More flexible unit image use

More flexible unit image use

[Hans Ronne]

I have checked in two major changes to how Xconq handles unit images.

1.  Every unit can now have it own image, which is unique for that unit and
its associated views. To define a specific image for a given unit, just
include the image-name in the unit definition. For example, in the Intro
game, change the definition for Jinod to:

(town 12 10 1 (n "Jinod")(image-name "ancient-city"))

This will cause Jinod, but no other towns in the game, to use the town
image from the Advances game.

This is particularly useful if you have a number of units of similar type
that you want to distinguish from each other. For example, the Lord of the
Rings game defines a unique unit type for each hobbit in order to provide
them with unique images. It is now possible to use only one unit type for
all hobbits and still give them their own images.

2. The second change is that it is now possible to define a list of images
that should be used for a particular unit type. The game will then pick an
image at random from that list each time a new unit is created. Thus, to
use more town images in the Intro game, add this line:

(add town image-name ("ancient-blue-city" "ancient-green-city"
"ancient-small-city"))

The first image in the list (ancient-blue-city) is the default image, which
is the image that is shown in the unit list and the help window. Units that
have their own images defined (e.g. Jinod) are still drawn using those
unique images instead.

This is useful in games where you have a large number of similar units and
want to provide some variety for the eye. It may also help the player to
keep track of units if they have somewhat different images.

Hans

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Hans Ronne]

>> 2. The second change is that it is now possible to
>> define a list of images
>> that should be used for a particular unit type. The
>> game will then pick an
>> image at random from that list each time a new unit
>> is created. Thus, to
>> use more town images in the Intro game, add this
>> line:
>
>
>That's amazing.  I'll be checking in the new version
>of Specula, called Opal (The old name sounds too much
>like a medical contraption), in a few days.  Along
>with Opal (And what I've been spending much of my time
>on lately) will be the Angband set of graphics from
>molotov.nu.  Take a look, there's hundreds of them:
>
>http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics

Very nice. The more images the better. But we must do something about the
image loading system soon. It's getting overloaded :-).

>It's taking a while to reformat the gifs and write the
>imf, but when I'm done, there'll be quite a bit of new
>images for any Xconq fantasy games.  I never thought,
>though, that I'd get a chance to show so many in Opal.
>
>And, just to show that I'm never satisfied, is there
>any way to set side-specific unit images?

Not yet. You still have to use side-specific unit types: e.g. russian-tanks
and german-tanks, for this. Unless, of course, you set the images
individually for all the units.

Hans

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Elijah Meeks]

> Very nice. The more images the better. But we must
> do something about the
> image loading system soon. It's getting overloaded
> :-).

I think there should be a serious overhaul of the
graphics used by XConq.  Some of them are atrocious
(I've contributed my fair share with the Spec tiles,
and I think they can be removed with no ill will) and
some are just a little too outdated.  I've been
looking around at freeciv and other open-source
projects and I think there's enough good, free
graphics that we could finally see the end of four
monochrome guys with pikes representing infantry.




		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Vote for the stars of Yahoo!'s next ad campaign!
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo/votelifeengine/

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Eric McDonald]

Hi Elijah,

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, Elijah Meeks wrote:

> I think there should be a serious overhaul of the
> graphics used by XConq. 

This is something you could probably do. Just edit them out of the 
'imf.dir' file in the 'lib' directory. And, once it is cleaned up, 
give the new file to Hans or myself, so we can look it over 
and merge the cleaned up image directory into CVS.

> Some of them are atrocious

Agreed. There are a lot of rather "chunky" or "stick figure" type 
graphics that can probably go away, or at least not be part of the 
main images library.

Of course, when cleaning things up, you might have to look to see 
in which modules the "atrocious" graphics are being used, and 
provide suitable replacements.

> (I've contributed my fair share with the Spec tiles,
> and I think they can be removed with no ill will) 

The Spec tiles don't look so bad compared to some of the stuff in 
the images lib.

> projects and I think there's enough good, free
> graphics that we could finally see the end of four
> monochrome guys with pikes representing infantry.

Oh, those are pikes? I couldn't quite tell; I thought I saw the 
ends of bayonets, but I never looked that closely.

Eric

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Hans Ronne]

>> I think there should be a serious overhaul of the
>> graphics used by XConq.
>
>This is something you could probably do. Just edit them out of the
>'imf.dir' file in the 'lib' directory. And, once it is cleaned up,
>give the new file to Hans or myself, so we can look it over
>and merge the cleaned up image directory into CVS.

Let's not rush things here. The many images in imf.dir is not the main
problem (except if you try to load all of them into some versions of
IMFApp). And I think we still need to keep many of the older images for
some games, such as "Classic Xconq", which are supposed to be that way.
Nostalgia for old-time xconqers ...

What I had in mind when I talked about the need for an overhaul was the
image loading code (something which I think we already discussed). It could
be made much more efficient, for example by not loading all images in a
file, just the ones you want. There is also a static limit on the number of
image families, MAXIMAGEFAMILIES, which we hit every now and then. I bumped
it to 3000 to accomodate the awls images, but I guess we will run out of
space again when you are done with the Angband graphics. Getting rid of
this ceiling and making image loading more modular is on my todo list.

If you want to make a useful contribution, I think rather than throwing
away images in imf.dir, you might consider going through some of the
existing game modules and updating the images they use with better images
already available in Xconq. I did that with several game modules when I
carried out a general overhaul earlier this year. For example, the roman
game now uses images from ancient.imf and the Beirut game uses the trident
images. I think many more game modules could easily be given a more
attractive look that way.

Hans

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Eric McDonald]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, Hans Ronne wrote:

> (except if you try to load all of them into some versions of
> IMFApp).

This is the problem I had in mind, and what I suggested was a 
band-aid fix to that problem.

> And I think we still need to keep many of the older images for
> some games, such as "Classic Xconq", which are supposed to be that way.
> Nostalgia for old-time xconqers ...

Sure, I understand that.

> What I had in mind when I talked about the need for an overhaul was the
> image loading code (something which I think we already discussed). 

Right. I knew this is what you were talking about. Like I said, I 
was suggesting a band-aid fix (with the added benefit of 
improving the "signal-to-noise ratio" of 'imf.dir') for one 
specific problem. Obviously, it is not a true solution to the 
problem.

> If you want to make a useful contribution, I think rather than throwing
> away images in imf.dir, you might consider going through some of the
> existing game modules and updating the images they use with better images
> already available in Xconq. 

That is implicit with the suggestion of removing any in-use images 
from 'imf.dir'.

> images. I think many more game modules could easily be given a more
> attractive look that way.

I agree.

Eric

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Stan Shebs]

Elijah Meeks wrote:

>>Very nice. The more images the better. But we must
>>do something about the
>>image loading system soon. It's getting overloaded
>>:-).
>>
>
>I think there should be a serious overhaul of the
>graphics used by XConq.  Some of them are atrocious
>(I've contributed my fair share with the Spec tiles,
>and I think they can be removed with no ill will) and
>some are just a little too outdated.  I've been
>looking around at freeciv and other open-source
>projects and I think there's enough good, free
>graphics that we could finally see the end of four
>monochrome guys with pikes representing infantry.
>
Hey! That was hot stuff for X10 in 1987! :-) Actually, they're
supposed to be carrying rifles, and they're arranged obliquely so
as to look visually different from other types (my first try was
a rectangular array of six, but it looked like a blob).

Of course, the state of the art now is to animate small models built
out of polygons in 3D. Anybody working on a 3D interface? Thruput
of graphics cards now exceeds vanilla 2D capability, plus you could
do continuous scaling instead of using all the magnification
infrastructure.

Stan

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Hans Ronne]

>Of course, the state of the art now is to animate small models built
>out of polygons in 3D. Anybody working on a 3D interface?

Not to my knowledge. I think that was one of many ideas ventilated by
Brandon Van Every during his short stay on this list. A 3D interface not
primarily intended to support 3D games, but to improve the drawing of unit
images.

Hans

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Elijah Meeks]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 166 bytes --]

 
 


		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Vote for the stars of Yahoo!'s next ad campaign!
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo/votelifeengine/

[-- Attachment #2: Type: message/rfc822, Size: 1529 bytes --]

From: Elijah Meeks <elijahmeeks@yahoo.com>
To: Hans Ronne <hronne@comhem.se>
Subject: Re: More flexible unit image use
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 15:01:18 -0700 (PDT)

> 2. The second change is that it is now possible to
> define a list of images
> that should be used for a particular unit type. The
> game will then pick an
> image at random from that list each time a new unit
> is created. Thus, to
> use more town images in the Intro game, add this
> line:


That's amazing.  I'll be checking in the new version
of Specula, called Opal (The old name sounds too much
like a medical contraption), in a few days.  Along
with Opal (And what I've been spending much of my time
on lately) will be the Angband set of graphics from
molotov.nu.  Take a look, there's hundreds of them:

http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics

It's taking a while to reformat the gifs and write the
imf, but when I'm done, there'll be quite a bit of new
images for any Xconq fantasy games.  I never thought,
though, that I'd get a chance to show so many in Opal.

And, just to show that I'm never satisfied, is there
any way to set side-specific unit images?



		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Vote for the stars of Yahoo!'s next ad campaign!
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo/votelifeengine/

Re: More flexible unit image use

[Eric McDonald]

Elijah Meeks wrote:

> That's amazing.  I'll be checking in the new version
> of Specula, called Opal (The old name sounds too much
> like a medical contraption), 

As long as no one confuses the new name with an American automaker's 
European operations. :-)

>in a few days.  Along
> with Opal (And what I've been spending much of my time
> on lately) will be the Angband set of graphics from
> molotov.nu.  

Oh, that's right, __I forgot that some folks were into Angband GUI's. 
Never tried one myself. I played my hobbit rogue (think savings throws; 
he was a bit weak in straight combat for the first 40 levels or so, but 
after that he got a big enough boost from artifacts and other powerful 
items so that it didn't matter too much) through 100 levels of character 
"graphics" to topple Morgoth.

> It's taking a while to reformat the gifs and write the
> imf, but when I'm done, there'll be quite a bit of new
> images for any Xconq fantasy games.  

Looks like a major contribution.

> And, just to show that I'm never satisfied, is there
> any way to set side-specific unit images?

I've had the same desire for Wreckreation (the newest development 
version has more sides, and many, many more units). This would go well 
with side-specific unit namers.

Eric