Halo fans are in for a neat treat as Halo 5: Guardians characters get new heads up displays (HUDs) and some exciting details are now available.
Microsoft and 343 Industries have put together a small team that is working on the design of the HUDs for all characters that are part of the Halo 5: Guardians story. The two main user interface (UI) artists working on the feature are Jeff Christy and Eric Will, and they now offer a glimpse of what's to come, explaining how they will use HUD elements to highlight each Spartan.
According to the two artists, each HUD's color will represent some visual aspect of a given character. In some cases, the tint of their visor will serve as inspiration, while in other cases they will draw cues from the paint scheme of the character's armor.
"We try to capture some aspect of the design to help the player 'feel' like they are in the corresponding suit," explained Will.
At the same time, Chromatic Aberration is in the mix as well, aiming to highlight the fact that the HUD is a "synthetic injection" that overlays the real world and is subject to distortion and light-bending. Instead of translating the surrounding world, the HUDs re-create it digitally and synthetically.
Christy, meanwhile, noted that the color choice is not based on a concrete ruleset but is inspired by the fiction and the armor design of the character. The HUD colors of the Blue Team, for instance, will be along the same likes as older Halo iterations, but the Osiris Team will get additional variety in this department so it further stands out from the other team.
Moreover, Christy further says Chromatic Aberration will apply selectively in the HUD. To avoid affecting gameplay or legibility, for instance, Chromatic Aberration will not apply to most text, reticles and the like.
The artists also noted that gamers will notice a number of differences between Spartan IV characters and those of older generations, and the personality of each individual will influence how his HUD is set up.
In other words, the new HUDs aim to make it obvious for gamers that they are seeing the world through the eyes of different game characters, and artists have been working hard to capture the visual language of each particular Spartan.
