HUD (computer gaming)

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The HUD, short for Head-Up Display, is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player in computer and video games. The HUD can be an important part of a game's user interface.

Taking its name from the real-life version, the HUD is frequently used to simultaneously display several pieces of information including the main character's health, items, and an indication of game progression (such as score or level).

1 Shown on the HUD
2 How the HUD is displayed
3 Alternatives
4 HUDs and burn-in
5 References

[edit] Shown on the HUD

While the information that is displayed on the HUD depends greatly on the game, there are many features that players recognize across many games. Common features include:

Health / lives - this might include the player's character and possibly other important characters, such as allies or bosses. Real-time strategy games usually show the health of every unit visible on screen.

Capabilities - gameplay options that are often accessible by the player during gameplay, such as available weapons, items, or spells. This can include when the ability will become usable again, such as ammo, magic points, or some other type of "charge up" timer.

Menus - Menus to exit, change options, delete files, change settings, etc.

Game progression - the player's current score, money, or level (as in stage or as in experience points). This might also include the character's current task or quest.

Mini-map - a small map of the area that can act like a radar, showing the terrain, allies, and/or enemies. (See mini-map for more information.)

Context-sensitive information - shown only as it becomes important, such as tutorial messages, special one-off abilities, and speech subtitles.

Reticle / cursor - an indication of where the character is aiming or where the mouse pointer is.

There are also trends common among genres and platforms. Many online games show player names and a chat text box for talking to the other players. RTS games tend to have complex user interfaces, with context-sensitive panels and a full-overview mini-map with fog of war.

[edit] How the HUD is displayed

Typically this information is represented numerically, with the health level being a number from 0 - 100, 100 representing full health and 0 representing no health or death. However, many other methods of visual representation can be used. For instance, certain games employ a "health bar" which empties as the player becomes hurt.

Armour levels are also commonly monitored, either through a separate readout, or as part of the health system. For example, Halo 2 uses one rechargeable armour bar, acting as the health level. When this is depleted the player can only take one or two hits before death. The same goes in Destroy All Humans!, but in the form of Crypto's shields. Traditionally, games used lives to represent health. Every time the main character was injured he would lose one of his limited lives. Another way of display the life in the HUD is demonstrated in Gears of War, where the characters life is only displayed when he is under attack and a cog begins to appear on the screen. The fuller the cog, the closer to death the character is, this cog slowly disappears from the HUD as health is regained.

There is also a lot of variance with regards to the display of other information. Some games permanently display all the weapons a character is currently carrying, others rely on a pull up weapon selector. Inventory or storage space may also be permanently overlaid over the screen, or accessed via a menu. Alternatively, only a limited number of items stored in the inventory might be displayed at once, with the rest being rotated into view using the [ and ] keys.

In order to maintain the suspension of disbelief, some games make the HUD look like a real HUD within the context of the game's world. Many first-person vehicle simulation games use this technique, showing instruments and displays that the driver of the vehicle would be expected to see. The displays in the helmet in the first-person adventure game Metroid Prime also mimic the player's point of view. It should perhaps be noted that in some of these circumstances where the player and character within the game are meant to see the same 'HUD' information, Halo for example, the term HMD (Helmet Mounted Display) would technically be more accurate. This is not to be confused with Head Mounted Display.

Some games provide the player with an option to hide part or all of the HUD. This is usually used to create cleaner looking screenshots and videos, which can be essential to producing machinima. A few games give players extensive control over HUD display, such as customizing position, size, color, and opacity. World of Warcraft is notable for allowing players to significantly modify and enhance the user interface through Lua scripting.

Despite the modern dominance of 3D graphics in games, HUDs are frequently rendered with a 2D look, often using sprites.

[edit] Alternatives

Sometimes information normally displayed in the HUD is instead disguised as part of the scenery or vehicle the player is travelling in. For example when the player is driving a car that can sustain a certain number of hits, a smoke trail might appear when the car can take only two more hits, fire might appear from the car to indicate that the next hit will be fatal.

In rare cases no HUD is used at all, leaving the player to interpret the auditory and visual cues in the gameworld. The elimination of HUD elements has hardly become a trend in game development nowadays, but it can be witnessed in several titles as of late. Some classic examples of games without HUDs are Silent Hill II, Jurassic Park: Trespasser, Ico, The Getaway and more recently, Peter Jackson's King Kong and Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

[edit] HUDs and burn-in

It is worth noting that prolonged display of HUD elements on certain CRT-based screens may cause permanent damage in the form of burning into the inner coating of the television sets, something which is quite impossible to repair. This effect can be witnessed in arcades where coin-op machines with large rear projection monitors seem the most likely candidates for damage. Also players who pause their games for long hours risk harming their TV sets.