Freedoom Status Bar

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9DxOfPvG2G1NHYtWm9uOGJYakk/view?usp=sharing

Had to clean it up a little.

Sodaholic said:

Is there anything else you're aware of that would be preferable to replace for concerns of credit/copyright?

The "scratches" and "material" layers were made using photos I googled.

The lettering is raster, most likely hand-drawn.

I think it looks fine against the current background, I don't see the issue. One

I've started on my own version and will show my results, though I've got obligations to a certain post-apocalyptic indie game as we ship in 4 days, so I can't be too quick about this particular task.

Status bars are simple and I already did half of what I wanted to do anyway with that mockup. I'll make a few more small changes, but the new scratch pattern's gonna have to hold off for a few days.

I really like Werecat's status bar, and Soda's text change seems simple and perfectly fitting.

Freedoom though is a bit of a stickler about copyright. Random photos from Google isn't an acceptable source with no license to re-use them. If you don't remember their source, maybe you can seek out alternatives to base it on? Even taking your own photos of rusted metal and whatnot should work :P

I thought of making one from scratch, but using that one as a visual template. We have enough good artists someone will be to touch it up.

Traced the sources.

http://www.lughertexture.com/terms-of-use
http://www.istockphoto.com/help/licenses

Hurr.

That said, making similar patterns for a low-res image shouldn't be that hard. Or maybe there could be free analogues with GPL-compatible licenses? This licensing stuff is new to me.

Did you just use the photos as the background "texture" for the status bar? If so we can probably replace it with something else from the Freedoom texture set.

Yep.



That's how it looks without the questionable layers (palettized).

https://github.com/freedoom/attic/blob/master/isle/misc_patches/w13_1.gif
https://github.com/freedoom/attic/blob/master/nb_nmare/misc_patches/ag128_1.gif

Maybe this one with top cut off and recolored for texturing.
https://github.com/freedoom/attic/blob/master/nb_nmare/misc_patches/wall05_2.gif

Here's my first draft, using the same textures that Catoptromancy suggested.




It's not anywhere near perfect, yet. If anything about this draft even slightly bothers you, please tell me.

I don't really like the font that much, but it's okay. I'm glad to see that the bar looks different - it means I can still use mine somewhere without it looking like a stock Freedoom asset.

There are things I'd change about the face frame, but they're small, insignificant, and hard to explain.

The huds of ID's early FPS all generally went for panels with text on top, over a'bunch of monitor like displays stuck together'.

But of course Freedoom is it's own game.

Soda's version looks good to me.

Hmm... I don't like the font at all either. The split gradienting looks awkward and hurts readability IMO, and the soft-edged bright red is even harder to read on the medium-light gray backdrop. Doom also used bright red on a medium-light gray backdrop, but its font was much easier to read, particularly because it had dark, crisp outlines.

Da Werecat's original version is beautiful though. I love the design of it, and the shading and coloring look great.

Maybe a recolored font? That statbat bar is excellent, high quality. I think a modded bigfont is might be best.


Maybe FreeDM and Freedoom# can use different fonts and statbars? I still like crowbar's for FreeDM, but it needs a little more polish.

I like the brown tints and slightly darker panels in Werecat's version.

And yes, the font is a bit too stylized.

Looks really good.

esselfortium said:

Hmm... I don't like the font at all either. The split gradienting looks awkward and hurts readability IMO,

Which gradienting are you referring to? I'm confused.

and the soft-edged bright red is even harder to read on the medium-light gray backdrop. Doom also used bright red on a medium-light gray backdrop, but its font was much easier to read, particularly because it had dark, crisp outlines.

Maybe if the background was darker this would be better? Some of the readability issues are possibly a result of the font itself rather than the status bar background.

Readability is certainly important, particularly for the status bar, which is something you want to be able to glance at to see your health etc. quickly. We should take the time and effort to get this right.

My main concern is that whatever font we use, it should be consistent (at least in general style) with Mechadon's Denex font that we're using everywhere else. But I think we can afford to diverge a bit for the status bar if it improves readability. The square zero characters in particular are I think a bit problematic.

I also wonder if it's worth recoloring the ammo counters on the right hand side.

fraggle said:

I also wonder if it's worth recoloring the ammo counters on the right hand side.

Maybe they should have a color closer to the top bullet in list or yellow key.

Hey, just want to chip in and say that I really like Da Werecat's statusbar! In fact I've used it as inspiration for the statusbar in Supplice. It just has a very nice quality to it :)

I agree about the font being a bit too hard to read at a glance by the way. I think it works ok, but it could definitely be better, particularly if you guys choose to use that statusbar. I'd almost just start from scratch using the bigfont as a base, and make any adjustments you need (like changing the diamond '0' glyph to something more suitable). I suppose I could take a crack at it if you guys would like.

I meant the small font used for "frags", "arms", etc. I didn't like it at first, but now I don't mind it.

Speaking about the red font, when I first saw it a long time ago, I thought it was a little too fancy to be very practical. But I don't know anything about complex stylized fonts, so I won't be able to do much.

By the way, there's a glitch in vanilla Doom that I forgot to mention. When it draws the ARMS panel over the FRAG panel, the latter shows through the transparent pixels of the small font (but only when it's yellow, curiously). It's practically impossible to notice with the stock bar, because the panels are identical in tone.

When I get some free time, I'll look into polishing up my statbar with some more details for FreeDM.

I do like the version Sodaholic just did. I don't see the same objections that essel does. If there's no other major complaints, i think we should put it in and avoid further bikeshedding about the issue.

I'm sorry but I have to agree with esselfortium on the HUD and text.

chungy said:

I do like the version Sodaholic just did. I don't see the same objections that essel does. If there's no other major complaints, i think we should put it in and avoid further bikeshedding about the issue.

I think some further discussion is worthwhile in this situation just because of how prominent the status bar is in the game. But if no further progress gets made I'd certainly be happy committing it as is. Whatever faults, it's a big improvement over what we currently have.

Mechadon said:

I agree about the font being a bit too hard to read at a glance by the way. I think it works ok, but it could definitely be better, particularly if you guys choose to use that statusbar. I'd almost just start from scratch using the bigfont as a base, and make any adjustments you need (like changing the diamond '0' glyph to something more suitable). I suppose I could take a crack at it if you guys would like.

That would be great, if you could. I suspect it probably only needs a few tweaks to be honest. The diamond '0' is the main thing I have a problem with. FWIW I still love Denex, but for the status bar, readability is really important.

its funny at first i didnt like the gradient in soda version, but now that i look at it again i think it looks good, maybe it just needs a bit of rust like th original?

If anyone wants my source file (Paint.NET format, as that's my primary image editor), here you go.

I'm not really satisfied with the energy cell icon, I made it a bit brighter to contrast with the shadow better, but now it looks flat and crappy (also not how the ingame one actually looks). The missile icon is a bit messy, but probably good enough. I'm satisfied with the shell and bullet icons, but they were very simple to do (and the former was right from the pickup sprite, well, my own version of it anyhow).

The gradient effect is a bit cheap, but keep in mind this was only a draft. Maybe set the material layers to about 75%? I dunno, up to you guys.

Some of the tweaks I've made to my HUD, now using Denex font and with curved boxes. Still working on ARMS and the ammo counters.

looks much better now, i think we should go with the soda hud for freedoom1/2 and your hud for freedm

I think this status bar would look much better if it was darker. Gray looks dull and a darker HUD would make a good contrast with the red and yellow numbers.

axdoom1 said:

I think this status bar would look much better if it was darker. Gray looks dull and a darker HUD would make a good contrast with the red and yellow numbers.

i agree too

I spent some of my free time today redoing the statusbar font. It's still based off of the Denex font numbers, but I made adjustments to many of the numbers so they are easier to read at a glance. At least, that's what I attempted to do :P


GIMP .XCF Image
PSD Image (note that GIMP couldn't export the Grain Merge layer function, so it won't look right).

Download .wad here

Here's a quick glimpse of what it looks like against the vanilla Doom statusbar.


And in case your wondering, everything color translates properly for the ports that make use of that feature.

One thing to note is that I used the same grey drop-shadow color that the vanilla font uses. This may need to be changed depending on what statusbar you guys ultimately go with.

Anyways, let me know what you guys think. Making changes shouldn't be too difficult. And feel free to make the changes yourself if I'm too busy to mess with it ;)