Terrain Tiles

Discussion and contribution to game graphics and user interface.
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Posted relevant content can be used under GPL or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/) for the project. Thanks!
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Trilarion
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Proudly present..

Post by Trilarion »

.. the first version of the Imperialism Continuous Tiles Tester.

It's for download. It works, all the six parts are assembled according to the neighbors. This is exactly the same as we found out by ourselves and as it was done in the original Imperialism.

What you can do is specify three files, a base terrain file, an inner and an outer terrain file (of the terrain type you want to work on). Then you can specify a pattern (left, upper pattern board). Clicking switches the tile from base terrain to inner/outer terrain and vice versa. Below you see the resulting image in staggered layout, the layout we use.

Some important points:
- The selected images can be any size, do not scale them, they are scaled internally.
- If they are changed outside you can reload them with the 'update' button.
- You need to make two files for every terrain type now. One for being 'inside' a continuous area and one for being 'outside'. However the symmetries are that any of the six parts (see here) must be possible to be replaced with parts from inner or outer tile without any break in the symmetry. Additonally inner tiles must seamless connect on the outer edges. Creating such graphics is probably still not a simple task but this tool is intended to help.
Screenshot
Screenshot
ctt-screenshot.jpg (111.47 KiB) Viewed 12325 times
Imperialism Continuous Tiles Tester

Ven, I hope you can work with this. As soon as you deliver a set of tile graphics, I will switch to the display of continuous tiles in the main programm. I hope you can manage to make such graphics. Let me know if there is any improvement I could make on the tile tester!
Veneteaou
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Veneteaou »

This is awesome!!!! It looks pretty good. I will be drawing the rest of today. I have a question: does is work independent of tile size, or is it only one specific size I should be using?

My only issue is that my laptop (on which I draw) can't support the version of Java used (yes, it's old). Not a big deal, it just means I have to hop over to another computer to test my tiles. Shouldn't be a problem.
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Trilarion
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Trilarion »

Independent of the size. Sorry for the java version.

The programm uses 80x80 for display and rescales all images after loading to this size. The images I used were 512x512 like all the images you made so far. It might make a small effect along the cutout edges, but I would not think about it unless I see any effect.
Veneteaou
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Veneteaou »

You are the man.
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Trilarion
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Post by Trilarion »

Just out of curiosity: Do you make the inner tile first and then erase the outer part of the inner tile to get the outer tile, or do you make the outer tile first and then add something to get the inner tile?
Veneteaou
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Veneteaou »

I have three tiles: the base master (plains for us), the base terrain (aka forest), and the continuous terrain tiles. I draw the base terrain tile (what I believe is your Outer Tile), and then fill it in to create the continuous tile. It's a process, because in order to make the tile continuous in 3 directions (East/West, NW/SE, and NE/SW) I have to draw E/W continuous first, import that into Tiled to slice it up properly, import that back into MyPaint, and do the same process for the other two directions.

It's a bit tedious, but the end result should be worth it. Once I have a good tile to give an example with, I will write up some instructions for using it.
Veneteaou
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Veneteaou »

Trilarion, the continuous tile tester isn't letting me select tiles. When I click any of the three Select buttons, an error message comes up that it "cannot load the file". It's like it's aimed at a specific file that doesn't exist.
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Trilarion
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Trilarion »

Oh, and I was so sure it would work and didn't test it. Sorry. I will fix it soon.
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Re: Terrain Tiles

Post by Creator »

I have to say, those continuous tiles look sexy as
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Trilarion
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Fixed

Post by Trilarion »

I fixed the bugs that I had overseen so far and added a toggle button with whom you can have the old view (only outer/edge tiles, no continuous tiles). It might come in handy.

I also had a look at the continuous tundra tile and played around with the old tundra tile. There is still some structure visible. The non-continuous/outer tile could have even less tundra at the border (reduce tundra, make more circular) and the continuous tundra tile has still some green spots near the upper and lower border at the center. I am sure, Ven also has seen this and is working on these or other tiles. :)))
Attachments
ImperialismContinuousTilesTester.zip
Fixed version of the tile tester
(195.07 KiB) Downloaded 555 times
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