New grassland and forest to water transitions

Production of artwork for the game by regular contributors takes place here.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

freim
Retired Terrain Art Director
Posts: 1113
Joined: November 29th, 2003, 11:40 pm
Location: Norway

New grassland and forest to water transitions

Post by freim »

Trying out a new transition. It's based on Christophe's excellent canyon gfx. This is just a quick hack to show the concept. This can be used for grassland<->water and forest<->water.

Image
Last edited by freim on August 14th, 2004, 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Neoriceisgood
Art Developer
Posts: 2221
Joined: April 2nd, 2004, 10:19 pm
Contact:

Post by Neoriceisgood »

Sure looks pretty nice like this.
User avatar
Eleazar
Retired Terrain Art Director
Posts: 2481
Joined: July 16th, 2004, 1:47 am
Location: US Midwest
Contact:

Post by Eleazar »

Good idea.
Yeah, i think we need something like that, done in a similar style between any land and any water terrain.

The idea of lots of different transitions types for each kind of terrain alarms me. Perhaps we can make things work by giving every land terrain a land->land transition and a land->water transition.
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.
-> What i might be working on
Attempting Lucidity
freim
Retired Terrain Art Director
Posts: 1113
Joined: November 29th, 2003, 11:40 pm
Location: Norway

Post by freim »

Eleazar wrote:Good idea.
Yeah, i think we need something like that, done in a similar style between any land and any water terrain.

The idea of lots of different transitions types for each kind of terrain alarms me. Perhaps we can make things work by giving every land terrain a land->land transition and a land->water transition.
It has come to a point where we have a lot of transitions. That's why I hope my idea of heavier use of overlay will become possible (it has some performance issues, Ayin is looking into it). If forest, canyon etc can be drawn as an overlay, we can reduce the number of transitions considerably. It should be possible to have a "land to land" and "land to water" for each.
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Post by Jetrel »

OH MAN DOES THAT LOOK GOOD.

And I approve of the techinical miscellania related to overlays - whilst you are clearly willing to a lot of work, I think that if engine changes were implemented to make better use of it, we would all benefit.
Christophe33
Posts: 826
Joined: January 21st, 2004, 1:10 am
Location: San Diego, CA

Post by Christophe33 »

Yes it is a very good idea. I think the height of the transitional cliff is a bit big and should be reduce by half maybe but its really cute. I also like the white/light blue edge with the water. I made such kind of light blue water transition for hills (and sent them to Cedric and Dave sometime ago). I think hills and mountains should have their own water transitions to avoid too much repetiveness.
Never tell a dwarf that he shortchanged you!
quartex
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2258
Joined: December 22nd, 2003, 4:17 am
Location: Boston, MA

Post by quartex »

That's beautiful. Another unexpected benefit from all the work on Christophe's canyons.
Woodwizzle
Posts: 719
Joined: December 9th, 2003, 9:31 pm
Contact:

Post by Woodwizzle »

I agree with chris, bring the waterline up a little bit. But if you could, make the canyon thats showing now and that will be covered up by the water fade to transparent if you get me.
cobretti
Posts: 466
Joined: February 19th, 2004, 4:38 pm

Post by cobretti »

Woodwizzle wrote:I agree with chris, bring the waterline up a little bit. But if you could, make the canyon thats showing now and that will be covered up by the water fade to transparent if you get me.
It is a transition with shallow water. Shallow.

That kind of effect would be extremely good with a transition to deep water, but is pointless with an extension of water that is no deeper than 1 meter. :wink:
quartex
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2258
Joined: December 22nd, 2003, 4:17 am
Location: Boston, MA

Post by quartex »

This transition does seem to better for when you are going from forest or grasslands to deep water. The top of the cliff that we see abovewater, indicates a sharp dropoff, or deep water, as opposed to a more gradual drop for shallow water. I realize that many maps don't go straight from forest/grassland to deep water, but I'm starting to think that this transition shouldn't be used for shallow water.

Could we also use this for sand -> deep water?
freim
Retired Terrain Art Director
Posts: 1113
Joined: November 29th, 2003, 11:40 pm
Location: Norway

Post by freim »

quartex wrote:This transition does seem to better for when you are going from forest or grasslands to deep water. The top of the cliff that we see abovewater, indicates a sharp dropoff, or deep water, as opposed to a more gradual drop for shallow water. I realize that many maps don't go straight from forest/grassland to deep water, but I'm starting to think that this transition shouldn't be used for shallow water.

Could we also use this for sand -> deep water?
I'm making two new transitions for grass<->water and forest<->water. One using the cliff, and one being a "flat one". I'll post a screenshot soon.
quartex
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2258
Joined: December 22nd, 2003, 4:17 am
Location: Boston, MA

Post by quartex »

Thanks frame. I assume that the flat one would be for shallow water, and the cliff for deep.
freim
Retired Terrain Art Director
Posts: 1113
Joined: November 29th, 2003, 11:40 pm
Location: Norway

Post by freim »

quartex wrote:Thanks frame. I assume that the flat one would be for shallow water, and the cliff for deep.
There will probably not be any restriction to what kind of water tile they can be used adjacent to, so that would be up to the map makers to decide I guess.
quartex
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2258
Joined: December 22nd, 2003, 4:17 am
Location: Boston, MA

Post by quartex »

But I thought transitions were automatically created by the engine when two different tiles were put together. For example when you put a forest next to water, the engine would draw in the transition between the two tiles. So how are map developers supposed to choose what kind of transition they want?
freim
Retired Terrain Art Director
Posts: 1113
Joined: November 29th, 2003, 11:40 pm
Location: Norway

Post by freim »

quartex wrote:But I thought transitions were automatically created by the engine when two different tiles were put together. For example when you put a forest next to water, the engine would draw in the transition between the two tiles. So how are map developers supposed to choose what kind of transition they want?
There haven't been several alt. for the same trans type before. This need some new scripting. Things haven't been decided on quite yet. I'll just make the gfx and wait to see what happens :) Making it the way you suggest would probably be a good decision to start with.
Post Reply