Even if the user interface is only a small part of a game, it is very important. There is no game that comes without it. It is the first thing you see once you start a game, and the HUD is visible nearly all the time during gameplay. The style of the UI/HUD has a big impact on the look and feel of a game. While it is needed to show important information (for example, health, current ammo, and so on), it also needs to fit into the rest of the scene. The worst thing will be to have a UI that just feels misplaced over the rest of the scene.
In this chapter, I will show you how to bring your own custom UI and HUD into our engine. Because CryENGINE 3 uses Scaleform GFx as a UI solution, you will need to have Adobe Flash to create your assets.
In this chapter, we shall:
Let's start!
In order to be able to create new UI/HUD assets, we need Adobe Flash. If you don't own Adobe Flash, you can use a 30-day trial of Adobe Flash, which is available at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flash&loc=us&promoid=EBYEO.
Additionally, I will use Adobe Photoshop, which is also available for a 30-day trial at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop&loc=us&promoid=EBYEO.
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