Add new graphics to the bundled terrain sheets, and possibly reorganize the sheets #414
No Assignees
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies
No dependencies set.
Reference: openboe/oboe#414
Reference in New Issue
Block a user
No description provided.
Delete Branch "%!s()"
Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?
I have about 7 different drafts of this work (terrain only) on my hard drive that were never checked in for reasons I can't even remember. There are a lot of different sources for the new graphics:
It's probably recorded somewhere though.I couldn't find any record of it, but I'm pretty sure at least Milu agreed to let us use graphics. The only other people who made graphics of interest were ShyGuy and Tim Farland.This should really be done before an official release is made, as changing the layout of the graphics sheets later will break any scenarios created in the new release.
If we're doing #413 it should probably be done before this, but it doesn't have to be – the transitions could be shunted to the end of the list instead.
This is the most recent version, but by no means is it final, nor anywhere close. It's also not settled that it'll be combined into one giant sheet like this. Some other revisions are available in the same directory.
I just remembered – I'm pretty sure I heard from ADoS that Luz Piazuelo of The Blazing Blade also gave permission to use her graphics in OBoE.
@CelticMinstrel can you take some time to gather up everything you want to be in the new terrain sheets? Don't worry so much about arrangement, I just want one big file that has everything we want.
Does it have to all be in one file? I have a directory of stuff.
Multiple files would be fine but ideally each graphic should only appear once so I don't have to eliminate duplicates.
I'm afraid that's going to be a whole lot harder than you think…
The directory is here. I'll list the most pertinent files below.
First, the vanilla Blades of Exile graphics, with some exceptions. I'm using the Windows graphics here because they happen to exist in the repo (though I had to convert them because GitHub does not embed BMPs).
Vanilla Graphics
All of these. The only possible exception might be the bookshelf – we could replace it with the version that fills in the bottom strip of floor with something generic. I think Luz made that graphic. ADoS might have made one too.
Most of these go in. The ones that don't go in have already been removed: the little brown dots (which are supposed to be road placeholders), the white special spots, the walkway edges, the duplicate walkway centre, and the duplicate altar.
The first three graphics from here, at the top left. (That doesn't mean the rest don't go in, but I'm going to cover the blue cave floor in a separate section, so you can treat the ones here as duplicates.)
Exile I-III Graphics
Okay, so this one is a little complicated. Originally I was going to put the whole thing in, and there would be two different types of cave wall. But, honestly, the two types don't really look much different at a glance, and arguably the BoE one is actually nicer – plus it has caves for all 4 directions.
So, in summary, I'm going to suggest we put in all these graphics except the cave walls. If we don't have auto trims, we'd need to add tiles that mix the blue floor with the BoE cave wall.
These definitely go in.
The rune and crystal (last two) definitely go in, but I'm of two minds about the walls. I do think it would be nice to have more walls, but these walls look very, very similar to the BoE stone walls. You can see a difference if you look closely, but I bet many people wouldn't even notice.
However, the accessories are different, so if we don't include these walls as-is, we should make graphics by copy-pasting at least the sign, trophy, and painting onto the BoE stone wall. It may be worth doing this with the window, gates, and doors too, but I doubt it's worth grabbing the secret door or the cracked and mouldy walls if we go this route.
Side note: It has been suggested (by ADoS, probably) to remove all the paintings on walls entirely and add those as item graphics instead. I don't recall if that suggestion also extended to the trophy. I think those two are the only ones it could apply to.
I think we need these if we don't have auto trims. I also think they don't really look very good. I dunno.
Again, these would be very nice to have if we don't have auto trims… but the first three we should include no matter what. (Also, the BoE trees on hills should be added, not sure if I have those somewhere.)
Mistb0rn Graphics
Quite awhile ago, Mistb0rn volunteered his time to make a whole bunch of new graphics on request for Open Blades of Exile, many of them based on Blades of Avernum graphics. It later came to my attention that using Blades of Avernum-derived graphics may be of questionable legality, so I haven't added those, but I did add many of the other graphics he made. I'll list all the graphics here, for completeness.
I would say we need this, though maybe not this specific version of it. Both types of wall should also be supported on hills and across hill/grass transitions.
This is the same as above, but a better version of the fence gate. I don't seem to have this on the other base terrains.
All of these are kinda important if we don't have auto trims, but they are nearly all rendered redundant if we do. We definitely need the waterfalls but I'm not sure these are good enough… I guess they would do as placeholders until we get something better.
Various wall and floor sets based on Blades of Avernum graphics. It's not a priority to get these in. If I had to pick just one, it would be the crystal Vahnatai wall. My second pick would be the deep cave trees, and third is the stone circles.
Sorta an extension of above. We wouldn't need these unless we also took the above ones that correspond. The 8 on the bottom right were a concept of "there is a doorway with a curtain hanging across it". I don't think we need it – we are limited to at most 960 non-animated graphics if I recall correctly, so we have to be picky.
More extensions of above. Similar argument applies.
Again, similar argument. These are nice but we can do without them.
And that's where the fence gates on other base terrains went, apparently! I think the wall corners here are better than the previous wall set, though perhaps there's merit in having both corner types, not sure. We don't really need the oven but it would definitely be nice to have an oven, whether or not it's that one.
I don't have much to say about these. I think we need a snow set. I'm not sure if this is the one. (As the filename suggests, it's also not a complete set – it's an extension of another set that will probably appear further down in this post.)
ADoS Graphics
A few years ago, before ADoS disappeared, he volunteered a bunch of graphics, both drawn on demand and from his pile of previously-drawn graphics. Some of them are of questionable quality, but many of them are quite nice. This section lists all the graphics he volunteered.
Lamp posts are kind of important in my opinion. I am fairly sure ADoS made the regular ones, not sure if he made the other one or found it somewhere. These would obviously need to be put on base terrains to be used.
At least some of this is done by Luz Piazuelo, who I cover in a separate section below. I think this is ADoS extending some of Luz's sets a bit. Maybe some of them are ADoS originals…
I said "all the graphics he volunteered" but I'm pretty sure I missed some…
Luz Piazuelo Graphics
Luz Piazuelo (aka Mab) was a particularly talented and prolific artist on the Spiderweb Forums back in the day (before my time). She posted a whole host of graphics on her website, which I'd like to use. I think there were too many to take them all, but this list the ones that ADoS and I eventually settled on.
I think this is all the Luz terrain graphics we definitely decided on, but I'm not 100% sure. The boats should probably be added as vehicle (monster?) graphics instead of terrain graphics.
There are a ton more of her graphics here, and many of them look nice, in particular:
But I doubt we have enough space to put all those in… though I guess we actually might if we can eliminate the auto-tile from the main terrain sheet.
Pixle Profusion Graphics
These are all graphics grabbed off of Pixle Profusion (yes, the typo is seemingly intentional). They're by a variety of artists. I think we have permission from Milu to use their graphics, but as I recall, we haven't contacted any of the others here. All of these have the author in the filename, so I won't note them here.
A nice water fountain / bird bath. It's an edit of the brazier, but it's a pretty decent edit. My main complaint is that it should probably be on walkway, not stone floor.
A nice cliff set. I think we need a cliff set. I'm not sure if this one is good enough even if we do have permission to use it, but it's better than nothing. It would need darkening… unless the version copied into the big sheet was already darkened. I haven't checked.
An okay desert set. This is not the desert set that was copied into the big sheet. I don't remember where that set came from. I couldn't find it on Pixle Profusion but I may have missed it.
This pentagram is honestly kind of cool and might be a nice test of whether our object system works well for such large patterns (although, I think the editor for it doesn't quite support them that large). But we don't really need it.
These pillars are kind of nice, I guess. The nests are just from BoA, I'm pretty sure.
This is a really cool stairway and I think we should include it.
A snow set. I think this isn't the set that was already copied into the big sheet. We should probably consider switching to this one, if we can get permission – it looks a lot better, and less derivative. (Though, a snow set should look derivative to some degree – you should be able to switch all the tiles from the grass set with an equivalent snow tile that looks like it could be the same tile, just covered in snow.) It doesn't have tracks in the snow though, which is a minor downside.
The above graphics have all been collected here. The full Pixle Profusion archive is also viewable here or here. There may be differences between the two archives – I haven't checked.
Other Graphics
A few graphics I cobbled together by mashing or recoloring vanilla graphics. I think all of these are very nice to have, so I'd like to keep them, though some (especially the joined stalagmite / stalactite) could be replaced with a better alternative.
This is one of the sheets currently in the game. It's the sheet that used to have all the walkways, roads, and special spots on it, but here they've been filled in with different stuff. I'll note all the places that differ from the original sheet (which you can see further up in this post).
In summary, I think these are all important to have, save maybe #1.
In summary, things are very far from settling on a final decision! Some general notes: I think adding a snow and desert set is fairly important, as those are pretty staple RPG terrains. They don't necessarily need to be the specific snow and desert set above.
This list is still not complete, either – you can see a bunch of graphics just in the sheet shown in the original post that I haven't covered here. I don't entirely remember where those came from, but most likely they were either created by ADoS or found on either Pixle Profusion or Luz's website. I can probably figure out the source of each one, but it would take me awhile.