Ideas about better F1 overlay/HUD

[Straggler]

Here's my idea of how FOM can make the F1 overlay/HUD much better. I made it for like 10 minutes using MS Paint. I think with this overlay you will have almost every vital information that you need to know in a F1 race.

F1 overlay/HUD v.1


F1 overlay/HUD v.2

And if you are afraid from the too many colors, most of the time it will look like this:


First off you will have this overlay on the right side ALL OF THE TIME. It will be gone only for replays. So you will have every vital information for every second from the race. You will have the gap from the leader for every driver in the race that will update every 2 or 3 seconds. You will have the 'laps to go' next to the leader. You will have the fastest lap holder and his result (in purple), the best personal times (in green) and a driver having problems and/or causing yellow flags on the track (in yellow). There can be other backgrounds for different cases. On the left side next to each driver you will have the used tyres sets up until the moment and the red background will notify for drivers currently in the pits. The thin green line between 2 drivers will indicate that they are less than one second from one another and DRS can be used.

Thus you will have all the information you need to know. The number of pit stops and the exact used tyres sets for absolutely every driver in the race + the gap between all the drivers (calculated manually from the gap from the leader, which is very easy to do) all in one and all of the time. (Not only for 6 drivers like it is in the current broadcast.)

In the down right corner you will have the MUCH needed picture in picture for a dynamic event like an F1 race. I can't believe that there's still no PIP in the F1 broadcasts.

If you too have some ideas about how to make the F1 overlay/HUD better don't hesitate to share them in this thread.

[Kiril Varbanov]

That's a good one. I've already made a similar suggestions about two years ago, with no response whatsoever.
Email that to 'media [at] fomltd.com' - they may consider, though silently, some of the features.

As a commentator, I'd certainly appreciate it - it will mean one less live source to follow.

[beelsebob]

Showing too much information. Remember, a large part of the goal here is to leave as much space available as possible for showing the damn race. They are also well aware that people who want the really detailed information can go and look at the timing screens.

For me, the single biggest improvement would be to mirror what the MotoGP races have been doing. They show all the riders in the stack down the left, and chose some interesting gaps between them that are changing. They stick the delta time between the riders, and keep updating it every single sector, so that you can monitor the change in the important gaps. This is infinitely better than the 3 lap delta times display the do for F1, as it's on-screen all the time, and it covers lots of different gaps, not just one.

[Websta]

For me, the single biggest improvement would be to mirror what the MotoGP races have been doing. They show all the riders in the stack down the left, and chose some interesting gaps between them that are changing. They stick the delta time between the riders, and keep updating it every single sector, so that you can monitor the change in the important gaps. This is infinitely better than the 3 lap delta times display the do for F1, as it's on-screen all the time, and it covers lots of different gaps, not just one.

In MotoGP they can get away with only showing "interesting" lap deltas instead of all of them because of the fact that the field is so much less spread out and the riders are bunched up in packs. There typically are only a few significant lap deltas across the entire field, i.e. the gap between the front runner pack and the mid-field pack. Within the packs, the deltas don't matter much. Whenever the front-running pack/whole field gets more spread out, you see them showing deltas much more frequently.

I don't see that being good enough for F1

[WhiteBlue]

You can overdo the information thing. Your proposal is interesting, but I would not want to have it there all the time. Perhaps it would make sense if the overlay was influenced by the remote control. I mean we are living in the digital age. Technically it is feasible that the viewer can get himself a bunch of more information into a dynamic overlay.

[Straggler]

For all the people that think this overlay will get in the way of what's happening on the track you can think twice after watching some DTM for example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUW7sW43-Vs[/youtube]

I bet you will get used to it in about 5 minutes and then you will be more than happy to see every time you want where all the drivers are and what all the gaps are. The big thing missing in DTM though is the gap from the leader. But in F1 they can put this info instead of the manufacturers brand column. And of course the whole thing can be even smaller than what the DTM's is right now by showing the gap only to the tenth of the second (0.0). There's no need for a 0.000 gap in a race situation.

Everything aside i bet all of you will agree with me at least that the picture in picture feature is essential for a Formula 1 broadcast ... You can't go and show us the obvious winner of the GP and by doing so miss a big fight for points on the last lap for example.

[Kiril Varbanov]

PinP is absolute must. What's also really necessary is a major overhaul of the live timing Java ancient applet.
I do agree, to some extent, that the information looks a bit too much in the beginning, but you get used to it.

The remote control button for dynamically calling interface is not going to happen, as the live race feed is being broadcast for the entire world by FOM, and individual modifications aren't possible on a global level. If your digital TV provider can think of something - that's another story.

But again, if they start to provide that much info, the mobile app isn't going to sell nicely...

[krisfx]

I think the overlay shows a bit too much information. Not to sound like a dick, but how many people truly care how far the bottom of the grid are off the pace, really the top 10 is all that matters in terms of points haul, so concentrate on those guys maybe?

[Richard]

The cars outside the top 10 often have the most interesting battles. Also their sponsors woudl be annoyed if they have evan less coverage than they get now.

What's also really necessary is a major overhaul of the live timing Java ancient applet.

It's embarrassing that the so called pinnacle of technology in motorsport uses a version of Java that is routinely blocked by Firefox. I guess they provide a timing screen for some legacy reason but will never update it because they want users to pay for the app.

[Kiril Varbanov]

What's also really necessary is a major overhaul of the live timing Java ancient applet.

It's embarrassing that the so called pinnacle of technology in motorsport uses a version of Java that is routinely blocked by Firefox. I guess they provide a timing screen for some legacy reason but will never update it because they want users to pay for the app.

In general, the whole closed-outdated-proprietary model of F1 is wrong. As simple as that. While I understand that Java is, allegedly, a cross-platform, any tech person knows this isn't true. There's a different version for Windows, Linux, not to mention the JNI for AIX. So, normal HTML5 app fed with data and refreshed with AJAX calls every [X] configurable amount of seconds will do. Put the tabs on top of it...

I'd love to pay for something which is worth. As far as I understand the official app isn't loved by the users.

[Just_a_fan]

Here's my idea of how FOM can make the F1 overlay/HUD much better. I made it for like 10 minutes using MS Paint. I think with this overlay you will have almost every vital information that you need to know in a F1 race.

I have used a TV card in my PC and then had TV, FIA live timing screens and the BBC driver tracker all on one screen. That was a good setup but needs a decent sized screen.

[Gaz.]

Instead of having '20 laps to go' on top of the stack you could have 51/70 and do away with the lap counter at the top of the screen. I like the idea of the full stack, but perhaps behind the red button so viewers have a choice of a full stack or the current graphics?

[Straggler]

OK ... how about this: F1 overlay/HUD v.2.0 !!!
It is the same font size. I only switched to 0.0 gap instead of the not needed in race conditions 0.000 gap. It will show up the first 11 drivers for like 20 seconds, then the other 11 (not so interesting drivers ) for 10 seconds and so on ...


And if you are afraid from the too many colors, most of the time it will look like this:


So ... now the most interesting part !!! Compare it to a frame of the current official F1 broadcast overlay (So you still thinking the upper overlays are showing "too much information" and are using too much space ?!? I think they are showing at least twice more information for twice less space...) :

[pob]

You are more likely to be listened to if you send your ideas to FOM in writing. I had the idea (amongst others) to have the "P" and chequered flag symbols in qualifying.

[flattyre]

I think the key word here is: SIMPLICITY.

I know a good amount of people welcome your suggestions to improve the TV display (count me as one of those), but realistically we have to look at the big picture.

The majority of us here are engineers (or of the engineering mindset), so of course we're going to want more info, more numbers, more details. But, I can pretty much guarantee that most people would be turned off of the sport if it was shown as a numbers game.

Picture this. Imagine watching a sport such as football, rugby, cricket... anything along those lines. When we watch it (or if we were to watch it), we'd watch it to see exciting play and sporting moments. Now, if the display started showing things such as...

[Play time: 50 mins] [Yellow card] ROONEY [Shots: 4] [On target: 50%] [Distance run: 4.1km]
[Play time: 50 mins] [No card] LAMPARD [Shots: 1] [On target: 0%] [Distance run: 5.4km]
[Play time: 5 mins] [No card] COLE [Shots: 1] [On target: 100%] [Distance run: 5.2km]

[10 men] [Subs remaining: 1] ENGLAND [Score: 0]
[11 men] [Subs remaining: 2] GERMANY [Score: 1]

...then we'd think it was a bit over-the-top, wouldn't we? It's the same with F1. The beauty of the internet is that we can get the information that we want, when we want, how we want.

I say it's best to keep the TV display as simple or artistic as possible. During the Hungarian GP, there was a moment when the TV display disappeared completely during Hamilton's onboard. I thought how refreshing it was, and I would've gladly watched the entire race like that.