Chapter 6. User Interface and HUD Creation with Flash

Even if the user interface is only a small part of a game, it is very important. There is no game that comes without it. It is the first thing you see once you start a game, and the HUD is visible nearly all the time during gameplay. The style of the UI/HUD has a big impact on the look and feel of a game. While it is needed to show important information (for example, health, current ammo, and so on), it also needs to fit into the rest of the scene. The worst thing will be to have a UI that just feels misplaced over the rest of the scene.

In this chapter, I will show you how to bring your own custom UI and HUD into our engine. Because CryENGINE 3 uses Scaleform GFx as a UI solution, you will need to have Adobe Flash to create your assets.

In this chapter, we shall:

• Create a new 2D HUD with Adobe Flash

• Write some simple ActionScript

• Use the UI Emulator for easy testing and faster development of the UI

• Load the new HUD and interact with it using...