What are you making? - TTLG Forums

Pyrian on 9/9/2017 at 06:18

Dangit dangit dangit. A fire on a tree has to be drawn on top of it, a fire on the hex "above" a tree needs to be drawn below it. That means, to avoid exploding draw calls, the fires (and frankly a lot of special effects) have to be on the same atlas as the tree... Which is already full.

Looks like I'm moving to 2048 texture atlases (from 1024), which throws out compatibility with some much older devices.

Pyrian on 11/9/2017 at 22:52

The fires took longer than anticipated. I had to refactor some of the terrain add-on code, in addition to combining the atlases. Basically extending and debugging, so it's all good.

Here's the raw paintings:
(https://imgur.com/jngathe)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/jngathe.jpg

And here they are in-game:
(https://imgur.com/veSQ4o4)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/veSQ4o4.png

Nameless Voice on 11/9/2017 at 23:14

Are the fires (going to be) animated?

Pyrian on 11/9/2017 at 23:34

Yeah, they already were. I'll see if I can get a GIF.

Yakoob on 12/9/2017 at 05:14

(http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/)

Pyrian on 12/9/2017 at 13:44

Lol, I have that based on your recommendation last time...

Pyrian on 12/9/2017 at 20:19

Alright, haven't done this on imgur I don't think, let's try it:

(https://imgur.com/CPjxcLx)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/CPjxcLx.gif

EDIT: Okay, the color dithering and frame rate are terrible in the GIF, but you get the idea.

henke on 13/9/2017 at 05:35

That's looking good, Pyrian! :D

Only thing I don't like is how the smoke bits occasionally make sharp turns. I think it would be more pleasing to the eye if you just moved in a straight line and faded out over time.

Pyrian on 13/9/2017 at 05:43

Thanks, henke. :) Yeah, there's a chance each move that a cloud (or any wind-borne object) goes one hex off from the prevailing wind direction. I dunno, I prefer it this way? The minimum 60 degree turn is a bit distracting, I agree, but having all the clouds move in a straight line without spreading out/diffusing/billowing looks unnatural, IMO. It would also mean that fires only spread in one direction instead of expanding as they go.

Do you think it would help to smooth out the turn or something?

Random debugging woes: I've been trying to figure out why the smoke cloud at the top vanishes without fading out first. I put in some debug info and poked around and was able to solve a different bug (the one near the middle where a cloud "pops" back in for a single frame after fading out), and now I can't explain or replicate the "disappearing without fading" bug. Hmm. Maybe it's gone. Or maybe if I took some more video...

Pyrian on 18/9/2017 at 20:50

Alright, time for some transition prototypes. These are strictly quick prototypes, any "real" versions would be hand-painted, smoothed out, and varied instead of copy-pasted. Also, no shorelines yet.

Here's a section in the game as-is:
(https://imgur.com/5gFVD6B)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/5gFVD6B.png

In this approach, border hexes get some bits of rock or grass from adjacent hexes all throughout the hex. The direction of adjacency is ignored:
(https://imgur.com/s4iOCsw)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/s4iOCsw.png

Here, the approach is similar but the direction of adjacency is taken into account:
(https://imgur.com/eMjBJ4k)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/eMjBJ4k.png

Finally, in this prototype, we're smoothing out the corners when two hexes are the same but the third is different, reducing the jaggedness of "straight" lines:
(https://imgur.com/QaMqIJk)

Inline Image:

http://i.imgur.com/QaMqIJk.png

I would really appreciate any opinions on which approaches you think work best! Thanks.