Or, if one exists can someone point me to it? Some ISI overlays show this but with numerous other things that clutter the view. I use paddle shifters with the 60's formula cars so have no way to see what gear I'm in. (I miss my Fanatec CSR that displayed it on the wheel!)
One of the stock HUD mods that ISI provides with rF2 is basically it. Don't remember the name, but it's the one I use You can see it in action here: http://youtu.be/iBfy1VcSsgk (press 5 to enable/disable)
I've uploaded my customized HUD, which only displays the Gear and Fuel. I use it because i also don't like an overfilled screen. If you like it, get it HERE Here is a Screenshot:
After downloading it, install it like other components with the modmanager (the checkbox "Components" has to be checked and the tab "HUD" has to be activated to show it in the list). When that is done, enter the game, click "CUSTOMIZE" at the bottomline of the screen, and under the tab "ONSCREEN DISPLAY" it should be available now. Choose it, click "ACCEPT" and that's it.
When i customized my little reduced HUD a while ago, i started with changing the Settings in the ini file of an existing HUD and looked what it changed in game. It's all a thing of positioning the showed displays and, of course, changing the texture(s).
Either duplicate example already in DevMode with unique naming, or extract the resources from the one that is the closest to what you want into structure matching what is already in Devmode with a unique name. Open devmode, choose customize, pick your new HUD, enter a track, go to HUD editor and make it what you want.
Unfortunately is that only possible if the monitor allows a resolution of 1280x960. When i tried this way, before i edited it "by hand", i got the message that a HUD can only be edited at a resolution of 1280x960. But because i have a TV as Monitor, which allows 1024x768 as maximum, the HUD-Editor don't work for me. Or do you know a way to make it work though? Would be much easier i guess.
I run dev mode in 1440x900, these lines are added to my "HUD".INI, after the fonts are specified. Now it will only run the HUD editor @ 1440x900.
Thank you for the hint, how did you know that you can add the Res-lines into the ini? When i add the lines with x=1024 and y=768 i can open the editor and work with it. The only thing now is, that it messes up the positioning a little bit, when i use the edited HUD in normal mode. Even if i delete the lines after editing. I will have to play around with it to solve that, i guess. Or i will go and get me a monitor that allows higher resolutions than my TV-screen with 1024x768. But it's really a nice Tool!
No idea what any of that means. I thought lordpantsington was referring to a simpler way for the average user to create huds, move things around on-screen, change size, fonts, colours, graphics/icons/dials design style, etc.
So are you trying to make a HUD and are stuck, or do you just like playing devil's advocate? How much more basic do you want it to be? Make copy, alter copy. Expect that learning is going to be required. I fully expect the OP to try something, and fail on the first outing. I would hope he posts back with questions, or some insight as to what is going on, and we can go from there. Moving things around/changing size/setting color (for certain objects) in the HUD editor is easy peasy. Removing/"linking" what is displayed on a certain object is slightly more advanced. Changing to an existing font is also not too hard. Everything else is simply just graphics work, more suited to a Photoshop type program (not within scope of what I'm willing to help with).
Is there a video tutorial out there for all this? I wouldn't mind being able to get into this. A gran truism style HUD with just the horizontal lines would be cool. Can the size/dimensions of dials (or any HUD object) simply be changed by click-n-dragging with the mouse? Can I edit/add text by just clicking and typing or does it all have to be inserted into dev-mode by a pre-completed picture only (jpg, etc.)? Can I highlight a set of numbers and with some sort of menu choose what I want those numbers to represent (speed, g's, rpm, fuel, laps, lap-time, etc.)? Can that all be done directly in dev-mode? Thanks
Easiest way to see what the Hud editor can do, is to pop it open in Devmode. I'd advise making a backup of your HUD folder prior. Just screw around with the default HUD, then just overwrite when you want to get the original files back. Resizing and placement of HUD objects? Yes, simply edited by mouse clicks or by click dragging the wheel. Yes you can add text things, but it has its limitations. An example: This will display the current gear as text, but there is no label to tell you what it is. Your label would be part of the texture/background. Note that what it is referencing "CurrentGearString" is a reserved/special thing. What is Displayed/Shown with the number keys (non-keypad) in the HUD basically makes up the sub-sections of the HUD. Only certain things with hardcoded names apply to each sub-section. There is some flexibility with the gauge object. As g's are not defined with a hardcoded name you will not be able to do anything with them. Speed, rpm, fuel, laps, laptime are defined, and can be attached and scaled/located. Basically you are limited to what ISI gives you to work with, but this is at least a step up from mods overwriting default, core files and causing conflicts as occurred in rf1. Some of this might be a touch out of date/foggy, its been awhile (at least a year) since I edited my HUD. It is still in INI form, not even sure if HUDs moved to JSON.
Thanks, I'll have to give it a go sometime this week. So can I create dials/HUDs durectly in devmode with some sort of user friendly HUD and dial creation mode, or do I have to create those in some sort of art/photo program and then import the picture of the HUD/dial/meter into devmode?
Thanks! Got it working. Was pleasantly surprised to see it centered in my 5160x1050 screen. One little glitch though... the moving spots that show position of other cars (HUD stats) are really big now. How can I shrink those? And is there a way to change size and position if I wanted to fine tune it? I was not able to find an ini file. Probably didn't look in the right place. I suspect that it might involve Dev mode which I have never clicked on! Having just done that it is now downloading SDK-910.
You would add custom dials to the HUDTEXTURE.tga in your graphics program. To start I used the multi_dial HUDTEXTURE. I just clumsily pasted on top of it, so I wouldn't have to redefine where things were located in the texture atlas. I wasted a lot of space, and really need to go full custom when I get back around to this. You define (crop) where things are in your texture atlas from within the HUD editor. Word of warning that using 0,0,0 for black is bad. Your textures use transparency and there is math going on behind the scenes. Anything x0=0 so superblack of all 0's will always be transparent and give screwy results when trying to use the HUD editor colorization feature. Hmmm, I'm looking back at my template, and notice there is a g-meter in it, perhaps you CAN have that widget? Like I said it's been awhile, things are a touch foggy.
Maybe i caused the too big symbols of the opponent cars, because i edited the ini "by hand" outside the editor and also uncommented some entries which maybe have had influence on that. I don't use that part of the HUD, because i don't need it in DevMode, so i didn't notice it. But you can edit everything to your needs. The ini file is inside of the MAS-file. When you have installed the SDK, use the HUD-editor in DevMode. Therefor you have to do the following. Take the MAS-tool (MAS2.exe in the folder ..\Support\Tools), open the MAS-file of the HUD (it's the JUSTGEARANDFUEL.mas in the folder ..\Installed\HUD\HUD_Gear_and_Fuel\1.0) and extract the content into a new folder, that you have to create, in the folder ..\ModDev\HUD. Move the ini file into the ..\ModDev\HUD folder and repack the rest (without the ini-file) of the extracted files into a MAS file with the name JUSTGEARANDFUEL.mas again and put it into the ..\ModDev\HUD folder too. You should give the mas file another name to get no conflicts in game later, but you will have to edit the last line in the ini file, where the mas file is referenced, (MAS_FILE = JUSTGEARANDFUEL.mas) then. And change the name of the ini file too. Enter the Dev-Mode, choose the HUD in the Menu, enter the track, and the HUD-editor in the Editor Menu. Looks a bit like "?????" but play around with the settings to see what they cause. Or look for youtube tutorial videos. If you want to change the textures, you have to always repack the mas file, after changing something. (I don't know if it works with referencing to a folder instead of a mas file) When you have finished your work, put the ini file into the mas again and create a new comp that can be installed.
