I made a mod for XIII that removes certain parts of the UI, see if it suits your needs. I only tested it with the GOG edition.

At first I tried to simply override the DrawHUD method and set bHideHUD to true before calling the inherited method, but it seemed to cause serious glitches (NPCs wouldn't want to talk to you), so I had to choose a different approach.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2167715/XIII%20HUD-Free%20Mod%201.0.1.zip

(edit)
I managed to include a silly bug in the previous version, link updated, all combinations of settings should work now.

I'll give it a look and post again shortly.

Ok, I just tried out the HUDfree XIII mod that drennan made.


I must say, it is very elegantly done. I like it. It's thorough and customizable, which is always a good thing.



So, drennan has won a prize.

drennan: pm me with the games that you would like on GOG. You can select one or more games for a total value of $20.


I wonder if this mod would work with Splinter Cell as well, since they're both unreal engine games. Hmm.

Try F3 in descent ;p

No, this one definitely wouldn't, the new classes in HUDFree.u are descendants of XIII classes, but a new mod based on the same idea probably would.

And now let's get some hudfree screenshots!

Ok. I've attached an image of XIII without the hud:



Here I've attached an image of Shank2 with no hud.

I haven't finished the mod completely. I got it working, but I cut corners while testing. For example, I haven't disabled boss huds yet. When I finish the mod, I'll upload it.
Please re-read the post for clarification about what I want removed from Descent 3. The menu that appears when you press F3 does not provide options to disable everything, specifically your Score and text that appears every time you pick up something.

If you're up to doing it, I'll work with you to figure it out. Of course, you'll get another $20 prize if it works. Do you have Splinter Cell? If not, which files would you need to work with from the game to get it working?

Code redeemed, thanks a lot for the prize.

No, I don't have Splinter Cell, but I did some research and found out that it will be a lot more difficult to mod than I expected.

The Build commandlet was removed from the command line client (UCC.exe) shipped with the game, a map editor has never been released, and UnrealScript source code was stripped from the .u files. The scripts can still be decompiled, but I have no idea how one would compile the mod without a build-capable UCC. I'll try to find a solution when I have the time.

I was worried about that. I didn't know Splinter Cell was missing so much, but I noticed there was no editor and I've heard that the unreal engine was heavily modified for it.

I hope you like your new game.

Congrats (and kudos) to drennan and I hope you'll achieve your goal with the other two games, hudfreegamer!

Good news! I finally managed to build a working proof of concept package for Splinter Cell. I'll code and test the HUD-free mod tomorrow. :)

Seems to me that you will win two in a row (or even three) with your mastery on modding games. :)

Okay, a couple of notes and questions.

Due to sloppy coding in the original Splinter Cell scripts, the state of the HUD is stored in save files, which means configuration through ini file settings won't work. For the same reason, HUD-free save files will not be compatible with the normal game and vice versa, you should use separate profiles for them.

The current implementation I'm experimenting with is to provide a console command to toggle the HUD, which can then be mapped to a key (I picked Tab). The only question that remains is what exactly should be hidden. Hiding the Quick Inventory would render it useless, for example, so I added an exception for it and display it regardless of the global HUD visibility setting.

What about the Interaction popup, though? Should it be visible when you stand near an object, like in the original game? Only if you press and hold the interact key? Only if there are two or more choices? Are there any message types in the Communication Box that should not be hidden?

I think it might be hard to play without the Quick Inventory, so I'm glad you left that in.

As far as other popups, such as interaction keys, I'd say either do whatever is easiest, or disable them completely unless doing so would make it too difficult to play (like if there are two or more choices).

When I deleted the EchelonHUD.u file, I was able to play without a hud for a few minutes before the game crashed. I didn't have any problem doing things like opening doors, etc. I don't think a reminder is necessary if there's only one thing you can do.