RE: [Rails-devel] Tile orientations

[Erik V. <eri...@hc...>]

> > I have started checking the tile orientations in Tile Designer
> > vs. the files as provided with the games (1830 only so far).
> > (the standard is that the position of the tile number defines
> > either the S or the SW edge of the unrotated tile).
> >
> > It turns out that almost all 1830 tiles have a different orientation
> > in TileDesigner! However statistically unlikely it may be, the only
> > correct one (except the obvious tile #63) was tile #67!
> 
> You will find that different games use different orientations 
> of the same 
> tile, and sometimes the same game uses multiple orientations 
> of the one 
> tile (I believe there is one in 1830 that has multiple orientations).

Yes, tile #45. I have chosen the one that appears in the PS18XX tile
set for 1830, as I think we should align with the PBEM community.
 
> My solution was to define a canonical orientation and store it in the 
> database that way, and then for each game it could define a rotation 
> relative to the canonical orientation (even multiple 
> instances of the same 
> tile in different orientations).

Yes, that is my approach too. The "database" now is Tiles.xml.
I have just uploaded new versions of the tile XML files.

However, after a quick check of your database and some of the games you
have published I now see, that you use Marco's tile orientations rather than
the ones 
that I found in the 1830 game box and in the PS18XX set for 1830.

We clearly must make a choice which orientation set we will use.

Whether or not a choice for whichever "canonical" orientation is important 
depends on the question whether or not we will display the tile numbers at
all
on the map.
If we do, I think we should aim at displaying the tile number for each game
in the correct place as often as we can. Now that you currently are the most
prolific game publisher, the balance will shift your way inevitably...

But IMO displaying tile (and revenue) numbers at all 
will only be worth while if we either succeed in implementing SVC graphics,
or go for a separate gif file for each tile orientation (otherwise 
the number reading directions will rotate with the tile).
And if we succeed in scaling the numbers such that these are readable
and still do not overwhelm the map. I have my doubts on this aspect.

At least we need a spreadsheet listing the orientations of 
all common tiles in all popular games against your database.
Maybe I'll start one.

Erik.