Kilrathi HUD concepts

Aginor

Vice Admiral
Hi again!
I decided to create an additional thread because I don't want to make the interior design thread even more complicated.

My work on the Kilrathi mod goes on, and I'm now polishing the HUDs of all Kilrathi ships.
That includes creating the weapons gauge with silhouettes of the Kilrathi fighters and positioning the weapon icons roughly where the weapons are on the fighters etc.

What I need help with is creating the central part of the HUD. Of course there is a generic center region that I can use, but I want each of the Kilrathi ships to have an individual HUD like the confed ones.

So what I'm going to do is post all the confed HUDs and ask you for sketches how the Kilrathi ones may look like. Again, I'm happy about every idea posted, even if it is ballpoint pen on a paper napkin.

needed HUDs:
- Darket
- Dralthi
- Vaktoth
- Gothri
- Paktahn
- Khahaf
- Ekapshi
- Sorthak
- Bloodfang


I think the Kilrathi ones should be a bit more angular designed than the terran ones, so use triangles, hexagons ore octagons instead of circles for example.

I'm looking forward to your submissions :)


Confed HUDs:

Arrow
arrow.png


Excalibur
excalibur.png


generic
generic.png


Hellcat
hellcat.png


Longbow
longbow.png


Sabre
sabre.png


Thunderbolt
thunderbolt.png
 
You might look into the source materials;
Dralthi in Secret missions 2
Jhratek in Academy
All the Kilrathi ships in Armada.
 
You might look into the source materials;
Dralthi in Secret missions 2
Jhratek in Academy
All the Kilrathi ships in Armada.

Only with problem with all of the above, of course, is that the Cat fighters are depicted as still using the circular targeting reticules. Limitations of the various programs and all that. It'd also make sense for them to still use circles in most cases; the basic laws of physics and trigonometry don't change just because you're an alien species (something that always used to bug me about the WC3 Kilrathi fighter designs).

I suppose different geometric shapes might make sense for the interior of the reticule - their positioning would then probably be based upon the position of the gun in relationship to the pilot. For example, the Dralthi-III's central point might be off to the right a bit.
 
That's how I imagined it as well. Since the circles are mostly decorative and we know that the Kilrathi are not particularly fans of round forms (in WC3 at least, which is the style the mod should fit into) I think there are a lot of non-round forms that may fit well. Of course there is no need to avoid curved forms completely, some may fit quite well, it is just that I think circles should be used rather scarcely.

And yes, I've flown all the ships and I saw that it will be neccesary to shift the reticles a bit on some of the fighters (the Darket and the Sorthak for example), but I can do that as soon as I have the HUDs finished.

btw: I just completed the HUD weapon display for all fighters (gun and missile placement in the ships) so those fit already.
I'm thinking about doing them for the Demon, Razor and Ferret as well, while I'm at it.
But first I must create a loadout info screen for the Kilrathi mine, it seems I forgot that one.
 
No graphic HUD ideas yet? No problem, take your time. I'll work on the rest of the mod in the meantime.

And an additional request to help our artists here:
Could anyone post some screenshots of the Kilrathi ship interiors in Wing Commander Academy/Armada (or links to where I could find them) for inspiration? I can't find them on the internet at the moment.

EDIT: found some in old threads. I also recommend not actually reading those threads but to look only at the pictures. I don't know about you but I don't like our selves some years ago that much, a whole bunch of them (including me btw so no offense at anybody) were pretty openly strange/choleric/arrogant guys...
https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/impressive-arent-they-february-12-2006.18393/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Found the Armada ones and the WC1 Dralthi.
Now I'm looking for any other cockpits pics Academy could have.

Dralthi, Goran

Dralthi_Cockpit.png
Goran_Cockpit.png


Jrathek, Korlarh
Jrathek_Cockpit.png
Korlarh_Cockpit.png


Shok'lar
Shok'lar_Cockpit.png


Very interesting are the side parts of the Korlarh:
Korlarh_Left_Side.png
Korlarh_Right_Side.png



And also interesting the Dralthi 1 from WC1:
Dralthi_Front.png



That's it for now. But since I am on some sort of Kilrathi spree there will be more soon. (at least until someone decides that I'm overdoing it and bans me :D )
 
Thanks a lot!
It seems I already got all the Kilrathi ones there are, the one that was missing is this one:
wca_003.png



On a side note: I have as good as finished mission two of my campaign today. Of course like in the other missions there are some messages and voice acting missing, and surely there is a bit of polishing needed. But I will get back to that once the general structure of the rest of the missions is done.

Now I'll just have to wait until someone shows up with some HUD concepts I could use to create the Kilrathi HUDs :)
 
Thanks a lot!
It seems I already got all the Kilrathi ones there are, the one that was missing is this one:
Yep... and that's actually the single most important one :). Notice the eject, missile lock, and speed indicators - all of them are labelled with Kilrathi writing, which is sheer awesomeness (except for the fact that it's yet another Kilrathi script! Every time we see Kilrathi writing, it's different! Gah!).

By the way, there is also a Kilrathi cockpit in UE - that also might give you some inspiration for the HUD.
 
Yeah, the Kilrathi scripts....
For my mod I went with the following approach for displaying Kilrathi signs:
I found a Kilrathi alphabet somewhere on the internet based on the Kilrathi signs in the movie.

I write from left to right and I use the English language since I just don't know enough Kilrathi to write things in Kilrathi language. Also I will use Kilrathi only for "fluff" texts, and normal English for everything gameplay-related. That's because people should not have to learn Kilrathi to play the game.
The player is not supposed to read it, it just should look nice, but it is a small bonus for those who have fun doing such things that the signs actually make sense. :)

EDIT: Could you post a screenshot of the Kilrathi Cockpit in UE? I would love to see it :)

Here's an example (WIP):
2_ChoosePilot.jpg
 
Thanks to at least a few ideas for HUDs I got I have finished all the HUDs for the Kilrathi fighters today.
There are some that look good IMO, and there are some I don't like that much. Also I had to move some of them a bit around becasue the asymmetric position of the ships' guns doesn't allow to simply put the reticle in the middle of the screen.
I figured out how to move the autopilot gauge but another one (which can't be seen in the pictures below, it is just the central part. Most look better ingame) I can't move yet. I already asked for help with that on the HLP board.

In at least one case I had to become really creative (the Sorthak HUD), because the cockpit is on the far left of the ship. But I had to make changes on almost every ship, except the Dralthi and Vaktoth IIRC. I tried and... created three reticles for different distances! It might look weird at first glance but when you get used to using it your accuracy flying a Sorthak improves significantly.

For my taste the HUDs don't look alien enough but until someone shows up that really has ideas the HUDs will stay like that.
As you already know I'm now looking into all audio related stuff for the mod. Check out my voice request thread if you want to help with that!
Also keep in mind that those HUDs are not realistic. They are full of useless stuff actually. But I like that because I don't have cockpits yet (I hope somebody will help me with that one day) and I don't like it when the HUD is empty.
The heavier the fighter the more stuff is in the HUD, roughly speaking, and the bombers have additional elements that help you judging angle and distance for a torpedo run.
I tried to avoid round forms and where I used them I at least avoided full circles.
I also made another radar screen, but I guess I will change that again to something similar to the Kilrath radar screen in the Academy cockpit posted earlier. I'm not sure yet.

Here are the HUDs. Tell me what you think so if someone shows up who can do them he might have some idea what to change :)

Bloodfang, Darket, Dralthi
central_bloodfang0000.png
central_darket0000.png
central_dralthi0000.png


Ekapshi, Gothri, K'ha'haf
central_ekapshi0000.png
central_gothri0000.png
central_khahaf0000.png


Paktahn, Sorthak, Vaktoth
central_paktahn0000.png
central_sorthak0000.png
central_vaktoth0000.png
 
I like the assymetrical style - I would just totally remove all the outer circular parts. Anything that frames the entire HUD. Less is more.
 
There's a great quote in a C.S. Lewis novel about an explorer who visits and alien world, and is lost in how different everything is. Then he is reassured when encountering a boat, because the boat is shaped much like a terrestrial one. Then he realizes "what else COULD a boat be shaped like".

In other words, think about if there's a function behind some of the forms, and that should be the same. There's a reason why some things are round. But it it's just decoration, obvioulsy, make it however you want.
 
Leaving the round borders around them away looked really weird, that's why I kept at least some parts of the circles.
There are also hardcoded markers moving around the central part in circles and they look a bit out of place when there is no border at all.
Like I said, I'm still experimenting a bit with the HUDs but mainly I'm now focused on the audio part.

But if you like, try editing the pictures I posted to show what you think might look better, I'm always open for suggestions. :)

Concerning the functions behind the forms: In most cases there is none, except the crosshairs in the middle you don't really need anything of that stuff. The important HUD elements are overlayed over this. Some of them help you aim and show you which way you are flying, but most don't.
 
Hehe, nice one :D
Actually I would love to have cockpits, but neither am I able to do them nor could I go beyond Prophecy-style becasue of the engine I think.
I would be ready to try it though, so if anyone knows how to make cockpits for FSO, go ahead!
 
Yeah, the Kilrathi scripts....
For my mod I went with the following approach for displaying Kilrathi signs:
I found a Kilrathi alphabet somewhere on the internet based on the Kilrathi signs in the movie.

I write from left to right and I use the English language since I just don't know enough Kilrathi to write things in Kilrathi language. Also I will use Kilrathi only for "fluff" texts, and normal English for everything gameplay-related. That's because people should not have to learn Kilrathi to play the game.
The player is not supposed to read it, it just should look nice, but it is a small bonus for those who have fun doing such things that the signs actually make sense.:)
I always envisioned Kilrathi writing as being like Japanese writing, where archaic words are written in ideograms while neologisms or unconventional uses or particles/prefixes/suffixes are written phonetically. It fits with the quasi-Japanese grammatical structure that we see in the existing language samples and the whole "Kilrathi Empire = Japanese Empire" bit.
 
The problem is I don't know enough of the Kilrathi language to write anything, not even some purely decorative letters like in the picture above.
I might add an (no offense Japanese) "alien" look to it by writing from top to bottom and right to left instead of the way I do now. That might also look good. But looking at the letters I have (the movie-based thing I found) I *think* they look as if they are written horizontally.

I might use a totally different set of letters in the end though, if I get one. Some people already told me that the letters I used look not... Kilrathi enough. I would love to use something based on one of the other....three Kilrathi scripts we have and see how it looks. Something more angular maybe.

I would prefer a syllable alphabet like Hiragana or Katakana for the Kilrathi. I would still write in English because it is funny for the fans if they can actually decipher what the script says, and because I don't have to make words up that much.
I will not write much in Kilrathi (just some decorative script in some of the interface screens), and this particular sentence I even know in Kilrathi so I could write it. So maybe it doesn't matter. But creating a Kilrathi script based on one of the examples sure sounds nice.
 
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