One of the most immersion breaking features in games are HUD overlays, this isn't just an aesthetic consideration, it's one that involves the mechanics of how we see and interpret depth information.
In the case of flat projected real-time 3D, the visual cues we use to get depth information are easily confused hence popular optical illusions like Escher's Cube, morrie pattern illusions, apparent parallax illusions etc. -- the U.S. Navy as spent billions on HUD R&D for simulators and aircraft due to the obvious costs of failure being much higher.
Simply put: any HUD element projection on screen is an eye-brain depth cue breaker and any HUD element that has 3D information or art of it's own, even more so; the elements confuse your brain as you perception shifts from the overlay to light, apparent size, and other depth and distance cues in the 3D scene.
You can easily illustrate this for yourself with any high quality game screen-shot with the HUD on and off -- the static screen-shot will look flat and more like a comic book cell with HUD overlays on, the scene will 'pop' with them off, and the effects are even more dramatic in real-time.
As said there's been a lot invested in HUD R&D, and anyone motivated can peruse an enormous volume of information in any U.S. public library in the Government Documents Department; but some summery conclusions pertinent to games and simulators is that all HUD elements confuse and break depth cues, and to minimize this effect all HUD elements should:
In the case of flat projected real-time 3D, the visual cues we use to get depth information are easily confused hence popular optical illusions like Escher's Cube, morrie pattern illusions, apparent parallax illusions etc. -- the U.S. Navy as spent billions on HUD R&D for simulators and aircraft due to the obvious costs of failure being much higher.
Simply put: any HUD element projection on screen is an eye-brain depth cue breaker and any HUD element that has 3D information or art of it's own, even more so; the elements confuse your brain as you perception shifts from the overlay to light, apparent size, and other depth and distance cues in the 3D scene.
You can easily illustrate this for yourself with any high quality game screen-shot with the HUD on and off -- the static screen-shot will look flat and more like a comic book cell with HUD overlays on, the scene will 'pop' with them off, and the effects are even more dramatic in real-time.
As said there's been a lot invested in HUD R&D, and anyone motivated can peruse an enormous volume of information in any U.S. public library in the Government Documents Department; but some summery conclusions pertinent to games and simulators is that all HUD elements confuse and break depth cues, and to minimize this effect all HUD elements should:
Last edited:
![[TW]schneidzekk](/data/avatars/s/0/1.jpg?1568638684){kind=avatar}
![[TW]Wilsonam](/data/avatars/s/0/10.jpg?1568638684){kind=avatar}
