InGame Forms

How would we go about having player names be placed above player heads in the game and retaining the size of the text to never change? I'm assuming forms for each one? Can we generate new copies of forms with a pre-built template to help with this?

What about the kind of icons that appear on screen over a particular object and stays on the edge of the screen in relation to which way you're facing it? I've seen this done on buttons that you have to press and also for friendly players or other objectives and map marker type elements. I've also seen it heavily used to warn the player that a grenade is about to go off by them.

Am I right to assume we're going to display the form and then project the object's position to screen space and then run checks to keep it in the view? That should technically solve the size issue.

What about a hit indicator that lets you know which direction you were hit from?

Is it possible to have forms appear in the 3D world, displayed on object surfaces? How would we best handle 3D menu systems for console panels and things? We can use raycasting to detect buttons no problem, but would a form be more efficient?

This one's not so related to forms. How would we make important objects that are obstructed from view appear with no z-buffer and with a different material, including a glow if possible. It's pretty standard in RTS games but I'm seeing it as usefull for FPS games too.

Right now I'm really just searching for theories and trying to get us talking. I plan to incorporate all of it if I can. I'd like players to be able to track their friends in the game world aswell as have plenty of clues as to where they need to be going and what they need to be doing.