Topic: New Immovables

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chuckw Topic Opener Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23 Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA	Posted at: 2011-03-11, 17:17 Have you got an idea or maybe even an example for a new object to be seen on the game board? This thread is intended as a place to introduce and discuss new immovable objects. Immovables are, well, just that! If it naturally stays in one place like a rock, it qualifies! I see little people. Top Quote

chuckw Topic Opener Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23 Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA	Posted at: 2011-03-11, 17:22 To start off, fraang has presented a new palm tree for discussion. You will find the initial comments on the image here http://wl.widelands.org/forum/post/4577/ Edited: 2011-03-11, 18:19 I see little people. Top Quote

chuckw Topic Opener Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23 Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA	Posted at: 2011-03-11, 17:26 I would prefer to see some modifications to any model before I would want it in the game: First, it should have similar lighting, shadows and camera angle to the rest of the objects on the game board. The GraphicsDevelopment wiki page contains a lot of the explanation for how and why we use 3D models and a standard rendering stage to get the same "look" for all of the bobs, sprites and immovables. Second, I would prefer to see the colors more muted to help it fit in with the rest of the game board. Elsewhere in this forum, we have been discussing the merits of cataloging the color codes (i.e. hex values and/or RGB values) and even the materials and textures used in the game to help maintain a consistent look throughout the game. For now, perhaps you could try using an "eyedropper/color picker" on objects already in the game to obtain the desired results. Last, the tree should be animated so as not to stand out from the rest of those which are animated. Here, especially, is where a 3D model and the python rendering scripts really are an asset. fraang, I think you do excellent work! Our primary goal as graphicians, however, must be a cohesive and consistent visual experience for the player. To achieve that, we as artists and developers who are driven by self-expression sometimes have to set personal preferences aside to better contribute to the team's common vision. We must consider the fact that our work will reside and be maintained with the collection of works from many others and many precedents and guidelines have been set. That is not to say that innovation is discouraged. Don't ever be afraid to introduce new material. Indeed, innovation is what allows Widelands to be ever evolving and improving. Sometimes suggested innovations are adopted and sometimes they are rejected. It is through THIS type of dialogue in the forums that we can aim for a common goal and sometimes, when it is warranted, adjust the grand vision of the project. So consider these comments in the spirit they are intended, as constructive criticism to keep the project on track with its goals and to keep the fruits of your artistry as true assets to the project. Edited for content Edited: 2011-03-11, 18:12 I see little people. Top Quote

Astuur Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08 Posts: 733 One Elder of Players Location: Frankfurt / Germany	Posted at: 2011-03-13, 08:04 One thing that comes to my mind, are plants to make the bank of waterbodies more credible. Reeds and things of that sort. They should be able to dissolve the hexagonal grid and and also make the swamp terrain more credible. Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills. I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino). Top Quote

Astuur Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08 Posts: 733 One Elder of Players Location: Frankfurt / Germany	Posted at: 2011-03-13, 08:39 For storytelling, scenarios, tutorials and alike, it may be good to have a set of immovables, that hint at a culture that has been inhabiting the land before. Some slabs as part of an anchient road, an half ruined archway, a single standing column, some fallen and broken ones, bits an pieces of masonry --- well, you get the picture. Such sets may come in two flavors: Ressembling each one of our tribes' architecture and completely alien and not recognizable. Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills. I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino). Top Quote

Nasenbaer Joined: 2009-02-21, 18:17 Posts: 826 One Elder of Players Location: Germany	Posted at: 2011-03-14, 13:39 Astuur wrote: For storytelling, scenarios, tutorials and alike, it may be good to have a set of immovables, that hint at a culture that has been inhabiting the land before. Some slabs as part of an anchient road, an half ruined archway, a single standing column, some fallen and broken ones, bits an pieces of masonry --- well, you get the picture. Such sets may come in two flavors: Ressembling each one of our tribes' architecture and completely alien and not recognizable. You are completely right. There are already some ruins for the barbarians (global = world wide useable) and columns and other non tribe specific ruins in desert world, but this part could be enhanced. Perhaps the best way for creating such immovables would be to write scenarios that are in need for such immovables, to have a clear picture of what is actually needed and to motivate new graphicians - "the created pictures will be shown at prominent places in a complete new campaign map...". Top Quote

Nasenbaer Joined: 2009-02-21, 18:17 Posts: 826 One Elder of Players Location: Germany	Posted at: 2011-03-14, 13:43 By the way I really like the palm! Very good work! But of course it would be great to see it animated! Perhaps it would even be much easier to create more palms and other trees, once the first tree is ready and only some parts need to be altered? Cheers Nasenbaer Top Quote

martin Joined: 2011-01-13, 14:21 Posts: 65 Likes to be here	Posted at: 2011-03-14, 19:20 Congratulations about your 500th post, Peter ;) Well yes, I know, it's off-topic Top Quote

martin Joined: 2011-01-13, 14:21 Posts: 65 Likes to be here	Posted at: 2011-03-14, 19:24 I had another look into the game - and realized, that the new palm would improve things a lot I thought, they would already have been improved, but it wasn't the case - so: my fault about expecting that. And - as I already mentioned - an animated version would be really nice Top Quote

Astuur Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08 Posts: 733 One Elder of Players Location: Frankfurt / Germany	Posted at: 2011-03-22, 08:14 I just had another idea for immovables. From a cosmetic point of view all maps in WF (and Settlers) have some shortcomings that are imposed by the grid and editor (I think). We have neither mountains nor rivers in the map. What we call mountains are hills at best, because the editor forbids real steep and spiky mountains. And our "rivers" are .. hmm -- fjords maybe. While all of this does not matter for playing the game, I could imagine that having some steep mountains would definitely make the maps look better. They could be placed on regions that now have snow terrain and be bitmaps, possibly derived from fractal paintings, ready for placing them on the hilltops inside the editor. By ready I mean that they should already have a gravel zone on their base, have their shadow included and have the proper lighting. They would have no function except blocking everything. Four sets could be done for the different worlds. For Greenland something like the Dolomites would be suitable (massive steep cracked), Winterland should probably use the same set, only more snowcovered, For the Desert, I can imagine slim towers of reddish rock (think of monument valley), and finally for Blackland, which in my mind is a more surreal environment, I'd fancy black, broken, shiny hexagonal columns of basalt. So far on the topic of mountains. I think they would be perfectly doable. It might be different and more complicated with the rivers, because they need to be fishable and may at some time in the future carry rowing boats, footbridges or even wider bridges. I am not sure that immovables is the best approach here. Created as immovables, we may have some bolders above the waterline, that would show some water current as a first step.That should be easy. Again we need a different set for all the worlds, and all orientations. A different idea is to create a set of banks and middle-of-the-stream tiles as terrain types, but I unsure whether WL can accomodate them in the current form. edited for too many typos Edited: 2011-03-22, 08:16 Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills. I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino). Top Quote

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