Replacing the desert mountains

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freim
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Replacing the desert mountains

Post by freim »

Made a quick test tile so we have something to discuss.

Edit: I split this topic from Eleazar's thread. With all the new excellent terrain from Eleazar we should try to get the old desert mountains replaced as they start to look very dated.
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desert-mountains-test.png
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Zerovirus
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Re: Evaluation of Terrain and Improvements

Post by Zerovirus »

freim wrote:Made a quick test tile so we have something to discuss.
That looks more than a bit organized. Very conic designs, looks almost polished, not what I'd expect in terrain where sandstorming is commonly eroding at stone structures.. My first instinct upon seeing that in the game would be to classify it under "exotic-styled village" rather than any sort of hilly terrain, but if there were more tiles with more variation that would probably change...
freim
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Re: Evaluation of Terrain and Improvements

Post by freim »

Made it look less cone-like to make that aspect less distracting.

Jetryl, eleazar: thoughts on the color choices? Would like some feedback on that before I make more variants.
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desert-mountains2.png
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Jetrel
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Re: Evaluation of Terrain and Improvements

Post by Jetrel »

freim wrote:Made it look less cone-like to make that aspect less distracting.

Jetryl, eleazar: thoughts on the color choices? Would like some feedback on that before I make more variants.
Color choice is great, but IMO it still needs some significant reshaping.

It doesn't look like real mountains do, yet - it's also too blurry. I suspect one mistake we've all (myself included) been making is drawing this stuff at 100%, rather than at double-size.
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freim
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Re: Evaluation of Terrain and Improvements

Post by freim »

Jetrel wrote:
freim wrote:Made it look less cone-like to make that aspect less distracting.

Jetryl, eleazar: thoughts on the color choices? Would like some feedback on that before I make more variants.
Color choice is great, but IMO it still needs some significant reshaping.

It doesn't look like real mountains do, yet - it's also too blurry. I suspect one mistake we've all (myself included) been making is drawing this stuff at 100%, rather than at double-size.
Ok. I made them cone-shaped to have something easy to model while I tried out the colors. Not sure what would be good shapes/style really, I will leave it to someone else to come up with some ideas.
freim
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by freim »

Tried to break away from the "beehive" shape and make it less fuzzy.
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desert-mountains-test3.png
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desert-mountains-test2.png
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Zerovirus
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Zerovirus »

Okay, that is pretty cool. It's much better than the previous version.
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Eleazar
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Eleazar »

Sorry, i didn't have any feedback previously. I just didn't have any ideas at the times, but your latest example has sparked some.

These kind of highly eroded shapes are really cool, and offer something visually different from what we have in the game already. they make me think of the kind of formations in the American South-west, like these.

* The color is i think too dark. It's not going to look like it belongs with any other Wesnoth terrain, except the cave. Since desert sand is essentially eroded bits of rock the colors of rock & sand in deserts tend to be similarly colored. I wouldn't make it identical since that would be visually monotonous, and sand blows around and mixes from various sources anyway, but a color that's more similar to the colors of dirt and sand would IMHO be more convincing.

* You probably don't want to hear this right now, but something like that would be a great new unwalkable terrain. It's extremely steep, jagged, and treacherous looking, and thus could plausibly be impassable (except to flyers) when mountains are not.

* For what it's worth here's a prototype of the transitions i mentioned earlier for desert to normal mountains. Similar transitions would also be created for a couple other color-contexts. Not that this invalidates your project, but if you took it in the direction of "unwalkable" we'd still have something better to replace the old desert mountains. I expect to get these done sometime this summer.
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new mountain edge.jpg
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Jetrel
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Jetrel »

freim wrote:Tried to break away from the "beehive" shape and make it less fuzzy.
Yes, that's more the direction I was hoping we'd go in.
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doofus-01
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by doofus-01 »

I liked this idea. Would one of these be heading in the right direction? (Assume more work will go into the transitions)
desert-mtns.png
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EDIT:
I worked on this a bit more, I see there are some problems (shadows too high contrast, crystalline look, those can be fixed). Something is unsettling, but maybe it will look OK with a dirt or sand skirt - basically a better transition.

EDIT2:Got a bit further. Maybe a multi-hex mountain will help now. These would be better as impassable, like what Eleazar told freim above. Or maybe they should be lowered.
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desert-bkg2.png
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Sleepwalker
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Sleepwalker »

Terrain is not my forte, nor geology, but it's looking nice. The change of colors on the latest made it fit in more. I think the darkest shadows might be too dark and the formations too smooth. The tiles need more noise and texture I believe.

I'd suggest to add horizontal strips to show erosion and perhaps sediment layers.
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Eleazar
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Eleazar »

doofus-01 wrote:EDIT2:Got a bit further. Maybe a multi-hex mountain will help now. These would be better as impassable, like what Eleazar told freim above. Or maybe they should be lowered.
Those are really cool. I agree they look "impassable".

Sleepwalker is right, the blacks are a bit too strong, and horizontal lines would probably help them look like desert formations.
Feel free to PM me if you start a new terrain oriented thread. It's easy for me to miss them among all the other art threads.
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Blarumyrran
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Blarumyrran »

I like freim's much more.
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doofus-01
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by doofus-01 »

Thanks, Sleepwalker, Eleazar. I've tried to adjust it to what you suggested. The dark-side colors look OK on my laptop, but not on an external monitor, so that might still have issues. This is looking a bit like a city, so I will see if breaking up the pattern with multi-hex images helps.
desert-bkg3.png
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EDIT: And got a big image, I think it helps. I think transitions will help too, maybe that will be the next step.

I wasn't so consistent with the shadows, I'll fix that when I figure out which is better.
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desert-bkg5.png
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Sleepwalker
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Re: Replacing the desert mountains

Post by Sleepwalker »

Looking much better :D really cool. It should be pointed out that these mountains seem to be at a smaller scale than the regular mountains in mainline. The normal ones look more zoomed out with a slightly more grainier and realistic look. Your mountains seem closer. But scale is not consistent in Wesnoth anyway so I doubt it means anything. I dig the crisp details.

Unfortunately, for me it seems the big tile has an perspective issue. It looks like the angle of view is some degrees too low. The smaller tiles don't seem to have that issue. Also your making dark shadows again on the big tile, for one other terrain in wesnoth don't have that high contrast, and for two this being a mountain it should be seriously back lit by the sky if not for small crevices and stuff.

Seeing those mountains next to the oasis gets me thinking that with some edits these could be cool tropical mountains too.

EDIT: Looking again I think just editing the top part of the big tile could solve the perspective thing I am seeing... I might be the only one seeing it though. It might be that the peak of the mountain is located too far north giving the illusion, or that the flat horizontal surfaces are too thin in the y direction (hope that makes sense).
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