91 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
91 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
===============================================================================
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SPOUT OVERLAYS by Kevin Bulgrien
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===============================================================================
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This is a first run at creating a set of overlays that may be reused in a
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number of combinations:
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pour_spout.arc
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pour_spout.base.111.png : A wall spout with nothing coming out of it. To be
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placed on top of wall facings A or B, or possibly
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even 2 and 8. Not designed for use with "short"
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walls like bwall, cave, dun, etc, but, a spout
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could be created for them too.
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pour_h2o.arc
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pour_h2o.base.111.png
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pour_h2o.base.112.png
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pour_h2o.base.113.png
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pour_h2o.base.114.png : Animated pouring water to be placed over top of
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the pour spout. This arch and associated graphics
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are not quite perfected. The water color is suited
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for pouring into sea arch tiles.
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===============================================================================
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GRAPHICS
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===============================================================================
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The spout.xcf contains many individual layers of components used to create the
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above artwork. Included are various wall styles and a sea tile for reference.
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Note that the water design was quite easy. A single color of water was drawn,
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then GIMP's Filters | Noise | HSV Noise... was used to vary the color. The
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effect of the filter is somewhat random, so it was a simple matter to generate
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variants of the water to make the water look like it was flowing. The filter
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was applied, undone, and applied repeatedly until each frame had a good mix of
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colors with few dark pixels. Further, the animation frames were each checked
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to be sure the sequence looked like water falling.
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HSV Noise settings that seemed reasonable were as follows:
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Holdness: 8
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Hue: 8
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Saturation: 80
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Value: 160
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The flowing water is visible on 32x32 tiles but if pixel size is small, it is
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not very obvious. It is possible that picking a few more lighter color pixels
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might improve that, but the water looks pretty good at 64x64 bits in jxclient.
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The graphics in spout.xcf are in RGB format instead of INDEXED form, so they
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are not compressed as well as they could be. This is partly because there is
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no point to converting to indexed while various layers have art not part of
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either the spout or water.
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To minimize file size, when exporting the the graphics to .png files, save
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each frame to a .png. Close the .xcf, then open each .png and convert it to
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indexed mode, resave, and close it. This ensures that each graphic's pallete
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can be as small as possible.
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Furthermore, when saving, use Save As so that you get the Save as PNG dialog
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which lets you choose the compression level and option. Uncheck all options
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and select maximum compression before saving the .png.
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===============================================================================P
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POSSIBILITIES
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===============================================================================
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The possibilities of modular overlays becomes more evident if one considers
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things like the following.
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Use the same pour_spout.arc on any "tall" wall for a number of variations
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on the wall/spout theme.
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Create a few more spout styles that eject fluid in the same place to add
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even more variety.
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Then, increase the variability by creating new replacements for the water
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along the lines of pour_blood.arc, pour_sewage.arc, pour_fire.arc, etc.
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===============================================================================
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MAP CONSIDERATIONS
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===============================================================================
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The pour_spout.arc and pour_h2o.arc are no_pick 1 and will be placed by default
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onn a no_pick layer. For some reason this causes the a wall piece under the
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spout and pouring water to disappear, showing only the floor piece underneath.
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For the wall to not disappear, the spout and water need to be on the items
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layer. This can be done in a map file with `map_layer item`, but has been set
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in the pour_spout.arc and pour_h20.arc files so mapmakers will not have to be
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aware of this.
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