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Games these days provide waaaay too much on-screen information

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
What happened to the sense of mystery and discovery?

I'm talking about extraneous visual clutter in games. Stuff like objective markers, oxygen meters, and worst of all, health bars that float over the heads of enemies.

I guess the thought is that all this information is vital, but in practice it just clutters up the screen and takes away from the artwork and animation.

I'm now at the point where I'll jump into any new game and instantly disable as many HUD items as I can, but sadly so many games still don't offer these options. Recent example was the Respawn Star Wars game. No option to remove the floating health bars above the characters' heads. Not a big deal to a lot of people but it bugged me so much I put the game down.

I'm fine if devs wanna cram every conceivable HUD element into a game, but at least gimme the option to disable them. Without these elements the games are more immersive, cinematic and fun, imo.

worst part is that a lot of the time the marketing for games has 'clean' screenshots or videos with the HUD disabled. Then I buy the game and it turns out the real thing is an overly-cluttered mess with no option to make it look like it did in the trailer that made me wanna buy it.

And it also peeves me when the game has a photo mode. A mode built in where you can remove all HUD elements, but just to take a static screenshot. No option to play that way. Why?

hot take: all games should have extensive HUD options. It's fine to bury them in the options menu, crazy people like me will find them.

even better would be if all games had a one-button HUD toggle. Make everyone happy. Let me play my immersive mode, and then if I need to see an objective marker or minimap or whatever I hit a button and there ya go. Best recent example of this is God of War 2018. One button brings up all the HUD elements, simple as hell. Everyone's happy.

Any devs reading this- how hard are HUD options to program? I mean I know everything that takes time costs money, but I assume if a game already has a photo mode in it, most of the work must be done.

okay rant over.
 
Transistor

Transistor

Hollowly Brittle
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,171
Washington, D.C.
Agreed. It's why the Pro HUD is the only way I'll play Breath of the Wild.

Whenever I get a chance, I turn most HUD stuff off. Especially minimaps.
 
Jazar

Jazar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,478
South Florida
I agree. Also checkout my new Bloodborne mod.
pYpAfgh.jpg
 
DigitalOp

DigitalOp

Member
Nov 16, 2017
9,291
I agree with you OP, There is almost 0 reason to not have toggled HUDs today.

I feel the same about custom controls.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
92,943
here
while Death Stranding by default has a fairly minimal HUD:

dBZTv1g.png


playing without a HUD feels really cool:

IJ48jja.jpg


as long as you know how to move through the world, the animations and noises are all you need to manage Sam as he's carrying a metric fuck ton of packages on his back
 
OP
OP

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
Fat4all said:
while Death Stranding by default has a fairly minimal HUD:

dBZTv1g.png


playing without a HUD feels really cool:

IJ48jja.jpg


as long as you know how to move through the world, the animations and noises are all you need to manage Sam as he's carrying a metric fuck ton of packages on his back
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

i haven't tried DS yet. Kinda curious, may check out the PC version when it drops. My biggest apprehension was actually the HUD stuff- all the multiplayer features,ie, the indicators that show what other players have added to the world. I didn't think it would be possible to really play the game without a HUD, but you have me somewhat intrigued.
 
Shadow

Shadow

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,127
If you play Witcher 3 on PC get Friendly HUD. It hides stuff when you don't need it, and it shows it when you do. Or you can just get rid of all hud elements all together if you want.
 
mnemonicj

mnemonicj

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,650
Honduras
I purchased The Division 2 a few days on ago (on sale for $3!!!) and booted it up last night to relax.
5 minutes in and I rushed through everything I could, mashing the X button to make the bombardment of messages just go away.
The more I advanced in the game, the faster I mashed the annoyances away.
 
OP
OP

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
Shadow said:
If you play Witcher 3 on PC get Friendly HUD. It hides stuff when you don't need it, and it shows it when you do. Or you can just get rid of all hud elements all together if you want.
Click to expand...
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that's how I played Witcher 3, no HUD. Cool thing about that game is if you hit LB (Xbox controller) the minimap and HUD appears for a split second. Works pretty well
 
OP
OP

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
mnemonicj said:
I purchased The Division 2 a few days on ago (on sale for $3!!!) and booted it up last night to relax.
5 minutes in and I rushed through everything I could, mashing the X button to make the bombardment of messages just go away.
The more I advanced in the game, the faster I mashed the annoyances away.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I find the Division games unplayable due to HUD stuff. I like the gameplay, but holy shit things are just too cluttered.
 
Phantom

Phantom

Writer at Jeux.ca
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,446
Canada
Here's one of the best UI in my opinion:

15398b5a47118fa6b68095de12721ab8.png


The suit = health meter is brilliant really.

MMOs tend to have so much clutter it's awful.

Bethesda games (Skyrim, Fallout) are also pretty bad.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
92,943
here
TinTuba47 said:
i haven't tried DS yet. Kinda curious, may check out the PC version when it drops. My biggest apprehension was actually the HUD stuff- all the multiplayer features,ie, the indicators that show what other players have added to the world. I didn't think it would be possible to really play the game without a HUD, but you have me somewhat intrigued.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think you can still 'like' other players buildings/signs without there being a UI showing, so it might not be an issue

either that, or the UI doesn't pop up until you are close to the thing

i forget, it's been a while since I finished my playthrough

either way, I'm sure it will be a lot more adjustable on the PC version
 
OP
OP

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
Phantom said:
Here's one of the best UI in my opinion:

15398b5a47118fa6b68095de12721ab8.png


The suit = health meter is brilliant really.

MMOs tend to have so much clutter it's awful.

Bethesda games (Skyrim, Fallout) are also pretty bad.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

yeah Dead Space was great for that reason.

at least Fallout has HUD options. I played New Vegas recently and was able to turn most things off
 

vicarino

Member
Aug 31, 2019
180
n3ds version of xenoblade chronicles comes to mind. too many things for such low resolution
 
OP
OP

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
Hot tip: Sekiro is better without the HUD. And still doable. The animations and gameplay really shine. You don't need all the health meters and posture bars. Remove the HUD and you can tell what's going on based on how the characters move
 
Gush

Gush

Member
Nov 17, 2017
2,096
Phantom said:
Here's one of the best UI in my opinion:

15398b5a47118fa6b68095de12721ab8.png


The suit = health meter is brilliant really.

MMOs tend to have so much clutter it's awful.

Bethesda games (Skyrim, Fallout) are also pretty bad.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Dead Space is a masterful example of how to display information elegantly and unobtrusively. Such a fantastic UI.
 
boontobias

boontobias

Avenger
Apr 14, 2018
9,546
Steam just finished a free week of Street Fighter V

I booted up the game and was forced to do a tutorial with cutscenes I had to manually skip through despite being a veteran member of the FGC.

Then after getting through that, the game restarts to install updates or something. And when I boot it back up again I get at least 20 fullscreen notifications of events, skins, specials, 2x XP weekend, etc. bullshit that I cant skip all together before an insane "CONNECTING TO ONLINE SERVICES" load time before finally getting to the main menu. It was the most extremely offputting first impression of a game I've ever gotten.

Now I see why people hate Street Fighter V.
 

Deleted member 49535

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 10, 2018
2,825
Agreed. Making every part of the UI of Horizon Zero Dawn contextual so that it only shows up if needed makes the game so much better. Every game should have that option tbh.
 
Doskoi Panda

Doskoi Panda

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,975
I do wish that more games were designed to be less reliant on things like map markers and fast travel. Not that I mind those things being in a game, but when the game design relies on those things, it takes away from my ability to get to know the world on a holistic level. I want quests to be reasonably doable without following a compass marker, I want questlines to be designed in such a way that bouncing from one end of a map to the other by way of fast travel isn't a complete necessity, and I want the world to be navigable without the need for a minimap. I find that games designed this way are more enjoyable for me even when they include such features - but especially if I can disable them and still play without feeling inhibited.
 

Deleted member 12833

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,078
TinTuba47 said:
no problem. But a lot of games do not have the option for no HUD. The vast majority in fact.
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I'll be honest, I usually leave hud on as I like having game information without having to go into the menus. Death Stranding was mentioned earlier and while it may have a minimal hud when nothing is going on, there is a lot of on screen info in the game. I wouldn't want to turn that off
 
NightShift

NightShift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,027
Australia
The first thing I do when I play an open world game is turn off the mini map if I can. It makes those types of game so much better.

Karonoth said:
Agreed. Making every part of the UI of Horizon Zero Dawn contextual so that it only shows up if needed makes the game so much better. Every game should have that option tbh.
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Having the HUD show up by touching (not pressing) the touch pad was SO FUCKING GOOD. That one feature made the entire existance of the touch pad worth it.
 
Bomblord

Bomblord

Self-requested ban
Banned
Jan 11, 2018
6,390
Games built around a cluttered hud tend to become nearly unplayable without it with only a few exceptions so I honestly don't see the reason for an option to disable it unless the game is build for a hudless display and then just gives the option to add it for convenience.
 
OP
OP

TinTuba47

Member
Nov 14, 2017
3,809
Bomblord said:
Games built around a cluttered hud tend to become nearly unplayable without it with only a few exceptions so I honestly don't see the reason for an option to disable it unless the game is build for a hudless display and then just gives the option to add it for convenience.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I disagree personally. Every time I've turned off a HUD in game its made the experience more enjoyable
 
Bomblord

Bomblord

Self-requested ban
Banned
Jan 11, 2018
6,390
TinTuba47 said:
I disagree personally. Every time I've turned off a HUD in game its made the experience more enjoyable
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

With the exception of BOTW anytime I've turned off the HUD I suddenly am completely lost because they build large empty environments and place tiny objectives in huge open worlds without so much as flavor text explaining it's near the base of the mountain. Similar issue with enemies designed around hitting specific weak points or being resistant to certain types of attacks. You don't know that it's doing next to no damage because the designer just expects you to see the health bar.
 
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
Phantom said:
Here's one of the best UI in my opinion:

15398b5a47118fa6b68095de12721ab8.png


The suit = health meter is brilliant really.

MMOs tend to have so much clutter it's awful.

Bethesda games (Skyrim, Fallout) are also pretty bad.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah but also in MMO's you tend to need a LOT of feedback of various things all at one time especially if your playing high-end content that requires a lot of teamwork with your party.
 
Pargon

Pargon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,023
But how will I know if I'm doing well at a game if the screen isn't covered in numbers that get bigger as I progress?

Transistor said:
Agreed. It's why the Pro HUD is the only way I'll play Breath of the Wild.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's how I play the game most of the time, but there can be times when I need information from the game that is only provided in the standard HUD.
I wish it was more customizable - including things like having an option for the health bar to fade out.

I've been playing Dishonored 2 lately, and they do a great job of letting you customize the HUD - though the interface for it could be better.
The game really needed accessibility options for the text/subtitles though. It's tiny in places, and their use of thin wiry fonts at those sizes can make things difficult to read (I am not talking about the menu displayed below).

dishonored2-hud-pmjuh.jpg
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,699
Boston, MA
Tyaren said:
Final Fantasy Dissidia. @__@

1517783012-367293329.jpg
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Hmmmm, it looks very similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Then again, I'm biased, because I'm now very used to the HUD info dump on the screen. Now I feel disoriented if I don't see what's going on, and that image is bringing back some nostalgia from my Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gaming spree.
 
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