Add HUD Color and Layout Customization Options

[Cosmo]

When can we get in-game settings to change the HUD colors and layout? This has been requested thousands of times over the last two years. If you search the Forums you will find lots of threads with HUD customization requests. For example this thread.

Some HUD colors work with NPC portraits and those should be added in-game. Xbox players still can't change their HUD colors. It should be possible without using mods on PC such as the Elite: Dangerous HUD colour theme editor.

Many people also want to customize the HUD layout. Like make elements transparent and move it around or hidden when it's not used for a cleaner HUD. Lots of people would be willing to pay some money for HUD cosmetics.

Please give an official response Frontier, thanks.

I used the Camera Suite prefix, because there isn't one for graphics or interface.

 

[danteuk]

When can we get in-game settings to change the HUD colors and layout? This has been requested thousands of times over the last two years. If you search the Forums you will find lots of threads with HUD customization requests. For example this thread.

Some HUD colors work with NPC portraits and those should be added in-game. Xbox players still can't change their HUD colors. It should be possible without using mods on PC such as the Elite: Dangerous HUD colour theme editor.

Many people also want to customize the HUD layout. Like make elements more transparent and move it around. Lots of people would be willing to pay some money for HUD cosmetics.

Please give an official response Frontier, thanks.

I used the Camera Suite prefix, because there isn't one for graphics or interface.

This requires a serious amount of work I believe - because FDev made a bad UI choice at day one, the colours seem to hard-coded to orange, so any adjustment you make is relative to orange. My Cyan hud looks great but all 'images' in the ui ( holo me / outfitting paintjobs and laser colours ) are all completely screwed for this palette because they apply the hud colour values to them.

See this nice example ( also shows a bug in the hanger view for paint job on an ASP ).

Spoiler

Notice how the 'Synth Blue' is select but the preview pic is red. For a long time I thought this was just a bug, but since the HoloMe image are all off too I see it's an issue with the custom hud colours.

 

[Cosmo]

This requires a serious amount of work I believe - because FDev made a bad UI choice at day one, the colours seem to hard-coded to orange, so any adjustment you make is relative to orange. My Cyan hud looks great but all 'images' in the ui ( holo me / outfitting paintjobs and laser colours ) are all completely screwed for this palette because they apply the hud colour values to them.

Yes, some custom HUD options do work with the portraits and other stuff. The HUD is what people stare at for hundreds or thousands of hours. So I think HUD customization should be a top priority, because it's been requested thousands of times on the forums, subreddit, steam and live streams. It also has cosmetic revenue potential for Frontier which makes it even more worth adding to the game.

 

[Cosmo]

This post in another thread has a better explanation:

Most games don't have HUD customization options, but the point is Elite Dangerous has a really big HUD with only one color that dominates the screen. The default color is orange and many people don't like orange. After staring at the default ED HUD for hundreds of hours people who already didn't like the big orange HUD will be more turned off by it.

Modern immersive games have minimal HUDs so the player is better immersed in the game's environment. Look at for example Mass Effect 3 and Elder Scrolls Skyrim. The HUD is more minimalist and much is hidden except when needed.
The big dominating HUD in Elite Dangerous reduces immersion and is distracting. This is why many people want HUD customization options for Elite Dangerous.

So please add in-game HUD colors and minimalist HUD options. Additional customization would be awesome.

Skyrim Minimalist HUD

Mass Effect 3 Minimalist HUD

Elite Dangerous Big Orange HUD

^up^
FD please rewrite RGB matrix and give us proper tool or HUD colors

I think that in a functional sense the color choice was good. But there's too much of it. When I think of Elite the first thing comes to my mind is that neon orange color and I hate that. Especially that most planets are similar to that, everything is brown and orange and beige. Even some of the new station interiors are orange. Since we all look at the HUD 99% of the play time I think it would be fortunate if we could choose the color of it. Orange works well in most cases and maybe some hues of red, blue or green would not be as functional. But it would still represent a choice and thus shape the whole perception of the game. Frontier often talks about "quality of life" improvements - well I think HUD color is one of the most important and exposed elements of that quality of in-game life. As a standalone color, orange is a good choice. But it's too much. Even more so that this is not a game we play 1-2 hours.

Seconded


Star Citizen's HUD is more minimalist. The Hornet (2016 PTU 2.4), I don't like the cockpit, but the HUD has thin lines and uses less screen space. The greenish color is not distracting compared to the default orange HUD of ED. ED's HUD has unnecessary thick lines that could be hidden. Such as the thick lined bars in the top of the HUD. Add an option for HUD information to fade out when it's not used.

People have different tastes, but the fact remains that a lot of people want a minimalist HUD and color customization in-game.

 

[CMDR ColD_ZA]

Please give an official response Frontier, thanks.

Dude, It's Frontier... they are not going to communicate... and if they do it will be in a stream replying to a question with some nonsense like.... "uhm, Thats a great idea!" or "I would love to see that"....

So would we Frontier... so would we, how bout making it happen.

Edit: if hud colours make it in though, you can count on it being a Frontier Store item

 

[Shadowdancer]

How does this relate to the current beta, or to the camera suite? All I see is a thread wasting time and space on a forum where it doesn't belong, and on a topic that's been discussed ad nauseam with probably nothing new to say.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Dude, It's Frontier... they are not going to communicate...

With that attitude, why are you here?

 

[Cosmo]

How does this relate to the current beta, or to the camera suite? All I see is a thread wasting time and space on a forum where it doesn't belong, and on a topic that's been discussed ad nauseam with probably nothing new to say.

It relates to the beta and game in general, because it has been a much requested feature for years. This thread brings attention to it and hopefully some developers will see it. It will keep being discussed until we get official information on when HUD customization will be added.