Hud icon

RtCW has this nifty li'l icon in the heads down display, telling you whether objects are climbable, breakable, useable etc. It actually makes hunting for secrets less boring if you ask me.
So, since the old Dooms had lots of secrets and seeing as it's almost an absolute certainty that the new Doom will have a lot of interactivity, it could be a good thing if there'll be a similar "HUD" icon in Doom 3, telling you if you can interact with an object in some way.

Any thoughts?

Hmm I´m not sure. IMO hunting for secrets is more fun when they stay secrets and you have to discover them without such a "secret detector". Also the "breakable" icon doesn´t really add to the gameplay. But I found the "grab" icon very usefull.

Yeah but the game will be so realistic that you wont be able to distinguish a "usable" item from part of the game environment so easily as older games.

But thats a very good thing imo, makes the game feel more "alive" :)

anyway, i never looked at that icon through the whole game - its useless...

Hmm I´m not sure. IMO hunting for secrets is more fun when they stay secrets and you have to discover them without such a "secret detector". Also the "breakable" icon doesn´t really add to the gameplay. But I found the "grab" icon very usefull.

The thing is that the secrets in RtCW are still extremely hard to find sometimes. You still have to find out where to look, despite the "Hud" icon. I was looking for a "wall button" in one of the crypt level (someone had told me that it would open a specific hidden door, so I knew that it was somewhere around), but I simply couldn't find it, despite the icon thing. I now realize that it was because I swept too fast past the walls, but still.

anyway, i never looked at that icon through the whole game - its useless...

Hmm, I don't know. It helped me find a ladder that was barely visible, and it generally informs you when an item is within reach for you to pick up, when you don't want to move out of hiding to pick it up the usual way (i.e. running over the item).
It also tells you, when a door might be opened later on.

So personally, I think it's quite useful sometimes.

I don't even want a HUD.

I'll be damn glad with something that's text/numbers only, alpha blended against the viewport and that fades when it's not relevant.

As long as they don't have the Doom-style status bar, it will be okay. I'd like to see ammo, health, and armor though.

I don't even want a HUD.

I'll be damn glad with something that's text/numbers only, alpha blended against the viewport and that fades when it's not relevant.

What? No HDD? That'll take away a great deal of the nostalgia imho, besides, I've come to love the heads down display thing in all my years of playing FPS games.
But that's just my opinion.

I don't want nostalgia, I want a great, fun game.

It's about making the game fun, not making you go "awww sweet memories".

I don't want nostalgia, I want a great, fun game.

It's about making the game fun, not making you go "awww sweet memories".

All right, but I just want the game to be fun AND have a lot of nostalgic elements.

I'll be damn glad with something that's text/numbers only, alpha blended against the viewport and that fades when it's not relevant.

It just occurred to me that what you've described here IS a "HUD" or Heads Down Display (HDD) as I prefer to call it. I believe that you want something along the lines of Q3A's HDD, but with the numbers/text fading when not needed, am I correct?
But I disagree about the numbers fading away when not needed, I don't know why, but it somehow "feels wrong".

I'll be damn glad with something that's text/numbers only, alpha blended against the viewport and that fades when it's not relevant.

So basically, the same kind of thing they did in SP Half-Life.

Most id Games since the old Doom had customizable HUDs. In Quake3 for example you can have it with 3D icons, 2D icons or no icons at all, just the health, ammo and armour count displayed (this and 2D are the way I prefer it). I´m pretty sure the new Doom will have different HUD variations again.

I would like to see the following variants:

1. default HUD: health, ammo, armour displayed with icons in that blue "outer space" futurist style you can see on http://www.ua-corp.com (love that style :)

2. minimalist version of the default HUD

3. nostalgic retro HUD which resembles the old Doom HUD, complete with mug head etc.

4. a new HUD sytem that aims towards a more realistic feel. This could make use of ammo displays on the viewable weapons (like Unreal Tournament), a display on the bracelets, and informations that look as if they were projected onto the marine´s retina.

So basically, the same kind of thing they did in SP Half-Life.

That fades away completely. No HUD at all unless you get hurt/hit, or the ammo amount changes cause you're reloading. As for ammo in the clip, I'll say just put a minimalistic 1 pixel wide bar somewhere. I suppose it should came up when browsing inventory.

If you want a solid inmersive experience first you gotta discard everything that blatantly says "it's a game".

I'll be happy if it's like the 'scaled-down' status-bar in ZDoom-shows how much health and ammo you've got and it's non-intrusive. It works perfectly. I don't think if Doom3 has a status bar that it needs to show the Doomguy's face-we all know what he looks like and it's doubtful he'll look any different in Doom3, just more realistic.

I don't think ... that it needs to show the Doomguy's face-we all know what he looks like and it's doubtful he'll look any different in Doom3, just more realistic.

Haven´t you seen the Screenshots from the Macworld demo, showing the marine who is most likely the new Doom marine? For example http://www.doomworld.com/phptest/screenie.php?dir=/macworld/&number=22? Fortunately he looks very different, not just like an "more realistic" version of the old cartoon character.

I'll be happy if it's like the 'scaled-down' status-bar in ZDoom-shows how much health and ammo you've got and it's non-intrusive. It works perfectly. I don't think if Doom3 has a status bar that it needs to show the Doomguy's face-we all know what he looks like and it's doubtful he'll look any different in Doom3, just more realistic.

Look at the macworld video to see what the doomguy looks like. The talking marine can be none other than him. Yeah, we may know what he looks like, but his face'll look better and his expressions will be more interesting and seem more real - of course the face isn't absolutely necessary, but it looks good imo.

Fortunately he looks very different, not just like an "more realistic" version of the old cartoon character.

He looks different you say? Oh yeah, his hair is a complete shave unlike the mug in the status display in the old game.
If you ask me, he looks almost excactly like the ol' domguy - same features, same hair colour, a somewhat similar look in his eyes. I admit that I didn't immediately see that he looked like Doomguy, but then I started examing the face closer and comparing it to the old mug. Yep, that's him all right!

Yeah it does look like him. It's just that the old mug has some disproportionated factions, that's all. The result of drawing it by hand.

Yeah it does look like him. It's just that the old mug has some disproportionated factions, that's all. The result of drawing it by hand.

I'm curious, do you know how they could've made the new face?

Pff, that's easy. You take a picture of yourself from a side and another one from the front. Place them in the right Maya viewports as background, and draw splines over them, following the factions. After you're done you just use U-Loft and combine all the splines to get a NURBS surface. You just decimate it to a triangular mesh for the hi-poly version, and then optimize the result for the low poly one. You unwrap the surface to output the skin references, and hand that to a 2D artist. After the base, bumpmap and specular maps are done, you just create a new material, apply it over the model and voila.

I've heard my share of blatant techo-babble (I have five hours of John Carmack speeches on my HD), but this is just ridiculous.

Who's moderating the moderators ?

Check Character Modelling on MAX's tutorial reference. ^_^

He looks different you say? ... If you ask me, he looks almost excactly like the ol' domguy - same features, same hair colour, a somewhat similar look in his eyes.

I was actually refering to the whole look, not only his face - if Doomboy was only talking about the marines face, I misunderstood him, sorry. Yes, the marines face looks kind of similar to the old Doom mug face - although the old face had much stronger eyebrows ;)

I was actually refering to the whole look, not only his face - if Doomboy was only talking about the marines face, I misunderstood him, sorry. Yes, the marines face looks kind of similar to the old Doom mug face - although the old face had much stronger eyebrows ;)

I believe that the eyebrows don't seem so clearly visible, because of two things: The greyish light-brown colour of his hair and brows, and the low quality of the video (remember how Carmack stated that the colours were "washed out").
Anyway, yes you're right, his armour DOES look different than in the old Doom, and I'm glad that it looks different. The old armour would look cartoonish and too much like the typical Id games "pornstar" combat armour. I am, however, not quite satisfied with the new armour's look - looks too bulky imho - also his new helmet gives me horrible flashbacks of the Quakedude (Ranger he's called in Q3A). Admitted, Doomguy's old helmet didn't look too good either, but it was a more realistic concept of a futuristic combat helmet than this new "cardboard box" helmet.

Oh, and Tetzlaff, no need to apologize. You're entitled to your opinion.
Aber DooMBoy sprach doch von dem Gesicht des Doomguys - just felt like writing something in German for a change ;-)

And Zaldron: Thanx for the interesting info :-D

I like the new armor. If it's a bit bulky is because it looks like there are useful components all around it. I love the new helmet, definitly what a futuristic helmet should look like. Check DooM's titlepic closely and you'll see how unbelievable bad was the old design. So bad, in fact, that Paul Steed made quite some changes when modelling Doom for Q3A.

I like the new armor. If it's a bit bulky is because it looks like there are useful components all around it. I love the new helmet, definitly what a futuristic helmet should look like. Check DooM's titlepic closely and you'll see how unbelievable bad was the old design. So bad, in fact, that Paul Steed made quite some changes when modelling Doom for Q3A.

Like I said, the old helmet was ugly as well, but a more realistic concept of a future military helmet, seeing as it seems to combine a combat helmet with an NBC mask, which the new helmet doesn't. I liked the modified Doomguy helmet in Q3A better, it just seemed a slight bit too big and it could've been better.
The only thing I actually dislike about the new helmet, is that it looks like something I've seen before: The Quakedude's helmet. Same box-shaped form, which doesn't look like it offers a whole lot of protection and seems a lot more bothersome to wear than it's actually worth.

Anyway, if just they give the doomguy some cool army pants and some cool combat boots, which remind me of modern army boots, then I'll be happy enough to ignore the minor things about his helmet (it is limited how much I've seen of that helmet after all). And I do think that the Doomguy looks like a cool badass, which I'm damn happy about.

Actually I think we've seen the helmet in an "open" state. I think it has some extra shit tagged, but I can't really tell with the compression.

Oh well, it was the first draft for a Macworld presentation. Give me a break :)

Actually I think we've seen the helmet in an "open" state. I think it has some extra shit tagged, but I can't really tell with the compression.

You mean that it *could* be a helmet, which can be flipped down or something?
Yeah, was thinking somewhere along those lines myself.