We've spent the past week doing visual brainstorming on our HUD. The car is the main element on the screen (in 3rd person mode), so we decided to project the HUD into the game world, onto the track/car. The idea is you'll be able to get all the info you need by looking at your car, instead of the corners of the screen.

The HUD needs to be able to display energy levels, heat, item selections, warning indicators, plus the regular racing stuff (speed/time/lap).

We have an external poll over here, collecting votes from blog readers, facebook, etc as well. If you'd like to vote on that, it would help us out

I won't put a poll up on the forums here, as this site is better for discussion / feedback IMHO
Let me know which parts of the concepts you like, or any ideas you think we should pursue. We'll be moving beyond the concept stage and starting the actual implementation of an in-game HUD next week

• #1
• #2
• #3
• #4
• #5
• #6
• #7
• #8

The idea is you'll be able to get all the info you need by looking at your car, instead of the corners of the screen.

I'm not sure that's a good idea, there's a lot of information crammed into a very small space. Not all the info is something you want to be constantly looking at, which might make it harder to read the info you really care about.

I like the idea of showing heat 'organically' through the redness of the tires, maybe you could something similar for other elements?

All of the screens look amazing btw :).

I like number 7 the best although I think the small icon at the bottom between the two orange arrows of the HUD looks like a pair of Y fronts.

(Disclaimer: I never play car racing games )

I voted, but one question: why don't you have information ahead of the car ? I could imagine, that the player will need to look ahead most of the time and therefor I could imagine that the most important data should although be displayed ahead.

Visually they are all awesome, if it comes to design, I would always prefer readability, therefor I choose #3. If you put the placement on the road ahead, make the hot-wheel-warning like in #5 it would be perfect for me.

( disclaimer: racing sim fan and real world hot rodder here - i'm down to four cars just for me, with a porshe 944 being the slowest )

graphics should not cover the car, it can interfere with visual cues of attitude and momentum.

the player will be focused on an area +/- 15-20 degrees from center. the faster, the narrower.

gauges should fall just outside this "attention fov". they should be readable without looking away from the vanishing point.

as ashmann says, below the car makes it a heads down display, not heads up. only testing will tell if its close enough to the "attention fov". like him, i think i'd favor graphics above / beside the car.

as for the look of the hud, #3 looks very trendy, console, NBA2K'ish. not bad overall. but not exactly classic hud design. but it might fit well with the futuristic look of the game in general.

something about the triangles in #4 just turns me off. perhaps because its not instantly recognizable as to what it is. what is it anyway? i'm not bothering to read the fine print. if i need to read fine print, the gauge is not intuitive enough. bad designer - no twinkie! <g>.

#5 is a more classic hud design. pretty much everything is instantly recognizable. with 1st place vs 1st gear being the only question. and 1 minute of gameplay will answer that.

whatever you chose, the gauges need to be naturally intuitive.

#6: icons are not necessarily intuitive until you learn their meaning. i should be able to jump in this car and drive, not puzzle out icons like i'm learning truespace or blender. <g>.

but visual cues of overheat coupled with a warning - which #6 seems to show - is a good thing.

#7 seems to be a less intuitive version of #5

#8 captured alien spacecraft - all in a alien tongue? kinda get that feel from it.

Thanks for the feedback

Yeah we might have to experiment with some "in front" HUDs as well. We also have 1st person cameras, which these HUDs obviously won't work fortoo! So we'll end up with a variety, and have it somewhat customization.
The concept pictures aren't cropped the same as the in-game camera. I think these "behind" HUDs might be ok for our "far distance" follow-cam, but yeah, an "in front" HUD might be more appropriate for the "close distance" 3rd person camera.

We're actually planning on having different hud styles (like the above) as unlockable skins/"TF2 hats", as people love unlocking things at the end of matches... But are just building one now to get started.
I personally don't like the Alien-ish #7 either, but if it's an unlockable prize, some players might love to choose it, if they're a fan of alien triangles

with 1st place vs 1st gear being the only question. and 1 minute of gameplay will answer that.

This particular car is electric and gearless, so you only have forward/reverse
We do have gears/clutch coded into the sim though, along with waay too many other parameters. We've actually got AWD traction control and ABS braking coded, but disabled on this particular car at the moment, because it's no fun to drive a car that's super easy to keep under control!

Disclaimer: I never play car racing games

It's a cross between a MOBA/RTS, an arcade racer and a racing simulator. Almost a racing game designed to convince people who don't like racing games to play racing games, while hopefully keeping hardcore racers happy
I'm not quite sure how to market that premise yet!

looks like a pair of Y fronts

cannot unsee!

#5 or #6. The blurry ones are not too bad but honestly that type of stuff will get on the persons nerve after a bit of time. You want it to be clear and readable. Take it from somebody who wears glasses and sees blur stuff on a daily/natural basis. :P

Don't know if you're still taking feedback here, but I like numbers 2 and 3 because the circular design is most similar to the current Formula 1 broadcast throttle graphics package:

I've actually seen graphics that represent the state of ERS charge, too—relevant since I saw the "KERS" label in numbers 5 and 6.

Having a single, compact representation of all salient information in a single dial, placed ahead of the car as mentioned above, sounds good.