Time & Temperature Display


Bill Tarling

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I was wondering if the game will allow users to set their preferences of setting temperature displays to either C or F (or both)? While it takes place in the Canadian wilderness, the game will be available internationally, so I think it would be valuable to have whichever version available for what the user if familiar with.

Likewise with Time: I'm hoping both standard (AM/PM) and military [24 hour clock] selection will be an option.

Side Note: Even as a Canadian, I still think in imperial measurements [Fahrenheit, miles, inches, gallons, pounds, etc.] -- a majority of world areas use metric instead, but it would be really helpful if either scale could be selected from an options menu

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That is a very good input, @BillTarling. For me the time is not a big problem, allthough I’d prefer the 24 hour clock. But I am not familiar with the imperial measurements at all.

I have the feeling that knowing the exact amount of supplys and distance from your enemies could be helpful to survive. But I am not a survival expert. :)

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An American here, I would prefer the 24 hour clock and metric system be used but I don't see it as a real problem regardless of which systems they use.

I also think that knowing how far away something is, is important, however I don't know that Will should necessarily know specific distances unless he finds a map or is told by someone else. I really don't like how recent games have made everyone reliant on a mini-map with compass indicator that people just have to blindly follow to the next checkpoint or what have you. I know there is an in game survival diary and that is cool, I just hope it is not over populated with information that Will would have no reason to know off hand.

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With the variations, it's not really so much about distance (although I thought it might be helpful for those not familiar with metric).

It's mainly Temperature readings in TLD would be critical (without having to do mental conversions between scales) since that will be a major part of life or death warnings.

NOTE: after just reviewing the First Play video for TLD, I did see the temperature display flicker for a brief moment from Celcius to Farenheit -- so it does look like both versions will be in the game :o)

CONVERSION EXAMPLES (from the TLD video)

-35°C = -31°F

-25°C = -13°F

10°C = 50°F

I don't mind metric as I automatically mentally convert it on the fly, but you can imagine who quickly you could lose track if you weren't familiar with metric or celsius scales.

I'm glad I rewatched the video and caught that temperature scale flicker -- looks like the H-Team already has it well thought out and planned ahead.

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Guest Alan Lawrance

Good eye @BillTarling! You noticed that we switched from Celsius to Fahrenheit during the gameplay video.

We are planning for an option to display either Imperial or Metric units, for everything in the game that might display units.

On the question of standard vs. military time, it's likely the only way to "see" the time will be by looking at an actual timepiece. We haven't decided 100% on the details for how timepieces will be equipped/used, but the general idea is we won't have time displayed on the HUD.

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On the question of standard vs. military time, it's likely the only way to "see" the time will be by looking at an actual timepiece. We haven't decided 100% on the details for how timepieces will be equipped/used, but the general idea is we won't time displayed on the HUD.

Excellent idea! That way the player will need to really keep track of their environment and surroundings -- watching for shadows to gauge direction and time (according to sunrise & sunset)... plus will get even trickier on 'bad weather' days.

Might even have to learn how to tell time just from poking a stick in the ground... So many challenges and potential challenges ahead in the game. I'm loving it!!!

Temperature change would also be another sign... if it starts getting colder in an area (without major weather or wind changes), then sun likely setting too

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  • 4 weeks later...

Isn't it a bit strange that you need to look at a clock to know what time it is (don't get me wrong, I actually love that idea), but you always know exactly what temperature it is? Wouldn't you also need a thermometer to tell you the temperature?

I get that there needs to be some visual feedback to tell the player how cold it is, but the actual temperature displayed in the HUD seems weird to me, especially if the time isn't. I'd much rather see some scale going from warm to very very cold or something like that. Something representing the temperature Will perceives. When Will is inside a safehouse, he will be warm. When he is outside at night without a fire or shelter, he will be freezing his but off. But he would not know the exact temperature.

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  • Hinterland

Great discussion and ideas!

I don't think we'll display the temp on-screen during the game. What you've seen in footage so far is just dev builds that show what's going on underneath the hood. You'll use diegetic feedback to tell you when you are cold (breath showing more and more as it becomes colder), but you'll be able to pull up info on the current temp just because people like numbers, and the exact temperature (both ambient and body) will feed into other decisions you make about gear, taking shelter, etc. You can't really make a simulation and not expose these under-the-hood numbers because people need to know this stuff to feel like they can plan for and control their situation.

I like the idea of having a thermometer that you can consult, although it's not really realistic either (no functioning tech so you won't have a digital thermometer; you could carry one in your pocket I guess...that might feel a bit more forced than just displaying it on the screen though). We will adopt some conceits -- what's important is that we provide players with the info they need to make good decisions, but do so without ruining the sense of immersion in the game. Playtesting will help us understand the right solution for this, as well as lot of our other UI/HUD solutions.

We'll find the right balance!

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The first thing that comes to mind is a wind indicator. It seems like it would be difficult to gauge otherwise. And it seems relevant to hunting and possibly to changes in weather.

If you have an item with an expendable component that can be itemized/counted (ex: gun/ammo, box of matches, but not: torch/burn time). Although, you could just make am action to do a manual check...but that might take away from the fun.

Though I'm also of the mind that the HUD shouldn't have anything on it. Unless you access your inventory or are performing an action like starting a fire or crafting.

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I think, to make it realistic you should only have a time display, when your character actually has some kind of time measurement device, otherwise you should only be able to guess by observing your surroundings.

Same goes for the temperature. Without some device that realy shows you the current temperature it is difficult to guess in real life, and so it should be in the game.

And same also goes for Wind. Without wind the felt air temperature is higher as when you have strong wind. So maybe showing two bars for windspeed and felt temperature could work out.

For example:

Temperature is somewhere in the middle of the bar with - lets say - green status you would know that it is ok, but wind is at absolut zero. So you should be aware that the Temperature could rapidly drop when the wind bursts up.

Other example:

Strong wind and middle temperature -> Hey, it can only get better, as long that it doesn't gets dark out of nowhere!

Complete blank HUD could be a bit irritating. When you have a wristwatch you can't see it all the time, but a short look on the watch is done easy and sometimes even subconsciously.

To have to press a seperate key to do it or even open up the inventory feels srange.

I dont have to put down my backback to look at my wrist and i dont see the 4 days old bits of wolf that are slowly dissolving in my backpack when i look at my watch.

Another thought just crashed into my mind:

A suprisingly broken watch and therefore false time display could be diabolical.... :D

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Complete blank HUD could be a bit irritating. When you have a wristwatch you can't see it all the time, but a short look on the watch is done easy and sometimes even subconsciously.

[...] open up the inventory feels srange.

I dont have to put down my backback to look at my wrist and i dont see the 4 days old bits of wolf that are slowly dissolving in my backpack when i look at my watch.

Agree with @Tobias_Eer. For me this (a wristwatch) would be the best method to provide information to us survivers. A separate key to show the watch would be fine for me.

As Hinterland said before there will be an additional acoustic hint from Will, which for me is very natural.

@Raph_Hinterland: I really love the " empty HUD" idea. When I play games (especially in first-person), I always become annoyed from rain drops etc. on screen. That destroys immersion immediately. I mean my face is not a kamera.

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Great thread @Bill_Tarling ✓

As it goes, and some might find this strange, but i can't tell the time unless I'm in 1940hrs format. I suppose thats what happens when so much time in the military. As to changing between Metric and that other scale, great idea. All i know is 104 in the shade is 40° Celsius to me.

Just out of curiosity, what pieces of information do you guys/girls feel would be acceptable to see "on screen" in the game? I'm not thinking of diegetic stuff you can make visible (like a wristwatch or map, for example) but actual data on the HUD.

As which things in the HUD @Raph_Hinterland Wind Direction would be good, Temp ?? This is a bit of Muddy Waters you are going into. I don't believe there should be a Temp Display unless we find or have in our possession a thermometer of Non-Digital type. As we go along and pick one up somewhere, out of a Med kit, or the likes, then it becomes available in the HUD.

Same goes with the Nth, Sth, East, West Compass symbol. That would be great to have, ONCE we either learn how to tell where North and South is, or, we pick up one on the way, or we make one . .

So what I'm saying, is the HUD should start to get more and more things in it (to a degree ~ Where do you stop ?) as we learn skills, collect objects and the such.

To have a straight up Temp sitting there from the Start doesn't sit right with me.

If i go outside and i can see my own breath, its cold ;) haha

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I was thinking about temperatures as I cycled to a store 3 km away at -14°C. I didn't check the exact temperature before leaving, but I knew it was well below zero. It was really cold first, then started getting more tolerable, and I realized the change came when I got farther away from the river. So humidity is also a major factor in how cold a certain temperature feels.

I think some sort of rough scale of how cold/warm the temperature feels like (instead of what it actually is) would be good. One problem with that is of course the fact that when you get hypothermic enough, you start to feel warm again, but if this is going to be a realistic simulation, that should be one of the things that could happen.

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Just out of curiosity, what pieces of information do you guys/girls feel would be acceptable to see "on screen" in the game? I'm not thinking of diegetic stuff you can make visible (like a wristwatch or map, for example) but actual data on the HUD.

In my humble opinion, the HUD would be most realistic with general sentiments. When I step outside, I don't think, "Hey, it's 9 degrees" I think, "It's pretty cold"

Core temp: Hot/Warm/Cold/Freezing

Outside Temp: Hot/Warm/Cold/Freezing/Sub-Zero

Wind: None/Calm/ ETC (With directional arrow)

I think you could have a thermometer in the gear for a more exact reading.

Would a watch work with the anomaly? ;-)

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Greetings! Finally signed up to get involved a bit on the forum here.

I like the wind indicator idea. But maybe you need to wet your finger and hold it up to see this info for a short time? Meaning it is not permanent on the HUD. Would help you avoid predators which use scent. Are they down wind from you? If you continue to move forward the predator could smell you, if they have not already seen or heard you that is. Snow blowing in the wind would be another indicator of wind direction (if you are an area where the wind is strong enough to do this). Even if it is not currently snowing, wind can pick up snow somewhat like dust. So maybe some wisps of snow blowing up off the top of what could be a rock can help you determine wind direction.

About the wrist watch. Would be great to just have a simple animation with the hand coming up so you can see the watch (same button brings arm up and puts it back down..). Thus it would be realistic in how it would distract you a bit from paying attention to your surroundings (same with checking wind direction via a wet finger).

I like what robdoar has said about temp. But I would not want to see permanent text on the screen saying something like ¨Dang it´s cold¨. Maybe that type of info (meaning, what the character thinks about things like how cold it is), is brought up via a conversation type of menu. Think the typical RPG game, you walk up to a NPC, select them and have options for what to ask / say. Would be neat if you could do that on yourself.

Option: How cold is it?

Answer: Man I´m shivering! (meaning you should really find a way to warm up soon)

Or: Ah... the sun feels nice!

But a thermometer would be good to have also.

My 2 cents.

Cor

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I'm on the same page on this as @robdoar.

When walking around I don't know exactly what temperature it is, but I do know if it's cold or not. So some indication should be visible in the HUD, but it should not be very exact, like the temperature in degrees celsius. To know the exact temperature, a thermometer is needed.

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Any possibility of having different hud's based off of a difficulty setting? Then purists could have their blank slate and others could have things like wind and temperature.

I'm looking forward to playing the game on the rift and would rather find a thermometer somewhere and hold up a blade of grass to find out wind speed/direction over having a HUD which would most certainly detract from that specific experience . Just my 2 cents on the issue

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  • Hinterland

Any possibility of having different hud's based off of a difficulty setting?

Something we're thinking about. Even if it's not based on difficulty, we'll probably have several opt-in UI/HUD elements, with defaults set up based on difficulty or simply "developer's recommended settings" which you can obviously circumvent at your own peril. ;)

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Great idea @bbennett2 and @Raph_Hinterland! Let everyone decide for themselves how much info they want to see in the HUD.

It would be absolutely perfect if you had some settings like:

HUD - temperature indicator: none/ global (using color or terms like freezing/ chilly etc)/ exact (in degrees Celsius/ Fahrenheit)

HUD - wind speed indicator: none/ global / exact (mph?)

HUD - wind direction indicator

etc

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