Now, It seems all the graphics will need remaking. I think, in line wit the way the terrain tiles are being treated there should be an algoritm resizing the pictures of the buildings inside the colony, so I can make just one big picture, for the 4K default so the program can shrink them to fit the smaller resolutions.
The alternate versions already works for all images :-)
The prairie looks good, but I should probably make a better transition between tiles of different types. A straight line looked good for swamp and marsh, but not for the new prairie. I will experiment using different transitions later.
The savannah have more dark spots on the edges than in the center -- making the tiling obvious. We should either fix this or make alternate images to break up the pattern.
I think the graphics you made for plains in 256x128 looked more like what I would expect (it's obviously not correct in real life, but that should not be the main objective in any case). Here's an example where I have copied parts around a bit and made a 512x256 texture from it.
Yes those improvised plains actually look OK. Savannah and Prairie loook funky and weird to me though. Maybe I should tone down the contrast. I can see the problem with Savannah tiling.
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The hills had a smaller image size than the mountain -- and was automatically resized. See the image below for the correct size (I added transparent padding in order to make it the correct size.
I liked the larger hills, though, as they tiled nicely. Perhaps we should make a larger, but flatter, hill?
It looks fairly good by itself, but it is a bit too dark compared to the new base tiles. In addition, I think it should be larger so that adjacent hills connect with each other.
Overlays, like hills and mountains, can go beyond the normal tile sizes and is not constrained by the "diamond" shape of the tile. See "tile2.png" for an example with a hill tile of size 512x384 (that is, the overlay has 128 extra pixels compared to the base tile of 512x256).
(the example "tile2" can obviously not be used -- it is just meant to illustrate a different size of the graphics)
If we do want to keep a smaller hill: Changing the overlay size to a 512x256 diamond, like your "New Hill.png", would make the map drawing more efficient on old computers.
In the original Col they planned to make different looking hills and mountains for different terrain types but they settled for one type, but the way it was made, the terrain is still showing form underneath.
I think since in Free Col we've got only one type of hill and mountain there is no need to to overthink it. I'll make the flatter, wider hill. And brighter too :)
Oh, And that mountain really needs a better texture.
Last edit: Misiulo 2022-01-10
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Since all us non-programmer fans have been chomping at the bit for a new nightly release one of the members of the Col Fans discord was kind enough to share a compiled version of your latest dev build so I'm finally able to see the new graphics! The new blending technique is very nice, Misiulos new grassland colours look nice too, and omg the animating oceans and clouds are so cool Stian and add so much life and atmosphere.. really really good stuff! :)
However my eyes were quickly distracted by weird brown lumps all over the map and strange grey & white splashy shapes and I realised the hills and mountains had been changed. Personally I think the old ones were better and worked well enough in thick formations. Those new ones just look really weird and a bit fake when in areas of thick hill and mountain formations (see attached screens from large Americas map) and I just know that if I share them around people are going to be really rude. However I can see from the above posts Misiulo is cooking up some really nice brand new and more realistic looking versions to replace them. I like the look at that new hill design, hope it works well in thick repetitive formations, as that's the big test!
@calebrw Can do as I recently gave an update on the groups to @stiangre and the dev email followers so I'll copy and paste most of what I said here for you mate. :)
I set about fixing a fan community issue in that Colonization had no social media presence and no forums were left either. So I created the Colonization Fans facebook, Discord and Reddit groups for fans to get together and talk about the classic game while I also created these groups to promote FreeCol content bringing more fans and programmer talent here to support the project. The videos I've been releasing recently are the final stage in promoting FreeCol and these ColFan communities to build them up and ensure that we can have direct access to the fans for years to come whenever something important happens with FreeCol. I still haven't fully promoted these videos across all the retro gaming communities yet so there's still plenty of growth in the months to come. So if you or any other members reading this would like to join these groups you are more than welcome.
Despite being much newer the Col Reddit group as really taken off and is about to overtake the FB group as its at 193 members now! https://www.reddit.com/r/ColonizationGame/
And lastly the Col Discord group is newer than the others and has also been pretty slow in its growth so is only up to 53 member now, it would have been 56 but I had to boot 3 morons for spamming haha. I should also mention that this discord has a dedicated FreeCol subchat area. Obviously many fan projects use Discord for chatting so keep it in mind should anyone wish to switch to it in the future if sourceforge suddenly closes or something lol. https://discord.gg/CHcH75s
And lastly a year or so ago I was able to gain control of the old abandoned FreeCol IndieDB page. We don't know who originally set it up many years ago, it may have been you Stian? However for whatever reason it became abandoned for 10 or so years and was under no users control anymore. So I contacted the site admins, discussed the situation and was able to get them to give me full control of the page. This then allowed me to update its pictures, information and downloads to get it all on par with the modern up to date information on the FreeCol sourceforge and website. To ensure it never becomes abandoned again if something happens to me I switched control of the game page from my account to a IndieDB FreeCol dev team group and brought in Mike and Winter into the team and gave them full control over the group and game page too. I've just sent you (Stian) a invite to the group too so there should be an email in your inbox just before this one (I can email you an invite too Calebrw or you can visit the FreeCol team page and hit an apply button). If you would prefer the invite sent to a different email of yours let me know. If you're not interested in joining that's fine too. With Mike, Winter & myself there it should ensure the page stays under the dev teams control now and doesn't get lost again or claimed by an impostor. IndieDB is a great site for promoting fan projects as it has a huge fan/visitor base so it's important for FreeCol to keep a presence there. https://www.indiedb.com/games/freecol
.
Last edit: Blake 2022-02-06
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Bahahahahaha yes that's it.. you've figured out the conspiracy.. I have a SPECIAL secret mailing list that pesters random people I've never seen before (seriously who are you even??) every time I post on sourceforge..
honestly.. some people need their heads checked lol..
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I've apllied the changes. Is it OK now?
Now, It seems all the graphics will need remaking. I think, in line wit the way the terrain tiles are being treated there should be an algoritm resizing the pictures of the buildings inside the colony, so I can make just one big picture, for the 4K default so the program can shrink them to fit the smaller resolutions.
Last edit: Misiulo 2021-12-28
The alternate versions already works for all images :-)
The prairie looks good, but I should probably make a better transition between tiles of different types. A straight line looked good for swamp and marsh, but not for the new prairie. I will experiment using different transitions later.
The savannah have more dark spots on the edges than in the center -- making the tiling obvious. We should either fix this or make alternate images to break up the pattern.
I think the graphics you made for plains in 256x128 looked more like what I would expect (it's obviously not correct in real life, but that should not be the main objective in any case). Here's an example where I have copied parts around a bit and made a 512x256 texture from it.
Yes those improvised plains actually look OK. Savannah and Prairie loook funky and weird to me though. Maybe I should tone down the contrast. I can see the problem with Savannah tiling.
It seems like the hills may be too tall.
Indeed.
The hills had a smaller image size than the mountain -- and was automatically resized. See the image below for the correct size (I added transparent padding in order to make it the correct size.
I liked the larger hills, though, as they tiled nicely. Perhaps we should make a larger, but flatter, hill?
Good idea.
How about this version of the Hill?
It looks fairly good by itself, but it is a bit too dark compared to the new base tiles. In addition, I think it should be larger so that adjacent hills connect with each other.
Overlays, like hills and mountains, can go beyond the normal tile sizes and is not constrained by the "diamond" shape of the tile. See "tile2.png" for an example with a hill tile of size 512x384 (that is, the overlay has 128 extra pixels compared to the base tile of 512x256).
(the example "tile2" can obviously not be used -- it is just meant to illustrate a different size of the graphics)
If we do want to keep a smaller hill: Changing the overlay size to a 512x256 diamond, like your "New Hill.png", would make the map drawing more efficient on old computers.
In the original Col they planned to make different looking hills and mountains for different terrain types but they settled for one type, but the way it was made, the terrain is still showing form underneath.
I think since in Free Col we've got only one type of hill and mountain there is no need to to overthink it. I'll make the flatter, wider hill. And brighter too :)
Oh, And that mountain really needs a better texture.
Last edit: Misiulo 2022-01-10
Wide enough?
Last edit: Misiulo 2022-01-27
Since all us non-programmer fans have been chomping at the bit for a new nightly release one of the members of the Col Fans discord was kind enough to share a compiled version of your latest dev build so I'm finally able to see the new graphics! The new blending technique is very nice, Misiulos new grassland colours look nice too, and omg the animating oceans and clouds are so cool Stian and add so much life and atmosphere.. really really good stuff! :)
However my eyes were quickly distracted by weird brown lumps all over the map and strange grey & white splashy shapes and I realised the hills and mountains had been changed. Personally I think the old ones were better and worked well enough in thick formations. Those new ones just look really weird and a bit fake when in areas of thick hill and mountain formations (see attached screens from large Americas map) and I just know that if I share them around people are going to be really rude. However I can see from the above posts Misiulo is cooking up some really nice brand new and more realistic looking versions to replace them. I like the look at that new hill design, hope it works well in thick repetitive formations, as that's the big test!
Last edit: Blake 2022-01-31
Blake, I pushed a Nightly Release to GitHub. Not sure if we can do so here.
Thank you!! Been asking for weeks in the dev chat and getting silence. I'll go share the news with all the fan groups! :)
Thanks Blake. I will try to do so with more frequency. I'm curios about these fan groups. can you share some links.
Thanks Blake. I will try to do so with more frequency. I'm curios about these fan groups. can you share some links.
@calebrw Can do as I recently gave an update on the groups to @stiangre and the dev email followers so I'll copy and paste most of what I said here for you mate. :)
.
Last edit: Blake 2022-02-06
Thanks. Joined.
Yes this mountain does kind of look like a cow's behind. All work in progress :)
You can try this new one now :)
Last edit: Misiulo 2022-02-01
That's looking much better!
Please remove me from your e-mail list. Thanks.
That's looking much better!
Alternate methods of rendering the base terrain
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Bahahahahaha yes that's it.. you've figured out the conspiracy.. I have a SPECIAL secret mailing list that pesters random people I've never seen before (seriously who are you even??) every time I post on sourceforge..
honestly.. some people need their heads checked lol..
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