The Witcher 3 HUD and UI

[truthinoneword]

I think the hud was simply enlarged for the press event, so that people with vision problems would be able to see it properly. As it is almost twice as big as the earlier gameplay shown.

View attachment 9562

View attachment 9561

 

[Jan_III_Sobieski]

Interesting that is says "Fatal blow was dealt by Geralt." Nice to know we won't be fighting alone against the Wild Hunt.

 

[frynse]

I guess most of the stuff I wanted to point out has already been mentioned. Needlessly big parts of the HUD or elements that seem entirely pointless (I will never get the point of the time of day icon), and the HUD overall seeming to have gotten worse since last E3. Not to mention that camera is zoomed way the fuck out for some reason when this also looked better last E3.

Point is, I just hope someone from the team can mention whether or not there's some differences between the build shown off at the presentation, whether these HUD elements are larger on consoles or if it might be possible to disable or otherwise alter some of these options altogether. Really hope they can clear this up as just moving along in silence and not acknowledging these kinds of things concerns me.

 

[schinderhannes.999]

(I will never get the point of the time of day icon)

Quest related factors like having to be somewhere or perform something at a specific time? Pretty obvious why it's there, if you ask me.
At least they seem to have gotten rid of the other icon which was showing the sort of the creature you we're hunting BEFORE you even got the first clue about what exactly you're up against.

The concerns about UI scalability or the possibility to hide parts of or the entire HUD might get addressed during the Q&A session after the 15min demo on Monday, provided that enough people bombard this thread with the appropriate questions of course.

 

[EliHarel]

At least they seem to have gotten rid of the other icon which was showing the sort of the creature you we're hunting BEFORE you even got the first clue about what exactly you're up against.

Heeey didn't notice that, nice.

 

[IsengrimR]

While I like the style of the HUD, yes, I would like it to be smaller... in some cases.

What I want to know is that HUD is customizable. I hope it is, scale, turning elements on/off, etc.
That would be very nice and user friendly.

 

[frynse]

Quest related factors like having to be somewhere or perform something at a specific time? Pretty obvious why it's there, if you ask me.

Yeah, but still, I feel like it's something that could've just been in the menu as I doubt we'll need to know the exact time that often. Same reason I don't like the horse stamina meter, as after you'll have played the game for a handful of hours, it will end up being an eyesore.

 

[arkhenon]

It was there in the first game too, and I appreciated it and used it extensively actually. With different monsters appearing in different hour intervals, and some quests telling you to go to exact locations at different hours and everything. It felt more immersive compared to opening the "wait" menu every time you want to check the time in Elder Scrolls for example.

 

[Sharpy47]

Im pretty sure that current UI/Hud isn't final. Im also certain that CDPR will leave us an option to costumise/hide it ( I really Hope so! )

 

[hardom]

every damn thread it ends up with people wanting to "make this thing customizable in the game", really, we'll end up with more things customizable than thief

 

[randyrhoads]

Did anyone notice the herbs popping up on the minimap like in FC3?

 

[schinderhannes.999]

Yup, and I REALLY hope that's just because the game ran on easy difficulty and had the 'Show me everything on the minimap because I can't be arsed to look for it myself' option ticked when they recorded the footage.

 

[Sharpy47]

Yup, and I REALLY hope that's just because the game ran on easy difficulty and had the 'Show me everything on the minimap because I can't be arsed to look for it myself' option ticked when they recorded the footage.

This.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

good, I hope so!

---------- Updated at 04:36 PM ----------

Yeah, but still, I feel like it's something that could've just been in the menu as I doubt we'll need to know the exact time that often. Same reason I don't like the horse stamina meter, as after you'll have played the game for a handful of hours, it will end up being an eyesore.

The time of day/hour is not so bad, but I agree that the stamina horse bar and underwater stamina bar need to be changed a little or at least let us turn it off.

 

[Vigilance.492]

Herbs popping up on the mini-map is definitely something I could do without, however CDPR might have seen it as a necessity.

In The Witcher 1 you could hold down ALT and easily tell between what plants were just there for decoration and which ones could be harvested.
In The Witcher 2 you could tap your Z key and they'd glow, or they had that natural red sparkle on them.

Perhaps in 3 they no longer naturally sparkle, and there's no Z or ALT key to help you see herbs (Witcher Senses probably doesn't have that functionality). So having them pop up on the mini-map when you're really close by (Like Red Dead Redemption and many other games), is their new way of making finding herbs easier.

Personally I'm not a fan, because it always adds clutter to the mini-map, something that generally tends to be small and cluttered even if the game only uses it for the absolute necessities. I'd prefer the natural sparkle or ALT/Z keys, however ultimately I do understand why the decision has probably been made, and in reality it's not going to be a huge deal.
Just another reason why being able to heavily customize your UI/HUD is such a wonderful addition to games and woefully underused by developers.

 

[Garrison72]

Yup, and I REALLY hope that's just because the game ran on easy difficulty and had the 'Show me everything on the minimap because I can't be arsed to look for it myself' option ticked when they recorded the footage.

Yeah, not a good idea at all. There's a line between convenience and hand holding here. The previous games made it convenient to collect herbs. Either the scan mechanic or alt/shift worked fine. Showing stuff like this on the mini map is only for games like Saints Row or GTA, where you don't really explore, you just navigate the map. Bethesda for instance deliberately does away with the minimap for immersion.

 

[thislsmadness]

Yeah, not a good idea at all. There's a line between convenience and hand holding here. The previous games made it convenient to collect herbs. Either the scan mechanic or alt/shift worked fine. Showing stuff like this on the mini map is only for games like Saints Row or GTA, where you don't really explore, you just navigate the map. Bethesda for instance deliberately does away with the minimap for immersion.

I think it looked perfectly fine. They only seem to appear if you're within proximity, so its not like GTA or AC where it looks like someone barfed crayolas all over the map. It still encourages you to explore, the difference vs W2 is that you aren't constantly mashing Witcher sense and getting the obnoxious orange glow on everything.

 

[wichat]

sometimes, in RL, plants let us know where they are by their smell. I could be fine if marking the closeness of plants and corpse and stuff in the map in the absence of olfactory sense.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

I would like to play on easy and enjoy this game and story without giving up!
e.g games like Darksouls, Shadow of mordor and Lords of the fallen pissed me off after 10 mins and I was done
That being said, just because I want to play the game on easy, does not mean I want hud elements all over the screen or constant hand holding.
Hud elements, glowing herbs/walls/chests of interest fucking kills it. I am so stoked that this game has such Great Art, and the last thing I want to see is tons of cheesey hud elements/button prompt icons and glowing anything of interest mucking up the awesome art style of this game and getting in the way of my view/fun.
I want to learn it, maybe even master it and then turn hud elements off one by one, or all of it off to really see and feel this open world.
It dosen't get more real than that. Options full hud off/elements off.
Options all button icon prompts off e.g mount horse, talk, open door, loot etc...etc.. it makes sense to have these on/off options because once we all know how to play it, and know what buttons do what, it becomes second nature and there is no damn good reason to keep those ugly, stupid button prompts on the screen anymore.
Yes, button prompts are a necessary evil as a means for learning and playing an new game in general for the first time, but I strongly feel it should only be temporary to the point that once a player is comfortable with it's controls, then let them have the freedom to turn those button prompts off or on whenever they want. Maybe.. If I'm still playing this game when I'm 103 years old then yeah, I might choose to turn the button icon prompts back on to remind me what to push. lol... @Marcin Momot @TheEvilChris will/can devs please give these awesome options to us gamers/players in the end? Or maybe just patch in these cool options later if we don't already have them all by May 19th.
Anyways...
I'm confident we will have the option(s) for a clean screen on all platforms, but the added option to turn off all button icon prompts too would be really fucking bad ass to say the least. Come on you guys... please let us turn those prompts off, LIMBO fucking did it, now show'em who's the boss CDPR Team! lol...

 

[Scholdarr.452]

I almost had to puke when I saw that...:sick:

View attachment 9615


I thought W3 would be a game NOT made for idiots and casuals. Seems I was wrong... :rant:

An open world game that doesn't even respect and honour actual exploration and the intelligence of the gamer is just pointless. Those intrusive quests markers and all the stuff shown on the minimap are BAD "modern" design by its finest, sorry... :thumbdown:


Edit:
Oh, and is this fuc.... Far Cry? CDPR, please don't copy BAD DESIGN from other games. Herbs on the minimap?! Really? I can't really articulate how stupid that is...

View attachment 9616