In Space, No One is Lost in a Terrible UI- A Discussion of (Graphic) User Interface

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A look at how Dead Space and FreeSpace use two wildly different implementations of user interface to accomplish the same goal.

[@JCDentonCZ]

I was thankful I could disable the minimap in games like Assasin's Creed and Witcher 2 and 3, sadly not all games support UI options like that.
With Freespace 2 and its mods, I tend to pick the 3D Radar in wxlauncher but even the standard HUD is great. It even worked well with ten year old me when first introduced to FS1 as part of the OEM game bundle with IBM Aptiva Pentium II PCs (Alongside another excellent game, Battlezone), the fact that I can recall that so quickly and easily says a lot to me.
Dead Space's UI definitely is memorable too, it ensures the tension always remains there, in the background even as we read reports and backstory. A better Pause menu for Dead Space could be a simple slight overlay with 'PAUSED' on it or similar.
As for making a minimal UI for Freespace, I could see it work to some extent, as long as the information is still present when necessary. In making missions though, I felt like I needed even more UI tools such as the Fiction Viewer and training messages to convey information in very chaotic high speed, high intensity battles.

[@Firesteel]

The main reason I don't use the 3D radar in FS is because I think it clashes with the rest of the bitmap based HUD. One of these days I'll play Battlezone again. I only really played the arcade version of it.
Dead Space 1 had a better pause menu in that regard than 2 did. Chromehounds was a game that turned on a video overlay effect and had a little dialogue box with "paused" in it similar to what you described and it worked pretty well.
The auto hiding thing would probably work. I'm a little surprised no one (to my knowledge) has done that yet. I know the training message box has been used more for narrative or gameplay purposes than training at this point. BP WiH's inner monologue and STR's He who Rides the Tiger are the 2 that immediately come to mind.
The fiction viewer/news room/other story menu have definitely gotten more common and once I get back to doing these videos again I'll probably have a little aside about the menu structure somewhere in there.

[@jamesspruill2655]

I am not entirely sure how I got here and so late...but good video. Check out a game called Deep Rock Galactic. The UI is another great example.