HUD and Interface for Tablet PC

Jax_Cavalera · Post by **Jax_Cavalera** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:53 am

I am attempting to navigate the ship effectively using the tablet pc in slate mode but there just is no way to do it as i can use the "pinch" action (similar to how you would navigate the interface on many multitouch phones these days to zoom in and out)

The pinch function works good to speed up or slow down the ship's thrusts.. but it does send the view hurling in a circle while i'm adjusting the speed... it does come back to a stable position once i point the stylus at the centre of the screen again.

as for spinning and all that I was hoping that there could be some kind of HUD improvements that we could enable or disable.

I'm picturing a HUD add-on that you could click inside of onto various (finger sized buttons) which would control the ship better.. it would need to only be enough buttons to cover the basic maneuver/interractions.

What this would allow for is a tablet user to tap the screen or hold down on various buttons without adjusting where the ship is flying towards or aiming at.

essentially it would just be a "dead zone" on the screen where the mouse would become the pointer and not the crosshair so you could click on items in that area without adjusting things. (of cause unless you are using a touchscreen the ship will always fly banking heavily to the (for example - if the dead zone is at the mid right side of the screen) hard right.

idk if this level of HUD modifying is even possible to do and I know it would be only for people who have tablet pc's as there is no other use / need for it if you are using a keyboard and mouse so I don't expect there to be any actual attempts to resolve this but am just putting it out there incase someone can think of a more practical work around for playing the game in tablet mode.

Another thought I did have was to just map a Wii-Mote in so I could fly using that and it'd have enough buttons on it to probably take care of navigation and I'd just hold the tablet with the other hand but again that'd mean not actually taking advantage of the multitouch screen.

I'll keep pondering a better work-around solution to it as well . Just putting out the problems I'm facing regarding interface issues incase someone else has some ideas.

THE OTHER HUD PROBLEM

As it is.. I'm half blind and I can't read any of the HUD readouts easily.. is there any way to get a clearer hud readout .. perhaps someone has modded the hud so all the information is easier to differenciate between.

If anyone has some ideas for this as well I am very open to suggestions as this is the only other problem I'm experiencing when playing the game. If someone knows of any GUI that resembles that of freelancer a bit, that'd be great as the freelancer HUD was really easy to read and determine which parts were cosmetic and which parts were important to focus on.

hopefully someone can help on this stuff

EDIT

I have gone through the forum trying many search combinations to get any current HUD / GUI mods that may suit what I need but nothing has been created thus far.

Is it difficult to make hud / GUI mods what would have a "dead zone" like i'm talking about or is that beyond the modable capabilities of evo merc?

[Edited on 6-2-2011 by Jax_Cavalera]

Jax_Cavalera · Post by **Jax_Cavalera** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:28 am

small bump incase someone knows of any fixes for this and hasn't yet mentioned it due to not seeing this post

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:20 pm

From post: 101673, Topic: tid=7237, author=Jax_Cavalera wrote:THE OTHER HUD PROBLEM

As it is.. I'm half blind and I can't read any of the HUD readouts easily.. is there any way to get a clearer hud readout .. perhaps someone has modded the hud so all the information is easier to differenciate between.

I solved that problem when (at Vice's suggestion) I updated the driver for my graphics card.

Jax_Cavalera · Post by **Jax_Cavalera** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:13 pm

From post: 101864, Topic: tid=7237, author=Eclipse wrote:About having a clickable interface there are only two options; it has to built into the game engine, or someone has to create a program that overlays those buttons through DirectX on top of the game and feeds the input to the game by way of a virtual controller.

i wonder how hard it might be to create a basic program with a few overlay buttons that direct inputs through direct X

might look around and see i an input program exists where you can bind a small array of touch buttons to keyboard inputs.

@Marvin, I have also updated my graphics card and this time it didn't kill my tablet pc but the readouts on the hud are still very small. I notice the HUD mod by Warsign only changes the look of the cockpit mostly and from wha tI can tell.. was not able to adjust the size of the readout texts and stuff.

I wonder if this was just his decision to not fix that or if it can't be adjusted?

Post by **Vice** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:28 pm

Moving to mods since this seems to correlate best with that main theme.

Interesting post, here are a few ideas/suggestions (I may not be fully understanding some points, so if I miss any, just reiterate or another member may have better input/advice):

The pinch function works good to speed up or slow down the ship's thrusts.. but it does send the view hurling in a circle while i'm adjusting the speed... it does come back to a stable position once i point the stylus at the centre of the screen again.

The biggest challenge here is that the game wasn't designed to facilitate touch input control. It's focus has been game device first, mouse second, keyboard third in prioritization and design functionality. Touch and stylus input has the limitations that you point out, namely that to support desired (and often important) alternate input functions you have to disable or provide secondary/sub control system layers.

With that said, the alt-key flight control suspension may be an option here. If the device you are using can provide alternate key input functions like many game devices can (ie gaming mouse, joysticks, gamepads, etc), then the alt key could be assigned to the device to suspend flight control as needed to select some other HUD function.

As it is.. I'm half blind and I can't read any of the HUD readouts easily.. is there any way to get a clearer hud readout .. perhaps someone has modded the hud so all the information is easier to differenciate between.

Some kind of mod would likely be needed there. You can move the displays around and moving them closer to the pilot's viewpoint in conjunction with turning off the 3D cockpit might provide the improved visibility desired.

Jax_Cavalera · Post by **Jax_Cavalera** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:45 pm

hmm very interesting stuff.. I'm just at work now but when I get back I will take a further look into these suggestins.

I tried to find a virtual touch pad input app that you could assign keystrokes to but all I kept finding were virtual soft key keyboards :s

I can use a softkey keyboard as it is already but everytime i touch a key on it, the ship shoots as single touching the screen fires the primary weapon

When you say Alt-Key flight.. do you mean if I hold down the ALT key on a keyboard it will allow me to access some other flight controls or is this just ALT (short for alternative) as in some hardbuttons that come with the hardware i'm using that can be re-mapped to be used in game for flight purposes?

(An After Thought) I just remembered that the virtual keyboard didn't register as a primary weapon fire when i would use it after it was already in focus.. but while it is hidden out of main focus.. it would register the tap but also shoot the weapon..

I'll keep searching for a virtual touchpad that has only a few finger size buttons i can re-map .. if anyone knows of such an app that'd be a massive help to get a link to one.

Regarding the HUD modifying.. i'll take a look over the HUD mod i downloaded and see how it's been put together and try to figure out how I can make one that's designed for people that can't see as easy..Just to confirm.. there is no scale function , only re-arranging correct?

Post by **Vice** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:04 pm

Alt key as in the physical alt key, which disables mouse/point input flight control for as long as the key is held down.

For the cockpit displays, rotation, placement, and distance. So if you want them larger, just place them closer to the pilot's viewpoint.

Jax_Cavalera · Post by **Jax_Cavalera** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:20 pm

ahh cool .. looking forward to adjusting these things

thanks heaps.. nowif only i can get that input app i'll have a fully tablet pc ready setup for evo merc ^ ^