I wanna try to make a unit in higher resolution and then scale it, for more details. Any tips or advice about it?

[Firesniw]

Hey, I know I know, style of tbfw is indeed pixel art...
but I am wondering, does it make sense to try doing things in higher resolution,
and then scale it in code of the unit?

Like for example, I want to make a unit for my campaign, in 175x175 pixels instead of 72x72.
And I never really did that, but I am wondering if it is worth a shot.
Will tbfw even handle something like this? Can you scale
it in a way that it won't be a size of a dragon and yet it will still
have the details when you look at it on normal zoom or when you just zoom onto it?

If it is even possible, I will also be thankful if someone tells
me the ups and downs of this.
And if it's (somehow) in the art tutorial you can link it or something,
if it is there in detail, I am sorry, but I could miss it.
I always (till now) were an self-taught person if it comes
to learning how everything works in the battle for wesnoth.

[Heindal]

There was a thread like that before, I summarize the results for you. The unit picture size is basically unlimited. This means you can theoretically use a really large and detailed image, but you as far as I know can not scale them down.

This is because the basic size for a unit is one hex and this is limited to 72*72 pixel (not resolution pixel per inch/cm).

72 * 72 pixel

yeti.png (1.95 KiB) Viewed 564 times

Some units are bigger (Fire Drake, Skeletal Drake) and sometimes just partially use a bigger image - such as the Yeti when attacking the resolution is 120*120 pixel, probably because he stretches the arm and leaves the hex.

120 * 120 pixel

yeti-attack1.png (2.32 KiB) Viewed 564 times

If you now use a big image with high resolution, you can create big units, but they are still one hex big:

Used the portrait as unit image

You could design a big image and scale it down to 72*72 pixel - however according to doofus (in the last thread) this is a bad style, because most artists will set pixel per pixel in pixel art, having way better results, than just scaling down. This was new to me, because sloppy Heindal like to scale down or make monster units as seen above.


I hope I could help you a little, but I fear this is not what you wanted. The complexity of messing with something in the core, which is a standard since I designed my first add-on in the game (around 15 years ago) is high. I assume there might be nobody who can answer you the question and even it is possible the amount of work would be decent. I could be wrong, because it can be that new features allow this now.

[Firesniw]

There was a thread like that before, I summarize the results for you. The unit picture size is basically unlimited. This means you can theoretically use a really large and detailed image, but you as far as I know can not scale them down.

This is because the basic size for a unit is one hex and this is limited to 72*72 pixel (not resolution pixel per inch/cm).

yeti.png

Some units are bigger (Fire Drake, Skeletal Drake) and sometimes just partially use a bigger image - such as the Yeti when attacking the resolution is 120*120 pixel, probably because he stretches the arm and leaves the hex.

yeti-attack1.png

If you now use a big image with high resolution, you can create big units, but they are still one hex big:

Titan_unit_example.png


You could design a big image and scale it down to 72*72 pixel - however according to doofus (in the last thread) this is a bad style, because most artists will set pixel per pixel in pixel art, having way better results, than just scaling down. This was new to me, because sloppy Heindal like to scale down or make monster units as seen above.


I hope I could help you a little, but I fear this is not what you wanted. The complexity of messing with something in the core, which is a standard since I designed my first add-on in the game (around 15 years ago) is high. I assume there might be nobody who can answer you the question and even it is possible the amount of work would be decent. I could be wrong, because it can be that new features allow this now.

Thank you very much for clearing this up for me.
I indeed was nearly sure that the answer would be "impossible" or "near impossible".

Just wanted to be sure.
Guess I'll stick to the 72x72 pixels for the unit itself (I always make it above 72x72, when I start doing death anims, but we don't talk about that.)
Not gonna lie, it's a shame it can't be just scaled in a similar way as minecraft does it with it's blocks.
Because when you make a block for minecraft, you can add as much detail as you want to, and it will still
show on the screen, even if it will be 128x128 or more (as long as it is a square.)
But well, what can you do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But anyways, again thank you, at least I'm sure now!