Custom Tilesets & Help

[Tentaculars]

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

[Amunak]

This looks really awesome. As for the palette, are you sure that you chose to save it with gif palette?

All the colors and objects seem very nice. The only thing I'm not sure is the color of the walls - it seems a bit too dark and different from the rest of the colors used.

Anyway, good job. This is exactly what xcom is missing - some real "rooms" (as in terror missions as in xcom bases).

[Tentaculars]

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

[Yankes]

Open doors probably will not work correctly. Because door frame will overlap unit draw on this square.
And for big bathtubs, you "cut" them wrong, remember that half of it can be blowup I think better way was to render every square independent.

[Tentaculars]

"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.

[michal]

Good job Tentaculars

Can you consider releasing your blender files on some opensource license? It would be great to have them when future OpenXcom will support higher resolution, higher bpp.

[luke83]

Great work mate, i want to build a SPECIAL MISSION where the aliens attack a SWANKY hotel, and your Bathroom is a MUST

[Tentaculars]

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.

[luke83]

Here is Tentaculars Silo in Mapview

[Volutar]

I see alot of "holes" and jagged things. Not saying about weird lilliputian ladder.
I vote for drawn graphics with pixel-precise control and smooth gradients. 3D is not what is needed.

[luke83]

Problem with 2D is , there is no talent artists here , I for one cant draw anything this good and would prefer to stick to map building.

Any 3D model can be cleaned up by hand - however this model , i thought it looked good.....Anyone else with a View?

Tentaculars made these at my request as i want to build a different Farm map after i finish my UFO Upgrades so i wont use them to mix with the original set, other people might

Is this Nice or Not ?

[Tentaculars]

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.

[luke83]

I think its a Nice mapitem and i will build a MCD set just for it so anyone can use it IF they want. I can see this on a Farm map,  Out the back of a Building in the dessert , industrial area etc , so it will have its own set that will be uploaded onto the Mod-Site under Tenaculars page.

[Volutar]

XCom is not about real proportions. People are as high as buildings, doors go from floor to ceiling, and so on... It has alot of distorted things, and intentionally made non-realistic. Different vehicles from post above are quite nice, but they are really far away from xcom style. The thing of this 3D approach is inability to fit xcom style properly. It either should be drawn (probably with looking at rendered things), or have 3D engine which will get same distorted cartoonish-like proportions. Everything "realistic" will make this project dull and boring. First image with bathroom potentially could fit xcom style (after proper color-work and pixel-precise editing).

[luke83]

Hobbes uses Cars an Vans in his maps for Xcom , i think it suits rather nicely if the map can handle them.
https://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=6069

I guess it comes down to personal Taste