HUD and Vector Graphics

Talk among developers, and propose and discuss general development planning/tackling/etc... feature in this forum.
Post Reply
TBeholder
Elite Venturer
Elite Venturer
Posts: 753
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2006 2:40 am
Location: chthonic safety

HUD and Vector Graphics

Post by TBeholder »

There are lots of HUD markers - like crosshairs, arrows, ITTS, mount locations (that thing thing controlled by graphics/hud/draw_weapon_sprite), locking reticle (both types are cool, but the point stands) and so on - drawn as lines via GFXVertex3d, most with line colors, thickness and length set up. Hardcoded things are sometime inconvenient and always harder to tinker with.
Bitmap sprites can't do, since most of these things are resized on the fly while retaining line thickness.
What about vector formats?
These drawings should somehow include variables (such as time and lock_percent) in addition to the size and colors, but at least SVG supports parameters.
I realize that it's a rather big thing, but it could turn a lot of further efforts in a large area into trivial operations, as well as ease modding even more.
"Two Eyes Good, Eleven Eyes Better." -Michele Carter
Turbo
ISO Party Member
ISO Party Member
Posts: 423
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:54 am
Location: TX, USA
Contact:

Re: HUD and Vector Graphics

Post by Turbo »

Good point. I recently started playing VS at 1920x1080, and immediately noticed that the HUD objects (and splash screens and base screens) are all stretched horizontally. So vector graphics should be able to mitigate that.
Turbo

There are two speeds in combat: stopped, and as fast as you can go. Unless you run into something, going fast keeps you alive more often than stopping.
klauss
Elite
Elite
Posts: 7243
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:40 pm
Location: LS87, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Re: HUD and Vector Graphics

Post by klauss »

Proper aspect ratio management should fix the stretching without resorting to vector art.

In fact, vector art would not solve it, without aspect ratio management.

I don't see an easy way to support vector graphics, rasterizing standard vector graphics formats is far from trivial.
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
Wing Commander Universe
charlieg
Elite Mercenary
Elite Mercenary
Posts: 1329
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 11:51 pm
Location: Manchester, UK
Contact:

Re: HUD and Vector Graphics

Post by charlieg »

Klauss, why not use something like Antigrain?

http://www.antigrain.com/
Free Gamer - free software games compendium and commentary!
FreeGameDev forum - open source game development community
klauss
Elite
Elite
Posts: 7243
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:40 pm
Location: LS87, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Re: HUD and Vector Graphics

Post by klauss »

Interesting...

...still not trivial to use.

And it still spits a bitmap, I don't see the huge benefit over just having the bitmap stored in a png.
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
Wing Commander Universe
Post Reply