Welcome to the first official Limelight development blog, I'll be this evening's entertainment. We're starting with a New Year's resolution to keep the community more informed as to what we have in store for future updates and changes to the gamemode. Think less of a boring lecture about the technical magic @Doctor Internet performs to fix my screwups and more like show and tell when you were a kid. You know, when that one kid would always have the coolest stuff to bring in and you just sat there jealous with a pet rock. Or was that just me? Anyway the point is we want to give you small sampling of what we're working on and have you saying "Damn that's cool, now when can I play with it?"

For now there's no set schedule on these (you guys know how we are with schedules) but as soon as someone from development has something cool to show we'll be sure to get it here first.


Orange You Glad We're Now Blue?

As many of you have noticed Limelight went through a bit of a color change the past week with some roughening up from the community. This was to be expected as orange had been the color of our community for quite some time but we felt it was time to grow and change a little. For now our forums have transitioned to steel before we begin our final departure to a new design. When will that be? We have no ETA as of now as we have a few other projects we'd like to complete before I'm released from my chains fully available to start on it.

The new branding we put into place was to ensure that going forward Limelight had a distinct, solid look to better guide our developers and media team when implementing it. We know some of you have your doubts still but we haven't given up on winning you over.


The U and I of User Interface

For those of you who don't know I'm pretty handicapped when it comes to being able to implement content directly in-game. Most of my designing and coding usually had to be recreated by some poor soul as we've seen with the current HUD and F1 menu. Luckily @Mathias has a potential cure to allow me to be of better service to the team and, you know, not get fired. We won't go into the dirty details but the goal is to use web-based languages to allow me to directly create the front-end designs of our interfaces that can be easy moved to in-game.

TLDR; Interfaces will look prettier and take less time to develop, a major win-win.

Our first challenge has been to redesign the HUD so it stands out as a unique part of the gamemode. Something that's there when you really need it but still out of the way and not obstructing your view. This hasn't been the easiest issue to tackle and I've already trashed 5 prior designs before getting to where we are today. Please note that this is only the bottom half of the HUD and all designs are still subject to change.

 

There was a lot of heavy inspiration from games such as Destiny, The Division, and Arma to create a HUD that stands out from the common Gmod HUDs we've all seen before. It was important to build it in a modular sense so that when certain elements we're unneeded they could simply be hidden away. Don't have any props spawned? Then no need to display a prop limit counter. The same applies to armor (kevlar), oxygen levels, and flashlight battery. We feel the icons are fairly straightforward to what they represent and help us save valuable screen space by keep descriptor text off of it. And in case you were wondering, top bar is health and bottom bar is stamina.


We're still having some discussions about the tilt.

A proper speedometer and detailed information about your vehicle was also something we knew had to be done in the new HUD as the current one was never finished. For that we knew we wanted to mirror the same design as the left and keep everything as minimal and on a needed basis only.



As you can see the design has been mirrored over for a digital speedometer and some important information about your vehicle. There is of course your fuel meter as well as a door locked/unlocked indicator and a red car icon appearing if your car is turned off with the /engineoff command. Replacing a heathbar for your vehicle is a check engine light that will turn on when your car's health is low. Just like real life you can sometimes drive some time with the light on, but it'd be best to get something like that checked out by a qualified mechanic.


Can I get a 10-101 on a Police Database?

We've heard the frustration over the current state of the police database and have made it one of our priorities to get finished as soon as we can. We've redesigned the database from the ground up (minus the case).



As you can see, I've had my fair share of run-ins with the law.


That's all I got for now! These are a few of the projects that I'm working heavily on and hope we've given the community a glimpse at how we're going about solving the issues that are important to you. Please note that everything above is subject to change (you know how these things are) but the general ideas and structures they're built around will very much stay the same.

Until next time, Noble out.

You made a 10 code joke and you’re Noble. You win.

Me gusta muchooo!

Can we change the ECPD to R:PD or Rockford PD

gg no re

The HUD looks absolutely astonishing, I'm going to adore this HUD when it gets released - My perfect style! Blocky themed, simple but sleek.
As for the tilt, maybe make a command to make the tilt a thing - A user preference.

  Keep it coming!

Havent had a boner this big in class for a long time.

Great job guys!

It better be RPD or Oregon State Police Database

Amazing work! It's great to see some WIP from the Dev Team rather than the shroud of secrecy we usually get.

(Jan 29, 2018, 10:17 AM)Gamerpro2266 Wrote: Can we change the ECPD to RD or Rockford PD

This will change based on your job name.

(Jan 29, 2018, 03:35 PM)Noble Wrote:

(Jan 29, 2018, 10:17 AM)Gamerpro2266 Wrote: Can we change the ECPD to RD or Rockford PD

This will change based on your job name.

Nice!

Looks amazing! Great job!
Keep it up!

ECPD Officer


:/

Puns need work but I think all that work needed went into development. I forgive. Great work, and great read also adding transparency to the mix.

I like the idea of a new, better hud, but that looks like a 'chinese knockoff' of the division hud. Fits for The Division, but not here tbh

Holy shit yes please!
I do not want any legacy mode now!

P.s @Noble you should make it tilt when people are sprinting

Love the look of the new UI, an yes that DB looks fantastic. Can't wait!

(Jan 29, 2018, 10:17 AM)Gamerpro2266 Wrote: Can we change the ECPD to RD or Rockford PD

Or just go back to evocity nudge nudge

(Jan 30, 2018, 12:21 AM)Daley Wrote:

(Jan 29, 2018, 10:17 AM)Gamerpro2266 Wrote: Can we change the ECPD to RD or Rockford PD

Or just go back to evocity nudge nudge

Gross

Yay, being able to view active warrants! Also, the HUD looks awesome and I am curious as to what will be behind the ''Dispatch'' button. I can't wait until this will be released!

where U at @Noble

This looks really nice. Can't wait!

(Jan 29, 2018, 09:23 AM)Nobl Wrote:
We're still having some discussions about the tilt.

Have you picked yet?

sedboi

I like the update but seriously...

fix limelight instead of discussing a 9 degree tilt

anything is an improvement from the crayon box this gamemode looks like

(Jun 20, 2018, 10:16 AM)Nevy Wrote: anything is an improvement from the crayon box this gamemode looks like

actuly it a profeslnal office not a cwayb box

(May 3, 2018, 07:23 PM)Gamerpro2266 Wrote:

(Jan 29, 2018, 09:23 AM)Nobl Wrote:
We're still having some discussions about the tilt.

Have you picked yet?

HUD went through another overhaul after this design, no tilt and it looks a lot different

(Jun 20, 2018, 03:16 PM)Noble Wrote:

(May 3, 2018, 07:23 PM)Gamerpro2266 Wrote:

(Jan 29, 2018, 09:23 AM)Nobl Wrote:
We're still having some discussions about the tilt.

Have you picked yet?

HUD went through another overhaul after this design, no tilt and it looks a lot different

Do we have a time zone we might see it added? (E.g. this winter)

Here's the new look at the hud design for those interested. Everything has remained relatively unchanged as far as structure is concerned. I apologize for the crap gifs, had to use Gyazo on my laptop.



Radio indicators have been added to the top left and light up to indicate when you are transmitting or receiving radio comms. Passes and the lockdown notification are also displayed here.



Vehicle hud info is relatively unchanged other than styling.



Critical hud info on the bottom left is also relatively unchanged other than its styling. The health and stamina bars have been merged to single bars as opposed to the three bar approach (makes coding it a lot easier).



That's the view of the full hud, you can click here to view it fullsize: https://i.gyazo.com/149af79358d68bb6cb3d...57e2f1.png

(Jun 20, 2018, 04:34 PM)Noble Wrote: Here's the new look at the hud design for those interested. Everything has remained relatively unchanged as far as structure is concerned. I apologize for the crap gifs, had to use Gyazo on my laptop.



Radio indicators have been added to the top left and light up to indicate when you are transmitting or receiving radio comms. Passes and the lockdown notification are also displayed here.



Vehicle hud info is relatively unchanged other than styling.



Critical hud info on the bottom left is also relatively unchanged other than its styling. The health and stamina bars have been merged to single bars as opposed to the three bar approach (makes coding it a lot easier).



That's the view of the full hud, you can click here to view it fullsize: 

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https://i.gyazo.com/149af79358d68bb6cb3d...57e2f1.png

So the question we all want to know, when will it be added?

Noble. Are you going to change the Martial Law just temporary as an example or will it stay when released.

(I'm going to trigger people for this)

It's a simple thing I know but Martial Law is military taking control yada yada. I'm not fussed but it's something. Probably just only me, but still. A suggestion could be State Of Emergency is in effect, return to your homes. Even though State Of Emergency doesn't restrict you to stay at home necessarily but that accuracy doesn't matter.

I should also mention that is looks amazing and i'm very excited.

(Jun 20, 2018, 07:29 PM)Jeff Ford Wrote: Noble. Are you going to change the Martial Law just temporary as an example or will it stay when released.

(I'm going to trigger people for this)

It's a simple thing I know but Martial Law is military taking control yada yada. I'm not fussed but it's something. Probably just only me, but still. A suggestion could be State Of Emergency is in effect, return to your homes. Even though State Of Emergency doesn't restrict you to stay at home necessarily but that accuracy doesn't matter.

I should also mention that is looks amazing and i'm very excited.

It can be changed to anything easily, just had some requests to change the text since people weren't really fans of calling it a 'lockdown'.

Damn Noble, back at it again with dem fresh looks. Do I need to have staff for animated parts of the HUD or is that gonna stay for all players?






Beta salti memes boi

The animated parts of the HUD will work for all players - I'm currently working with Noble's design and rigging it all to work in-game. We'll be using a new method to display the HUD that hopefully both looks and performs better than the old one, and should avoid the lag issue of the web pages in the F1 menu. If this works successfully, I'll then apply the same technique to the F1 menu in order to fix the lag some people experience - long term we may look to overhaul the entire F1 menu, but due to how I have to translate Lua actions over to JS in quite some detail for that, this is a long way off as we have other updates scheduled first.

As for release schedule, this should release hopefully sometime next week if I don't get called out to a work trip again, and if it passes quality control in time.

(Jun 20, 2018, 07:29 PM)Jeff Ford Wrote: Noble. Are you going to change the Martial Law just temporary as an example or will it stay when released.

(I'm going to trigger people for this)

It's a simple thing I know but Martial Law is military taking control yada yada. I'm not fussed but it's something. Probably just only me, but still. A suggestion could be State Of Emergency is in effect, return to your homes. Even though State Of Emergency doesn't restrict you to stay at home necessarily but that accuracy doesn't matter.

I should also mention that is looks amazing and i'm very excited.

I can change this to 'City lockdown is in effect' or something similar for now. Seeing as we're using a more dynamic HUD though, it is perfectly possible to allow players to define the lockdown message that will appear on HUD - this could be a nice little extra touch for more unique RP, but we probably won't add it immediately on release. One problem we've had in the past is scope creep making updates take far longer due to a mix of internal staff and player suggestions. Now we're sticking to the design specs much more closely, and it's really helping us to build up a whole series of updates in a scheduled plan. Not perfect, but an improvement.

(Jun 21, 2018, 02:16 AM)Faustie Wrote:

(Jun 20, 2018, 07:29 PM)Jeff Ford Wrote: Noble. Are you going to change the Martial Law just temporary as an example or will it stay when released.

(I'm going to trigger people for this)

It's a simple thing I know but Martial Law is military taking control yada yada. I'm not fussed but it's something. Probably just only me, but still. A suggestion could be State Of Emergency is in effect, return to your homes. Even though State Of Emergency doesn't restrict you to stay at home necessarily but that accuracy doesn't matter.

I should also mention that is looks amazing and i'm very excited.

I can change this to 'City lockdown is in effect' or something similar for now. Seeing as we're using a more dynamic HUD though, it is perfectly possible to allow players to define the lockdown message that will appear on HUD - this could be a nice little extra touch for more unique RP, but we probably won't add it immediately on release. One problem we've had in the past is scope creep making updates take far longer due to a mix of internal staff and player suggestions. Now we're sticking to the design specs much more closely, and it's really helping us to build up a whole series of updates in a scheduled plan. Not perfect, but an improvement.

maybe now when u do /lockdown itll have a menu pop up with some premade messages and a custom option too

Honestly don't get caught up in little things such as custom messages for a lockdown, etcetera. Focus on instead broadening the scope of this UI overhaul

Would like to see the Lockdowns mean something to be honest. Something more than just red text.

(Jun 20, 2018, 07:35 PM)Noble Wrote:

(Jun 20, 2018, 07:29 PM)Jeff Ford Wrote: Noble. Are you going to change the Martial Law just temporary as an example or will it stay when released.

(I'm going to trigger people for this)

It's a simple thing I know but Martial Law is military taking control yada yada. I'm not fussed but it's something. Probably just only me, but still. A suggestion could be State Of Emergency is in effect, return to your homes. Even though State Of Emergency doesn't restrict you to stay at home necessarily but that accuracy doesn't matter.

I should also mention that is looks amazing and i'm very excited.

It can be changed to anything easily, just had some requests to change the text since people weren't really fans of calling it a 'lockdown'.

Indeed. Not really a fan of lockdown either. Thanks noble!

(Jun 21, 2018, 02:16 AM)Faustie Wrote:

(Jun 20, 2018, 07:29 PM)Jeff Ford Wrote: Noble. Are you going to change the Martial Law just temporary as an example or will it stay when released.

(I'm going to trigger people for this)

It's a simple thing I know but Martial Law is military taking control yada yada. I'm not fussed but it's something. Probably just only me, but still. A suggestion could be State Of Emergency is in effect, return to your homes. Even though State Of Emergency doesn't restrict you to stay at home necessarily but that accuracy doesn't matter.

I should also mention that is looks amazing and i'm very excited.

I can change this to 'City lockdown is in effect' or something similar for now. Seeing as we're using a more dynamic HUD though, it is perfectly possible to allow players to define the lockdown message that will appear on HUD - this could be a nice little extra touch for more unique RP, but we probably won't add it immediately on release. One problem we've had in the past is scope creep making updates take far longer due to a mix of internal staff and player suggestions. Now we're sticking to the design specs much more closely, and it's really helping us to build up a whole series of updates in a scheduled plan. Not perfect, but an improvement.

Very true my good sir.

*Heckin Big Cough*

Love it