Heavy Rain To Showcase Menus Master Augmented Reality UI

French middleware company Omegame revealed that user interface authoring toolchain Menus Master now allows for virtual augmented reality user interfaces. Quantic Dream's PS3-exclusive interactive drama Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer is the first title to incorporate this feature. In Heavy Rain, players can access three dimensional HUD (Heads Up Display) interfaces for using specific equipment. The interfaces, which are authored with Menus Master, are integrated in real time within the game world, behaving like a portable holographic projector that characters can call up. Menus Master is designed to help artists and programmers reduce the time it takes to author sophisticated game user interfaces, such as 2D and 3D front-ends, in-game UIs, and HUDs. Omegame also claims that artists can author game user interfaces using the middleware without any assistance from programmers. According to the firm, Sony expects to publish Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer late 2009. Pictures of the interface featured in the game were also sent out by Omegame as part of their press release: "Augmented reality user interface is the new trend in video games, and Menus Master is the only solution available on the market allowing to easily create such next generation user interface," says Omegame's sales and marketing director Sebastien Kohn. "The astonishing work done by Quantic Dream perfectly illustrates that Menus Master now covers the full spectrum of the user interface needs, from the simple two dimensional user interface, to the next-generation three dimensional user interface," he adds.