Development:Duke Nukem Forever/1996 Design Documents/HUD

This is a sub-page of Development:Duke Nukem Forever/1996 Design Documents.

D4HUD.DOC details how the Heads-up display should work. Last modified 20/08/1996 at 3:33 PM.

The Heads-Up Display

1st Quadrant

The Map - Ah, the old Defender scanner! How I've missed it. This is a great idea, and people will really appreciate it. I assume the map works by scanning the level map for tiles with wall properties set, and sets the pixels accordingly. Can we instead scan for the tile types, and let each tile have a colored pixel to represent it? This way, you'd have a miniature, full color version of the map! For areas that have no tiles in the foreground, put a dark blue grid on a black field.

Enemy Detector - Everything else on the map can still be represented by brightly colored pixels, as you have them now. Why don't we require the player to find these objects in each level? Look in the goodies text file for more info.

Item Detector - When this is found, the items show up on the map, just like the enemies. These will show up as blue blips.

2nd Quadrant

Duke's Ugly Mug - Well, why not? Just like Doom, have a picture graphically depicting just how messed up Duke really is. He could also look left or right when attacked, blink, sneer, move his mouth when he talks, cough up blood, and so on.

Duke's Stats - Just a numerical depiction of his current health (0-200). Perhaps as a secondary indicator, the digits could be brighter the healther Duke is. Alternatively, they could change color. Green when health is high, yellow when health is mediocre, or red when health is low. When health is really low, the number could flash. Display the current armor rating (0-100) here in a similar fashion.

Bad Guys - When Duke hits an enemy, this region displays the enemy's name, health, and armor instead of Duke's face, health, and armor. The display returns to normal after Duke is hit, the enemy is destroyed, or a brief time passes without hitting that enemy again.

3rd Quadrant

Ammo and guns - Basically, I want to set this up just like in Duke 3D. It would show all the guns, how much ammo you've got for each gun, and how much you can get. Guns that are currently in Duke's possesion appear in a different color than the guns he does not possess.

4th Quadrant

Special item display - On the far right hand side is displayed the currently selected special item, and how many of that item Duke currently possesses.