Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
letters, and only switching to uppercase letters if the Shift key is also down at the
time.
HUD Elements
The most basic
HUD
(heads-up display) is one that displays elements such as the
player's score and number of lives remaining. This type of HUD is relatively trivi-
al to implement—once the main game world has been rendered, we only need to
draw on top of it some text or icons that convey the appropriate information. But
certain games utilize more complex types of elements, including waypoint arrows,
radars, compasses, and aiming reticules. This section takes a look at how some of
these elements might be implemented.
Waypoint Arrow
A waypoint arrow is designed to point the player to the next objective. One of the
easiest ways to implement such an arrow is to use an actual 3D arrow object that
is placed at a set location onscreen. Then as the player moves around in the world,
this 3D arrow can rotate to point in the direction that the player needs to travel.
This type of waypoint arrow has been used in games such as
Crazy Taxi
, and an
illustration of such an arrow is shown in
Figure 10.3
.
