Urban Terror 4.1

Ultimate Guide to Configuration and Scripting

Round 4: The HUD (Heads Up Display)

Table of Contents:

 

This chapter will help you configure your visible game area your HUD (or Heads Up Display) to optimize your game play.  Remember everything in this section is about your personal preference.  If you don't like a recommended setting DON'T USE IT.  Find what you like and configure your system to work for you, not against you. If you do this you will be amazed at how your game play will improve.

 

Because this is a long chapter I have broken it into smaller sections: The basic sections of this chapter are:

  • Field of Vision
  • Weapon Display and Size
  • Health and Player Status Readout
  • Weapon and Ammo Display
  • Team and Score Info
  • Minimaps
  • Crosshairs (not scopes)
  • Game timers, clocks and other information givers
  • Chat Settings
  • Sample Script

 

The screen and setup:

Heads Up Display Shot

 

This is a typical screen shot of the game, as you can see there are no other players in this game as only my name appears on the screen.

 

Field of Vision

The more you can see, the more informed you are on the battle field.  The field of vision (cg_fov) is the angle you can view out to.  Normally in game this is set to 90 degrees.  I strongly recommend setting your field of vision to 110 for the widest view of the battle field.  (Urban Terror locks this value range from 90 to 110)

cg_fov 90 - Field of Vision 90 Degrees

cg_fov 90

 

cg_fov 110 - Field of Vision 110 degrees

cg_fov 110

As you can see, standing in the exact same spot you can see much more by extending your fov to 110.  For many players (including myself) it takes some getting used to at first if "feels weird" at first.  But once you adjust to it, you will have a hard time going back.

 

 

Weapon Display And Size

Gun On

The Screen with the gun visible. As you can see this takes up almost a quarter of your screen. (cg_drawhands 1, cg_gunsize 0)

Gun Mini

The gun in "small" size. You lose a lot less of your visible area. (cg_drawhands 1, cg_gunsize 1)

Gun Off

As you can see with the gun not visible you get the maximum viewable area.  This is very handy. (cg_drawhands 0, cg_gunsize 0)

The first thing about the heads up display and visible screen is weather or not your weapon is visible in the screen.  I find that having the weapon on the screen is distracting and covers a large portion of the visible area (equaling a blind spot even with the gun in mini mode).  I prefer to leave the view weapon option off. However many players like to so they can see what weapon they have.  I use the weapon info in the right bottom corner or memory to determine what weapon I have.

 

Health and Player Status readout

This is the health meter located at the bottom left of the Heads Up Display (HUD). This has distinct regions of damage... shown here.

Health Meter

Health Meter Arms

 Health Meter Legs Health Meter Torso Health Head and Other damage

There are really no options here, you cannot move the health meter, and you cannot change anything about it.  It reports 3 things to you.

  • Your overall health
  • Your stamina
  • Active wounds

When playing if you sprint or jump you will notice the health bar getting lighter. In the screen shots above you will notice the color difference between the arm screen shot and the torso.  The difference in color indicates when I got shot in the torso my stamina was gone. When I was shot in the arms I had as much stamina as I can have. 

The areas in read indicate areas that I am actively bleeding from.  Unless I bandage my characters wounds, my character will die.  To bandage use the heal command +button3/-button3 which is bound to the letter "q" by default. You can heal other people's wounds as well, preventing them (and/or your self) from "bleeding out". 

 

 

Weapon/Ammo Info Display

weapon info 0

cg_hudweaponinfo 0

weapon info 1

cg_hudweaponinfo 1

weapon info 2

cg_hudweaponinfo 2

The data given by this display is the weapon mode, in this case it was all set to Automatic, but it will show you the current mode of your weapon. It also gives the number of rounds (bullets) in your current magazine (clip). And the number of "extra" full clips you are carrying. 

There are not a lot of settings to the weapon info options. Set it to anything you can use.  I prefer 0 (zero) my self, just because it is the smallest and the icon given for each weapon is different if you can remember them.

 

Team and score Info Display

To see the players in the game and their current scores the command is:

cg_drawteamoverlayscores

cg_drawteamscores (0/1)

It has the following options that affect output:

  • cg_drawteamoverlayscores #: Valid range, 0-3. 0 is off. 1 displays both teams. 2 displays your team and number of alive enemies. 3 is yourself and the number of alive teammates and enemies.

 

Minimaps

Mini maps are a small scale representation of the map you are currently on along with arrows to represent the positions of your teammates.  The map can be placed at any of 8 locations or turned off completely.  Here are screen shots of the minimap "positions".

cg_mappos 0

cg_mappos 0

cg_mappos 1

cg_mappos 1

cg_mappos 2

cg_mappos 2

cg_mappos 3

cg_mappos 3

cg_mappos 4

cg_mappos 4

cg_mappos 5

cg_mappos 5

cg_mappos 6

cg_mappos 6

cg_mappos 7

cg_mappos 7

cg_mappos 8

cg_mappos 8

cg_mappos 9

cg_mappos 9

 

The mini map has several other settings that can affect it's appearance and options. 

  • Map Alpha: cg_mapalpha (0.000- 1.000) This is the transparency level of the map 0.00 = completely see through, 1.00 is completely opaque. 
  • Map Arrow Size: cg_maparrowscale (Float) This is the scale size of the arrows representing you and your team mates on the minimap.
  • Map Size: cg_mapsize (Integer) This is the size of the map in pixels.
  • Map Toggle: cg_maptoggle (0/1) This turns the map ON (1) or OFF (0). 

 

Crosshairs

There are 14 available crosshair choices.  Here are the pictures along with their callout number:

cg_drawcrosshair 0

cg_drawcrosshair 0

cg_drawcrosshair 1

cg_drawcrosshair 1

cg_drawcrosshair 3

cg_drawcrosshair 2

cg_drawcrosshair 3

cg_drawcrosshair 3

cg_drawcrosshair 4

cg_drawcrosshair 4

cg_drawcrosshair 5

cg_drawcrosshair 5

cg_drawcrosshair 6

cg_drawcrosshair 6

cg_drawcrosshair 7

cg_drawcrosshair 7

cg_drawcrosshair 8

cg_drawcrosshair 8

cg_drawcrosshair 9

cg_drawcrosshair 9

cg_drawcrosshair 10

cg_drawcrosshair 10

cg_drawcrosshair 11

cg_drawcrosshair 11

cg_drawcrosshair 12

cg_drawcrosshair 12

cg_drawcrosshair 13

cg_drawcrosshair 13

  

 

Each one of them responds differently to the accuracy ring that shows your accuracy drop off.  My best recommendation is to find the one that is best suited to you and use it. :)

Additional settings for the crosshair that you would probably like to consider:

  • cg_crosshairfriendrgb R G B Br: This gives you complete control over the color of your crosshair, in Red, Green, and Blue with a BRightness level. This is the color your cross hair appears when you point it at a team mate (aka friend).  This is a quick way to tell if you are pointing at a friend or foe, even with the night vision gogles on.
  • cg_crosshairHealth  (0/1): If turned on allows you to see the health of the teammate your cross hair is pointing at. 
  • cg_drawcrosshairnames (0/1): Toggle the ability to show players name when cross hair over them
  • cg_crosshairnamessize #.###: This determines the size of the font used for the team mate's name when you cross hair is pointing at them.
  • cg_crosshairnamestype (0-3):  Switches between different cross hair name types, valid range 0 to 3.
  • cg_crosshairsize # : Size of cross hairs (in pixels?) You can change the size of all the cross hairs (I believe).
  • cg_crosshairX #: Offset number of pixels in X axis.
  • cg_crosshairY #: Offset number of pixels in Y axis.

 

Game Timers and clocks

To show the real world time (according to your PC). 

cl_drawclock 1

cl_drawclock (0/1)

This shows up at the top center of the screen if turned on.  There are NO options for the clock other than ON (1) or OFF(0).

 

To show the game timer the command is:

cg_drawtimer 1

cg_drawtimer (0/1)

The timer shows up on the top right of the screen (under the team scores and FPS if present) There are NO options for the timer other than ON (1) or OFF(0).

 

Frames per second (FPS), Lagometer, and speed-o

To show the Frames Per Second (FPS) (and current ping time) that your system is producing with current settings the command is:

cg_drawfps 1

cg_drawfps (0/1)

There are NO options for the FPS Display other than ON (1) or OFF (0).

 

To see the Network speed of your system in real time the command is:

cg_lagometer 1

cg_lagometer (0/1)

The lagometer is a color network graph showing lag and latency check the Urban Terror manual for more details about how to read it.

 

To see you exact position and speed (in reference to the map X, Y, and Z coordinates) the command is:

cg_speedo 1

cg_speedo (0/1)

The speedometer shows up in the bottom right of the screen next to your weapon information display.

 

Chat Settings:

There are 4 basic chat settings that will affect your screen they are:

  • cg_msgHeight  # ; How many messages to display on your screen at a time.
  • cg_msgTime #;  Number of milliseconds messages from teammates are displayed on the screen.
  • cg_chatHeight  #;  How many chat messages to display on your screen at a time.
  • cg_chatTime #;  Number of milliseconds that a chat messages stays on the screen before it goes.

I did not include screen shots as I think this is pretty easy to figure out.

 

Sample Script:

Use this script at your own risk, if it doesn't work stop using it.  Make sure to configure it the way you like it.  I named it hud.cfg and call it from my autoexec.cfg when I load my game. But you can execute it any way you like.

// Visibility Settings
set cg_fov             110     // Field of Vision

// Weapon Settings
set cg_drawhands         0    // Toggles the drawing of the gun in your hands
set cg_gunsize        0    // Toggles the "small" weapon drawing if drawhandsize is on
set cg_hudweaponinfo    1    // Shows the ammo and weapon state (auto/semi/slash/throw etc)
set cg_drawteamscores     1    // Shows the team scores... I typically configure this on a toggle so I can turn it off easily
set cg_drawteamoverlayscores 3    // Shows the most information possible in the team scores area

// Crosshair settings
set cg_drawcrosshair     8    // I prefer the Dot... but it is a personal preference
set cg_crosshairfriendrgb     1 1 0 1     // The color of the cross hair (this is bright yellow... doesn't work well on "sunny" maps, but works great for dark maps.)
set cg_crosshairHealth      1    // Show friendly health when pointing cross hair at them
set cg_drawcrosshairnames     1    // show friendly name when pointing at them
set cg_crosshairnamessize     1.0    // The size of the name when displayed
set cg_crosshairnamestype      3    // The style of the name display
set cg_crosshairsize     20    // The size of the crosshair
set cg_crosshairX         0    // The X displacement of the cross hair
set cg_crosshairY         0    // The Y displacement of the cross hair

// Map Settings
set cg_mappos         4    // Show minimap at 7 oclock position
set cg_mapalpha         0.85    // Make the map 15 percent see though
set cg_maparrowscale     1.0    // Draw arrows normal size
set cg_mapsize         150    // make the largest map dimension 150 pixels
set cg_maptoggle         1    // Draw the map... I ussually have this on a toggle script as well

// Clocks and Timers
set cl_drawclock         1    // I draw the clock just to remind me there is an outside world...
set cg_drawtimer         1    // Good to know when respawns and map cycles are coming up
set cg_drawfps         1    // Draw the FPS data
set cg_lagometer         0    // Do not draw the lagometer... I ussually have this on a toggle.
set cg_speedo         0    // Do not draw the speedometer... I never found a use for this yet.


// Chat and Communications
set cg_msgHeight        4    // only show 4 lines of messages at a time
set cg_msgTime         4000     // Number of milliseconds messages from teammates are displayed on the screen.
set cg_chatHeight        4     // only show 4 lines of messages at a time
set cg_chatTime        4000     // Number of milliseconds that a chat messages stays on the screen before it goes.
 

  

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This file was last updated: "August 18, 2010, 9:00 pm"