Hey everyone! The new GameHeart is now available on all regions! To help you get started I have created this quick guide.
Available maps:
Akilon Wastes Alterzim Stronghold TE Bel'Shir Vestige LE Blitzkrieg Cloud Kingdom LE Derelict Watcher TE Frost LE Habitation Station New Polaris Rhapsody Polar Night LE Star Station TE Whirlwind LE Yeonsu LE
Finding the maps:
To use a GameHeart Light map, launch starcraft and go to the “custom games” section.
Next type “GHLight” into the search box and then press search. The currently available maps GHLight maps will show up.
Setting up the game:
Next, pick the map you want to play on, and click the ‘create game’ button. NOT the ‘join game’ button. For this example I am going to choose “Habitation Station - GHLight”. You will get a screen that looks like this:
From here, you set it up just like a normal game with a couple of exceptions. First add the players and the observers you want. But before you click the ‘start game’ button let’s look at the ‘settings’ section on the left side of the screen. You will notice four new drop-down menus labeled as follows: “Strong Colors”, “League”, “Team 1”, and “Team 2”. I will cover each of these options now.
Strong colors:
Let’s start with “Strong Colors”. This option allows you to determine whether or not you want the game to use the Stronger Team Colors mod to display brighter colored textures for units in the game. This mod is particularly useful in ZvZ where units can be difficult to tell apart especially on low quality streams. There are three options.
The first option, and the default setting is “OFF”. With this setting the stronger team colors textures will not be used. It will look just like a normal game to both players and observers.
The next option is “ON (Observers)”. With this setting the stronger colored textures will be used, but only observers will see them. The game will still look exactly like a normal game to the players.
The last option is “ON (Everyone)”. With this setting the stronger colored textures will be used and everyone in the game, including both observers and players will be able to see them.
League:
The “League” setting determines which logo will appear in the middle of the map for the tournament or league that is running the match. If you select “IEM” from this dropdown the Intel Exteme Masters logo will appear on the map. If you select “Red Bull Battle Grounds” then their logo will appear on the map. Only the observers see these logos.
Here is in example with IEM selected:
If you leave it set to “(No League)” no logo will appear on the map for the tournament or league. It will just be blank.
Team 1 & 2:
These options correspond to the teams your players are on in the lobby. The “Team 1” option selects the logo which will appear for the player on “Team 1” in the lobby. And the “Team 2” option does the same thing for the player on “Team 2” in the lobby. Here is an image to show how they correspond.
So as you can see here, the “Karnage eSports” logo is selected for Team 1. That means for the red player you will see the “Karnage eSports” logo appear in both his mineral lines, and in some large open space near his natural. The “Team Liquid” logo will appear for our blue player who is on Team 2.
Here is are some screenshots of how these logos will look:
Just like the league logo players do not see the team logos. They also do not see the icons above buildings showing what they are producing.
Launch the game!
Now that we have all of our settings setup the way we want them we can just press ‘start game’. From this point on it is just like playing or spectating a normal game. You can use any interface file you wish to spectate.
Known issues and their solutions
There are a few problems people have encountered using these new GameHeart maps. Luckily all of them have solutions you can adjust in your game settings.
Problem: Logos do not always appear where you expect them. Solution: Make sure to set your ‘effects’ setting in your graphics options to ‘high’ or better.
Problem: Logos appear as pink boxes, or pink areas appear where there are elevation changes. This may appear as pink rocks or something to that effect near or on the logos. Solution: Adjust your shaders, indirect shadows and effects settings in graphics options.
Problem: Strong team colors is not showing up on most units. Solution: Set your ‘Show Flyer Helper’ setting in gameplay options to ‘None’ or 'Selected'.
Be aware that none of these solutions will actually take effect until you create a new game.
If you need a logo or map added to GameHeart, you have a question, or are having trouble with it for any reason please do not hesitate to contact me via email at TeamGameHeart@gmail.com or more urgently via skype as ‘rtschutter’.
Thanks guys! There are more features coming soon so keep an eye on this project!
On November 27 2013 04:07 iHirO wrote: Awesome as always, the 'Show Flyer Helper’ setting seems like an odd reason to cause the STC bug!
Haha it took awhile to figure it out but once you understand how the Gax3 actor phasing tech Renee added to the editor works it makes a lot more sense.
So i have ssen a lot of this on streams, never used it myself. I just etsted it, but if i do the stuff which is described here, i just get the standard observer view (no logos, team colors seem normal although strong colors are on,...)
Chemist do you have your perspective set to 'everyone'? If you are set to a player's vision logos will not show up. If you are still having trouble I would love to hop into a game with you to try to figure it out. What region are you on? Go ahead and add me on skype 'rtschutter' if you want.
On November 27 2013 04:45 GameHeart wrote: Chemist do you have your perspective set to 'everyone'? If you are set to a player's vision logos will not show up. If you are still having trouble I would love to hop into a game with you to try to figure it out. What region are you on? Go ahead and add me on skype 'rtschutter' if you want.
Wow, great offer but i just figured out myself, don't know what happened at first try, maybe i had some graphic setting wrong/too low, after just getting everything to highest it worked. =)
Here's my feedback from testing the GHLight maps, Sports Elongated custom interface and general observations from the Red Bull Battlegrounds tournament. Some of these suggestions are only implementable by Blizzard but have been added here for completeness.
The 'GHLight Derelict Watcher TE' map displays the custom text "you call this a minivan?" at the beginning of the game.
The Team and Tournament Logo textures randomly fail to display or only partially display on some maps. Even when displayed they often only appear as a monochrome colour. The UI Tab appearance can also become corrupted. Different errors can occur on reloading the same replay.
The screen angle and zoom level can be altered when watching replays on some GHLight maps.
Consider inserting the Map Name as a texture beneath the Tournament Logo.
Consider inserting a black outline around all numbers, text and icons used in the GameHeart interface to improve legibility against light coloured backgrounds.
Consider updating the hovering production icons to appear less intrusive. I like the idea of hovering icons (e.g. to determine what Zerg units will spawn from an egg) and the effect looks cool when the map is fully zoomed out. However their implementation obscures floating buildings and flying units above the icon and can make the screen look more cluttered.
Here are some possible suggestions to improve it:
Remove the player coloured icon border and set the background to translucent. The building colour displays to the audience which player the icon belongs to.
Hide the icon when it is obscured by another unit or building (e.g. a Colossus).
Redesign the upgrades to look like this and replace the unit icons with translucent 3D unit models. This would also allow animated effects to be added when progress is accelerated (Sign spins faster when chronoboosted) or paused (Sign stops rotating when the building is either contaminated, blocked, powered down or construction is halted).
Consider moving the building's progress bar to below the upgrade icon. This would make the UI look more intuitive and also allow two progress bars to be shown for buildings with a Reactor add on.
Consider applying the Stronger Colour Mod to morphing Archons to identify which player they belong to, as they currently look identical.
Consider adding a 'clock number' next to the Team Logo for each expansion taken (e.g. 9'o clock base). This would help the audience understand which base a caster is referring to.
Consider adding a ‘transparent’ effect (or possibly the changeling texture) to Creep Tumours and burrowed units when using the STC Mod. This would indicate to the audience that the units are cloaked from the opponent. The ‘transparent’ effect would be removed when a detector is nearby to indicate that unit is now visible.
Consider increasing the size of the Scanner Sweep effect to its actual size and remove the range triangles.
The 'Buildings Under Attack' notification cannot be seen on the Minimap for a red coloured player. This is due to the standard white effect being modified to red.
Possible STC bug with the appearance of the Greater Spire.
The GameHeart pop up interface has a formatting error when displaying unit counts over 99.
Consider updating the hotkey tabs in the GameHeart interface to be player coloured. The hotkeys integrate well with the interface but in a mirror match, it is difficult to determine which player is currently selected.
The Minimap symbols (e.g. Sensor Tower circle) are indistinct on large maps like Frost, even on high quality Twitch streams. There needs to be a minimum symbol thickness.
The Main Window interface overlaps into the Minimap Window and a green border is also visible.
Consider removing the dead space from non square maps, to improve the interface's appearance.
Upgrades are displayed incorrectly when Neural Parasite is used. Zerg and Protoss players need a maximum of 5 slots, while Terran requires 4. A maximum of 14 slots would be needed if a Zerg player used Neural Parasite on a SCV and a Probe in a 2v2 game.
Upgrades are indistinct when a light player colour is selected.
Consider inverting the icon ordering to be consistent with the rest of the interface.
Consider adding a setting in the Lobby screen to switch the Main Window position from centred to flushed, to increase the available screen space. This would also affect the Unit Selection Window.
Consider adding an animated effect when an upgrade completes and is added to the Main Window, to make the audience aware.
Consider parsing the player names and removing their clan name. The Team Logo textures already display this information and the interface looks inconsistent when only one player is in a clan. This would also increase space on the Main Window to display upgrades.
Multiple incorrect items are added or missing from the Unit Selection Window. The current implementation simply displays the bottom row of the Unit Command card causing strange interface behaviour and important upgrades to not be displayed (e.g. A worker displays the bottom row of it's building options). A better implementation is needed to remove unnecessary icons (e.g. the Cancel icon).
The Geyser and Mineral information is displayed incorrectly.
The Hive incorrectly displays a kill count.
Reposition the Timer's progress bar to prevent it from overlapping with the name. This is generally only a problem with longer names.
The Unit Selection Window occasionally fails to hide correctly.
Consider adding player coloured borders to the unit icons in the Grouped Selection Window, to make it clearer to the audience which player the units belong to.
Consider removing passive attributes from the Unit Selection Window to free up space in the interface. The audience is generally knowledgeable about what each unit can do (e.g. Colossus has the Cliff Walk ability) and these abilities are static, so there is no real reason to show the icon.
The Tool Tips pop up dialogs have only been partially reformatted for GameHeart. The Upgrade, Grouped Selection name, Timer Progress and Unit Modifier tool tips still use the old font and overlap the interface.
Consider improving the display of progress for buildings with a reactor add on, as it looks awry.
Consider displaying researchable passive upgrades in the Unit Selection Window. A major flaw with the streamlined interface is that some important information is getting lost (e.g. The only way to determine if a marine has Combat Shields researched is to look in the Upgrades Tab). Although in some cases it is easy to see when an upgrade has been researched (e.g. The Zergling appearance changes when Metabolic Boost is researched) it is harder for other upgrades.
Consider changing the Unit Selection Window background to improve its appearance.
Consider adding an icon to the Unit Selection Window to show when production has been queued. This is useful for highlighting mistakes (e.g upgrades queued) and to show when a player's macro slipping.
Consider updating the spell icons to display the number of available spells. This implementation is currently used for Creep Tumours and Nukes and is consistent with the rest of the interface.
Consider hiding the Unit Selection Window automatically if an item hasn't been selected after a specific time. This would free up more screen space for the game.
Consider removing the Resources Tab as the information is duplicated on the Main Window. A Structures Lost Tab would be much more useful.
Consider only displaying gas information once mining has begun, to make the interface more minimalist. This would also affect the Income and Active Forces Tab.
Consider removing the worker count as this information is duplicated on the Main Window.
Consider separating the worker count into two categories, Active Workers and Idle Workers. The Idle Workers count is not displayed and would fit well here. The Active Workers count could be calculated by subtracting the idle workers from the total workers.
Consider adding a MULE icon counter for Terran players to provide spectators with extra information.
Consider merging the Terran add ons in the Structures Tab.
The Tech Lab and Reactor icons are listed in the tab separately depending on what building they are connected to, and can fill up 8 slots (e.g. 2 x Unattached, Barracks, Factory and Starport) when they could fit into 2 slots. This would make the interface cleaner and solve other issues, although the ability to jump to a specific building add on would be lost (would have to cycle through all the add ons instead). If implemented, this will also affect the Production Tab.
The Structures Tab overlaps the Unit Selection Window when it exceeds 19 icons. This overlap increases when the Unit Selection Window shows grouped units, as the window increases in size. This also affects the Production, Units, Units Lost and Upgrades Tab.
The Point Defence Drone is not displayed in the Units or Structures Tab, however the Auto-Turret is displayed as a structure.
The Structures Tab has an incorrect maximum limit of 21 items, causing structures to be removed from the tab.
The maximum number of displayed structures for each race are:
Zerg can have 43 structures if Neural Parasite is used on a SCV.
Zerg can have 58 structures if Neural Parasite is used on a SCV and a Probe in a 2v2 game.
Using fixed limits can cause undefined behaviour with possible future changes (e.g. Legacy of the Void). Making the interface dynamic or fail more visibly when an invalid size list is used will make the interface easier to maintain.
Possible solutions to this problem:
Only display structures for the main race, with a maximum limit of 25.
Implement an animated effect (e.g. scrolling) to periodically display structures when the maximum limit is reached.
Display a second row when the maximum limit is reached.
The Production Tab displays the incorrect icon for the Transformation Servos upgrade. This also affects the hovering icon.
The progress bars in the Production Tab are thicker on the bottom row than the top for some maps.
Creep tumours are occasionally randomly duplicated in the Production Tab. Also the screen occasionally fails to jump to location when a tumour icon is clicked.
The Production Tab has an incorrect maximum limit of 21, causing items to be removed from the tab. The maximum limit for each race is the combined total of all upgrades, units and structures. A Zerg player with Neural Parasite in a 2v2 game could engineer a situation where almost every unit, structure and upgrade in the game is started at the same time.
Consider adding an effect when the production progress is accelerated or paused. The progress bar is currently removed when a building is contaminated, de-powered, construction halted, supply blocked or egress is blocked.
Consider hiding numbers for single items in the Production Tab to improve the interface appearance (especially for unique upgrades). This would also affect the Units, Structures, Units Lost and Upgrades Tab.
The Actual Supply is incorrectly shown instead of the Maximum Supply. The default Blizzard interface only displays up to a maximum of 200 supply instead of the actual value (e.g. 250). The Actual Supply does provide the audience with extra information however (e.g. is the player in danger of getting supply blocked if the overlord is sniped).
Consider removing the supply count as it is duplicated in the Main Window.
Whew that is a lot of feedback. First for anyone looking at iHirO's post and wondering "do I want to use these maps?" please don't be put off. 95% of what he is talking about here has nothing to do with the GHLight custom maps this blog is about.
iHirO - Thanks for taking the time I appreciate it. However you have it sectioned off but then you put a lot of interface file stuff into the GHLight section which is kind of confusing. I would also say that the Elongated interface is called "Sports Elongated" and not "GHLight Elongated" which is adding to the confusion. Also in the future I would appreciate it if you numbered or lettered your comments/suggestions so when we discuss them we can both be on the same page more easily.
1. The minivan text was a message I placed while testing the maps in order to know which module version it was running since battle.net gives you no other way of knowing. But it was removed last week before RBBG so did you take this screenshot then?
2. The logo display issue is because your graphics settings are ridiculously low. Your effects setting needs to be set to high or better (as I mentioned in this blog).
3. The screen angle and zoom level can be adjusted? I don't understand how that is a bug?
4. The units lost display has nothing to do with GHLight. But be sure to post that in the GameHeart thread or in the interfaces thread when we finally make one (which will be soon).
Suggestions
5. This maybe could be done through an interface file. But the game clock is not something GHLight has control over.
6. I won't be adding the map name as a texture below the tournament logo. I don't really care for the idea. Hopefully we will be able to bring map intros back someday so the map name is more prevalent in GameHeart broadcasts though. Most interfaces already include the map name so this seems rather pointless to me anyways.
7. This is again an interface issue and has nothing to do with GHLight. And since all of the GameHeart interfaces put dark backgrounds behind their text and numbers I am not sure what the point of this is anyways.
8. I have no control over the production icons appearing above or below flying units. Removing the border would not improve anything. The border isn't there to emphasize the players color (though that is a positive side effect) it is there because without it the icons become very difficult to see against the building. While I think it is good that Blizzard is finally adding team decal support I don't really want to go the direction of floating 3D stuff the way they have.
9. Progress bars and the icons are not interconnected. There is no way to keep them in a position relative to each other that I have found. And when we have tried in the past it just became confusing what unit the progress bar or the icon was for depending on which one we moved. It doesn't work that well in practical application.
10. I will have to talk to Pzea about team colors on morphing archons.
11. What hotkey tabs? What are we talking about? GHLight is not an interface file, it is a custom map.
12. I don't think this is something we need for SC2 spectating. Once people understand the positions relative to the clock it is not very difficult to connect each base with it's position. Maybe if interface designers ever remove the minimap from their interfaces regularly this might be a decent idea.
13. It may not be a bad idea to make creep tumors transparent, I will look into it.
14. The effect would be too obnoxiously large I think.
15. I currently cannot do this in GHLight because I cannot detect what an observer has selected. Observers cannot send information to the custom map to trigger events in the code.
1. This is related to the observer having a default observed ID. There is actually another issue with this where you cannot see the harvester count in a refinery unless you switch to the player's vision. I have been looking for a solution but I haven't found one yet.
2. Some units in the game appear to be bugged where sometimes when you tell them to reset themselves to their default texture they become colored strangely. The spire/greater spire is one of those units, the missile turret is another. In any case the spire had been receiving a texture reset message it shouldn't have and I fixed that immediately after RBBG.
1. Not sure there is anything we can do about this other than make the minimap larger.
2. The green border is part of the minimap for Starcraft 2 by default. It is always their for terran or neutral player interfaces. For zerg it is orange, and for protoss it is blue.
3. We cannot change this on a map specific basis and I certainly would not want to stretch the map so that the ratio of heigh to width is inaccurate.
Main Window:
4. Very few interfaces work correctly for more than 2 players and we certainly do not plan to make this one available for more than two players.
5. The percentage of games where players have neuraled an opponents builder and then actually got to the point where they are researching upgrades for the other race are very slim. There is no fix for this and I am not concerned with it. And again 2v2 IS NOT supported for any of our interface files at this time. Any interface for more than 2 players needs to pretty much be designed for that purpose.
6. We are already going to be toning down those colors because of other feedback we have received.
7. This is not possible.
8. How does that make it more consistent with the rest of the interface? Where else do icons appear in a different order? In any case I don't see any reason to change it, I like it this way.
9. I don't know what you mean. The lobby does not control interface files at all. You would need a different version of the interface file to do this.
10. This is not possible.
11. While I do hate the clan tags I only feel that way because they didn't exist for so long that most players already have clan tags in their names. So when displayed in an interface they will have double clan tags. This is stupid. But the interface files we design are supposed to function outside of the gameheart maps as well so I don't want to make decisions based on the custom maps.
Unit Selection:
1, This is not possible to my knowledge but I am not an expert on the interface files.
2. What resolution are you running with the interface file?
3. Thanks.
4. Thanks.
5. Strange we will look into it.
6. Interesting idea. Not sure if it is possible would have to ask Ahli.
7. Not possible.
8. Thanks.
9. I like it like this. Though the hp label could be raised up a bit.
10. Most upgrades have diegetic elements demonstrating whether or not the player has them. The observer can always open the upgrades window as well.
11. Change it how?
12. Not sure if possible will have to ask Ahli.
13. Not sure if possible will have to ask Ahli.
Resources:
14. I don't see any reason to remove it. A structures lost tab could be cool though.
15. Ehh I don't like this idea. It will make the interface feel weird I think.
Income:
16. I don't see any reason to remove it.
17. Interesting idea we will consider it.
18. Interesting idea we will consider it.
Spending:
19. I am not even sure what it is by default anymore, but whatever it is I designed it to be in that order for a reason.
Units:
20. You CANNOT design these interfaces worrying about neural parasite or they will all look like shit. It's just the reality of the situation. We need to make them look good in 99.9% of games. Not the .1% that has someone building a second race worth of units with neural.
21. Not possible.
Structures:
22. Not possible.
23. Not concerned.
24. Nothing to do with us.
25. Will need to talk to Ahli
Units Lost:
26. I don't think we have control over this.
27. Good idea.
Production:
28. I don't think this has anything to do with us. But I would have to ask Ahli. Maybe it is just a bug in starcraft? How does it look in other interfaces?
29. They are probably the same size but the color makes them appear different to your eye.
30. Strange but I don't think it has anything to do with our interface file.
31. Again will need to talk to Ahli about it, and again the reason these interfaces have 1v1 in the name is because they are designed for 1v1 and not 2v2.
32. Not possible.
33. Not sure if possible will have to look into it.
Upgrades:
34. I do not understand what you are trying to show me.
35. I do not believe we can override these icons.
36. Fixed last week.
37. That sounds bad will need to tell Ahli.
Forces:
38. Will tell Ahli.
39. Ehhhh maybe.
APM/EPM:
40. Thanks.
41. An oversight.
Thanks iHirO for all of your time, you always do an awesome job!