Heads-Up Display

Illustrated example of a HUD as seen in GTA San Andreas.

A Heads-Up Display (HUD) is a set of indicators used in most games to show the player's current status in a game, such as the score, health and the life. 

Description

A HUD can be used to convey many different types of information, such as time, score (in some missions), money, health, armor, weaponry, ammunition, warnings (e.g. "wrong way" in a race) maps with blips and subtitles of conversations.

The HUD GTA games may display the following information:

• Money.
• Weapon selected and amount of ammunition.
• Amount of health.
• Amount of armor.
• Mission title (GTA III onwards) when starting a mission.
• Oxygen remaining (GTA San Andreas) or Stamina (GTA Vice City Stories) when in water.
• Gang respect (GTA 2).
• Player character stats and skills (GTA San Andreas).
• Wanted Level. Starting with GTA San Andreas (except GTA Advance), the wanted level interface does not appear until the player has a wanted level.
• Time (GTA III and later) (in Grand Theft Auto Advance, only when on foot), indicated by a 24-hour clock.
• Vehicle speed (GTA Advance), in miles per hour. Replaces the time display when riding in a vehicle.
• The vehicle the player enters. In GTA V, the vehicle name displayed in the lower right corner includes the car manufacturer, as well as its category (ex. Albany Cavalcade, SUVs).
• The district the player enters.
• The street the player enters (Grand Theft Auto IV).
• Character's special ability meter (Grand Theft Auto V).
• Location Compasses, compass points to key locations (Grand Theft Auto to GTA 2).
• A radar, a small map of the player's current location (GTA III onwards). Altitude meters are also integrated into the radar for GTA San Andreas, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and GTA V.

Other elements appear on the HUD in other situations, such as a dialogue subtitles, help messages, and a "Busted" or "Wasted" sign if the player gets arrested or killed respectively.

Gallery

2D Universe

GTA.

GTA London 1969 and London 1961.

GTA 2.

3D Universe

GTA III PS2 HUD.png

GTA III for the PS2.

GTA III PC/Xbox version, with gold weapon icons instead of gray and slightly revamped stats and stars.

GTA III Mobile HUD.png

GTA III 10 Year Anniversary mobile version, with pale-yellow colored weapon icons.

GTA Vice City.

GTA Vice City 10 Year Anniversary mobile version. Notice the different GTA III style hud icons.

GTA Advance. (On foot, time display instead of vehicle speed).

GTA San Andreas. The bottom money counter shows the player is in debt as a result of gambling.

GTA San Andreas 10 Year Anniversary mobile/remastered version.

GTA Liberty City Stories for the PSP, with rounded health and armor bars.

GTA LCS PS2 version, here it has squared bars instead.

GTA LCS mobile version. The weapon icons are reused from the mobile version of GTA Vice City and are recolored white and black.

VCS HUD.jpg

GTA Vice City Stories.

HD Universe

GTA IV (upper right HUD) (Radar, with additional HUD elements).

The Lost and Damned. To replicate the biker gang theme of the game, the HUD is faded and grittier (Radar)

The Ballad of Gay Tony. To replicate the colourful nightclub theme of the game, the HUD is now both white and purple (Radar).

In the Nintendo DS version of GTA Chinatown Wars, the information that would have been on the HUD in earlier games (except for the Wanted Level and place/car names) are moved to the bottom screen as part of the PDA.

GTA V. The coloured lines will vary depending on the playable protagonist. In this case, Michael's HUD is blue.

GTAV PS3 and Xbox 360 version.

GTAV PS4, Xbox One and PC version.

Trivia

• The mobile version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City does not use the HUD from the original version of the game; instead the game uses and recolors the HUD of the mobile version of GTA III. The Fist, Pistol, MAC-10 (which uses the GTA III Micro-SMG icon), Flamethrower, Grenade, and Molotov Cocktail icons are reused from GTA III and are recolored pink and purple. The mobile version of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, having the same weapons as VC, also borrows GTA III's weapon icons, as well as the icons for the weapons introduced in VC (i.e. Pistol and SMG).