Messages

1

Work In Progress / Re: Terror From the Deep Remastered Soundtrack

« on: September 13, 2012, 12:53:21 am »

I liked it but there is one thing that really disturbs the overall good work:

The trumpetes/string instruments , they sound very very artifical. May be you could look for a better alternative.

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 24, 2012, 03:35:18 pm »

It simply all points to "could it be fun that way - yes or no ?" "nice to have - yes or no" that's all. Easy rulesets can be fun and challenging and
games should be challenging and fun at the same time. Anything else is debatable.

Forget discussions about realism, forget casualism (i realy hate that word by the way) it leads to nothing. It has no substance at all to talk about if its "good or bad". You could also argue for decades about if purple is a good or bad color (without any context or hint why this is discussed).

@Moriarty:


I understand your point of view but i think this is simply a problem of the 2D-tilesystem itself. There is no big problem to relocate the ladder but in the end it does not change to much. Those larger objects simply will look strange when one part will be shot away (clean precise cutting lines). It was always like that in Xcom. Crashing/Collapsing objects may be again a nice idea which might add playvalue/coolness to the game.

My opinion is for that kind of stuff (as bouncing of grenandes, too etc.) a 3D-engine is more advisable or you end up haveing a lot of pain trying to make that happen. Since this is a EU replica that is/will be modable it has some natural limits.
Its more likely to arrange yourself with some of these limts instead to try complicated timeconsuming workarrounds.

 

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 24, 2012, 12:48:35 pm »

@ moriarty :No the Cube was simply a help to setup the lightsource as the cylinder. Top is bright,front is medium and right side is darkest.

The silo is currently sized 2x2 tiles @ 3 Floorlevels.



About the "realism discussion"

This is realy strange in my opinion. Very common an often seen in many discussions.

Sometimes realism is used to support an opinion and sometimes its used to fight it off . Just as it serves
Xcom simply doesnt support many things and nobody will get disapointed.  I was not when i could not climb through windows or jump over hole. This is not a new game that claims to be very realistic, so it does not make so much sence to pick on those missing features. If you shoot an alien undewater shouldnt be there a blood trail or swiming organs above his corpe ? Is that realistic ? Who cared about that when he played TFTD for example. Why don't grenades bounce of walls or why you cannot  "bowl/roll" them down a stair.
Why can't you climb over halfmensized objects ? There are desks and chairs in the game. Why cant you open or sit down ? Does that add any importance to the gameplay ?

Well here is the answer : they're just cosmetic objects, that's what theyre suposed to be.


That does not mean that climbing up a ladder f.e. is wrong. I think that would be a nice idea to add.
I just dont like the discussion if something is good or bad just because it fits realism or not. In another discussion you're talking about fistfighting aliens which sounds ridicoulus in the first place ->

"hey i am fistfighting of a lobsterman, then im buttkicking a biodrone (cyberdisc)".

My opinion:

If there are any posibilies to bring that into game and make it somehow (rarely) usefull whitout makeing aliens look like weaklings/fools - why not. Question is more: is there space for it so it  adds to the gameplay experience.

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 24, 2012, 11:54:32 am »

So far the first results. The upper part shows RGB-Values, the lower part shows result after applying XCOM UFOcolorpalette. Not optimal, but may be a base to work with and modify.

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 23, 2012, 07:20:54 pm »

@luke83

Your're right about that 1 door @ Luke83.  It opens up in the wrong side. I just checked.
I just checked & changed it. The door opens up now correctly and the bathhubs have been resliced.

@Volutar: It is annoying much work thats true but i doubt that its realy much more work than per hand. Tileproportions will always fit, i setup the rendercamera/resolution in a way it will produce a perfect matching 32x40 tile as result. I'll try to upload a new silo without so much noise next days.
I am not so sure about if people will think its "boring" just because their might be some huger tilesobjects. In my opinion its simply freedom of modding.

About the lightning:

I still playing around to get something more close to the comicstyle and the results are quite different.

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 23, 2012, 12:02:09 pm »

I shouldnt have apllied any textur to the model since the resolution will make that look all just strange. However i dont see any holes or slicing lines anymore @ Volutar
And the "liliputan ladder" goes hand in hand with the liliputan resolution .

If you want realistic proportions then the silo needs something like 5x5 and 6 levels high - then you can have a reasonable sized ladder which seems to be climbable. Or you have a realistic sized ladder that will make the huge silo look "liliputan". However i do not like the silo at the current state too .

4 Levels and 40x32 dont give to much room unless you want some supermegasized tiles which are hard to puzzle together with the current mapeditor/Gameengine. After all this is finaly the 1st result at all that has made it into the game i did not expect it to be perfect. More i expected mistakes and colors/proportions that might need a change. Nothing is final and will be used as feedback to adjust  things.

I think the tractor/loaderwagon are already better done and will already fit in better. I try to make a compromise between the resolution/tilesystem and proportions. The loaderwagon f.e. has 2 Levels heights and 2x5 tiles. That's total amount aof 10 tiles to place. That is already a very "fat object" for Xcom battlescape.

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 21, 2012, 05:24:03 am »

The Bath still could use some more stuff: tables,chairs and may be a carpet.

Well if i think about "special" locations most of the time Xcom gives a very superficial impression/visuals. I have thoughts about  making a huge hotel or hospital and you can imagine there are plenty of different rooms with different stuff in there -> swimming pool, luxus suite, 2nd class suites, restaurant, kitchen,floors, casino and and and.

Interiors could look much more  individual even at that old engine.

I already had that thought about later versions of OXcom @ higher resolutions. I think its okay to give those models for further use in oXcom as long its uncommercial. First there needs to be a solid libary of objects, its just to early to think about that. First create & then decide what to do.

And by the way for anybody interessted:

It is NOT difficult to learn Blender for basic stuff. Only the organic 3D modelling (humans, animals etc.) seems to be more challenging and need experience. There are great free beginner tutorials and after just 2 days you'll have your first own model. I am not very experienced but i am happy to give  advice/links if anybody needs.

Stuff like i did here can be done by anybody.

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Suggestions / Re: additional (ocean) terrains

« on: August 20, 2012, 06:12:41 am »

I have less knowledge about this stuff.  Well i am not going to talk to much about that since i know less. I was just curious if there can be used alternative colorpalettes for specific missions (as it seems to be in TFTD in some cases). That was my thought.

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Suggestions / Re: additional (ocean) terrains

« on: August 20, 2012, 04:44:46 am »

I like this BEACH terrain type idea .

Beach would include something like sand, representative water/animation, some beach plants, single rocks, cliffs , a lonely fisherman's house,a lighthouse, a Cave.

The layout of the set would require special rules as for example the harbourterrorsite in TFTD which seperates randomly placed tiles and fixed sets for the water.


Underwater missions -> i doubt that would look good at all with the current ufopalette. TFTD seems to use different palette for different places. The blueish touch to all objects requires a different colorset than UFO-palettes provide.

That rises the question -> how will colorpalettes be handeled in openxcom.
256 Colors can already look "relatively" good if theyre specific designed to fit the required colors of a level instead of having ONE single palette that has to fit ALL levels.

Anyone played / remembers these ?

https://gamona-images.de/378536/f94451dae029909d5bbfd551cb0e39c7.jpg
https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/27656-donkey-kong-country-2-diddy-s-kong-quest-snes-screenshot-nice.jpg
https://www.gamezone.de/screenshots/original/2001/12/M_Dkc2_2001_12_03_11-08-17.jpg

 That's 256 colors and NOT more
SNES had a libary of 32768 colors to pick from but it was only able to use 256 colors at the same time. Of course it used tricks to break that limit (f.e. fading daylight to dawn) by changing the current 256 colorpalette. But i think the point i wanted to make is clear.

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Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 20, 2012, 02:23:34 am »

"probably doors will not work"....that's the problem. I need to know

The bathhubs need to be fixed. I simply forgot them  to render them independent. There are other examples in the ZIP (farm1 -> tractor /loaderwageon/silo). They are done this way and leave some inner detail remaining if they should blow up.

Without 1st hand ingame experience its not very recommended way to continue work just with help of imagination. I still have no idea why the colorpalettes dont work. It's not good to leave some almost finished graphics behind with the note that the colors won't work....not good at all.
Who is going to use that? Things have to work as expected and i don't like patches to play around with.

11

Resources / Re: Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 19, 2012, 09:49:18 am »

The Models were designed as 3D-models in Blender.


1.Rendered & saved them as 32x40 .PNG
2.Opened the file in GIMP
3.Switched Colormode from RGB to indexed
4.Selected as indexed colorpalette "Custom" and selected the UFO-tactical/Battlescape.PNG Palettefile from Ufopedia
5.Unchecked "remove unused colors from palette"
6. Saved the file as .bmp


That's it and i am really not sure what i am missing.
About the Color of the walls -> Red might look a bit to agressive together with the white marblegroundtiles. I thought so too, but the best impression if something is right or not is to get it working ingame. The Color red is so dark because of the colorpalette -> you have to play a bit arround before applying the UFO-palette or the results will look uggly.

There are also very interessting color combinations in the Web. Simply changing the colors will already give a totaly different feeling for the tileset.

https://www.google.de/search?hl=de&biw=1024&bih=625&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=bathrooms&btnG= (keyword "bathroom")

F.e.: almost black/darkgrey marbleground and light gray walls. wooden floor and white walls. There are a lot of good examples. Although for other rooms.

Tentaculars

12

Resources / Custom Tilesets & Help

« on: August 19, 2012, 08:21:08 am »

I want to show you my custom bathset made for openXcom. Get impressions and tell your opinion.
Prewiewpictures are included.

Why i made this example ?

Interior sets often lack objects to create more specific/indivudal rooms. So i decided to make a bathroomset with some basic objects. This should give more freedom to map/tileblock designers.


(download @ attachement)


-The tileformat fits 32x40 and is splitted correctly.
-The tiles should fit smoothly together.
-NEWtileplacementinfo.jpg gives you a help how to puzzle larger tiles together


These tiles have NOT been tested in XCOM EU & openXcom. I do not own XCOM Enemy unknown.
I do not know how to bring the graphics into the final game.

Problems with PCKview

I saved tiles as 32x40 pixels 8-BIT BMP & applied the UFO-Battlescape colorpalette from https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=PALETTES.DAT (Tactical palette).

Still there seems something to be wrong. The colors seem to be accurate but still mess up in Editors like PCKview. Luke83 said if he pastes the files into an orginal game .bmp everything works allright although there is no change in the used colors. I simply have no idea why the program is not accepting .BMP files using the accurate colorpalette created in GIMP.

Anyone any ideas about that ?

Before i am going to make other tiles i'd like to get opinions about colors/Contrasts that are used. And of course it finaly needs a sucessful ingame test or all the effort might be simply wasted.
Any sugesstions for specific sets,colors,objects etc are aprecciated. I looked for bathrooms via Google and there are a lot of different styles and types. To bad a lot of details simply get lost at the resolution of 32x40. May be you found some interessting pics that could be a refference for a set.

https://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/27/bathlevelexpample.gif/


Tentaculars

13

Resources / Re: new sprites and ideas... also request.

« on: August 10, 2012, 08:49:15 pm »

As far as i know GIMP reads .pds files and you can save in .psd format.

14

Programming / Re: openxcom3D

« on: August 04, 2012, 05:57:39 pm »

Graphics in the pixelated lowREs  left alot of space for imagination. The higher the resolution is the more overall detail/design will influence the visual atmosphere. The alien simply looks to cute and not dangerous at all. Still this is a nice idea.

I would prefer a 3D-environment. Realtimelightning/shadows would for sure fit well with the Xcom's field of view. Although limits of the very old engine simply would be gone.

You do not need to use every possibility 3D offers you just because 3D is capable to do it (ego perspektive, free camera movement etc).
If it does not go along with the game's phisolophie/feeling simply dont use it at all.
You can still have nice pixelated looks in 3D - simply set the resolution to 320x200

15

Fan-Stuff / Re: Vegetation Earth map

« on: August 01, 2012, 05:03:20 pm »

Hi Tentaculars!

Well, I was aiming for an improved globe with a little bit more detail... and since Volutar's Globe Editor can export to .obj format, and Blender can edit .obj files, I was looking for somebody with more experience in using Blender.

So basically, if you have the time, perhaps you could take an exported .obj file (see attachment) and make the landmass a little bit more natural-looking (less blocky), without increasing the poly count too much. then we can re-import it and adjust the terrain, giving us earth 2.0 

What are the limits ? If there are any it is important to know them. Increasing detail decreasing blockiness is sometimes possile if the model is realy worse organized. In this case i dont see how i can improve detail without doubling/trippeling the polycount. Best way would be to simply redraw the continents with a more smoother look. In theory we could give mountains f.e. a physical height if we push up the polycount. Some work and i am not sure if this would be beneficial at all for the game itself. As for more detail we ask, the more it comes into conflict with the current used ingameresolution. 320x200 it is, i think - and thats pretty few pixels.

But for sure there are questions remaining that might be important for reimporting to openxcom.

As you already said:

a) the Meshes seemed to be grouped into zones - is this somehow relevant for the game ?

b) what kind of texture resolution supports openxcom ? does it support animated textures ?
   There are no materials importet with the OBJ File. Materials = visual information for surfaces. Are they shiny, glossy shadeless, what color do they have - do they use textures and so on.