What elements/visuals do you see through your wireless jack when you Smartlink up? What does the hud look like in your mind? What is it capable of other than giving you another die?

I did an illustration that probably could be improved upon.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_FofXWd8QxmA/Rqa5LM...+Still+Shot.jpg

I figure it looks about like most first person shooter games, give or take. Glowing targeting pip, crosshairs moving around your field of vision as the gun's muzzle moves, and with a sort of "rear view mirror" pop-up appearing at a corner of your field of view if the gun (active and loaded) is being aimed where you can't see (such as when it's pointed around a corner, or behind your back).

Like the pop up screens some big tvs have, so you can watch a game in one window and a second game in another, etc, etc.

Echo Critias.

Customizable crosshair, other data that you can arrange the way you like it (ammo count, safety on/off, whatever else the weapon supports). I'll add that in my interpretation, when in "camera mode", the crosshair is just centered in the video feed.

i would add in a second crosshair that indicates where the target will be by the time the bullet gets there, for anything with a long enough range or firing at a fast enough object to matter.

I would imagine a line in space adjusted for wind, drop, etc, rather than a simple crosshair. Why look at just the endpoint when you can see the entire path just as easily? It could even show a pseudo-cone (very very narrow, of course), that shows where the bullet will go within a certain degree of certainty.

Smartlinks aren't tactical devices, they are Narritive devices. They show whatever make the communal story best. If your Street Sam is laying down his 5th round of Ex-Ex suppressive fire, to buy the hacker that extra couple of seconds from the HTRT I'd be describing the hellish heat buildup and metal fugue. If you don't have a dramatic use for your description I'd just be content to let everyone imagine that ever want and the fact that it always adds up to a +2 bonus keeps people from arguing about why their mental image is better or worse.

I'm going to have to make a shameless plug for Masamune Shirow, Mamoru Oshii here, but I think Innocence and Applesheed, had exquisite examples of Smartlinks.

Depends on the quality of the smart link. The basic model probably has a cross-hair where the gun is aimed, an ammo counter in the bottom of your vision, which starts blinking when you're low, a few standard icons that appear down the left of your vision to indicate, safety off, barrel overheating. Perhaps a range-finder and some basic predictive tracking of targets. All very good stuff. But the alpha and betaware probably has lots of extras, both minor (range advice that varies with the gun, calibration for different guns to store unique manufacturing variations, etc) to fancy smart stuff, such as outlining a target list in colour, tracking selected targets in your vision as they move. Plug in a tactical computer of some sort and it might even do micro-time threat analysis.

There's a story on my site called 'Company Girl' that describes an expensive smart link set-up from the character's point of view.

I imagine it's sort of like the HUD for an F16. There's a boresight indicator (where the gun is pointing), a pip (the crosshairs showing where the shot will end up due to movement, etc.), and a dynamic indicator of bullet path/drop/etc.

There'd also be ammo, indicators for IFF signals given off by designated commlinks, etc.

Example

With the DNI of cyberlinks I would imagine that you don't 'see' anything. I would figure it would be more of a knowing that your gun is pointed in the right direction and knowing how much ammo you have left. With the crappy goggles, which are now as good as the cyber, it would probably be like a HUD in a FPS.

I lean towards fighter pilot HUD myself, with icons tracking assorted targets, red for foes, green for friendly, and an auto-reloading alarm when you get low on shells.

But really, really cool.

-- Wak, not really down with Smartgun Contacts, tho.

The targeting system in the original Robocop is what I've always thought it was. Especially the scene where Peter Weller walks into the drug warehouse with all the crazies

Depending on the make & model your Character gets, you can have a simple wire-form crosshairs super-imposed on the visual (like looking through a rifle scope or using a transparancy with a crosshairs on it) or go for the FPS version. I prefer as few distractions (like neon or brightly-colored icons) as possible, just let your eyes follow.

Depends on the gun. Ideally...

1. A crosshair that factors in trajectory, along with a range finder display next to it
2. Indicators on:
a) whether a round is in the chamber
b) whether the safety is off or on
c) how many rounds are in the magazine
d) what type of bullets are being used in each round in the magazine (AP, Gel, etc)
3. If it is a police model smarklink, it would flash a warning if you pointed the gun at a bystandard
4. The police model would also count each round that was fired, what type it was, and where it was fired (with a GPS fix), in order to make it easier to recreate the crime scene later on if necessary

Well personally unless they are using RFID tags I don't allow a smartlink to tell who is and isn't friendly or warn about bystanders, but yeah, for the most part I see a smartlink display as looking something like a cross between a First Person Shooter Hud and a Flight Sim.