movement selection in 1.3.2

[Derekkk]

I am sure everyone who has played 1.3.2 would have noticed that, when selecting where a unit should move to, black stripes appear in places where the unit can't reached. I wonder why those black stripes have been put in. Personally I wouldn't prefer having them as they quite seriously block the view of any unreachable places. And I am the kind of players that like looking around while deciding where to move to Also, at the moment, when I scroll around, the black stripes make my screen flickers a lot, which is definitely less than desirable. Is there some way of making those black stripes go away?

Also, another thought, wouldn't it be nice if the players could see the possible movements of both their own units and enemies' units at the same time? For example, the player selects one of his units first, so the possible movement for that unit is highlighted, then if the player now move the mouse pointer over an enemy unit, then the possible movement of the enemy unit is also highlighted, possibly in a different colour tone. One obvious advantage would be that the player can easily see where he could move to without being attacked. Is there any chance that this would be implemented? Or this has already been implemented and I am just ignorant?

[Eleazar]

the file is images/terrain/darken.png
replace it with whatever your heart desires.

The point is to focus the viewers attention on where he can move to, and to make the boundary obvious. The lines do that job well, against any terrain, at any ToD.

[Cackfiend]

i gotta say, i really dont like the black stripes either

[toni]

i have nothing against them.
maybe you should add a poll to this thread.

[irrevenant]

I truly loathed the black stripes at first, but actually didn't mind them once I got used to them.

However, as Eleazar said, if someone wants to develop an alternative that does the job and looks better, that would be awesome...

[Derekkk]

Thanks for the help! I just changed the png file so now it looks just the same as in 1.2.4

[Eleazar]

maybe you should add a poll to this thread.

People are free to start polls (in some forums) but you should realize that they seldom effect the development of Wesnoth.

[Mecha^Croc]

try this one:

http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/*checkout*/w ... ?rev=17262

[taro]

the file is images/terrain/darken.png
replace it with whatever your heart desires.

Unfortunatly 1.2.4 has no darken.png to use .

Thanks for the help! I just changed the png file so now it looks just the same as in 1.2.4

What parameters did you set for the image? And how did you get back the nice graying effect of 1.2?
I only managed to get rid of the stripes so far, but I'm not good with graphic tools ..

[Eleazar]

the file is images/terrain/darken.png
replace it with whatever your heart desires.

Unfortunatly 1.2.4 has no darken.png to use .

Thanks for the help! I just changed the png file so now it looks just the same as in 1.2.4

What parameters did you set for the image? And how did you get back the nice graying effect of 1.2?
I only managed to get rid of the stripes so far, but I'm not good with graphic tools ..

1.2.x uses a hard-coded calculation. Unless you can code in C++ you can't change it.
The effect in 1.3.x is much easier to tweak, however, despite Derikkk's claims, cannot really duplicate the grey-scale effect of 1.2.x. Part of the reason we abandoned the 1.2.x method was the lousy visibility it had in predominately white or grey environments (snow or cave). Also the grey-scalling calculation was slow.

1.3.x simply applies the "darken.png" graphic over unreachable areas. Grey-scaling is no longer possible.

[Gumsch]

I don't want to seem like I'm nitpicking at an old subject - and I apologize if this has already been discussed further in another thread ... but I just tried the new development release yesterday and have to join the ranks of those who do not like the new stripes.

While I have to agree that they certainly do their job of showing the movement boundaries ... I think they are in fact a little too good. Quite aside from aesthetic concerns that are pretty subjective (Ugly! ) the main point is another, as Derekkk already pointed out in the original post.
They obscure slightly too much of the landscape under them ... which makes orientation a little annoying.

It's not really a soul-shattering, devastating problem of global importance ... yes, I guess you can grow used to it - but I think that it hampers Wesnoth's otherwise great accessibility and user-interface.

The custom version Mecha^Croc provided in this thread is actually a nice alternative - though it becomes a little bit too hard to see movement boundaries at night. In my opinion, the ideal solution would be somewhere in the middle between those two ... not quite as obstrusive as the official version, yet more visible than the one of Mecha^Croc. The sweet spot shouldn't be that hard to find, considering that both versions are quite functionable. Perhaps just a few less stripes?

Please note that I'd be happy to change the darken file myself (though currently I just see a plain black field when I'm opening darken.png ... I'm not quite sure which program and which preferences have to be used to edit it correctly), I just want to point out that - in my opinion - this seems like a good - and pretty simple - point where the new Wesnoth version could be improved.

[Alink]

If you want to hack this:
In svn trunk and in future 1.3..4, there is a new key "unreachable_image" in [game_config] in the file data/_main.cfg
Currently it is set to "terrain/darken.png" but you can change it. Try "terrain/grid.png" or "terrain/fog.png" for testing.

But I think that darken works well and you get quickly used to it

[Darth Fool]

I'd be very happy to have someone who is annoyed by this fiddle around with the image and come up with something better that works well in all terrains. Until somebody does that, complaining about it will not do any good. So put your mice where your fingers are and come up with an image to replace it with! Consider this a soft lock of this thread. Any posts following this one that do not propose a real solution (ie an image that can be substituted for darken.png) will be deleted with prejudice.

[Mecha^Croc]

If you want to hack this:
In svn trunk and in future 1.3..4, there is a new key "unreachable_image" in [game_config] in the file data/_main.cfg
Currently it is set to "terrain/darken.png" but you can change it. Try "terrain/grid.png" or "terrain/fog.png" for testing.

But I think that darken works well and you get quickly used to it

I believe the person was asking for this: http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/Art_Programs

he is trying to edit the file, much like Darth suggested. it would be a shame to lock this thread since there is already some good alternative image provided and more people want to work on it.

[Gumsch]

Ah ... thanks Mecha^Croc! Indeed - I guess I was looking for just that ... Let's see what I can accomplish by fiddling a little with these programs. I'm not sure if I can actually come up with something better - but I'll try swinging my virtual paintbrush A slight modification of your image might already turn me into a happy orc.

To Darth Fool: I know it's easy to annoy a Sith ... but let me try to assure you yet again (to avoid misunderstandings, I'll switch to the well-known south-orcish dialect): Me not try to do idle complaining. Me not want to say mean things about new stuff, either. Not confuse with sneering, please! Me just state opinion. Not confuse with whining, please! Me then want to try and go make fingers dirty and perhaps make own stuff and then see if better. Not confuse with arrogance, please! No crush my throat with dark magic stuff, please!

Also thanks to Alink for his tips, though I think I'll try to create a new darken image for now (or perhaps just a few small changes).