Jump to content

Tiles - more variety?


UfoTubby

Recommended Posts

Now that I'm trying to get into modding, I thought it could be nice to provide something to the community that hopefully people find useful.

I dunno about coding, and xml edits I do are mostly for my own pleasure. But I can do at least some things with gfx.

One thing I notice when playing the game is that tiles props etc you're seeing on maps could use a bit more variety.

The more simpler thing to do is to edit exsiting stuff, please see preview below. I could do some easy color edits (Bus), or do some more editing to get more different stuff (car > combi > pickup).

SZD4Uxml.png

Would people be interested in those kind of changes? In the long run I could also see to add completely new tiles, just at the moment I feel completely overwhelmed by the pure number of tiles, and the fact that there are so many folders and subfolders, even lots of empty ones so I have a lot of trouble to figure what does what, and what I need to do to implement possible new stuff.

Is there any help threads out there providing more insights?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't dl stuff like that yet. Only some other mods, like those cool armor gfx, the font mod for testing, and that big map pack etc., but nothing explicitly about tiles.

However, for example in my installations folder \assets\tiles\town there are some png atlases, then several subfolders. Many of these like "shop" or "copies" are empty so I'm wondering why they are there. It's not a huge prob, the game runs fine. I just find it difficult to figure out what to do when adding new tiles myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the reasons those folders are empty is that while the pngs and the spectres are kept in the tile atlases, the game will first check the directories where the pngs and spectres would be kept, and if there's something there, it will reference those files instead of the atlases. But yeah, go for it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't dl stuff like that yet. Only some other mods, like those cool armor gfx, the font mod for testing, and that big map pack etc., but nothing explicitly about tiles.

However, for example in my installations folder \assets\tiles\town there are some png atlases, then several subfolders. Many of these like "shop" or "copies" are empty so I'm wondering why they are there. It's not a huge prob, the game runs fine. I just find it difficult to figure out what to do when adding new tiles myself.

The download I was referring to isn't a mod. It's a resource pack for mapping. It used to be possible to run a program to extract the relevant files from their archive, but that become impossible at one point so Chris made them available for download instead. If you're interested in doing more with this I recommend downloading them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I didn't work further on tiles so far. But I did a small modification of the laserscatter UI pic though to make it appear more "heavy", while still retaining the vanilla style overall.

I'ts inspired by Eisfunke's changed plasma weapons which are IMO really nice. So this is similar, just for laser :)

Anybody interested in using this? I'm somewhat reluctant to post this in "completed" right now as it's only one pic and the changes are not huge. However, I can attach a usable version here if needed...

laserscatter_new01.jpg

laserscatter_new01.jpg

laserscatter_new01.jpg.70081f4024b698ada

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:NOT BAD: xDD..they look cool, the one i like more is the second version of the laser rifle :).

In a side note, i always found weird how the MAG weapons all of them have mark,sletters, little ufo head symbols..and stuff, but the others weapon are "all plain color" (black for laser, white-gray for plasma).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thx guys :) I see to post the first set tommorow having laser carbine, rifle and scatter replacements. I don't plan to change the pistol. For the moment also no precision laser, tried a bit around on this but wasn't really satisfied with the results so far.

the one i like more is the second version of the laser rifle

That's my fav too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, I'm impressed! Both the tiles and the weapons are nice work. Small but mighty variations like shown in your first post would certainly help to break up the battlefield.

Wow, these certainly look more coherent. Maybe you and Eisfunke should work on a laser and plasma rifle texture replacement package.

While I think that every weapon should be modifiable by itself, like I'm doing it currently, once I'm ready with my edits and UfoTubby is okay with it, we could put them in one thread for consistency and easier finding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, I'm impressed! Both the tiles and the weapons are nice work. Small but mighty variations like shown in your first post would certainly help to break up the battlefield.

While I think that every weapon should be modifiable by itself, like I'm doing it currently, once I'm ready with my edits and UfoTubby is okay with it, we could put them in one thread for consistency and easier finding.

Thx for your comments. I started work on weapons after seeing your plasma modifications, which are cool. :)

From my pov there's no prob if they're posted with yours, but it might be easier to just leave it separate as diff. creators might just progress differently, which means there would be some need for coordination - which personally I'd rather spend for further modding /my 2cents

However, in general I don't have a prob participating to generate a bigger pack. I guess I'll just post what I got so far separately, we could always put stuff together later...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, forgot - I have some general questions about tiles to those which know about mapping:

I assume if I put new tiles as replacement for vanilla stuff into an existing atlas the game will just use the new versions?

But if I plan to use them not as replacements, but additions - how do I actually get new tiles to show up in the game? Do I have to create extra maps using those new tiles?

Because so far I never did any maps, and I dunno if I ever go seriously into it at all, since gfx modding is already taking quite some time

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Off-topic here, I am actually planning to make new tiles out of scratch. Browsing from the mapping discussions,(which is surprisingly deserted and abandoned), I noticed requests for Asian and Urban Middle East Tiles for the game maps. I guess the game loses its charm when you see all the six map types all over again. There was a jungle tileset that was a superb piece of work but sadly the modder got bored of the game and left it ruin. I wonder if there are people still interested in new tilesets considering I've taken a shot at making vehicles for ground combat, the transition to environments would be easier.

I wonder if you're interested in helping to make new tiles, UfoTubby.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But if I plan to use them not as replacements, but additions - how do I actually get new tiles to show up in the game? Do I have to create extra maps using those new tiles?

You need to produce a .png image and then create a spectre for it. You can do this manually by copying an existing one and editing it in a text editor or, better, you can load the image file in the submap editor and save it as a spectre there. Then you can use the spectre to produce submaps.

I suspect that isn't as clear as I want it to be, but it might point you in the right direction. I'm happy to help once I'm finishing being busy with work stuff.

Because so far I never did any maps, and I dunno if I ever go seriously into it at all, since gfx modding is already taking quite some time

I suspect even if you don't make any maps yourself that additional art for props would be very welcome for people (like me!) who do.

@LordJulian: If you picked up the Jungle tileset and added some more stuff to it to round it off, I would more than happily make maps with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, forgot - I have some general questions about tiles to those which know about mapping:

I assume if I put new tiles as replacement for vanilla stuff into an existing atlas the game will just use the new versions?

But if I plan to use them not as replacements, but additions - how do I actually get new tiles to show up in the game? Do I have to create extra maps using those new tiles?

Because so far I never did any maps, and I dunno if I ever go seriously into it at all, since gfx modding is already taking quite some time

Easiest way to have your new tiles in the game would be making them as new submaps. If you check assets/maps/industrial/props/ you can find different submaps for each vehicle in that tileset. (these are things you can place in map editor) If a folder (vehicle_mazda_se for example) would have more than one submap, the game would randomly choose one of those.

So what you need to do first, is make all the graphics (damaged and destroyed states) and most importantly, the spectre file that has all the information for that prop. Save these in assets/tiles/industrial/ufotubbys_new_vehicles/ (or similar). Then you just need to use submap editor to make a new submap that uses your newly made spectre and save it in a folder that has similar looking vehicle. Then the game will always choose randomly either the vanilla vehicle or any of the alternatives you've put in the same directory.

The submap editor could sound and look a bit imposing at first, but trust me, its actually quite easy when you get a hang of it. Easiest way to understand it is to load an existing submap and modifiy it. Don't hesitate to ask If you need any help.

--

submap: a part of map that can be placed in a level editor. Composed from small separate tiles. A submap could be a street block with several buildings, a single building, a patch of grass, a vehicle or any other complete part of larger map. These are in assets/maps/*tileset*/*subfolder*/. If there are more than one submap in a folder, the game will randomly choose one to occupy the space specified in the level editor.

spectre file: Each small tile in the game (a piece of wall, a rock, a tree, a vehicle) has a gfx file (normal, damaged, destroyed) and a spectre file that specifies where these aforementioned gfx files are and other information linked to the prop in question like positioning, sound effects, visibility, health etc.

Edited by Skitso
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@LordJulian: If you picked up the Jungle tileset and added some more stuff to it to round it off, I would more than happily make maps with it.

IIRC Solver said somewhere that he wanted to make tilesets extensible instead of the current hardcoded set, but if he doesn't have the time, I could try to put this somewhen near the top of my todo list if that'd help.

I remember seeing at least jungle, forrest and tundra tilesets posted as a work in progress, and it's be a real pity to let them disappear. So it'd be great if somebody checked those and took up those abandoned ones worth maintaining. It'd make a difference even if there wouldn't be that many maps for those tilesets (especially if those would be random maps, which would suit these tilesets).

And that doesn't need to be just a single person doing this, if there'd be more people interested, set up a new discussion thread or whatever and go ahead. Technically it shouldn't be that difficult work, it'd just need the time and effort to do it.

Everybody can of course work on what they'd like to do, but I personally would much rather see new content added than yet another tweaking of content/artwork/whatever that's already there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not something I am working on at the moment, but it's definitely still something I want to do, in particular in time for Xenonauts 1.5. My logic is the same - there are at least two new tilesets, forest and jungle (tundra is in the hardcoded list), that I have seen, and both provide very interesting potential to spice up the maps. Especially once somebody makes maps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...