Alright, so I'm working on my game, which has the ability to have 4 players on one computer (split-screen). During testing, I couldn't find the other 'players', so I added this in-game radar. At first, it was too small, so I decided to add this feature that blows it up whenever the player is turning. Would this be annoying on the eyes? The reason I did this was to optimize the control scheme for game controllers, not the keyboard. Also, the radar needs a crosshair so that you can tell if the target is behind or in front of you, haven't done that yet, although I think that would just add to a visual mess down there. Also, keep in mind that the normal radar is only visible in single player games and some approved multiplayer modes that don't allow split-screen (for you Spectre fans out there). This is just a mini-multiplayer radar. Other ideas: -leave the radar as a small or large size -make it possible to bind the enlarge function to a button, but it's optional -EVEN BETTER AWESOME IDEA: enlarge it on turn, perhaps, but don't shrink it until the player isn't turning for a certain amount of time. Get the video of this in action here (5 MB MPEG) Please ignore the obvious problems (dead players not being removed from the radar, etc)

Personally I think it's pretty annoying if you're shooting at a guy, and he's shooting back at you, chances are you'll be flying back and forth every now and then, and side to side every now and then, stopping to change your direction abrubtly, that sort of thing.

I think if anything, increasing the radar is better when you're close to an enemy, at those moments you need to know about other enemies around you that might try to kill one or both of you when you're weakened, very important thing to know about.

Besides that I don't see another option other than keeping it at a constant scale factor of say...1.5 for the radius of that original radar before you turn, that sounds like a good enough size to me personally.

All that I can think of right now.

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Original post by Mezmirous Personally I think it's pretty annoying if you're shooting at a guy, and he's shooting back at you, chances are you'll be flying back and forth every now and then, and side to side every now and then, stopping to change your direction abrubtly, that sort of thing.

I agree as well. So to fix that you may want to add in either a 'cool down' rate to where it will stay large for let's say 3-5 seconds after an enemy is seen, then it will go back down. That way, when going between multiple enemies quickly, it's not a distraction.

I'd say just let it stay a fixed size and let the user scale it to how they want with an easy click of the button. Some players like to use the radar a lot, while others don't. I think having that option would best benefit all if you do not make it fixed.

Other than that, the viewports do look nice as well as the red 'damage' on the screens [smile].

Or you use an eliptical radar, similar to that used in Elite.

How about a non-uniform radar? Instead of having the distance from the center of the radar to the border increase in a linear fashion, have it increase in a (for example) quadratic fashion.

This will allocate more space to those things close to you, which are of more interest, and less space to those far away.

With that idea, just be sure to make the distance quadratic fairly wide. The player will feel really rushed if he/she sees a green dot go from one part of the radar to the other in a flash.

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Original post by matt_j Would this be annoying on the eyes? The reason I did this was to optimize the control scheme for game controllers, not the keyboard.

The sudden movement in the corner when the radar scales is rather distracting, aye. Maybe instead of radar go for simple visual cues? I.e. when another player is not in front of you, a shape appears either on right or left side of screen, depending on which turn would put that player faster in front of you. You could encode other information in these cues by changing the size (the farther the enemy, the smaller the cue gets) colour (goes from say, orange to red to indicate if they're firing at you) and shape (the cue morphs from circle to a diamond as the other player moves further directly behind your back to indicate they're more 'dangerous' to you, as it'll take you longer to rotate and get them in your own sight)