Terrain Art Request - Desert Terrains

[Fishion]

I've taken the liberty to do a rescaling of the y-Axis to 75% (25% squishing?) for YameQ's tile. I've taken care so it has the same size the Mainline-Wesnot tile have (to avoid the black border). Hope that cuts it.

[Shadow]

Mockup of YaymeQ's quite good original.
I thought it missed some shading.

Edited in of course. I don't touch Wml with a long stick.
A man must set priorities.



Edit fixed the size problem.

[Rhuvaen]

Wow, nice edit, Shadow! That's come a long way.

They actually look a little bit darker in-game, but your edit was shockingly close:

The only little criticism I could possibly think off is that perhaps the edges of the cracks don't come out very sharp, but you can't have both a desertlike colour there and a lot of contrast.

[Shadow]

The grunt work was done by YaymeQ.
As I can now see the result ingame I can make a revision.
The cracks can be possible overworked I think.

Edit:

here we go:

[YaymeQ]

Wow, I come back and all the work's done for me! Thanks guys. lol .... anything left for me to do?

[Shadow]

I posted my ideas for new desert terrains in the Ideas Forum. I am looking for contributors of terrain art for these, and will include them in UtBS when I have art that is good enough.

Here's the list (including only info related to the visual / landscape concept):

1. "Salt Flats"
The dried-up remnants of former seas and lakes, a completely flat, salt-covered surface.
might look like: probably a whiter version of the current sand terrain would do, perhaps a little less grainy

2. "Baked Earth / Baked Dirt"
Ground baked into a hardened surface, with cracks and crumbled earth providing some cover for desert dwellers.
might look like: something of a mix between desert/dirt/desert road with some cracks added

3. "Depression / Desert Gorge"
Simply a chasm suited to the desert environment.
might look like: chasm with desert coloration / texture (if done right)

4. "Oasis" (multi-hex)
Self-explanatory. This would be based on the shallow-water to desert transition (for multi-hex oases).
might look like: oasis vegetation on the shallow water to desert transitions

5. "Dried Riverbed / Wadi"
A dried riverbed or wadi would still contain enough water to give swimmers a chance.
might look like: perhaps something like a sandy ford with a slight slope on the transition to desert.

This post is for art contributions for these terrains, discussion of the terrains should go in the Ideas post (link above).

Sorry for the sort-of double post, I am hoping to attract more artist attention by posting here and will reserve the other post for concept discussion.

Always work to do.

The "Salt Flats" could be probably done really well with a recolor and some variations of your baked earth.



Actual it looks like you made it for this in the first place.

[Fishion]

*brummt* son Mist immer muß jemand das vor mir posten...

another reference:
http://www.lifeisgrand.org/images/BO_SaltLake.jpg

Here's my first throw at it.
Based on YaymeQ's Backed Earth tile.

[Shadow]

*brummt* son Mist immer muß jemand das vor mir posten...

Zwei geniale Köpfe ein Gedanke.

Cough just what I thought. Nice.

Tested it a bit and added a "transition" terrain.


If someone with more terrain competence could take over I'm just a simple unit spriter.
Actual I don't really have a clue what I'm doing.

(Attached the psd file)

[Rhuvaen]

I'm changing the name of "Baked Earth" to "Parched Ground". We're not there yet, this is more what I have in mind:

Much closer to YaymeQ's image, yet some shading along the edges and dark shadows in the cracks.

(Note: I don't really feel inclined to do much art critique here as someone who doesn't touch the graphics... but as long as no-one else steps in I'll just try to give an idea of the direction)

The Salt Flats are looking good!

I wouldn't worry about the transitions just now - a hex with a variation or two would be perfect. I think it would be better if the sand went on top of the salt flats, and not the other way around. Also because the desert is gently sloping and the salt flats are... flat.

To make it a bit more distinct from snow (not sure if it's needed), a bit more graininess and perhaps a yellow-grayish tint could help.

[Shadow]

Sounds good. I'll try to work further on it until someone with more competence shows up.

Rhuvaen if you can handle the testing I'm not really into this stuff I can barely handle unit cfg files .

[Shadow]

Bla Bla

I'm just on the journey through.

[Rhuvaen]

I didn't realize the I.zip contained a complete terrain with 3 variations and single and double hexside transitions.

I very much appreciate the effort Shadow, just didn't get round to test this earlier!

The broken-up salt flats are a nice graphic, but they lack the flatness. Some highlights and shadows in the structure look almost hilly (there's one variation that stands out more than others - see test 1).

Your more recent reworking made me hold my breath seeing it on the forums, but in-game it just looks too bubbly/spherical (see test 2).

All in all from the photo you posted earlier I find that the continuous (unbroken) salt flats (as indicated below) are the way to go, with a tiny touch of discoloration (to make them not 100% white but a bit yellow/grayish, so they don't look 100% bleached). This was the terrain I took to be your suggestion for the salt flats initially from your previous post, as opposed to what I took to be the "transition terrain" (the broken-up version).

Note: the attachments appear in the wrong order...

[Shadow]

I'm always good for one or the other suprise.

The third variation was an idea I had but I wasn't sure how it worked out. Now I see it doesn't work.
It needs more work I think could you make a screenshot with a larger patch next to varius other terrain (without the third variation) so I can see what needs further improvement?

For salt 2 I got the feeling it looks more like shallow water. Could be perhaps used with some work as kind of river ford variation. That is not the problem here though.

I thought that the terrain I posted gets overlayed onto the big salt plates to create a smooth transition.

This means:

-Improved big salt plates based on the old variations
-further variations of the transition terrain and some fixes
-other things that I have probably forgotten.

[thespaceinvader]

Salt flats IMHO shouldn't looks so cracked up and broken - they should be dead flat, almost like a sheet of paper - up close they look cracked, but looked at from wesnoth perspective, they'd appear very smooth, i think - why else would they do land speed record attempts on them lol.

[Rhuvaen]

I'm always good for one or the other suprise.

Yes, I'm quite tempted to give that last terrain some submersion and call it "foam".

Salt flats IMHO shouldn't looks so cracked up and broken - they should be dead flat, almost like a sheet of paper - up close they look cracked, but looked at from wesnoth perspective, they'dappear very smooth, i think

Yes, I agree - that's why I want to use the graphic I outlined in red.

It needs more work I think could you make a screenshot with a larger patch next to varius other terrain (without the third variation) so I can see what needs further improvement?

Nope, since I don't have any need for the "cracked up" version. I would just love to have a tile (best with a variation or two ) of the salt flats I indicated (it wasn't in the zipfile...).

I thought that the terrain I posted gets overlayed onto the big salt plates to create a smooth transition.

Okay, I thought those were two different terrains. Look at your photo - the salt has a very clear border to the surrounding terrain (since that is where the evaporated water stopped). I really want to have a sharp transition - just like those tiny ridges on the salt flat itself. The way I picture this structure to happen is that while the water evaporates, the bigger body parts into smaller "puddles", which then evaporate individually. So you'd have the same border on the outside of the whole salt flat that you have inside between the "former puddles"...

For salt 2 I got the feeling it looks more like shallow water. Could be perhaps used with some work as kind of river ford variation. That is not the problem here though.

I'm not sure I see what you have in mind. I could imagine that you mean something like rapids? Such as foam and waves in shallow/rocky part of a creek or river... but yes, not a desert terrain.