximillien's cockpit. This mostly pertains to the positions of the three displays and their shadow textures in both views.

I also made a couple of smaller improvements, like a slight redesign of the 3D compass (top of the screen) and the three main display designs, both to improve legibility and alignment, and removing the glow from behind numerous outlines to get a more crisp appearance.

Download links:

>> Silicum v2.1 [Default cockpit] <<
>> Silicum v2.1 [Max cockpit] <<
>> Silicum v2.1 [Perch cockpit] <<

The downloads already include the Silicum font.

Screenshots below.


Enjoy
~ Viper.








[Update May 23rd 2013: download links updated]

[Edited on 5-23-2013 by Viper]

[Maarschalk]

You are really one talented Modder Viper!. Cool, keep up the good work!.....

[Marvin]

So, that's what the center "Deploy" icon really looks like.

[8rennus]

Top notch, as usual.

[Viper]

So, that's what the center "Deploy" icon really looks like.

You know I had the same moment while working on it lol! Yeah I'm not entirely sure but I figured it must be a depiction of an asteroid because of the deployable mining probe.

And thanks for the compliments, glad you like it.

[Eifeuen]

Hi!

Firstly, I would to thank you for your amazing mod (especially the Perch cockpit and the remade interface)!

I have several questions about several mod so I post my request in dedicated thread.

So, let's begin by this mod :

- I really love the Perch cockpit but I would like to try it with an other HUD (http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10093), I already have an idea of the way to proceed but I be grateful for explanations.

- For my part, the fonts does not give the same result as screen above, I explain,

- all fonts in the game are not replaced by capital letters, just a few, the rest remains ugly lowercase.

- I have deleted the two default fonts evochronfont.ttf and evochronfont2.ttf but doesn't change anything.

Can you help me?

- Thanks a lot for the new sounds only the gun sound (not laser) is too loud for me, can I change that?

Thanks in advance!

Eif'

[Marvin]

Start here ... http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmerce ... nloads.htm

... and download the Mercenary Customizing Kit. Then peruse the ReadMe file.

[Maarschalk]

Hi Eifeuen, welcome to the game and forum!.....Hope to see you out there some time!.....

[Viper]

In addition to what Marvin said:

- I really love the Perch cockpit but I would like to try it with an other HUD (http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10093), I already have an idea of the way to proceed but I be grateful for explanations.

To change the HUD, edit the files found in the 'hud' folder (which is found in your game folder). You can manually edit them in a graphic program (this is how the custom huds are made), or replace some or all of them with images (textures) from another hud mod.

- For my part, the fonts does not give the same result as screen above, I explain,

- all fonts in the game are not replaced by capital letters, just a few, the rest remains ugly lowercase.

- I have deleted the two default fonts evochronfont.ttf and evochronfont2.ttf but doesn't change anything.

Can you help me?

If you delete the 2 default fonts but not replace them with custom ones, and not edit the setfont.txt file accordingly, the game will revert back to the default fonts (regardless of you deleting them). Are you sure you installed the Silicum font? For it to work, you need to either install the Venusrising font on your system, or paste it into your root game folder. And don't forget to also paste the setfont.txt file into the root game folder (that's the folder where the game's EXE is located). If you specify the font you want to use in the setfont.txt file, it should work. Try the Silicum font (called VenusRising) first, along with the setfont.txt file that comes with the Silicum font download. That way you can see how it works.

- Thanks a lot for the new sounds only the gun sound (not laser) is too loud for me, can I change that?

To change the volume of a specific sound effect, you will need to edit it in a sound editing program like for example Audacity. Other than that, you cannot edit the sound files themselves. You could turn down the sound fx sounds in the in-game options, but that will also lower the volume of other sound fx.


But like Marvin said, it's a good move to first read through the relevant sections of the customkit readme. It will tell you exactly what to change and how to do it.


Good luck!

[Edited on 1-4-2013 by Viper]

[Frost N7]

I noticed you fine tuned the compass , it seems to change from station to station hopefully this one is on target 100% of the time

[Viper]

It's the same for every station. You need to align the vertical blue markers on the compass with the center mark. If you do that, you'll fly right into the station, no matter which blue marker you pick.

One safe bet is the 180 mark; that will take you into a station no matter what, and you don't have to bother with the blue markers.

[Edited on 1-4-2013 by Viper]