Chasm Bridge

[Sangel]

Superb stuff.

One tiny quibble - the light shading used to emphasise the cracks makes the bridges appear lighter in tone than the cave floors which surround them. This is particularly noticeable in the \ and / iterations, and less noticeable in the | iteration.

My suggested fix would be to darken cracks, allowing the surface area to retain the shade of the cave floor tiles.

These are of high enough quality to go in regardless, so if you don't share my opinion that this is worth modifying, feel free to disregard it.

[Midoron]

These bridges look really nice, good work!

[musketaquid]

One tiny quibble - the light shading used to emphasise the cracks makes the bridges appear lighter in tone than the cave floors which surround them. This is particularly noticeable in the \ and / iterations, and less noticeable in the | iteration.

My suggested fix would be to darken cracks, allowing the surface area to retain the shade of the cave floor tiles.

Well, this brightening in the middle of the bridges was intentionally made, because they should look used. So, stones, where many warriors passed over, get a glossy surface where light reflects more then on rough stones, and though they should look different then the normal cave floor.

the | and / have problems with their right and lower-right sides (respectively) appearing to have holes in them.

Sorry, i can't see any holes.

[Darker_Dreams]

I was looking for exactly these sort of tiles. That's great stuff.

[Jetrel]

One tiny quibble - the light shading used to emphasise the cracks makes the bridges appear lighter in tone than the cave floors which surround them. This is particularly noticeable in the \ and / iterations, and less noticeable in the | iteration.

My suggested fix would be to darken cracks, allowing the surface area to retain the shade of the cave floor tiles.

Well, this brightening in the middle of the bridges was intentionally made, because they should look used. So, stones, where many warriors passed over, get a glossy surface where light reflects more then on rough stones, and though they should look different then the normal cave floor.

I feel that musketaquid's reasoning was sound on this.


Also, has anyone committed this?

I really know nothing about terrain WML, and would need to go out of my way to do this. If no one else does it, I'll get to it in a week or so, but I'd really appreciate it if someone else could take care of things.

[zookeeper]

Also, has anyone committed this?

I really know nothing about terrain WML, and would need to go out of my way to do this. If no one else does it, I'll get to it in a week or so, but I'd really appreciate it if someone else could take care of things.

I tried, but apparently getting it to work over chasms and lava (which are built using castle-like WML, unlike water, swamp etc) is a real bloody mess. I might try it once more, but I'm already annoyed by the sheer thought. Considering how our terrain graphics WML engine can theoretically do just about anything, it's highly annoying that I can't just tell it to draw an image where I want it to on top of everything else.

[mog]

I already did the wml (and some necessary changes to the graphics). I will commit it later today or tomorrow.

Though they will only look good for single tiles for now (so no longer bridges).
I have some ideas how to make at least straight multi-tile bridges. Having the same flexibility as the wooden bridges would be nice, but require quite a few additional graphics (and changes to the bridge macros *shudder*), and would still look bad in some cases.

@zookeeper:
The terrain macros (and their usage) need a huge cleanup. It's on my to-do list for post-1.4

[zookeeper]

I already did the wml (and some necessary changes to the graphics). I will commit it later today or tomorrow.

Awesome. Thanks a lot.

Though they will only look good for single tiles for now (so no longer bridges).
I have some ideas how to make at least straight multi-tile bridges. Having the same flexibility as the wooden bridges would be nice, but require quite a few additional graphics (and changes to the bridge macros *shudder*), and would still look bad in some cases.

Doesn't sound like a big deal. You can still make "long bridges" by putting a single piece of cave between the 1-hex bridges.

@zookeeper:
The terrain macros (and their usage) need a huge cleanup. It's on my to-do list for post-1.4

Yes, I very much agree. We might want to also see if we want some actual C++ changes done to help with the cleanup. Better ways to layer and position/center images would be great, I'm somewhat annoyed for instance by the fact that we need to use those silly empty spaces in some images and adjust the rules accordingly to make the graphics layer properly.

[musketaquid]

There seems to be a wish of terrain artists (or maybe it's just me who want's to have it easier) don't wanna mess around with WML of having a simple Option in the Editor for example:
Create new tile -> Copy from existing tile or choose some way the new tile should look like (multihex, castle, bridge or flat etc.) -> let the user choose a path where the graphics should be written -> let the user give them a name. After hitting enter, the new tile could be played with.
If such an option is doable, would it make to much effort?
And would there be a risk that we get less people educated of knowing both, to draw and to code the WML?

[zookeeper]

There seems to be a wish of terrain artists (or maybe it's just me who want's to have it easier) don't wanna mess around with WML of having a simple Option in the Editor for example:
Create new tile -> Copy from existing tile or choose some way the new tile should look like (multihex, castle, bridge or flat etc.) -> let the user choose a path where the graphics should be written -> let the user give them a name. After hitting enter, the new tile could be played with.
If such an option is doable, would it make to much effort?
And would there be a risk that we get less people educated of knowing both, to draw and to code the WML?

I'm pretty sure that's quite an unfeasible feature to try to write at the moment, simply for technical reasons. The definition for how a particular terrain is drawn doesn't exist in isolation but instead they're all more or less tangled with each other and some terrains are simply drawn in a completely different way than some others (for instance castles, chasms and cavewalls are drawn in a specific and complicated way, whereas flat terrains like grassland are different and much simpler) and thus mixing them would be really complicated.

All in all, it's a bit hard to explain too.

[mog]

*committed*

We might want to also see if we want some actual C++ changes done to help with the cleanup. Better ways to layer and position/center images would be great, I'm somewhat annoyed for instance by the fact that we need to use those silly empty spaces in some images and adjust the rules accordingly to make the graphics layer properly.

Yes, that's one of the more annoying behaviours of the current terrain engine.

[musketaquid]

Thanks a lot mog, for taking over the WML stuff

[tsr]

Slight bump!

I've seen them in the editor now, and they do look really nice, but:

Though they will only look good for single tiles for now (so no longer bridges).
I have some ideas how to make at least straight multi-tile bridges. Having the same flexibility as the wooden bridges would be nice, but require quite a few additional graphics (and changes to the bridge macros *shudder*), and would still look bad in some cases.

So hoping that this will be prioritized (sp? actual word?) by someone, soon

/tsr - just loving the new bridge and hopes that it will get better also knowing that since I can't really make it better myself I'll just have to wish and hope.

[zookeeper]

Though they will only look good for single tiles for now (so no longer bridges).
I have some ideas how to make at least straight multi-tile bridges. Having the same flexibility as the wooden bridges would be nice, but require quite a few additional graphics (and changes to the bridge macros *shudder*), and would still look bad in some cases.

So hoping that this will be prioritized (sp? actual word?) by someone, soon

/tsr - just loving the new bridge and hopes that it will get better also knowing that since I can't really make it better myself I'll just have to wish and hope.

Well...would be nice to get fixed one day, but in the meantime this really seems to work pretty well as a workaround:

[Neoskel]

Whoa, very nice. A slightly different gray than the cave floor though. May or may not be a problem.