Terrain Sprites

[SharkD]

I started updating the terrain sprites. There are now eight variants of each sprite, to be chosen randomly. See:




Download:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yfsuad8t82313pb (binaries)
http://www.mediafire.com/?jnmfll2daeaz2p9 (source code)

[KA101]

Looks purty.  Few questions/guesses:

The top/left one is mowed grass, so appears in towns?

The various trees/tall grass: the foreground components (on the bottom half) go in front of whatever object might be on the tile?  If so, neat, but a Renegade or Vespa might blend in.

Fourth group from the top, left side (the yellow stuff): looks like crops of some sort?

Thanks much.

[SharkD]

Thanks for checking it out!

The top left is corn so it doesn't appear in towns - though I could make another at a slightly smaller scale for towns.

You're right about some models possibly blending in. I should create a demo scene to test this.

The yellow stuff is wheat.

[KA101]

Were these new tilesets intended for one of those Lua thingamajigs, or will they work with the old stuff?  Never compiled anything code-based before.

Presuming the corn is SF2.  I'd guessed that cities, etc might mow their grass, so tufts every so often seemed out of place.  But seeing agriculture on the world map and crop diversity therein is good too.

The mech-less pilot model definitely would blend in.  Take that, SF0 v. SF2 fights!  SF1 groundhuggers might have problems as well, but since one does not simply Roll into Trees, the point might be moot anyway.

[SharkD]

After some tweaks, here are the new versions:



The sprites are intended for the GH1 remake, However, changes to the code are needed before they can be used. I think peridot expressed interest in making these changes.

Another option, as you can see in this old image, is to simply place the mecha on top of the terrain sprites instead of sandwiching them between two sprites - one behind and one overlapping.



I actually like these old sprites better, but am unfortunately unable to reproduce them using my current POV-Ray settings.

Also, I'm worried some of the changes will break the ASCII version of GearHead. I mean, how are you supposed to represent croplands, etc. in ASCII text?

[KA101]

I like both sets.  Croplands would be nice and could justify additional mission requirements--for instance, don't set the farm on fire (so, go easy on the LINE, BLAST, and BURN weaponry; maybe avoid skimming as the arc jets wouldn't do the field any good, etc).

Could guess at symbols for ASCII, but probably wouldn't be much help.  I try not to play ASCII because I'd rather not have to figure out what each glyph means or have issues like the NetHack purple h problem.  For something as complex as Gearhead, I'm aware that people play it without graphics, but I'm not at all sure I'd like to try.

[SharkD]

Yeah, I have been thinking about new terrain types with different characteristics.

full cover
half cover
flammable
barrier to rolling
barrier to walking
etc.
etc.