RE: CF: the begining of crossfire

[dragonm <dragonm@leech.org>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Kjetil Torgrim Homme
To: dragonm
Cc: 'crossfire mailing list '
Sent: 9/9/99 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: CF: the begining of crossfire

[dragonm@leech.org]

>   <pounce> While we're on the subject of increasing the number of
>   tiles visible, how about increasing the size and color depth of
>   the tiles as well?  What we have now is still intensely affected
>   by the font scheme that used to exist to display graphics.  That
>   worked well 8 years ago, but isn't it time to update?

Redoing the graphics is a lot of work.  We need to decide upon a size
before anyone starts on this project.
----------------
Actually, size doesn't matter.  :)  The artist prefers to work in 3D.  He
handles 2D by building a model of something, then rendering it into a flat
image.  Resizing is simply a matter of rescaling and rerendering.  You may
be right, though.  There are an aweful lot of objects involved, and I don't
know if he has the ability to batch rerender.
---------------
First: What screen resolution should we target?  1280x1024?  Let's say
half of it is used for the viewport, that is 800x800 pixels.  Next,
how many tiles should the viewport consist of?  With 24x24 pixel
tiles, there is room for 33x33 tiles.  The 32x32 pixels => 25x25
tiles.

I'm partial to staying at 24x24 pixels, but to make more objects into
multipart.  That way, the foods etc. will not be as HUGE as they are
today.  Also, some of the old graphics can be retained.
----------------
A very good point.  The graphical representation of a lot of objects are
wildly out-scale because of the current tile size.  However, increasing tile
size won't necessarily exacerbate the scale problems.  Foods and such just
won't take up the whole tile anymore.  The tiles used to represent objects
on top of floor tiles may end up mostly empty space, but empty space
compresses well, so it's not too bad a penalty.

In the interests of maintaining some sanity in terms of movement and
auto-pickup, the graphical representation of a player should be most of a
tile, and all smaller objects should be the same tile size, while not
necessarily occupying the entire tile.  All larger objects would of course
be multi-tile.

Definitely target screen resolution and the pixel size of the viewport are
issues that need to be addressed.  I run at 1600x1200 myself, so I won't
venture an opinion.  I don't know what we should expect to be most common
these days.
----------------
>   I think I mentioned the fact I know an artist who has expressed an
>   interest in doing a rework of the graphics.  I anticipated a howl
>   of resistance to that proposal, and disclaimed it even as I
>   suggested it, but all I saw was stony silence.  Is that approval
>   or disapproval?  :)

I don't think anyone will turn down improvements to the graphics :-)
----------------
Hey, I dunno.  Role playing games tend to attract kurmudgeons who might
object vociferously if the graphics they've been playing with for how many
years(?) are yanked out from under them and replaced.  :)

DM
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