HUD
The HUD (Heads-Up Display) inside the engineers helmet displays helpful information, such as player/ship status, GPS markers and radar signals, chat messages, crosshairs, help tooltips, and warnings on your screen. You toggle the visibility of the HUD by pressing the TAB key which cycles the HUD through full, minimal, and off. Toggling the HUD off is beneficial when taking screenshots.
Cycling HUD Visibility
You can cycle your HUD through three states of detail by pressing TAB key.
- First press hides the help tooltips from the HUD.
- Second press hides the whole HUD. Useful when taking screenshots.
- Third press cycles back to the full HUD with help tooltips.
Tip: To hide or show the crosshair on the HUD, change the setting in the Options window.
Pressing TAB key once hides the tooltips on the HUD.
Pressing TAB key a second time hides the whole HUD.
To hide or show the crosshair on the HUD, go to the Options window.
Signals and GPS
- Main article: Signal
Signals are the short floating words that appear on your HUD to provide you with additional information about your surroundings, such as the presence of players, bases, vehicles/ships, or ores. Some signals are associated with GPS, others with Antennas and Beacons.
Press H key to cycle your own HUD to either fully show all signals, show minimal signals, or hide all signals. This toggle has no impact on what other players can see.
Players can toggle their suit broadcast on/off by pressing O key. Other players can only see your signal if you have it toggled on.
Status HUD Breakdown
Player Status
| GUI Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Helmet (1) | A bright helmet icon indicates the visor is closed, dull indicates open. Close or open your helmet by pressing J key. If you lose health (suffocate) in low-oxygen areas, close your helmet. |
| Jetpack (2) | A bright jetpack icon indicates the jetpack is on, dull indicates off. If magboots are enabled, this icon switches to a boot. Toggle your jetpack/magboots on and off by pressing X key. |
| Broadcasting (3) | A bright signal icon indicates you are broadcasting, dull indicates listening-only. Toggle your suit's signal broadcasting on and off by pressing O key. |
| Light (4) | A bright icon indicates your helmet spotlights are on, dull indicates off. Toggle the suit's lights on and off by pressing L key. |
| Engineer Health (5) | The bar shows the percentage of engineer's health. |
| Oxygen (6) | The bar shows the percentage of oxygen remaining in the suit reservoir. The small bottle icons indicate the number of oxygen bottles in the player's inventory (but not how full they are). |
| Suit energy (7) | The bar shows the percentage of remaining energy of the suit. If it is depleted, the engineer will start losing health in extreme environments. |
| Hydrogen (8) | The bar shows the percentage of hydrogen remaining in the suit. The small bottle icons indicate the number of hydrogen bottles in the player's inventory (but not how full they are). |
| Velocity (9) | This speed dial shows how fast you are moving in m/s. |
| Inertial Dampers (10) | This icon shows whether Inertial Dampers are on, off (or on auto). Toggle by pressing Z key. |
See also Life Support.
Toolbar
| GUI Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Inventory capacity bar (1) | This capacity bar indicates the percentage of inventory taken in the engineer's suit (but not the grid's inventory). Turns red when nearly full. Press I key to access the inventory. |
| Toolbar (2) | The icons indicate tools or blocks that you can use by pressing number keys. Press 0 key to change to the engineer's empty hand (no tool active / no block to be placed). Press G key to use the Tool Bar Configuration screen. |
| Toolbar selection (3) | Engineers have 9 toolbars at their disposal. Press , key and . key to cycle through toolbars, or use CTRL+1 key to CTRL+9 key to go directly to a toolbar. |
| Mirror mode (4) | (In Block Placement Mode, Creative Mode only:) A bright icon indicates Symmetry is on, dull indicates off. Toggle this mirroring mode by pressing N key. |
| Auto-rotation (5) | (In Block Placement Mode only:) A bright icon indicates block auto-rotation is on, dull indicates off. Toggle auto-rotation by pressing T key. |
| Grid size (6) | In Block Placement Mode only:) Indicates the grid size of the block you are holding. Press the toolbar slot's number again to toggle between small grid and large grid. In the sample screenshot, pressing 1 key would select a large-grid armor block, and pressing 1 key again would select a small-grid armor block. |
| Environment (7) | Shows the oxygen and temperature in the environment. Oxygen can be either none, low, or high. Temperature can be freeze, cold, or warm. The environment has an impact on the energy use of the suit's life support and the player's health. |
| Help button (8) | Press F1 key to watch in-app help videos and look up controls. |
| Gravity and horizon indicators (9) | Indicates the current artificial gravity (A-gravity) and planetary gravity (P-gravity) in metres per second per second. The globe indicates the horizon of the engineer, and a cross indicates the current heading relative to this horizon when moving. In zero gravity, the circle shows no horizon. |
Ship/Vehicle Information
| GUI Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Parking Brake / Handbrake (1) | The icon indicates whether the parking brake is on. Toggle the handbrake and the lock states of Landing Gear or Connector blocks by pressing P key. Configure Cockpit Controls before using this to dock! |
| Broadcasting (2) | The icon indicates whether the ship is broadcasting a signal or listening only. Requires an Antenna block. Toggle ship broadcasting/listening by pressing O key. |
| Power (3) | The icon indicates whether batteries and power producing blocks are on or off. Toggle this grid's power on or off by pressing Y key. |
| Mass (4) | The number indicates the mass of the ship in kg, including cargo. It can be inaccurate to what the physics engine uses, for more details see the NOTE in Info Screen page. |
| Remaining power (5) | The number indicates the real-life time remaining before the grid runs out of power if you were to continue doing what you are doing right now. |
| Power usage percentage (6) | This bar indicates the percentage of available power currently being used. If it indicates medium to low values, your power production is good. If this bar is 100% full and turns red, the ship needs more power than available (and you need add e.g. more batteries). |
| Hydrogen percentage (7) | This bar indicates the percentage of Hydrogen available in the ship's tanks. If the bar is 100% full, then all tanks are full. Useful as fuel gauge for ships with Hydrogen Thrusters. Check whether the tanks are set to stockpile or provide hydrogen! |
Crosshairs
The crosshairs help you aim when interacting or shooting, but they don’t look good on screenshots. You can select the option to show/hide the crosshairs on the HUD through the Options > Game menu.
The crosshair is separate from the aiming reticle while using Block Weapons. For information on the aiming reticle, see Target Locking.
Chat
- Main article: Chat
Text chat appears on the bottom left side of the HUD. Open the chat box by pressing ENTER key, then type your message, and press ENTER key again to send the message, or to close the chat after typing nothing.
Help and warnings
By default, game performance warnings appear along the top of the HUD, you can control their appearance in the Warning Options.
Help info boxes (for beginners) and Block Tooltips (for everyone) appear along the right side of the HUD.
Some warnings and tips also appear as text in the middle of the HUD, see Options how to disable them.
Trivia
The HUD was overhauled in Update 01.179 Major (Video), along with the rest of the User Interface. That's why older screenshot look different.