First In-World Screenshot!
 

Well, I have not shown a screenshot in-world of Shifting Ages yet. I have only shown test levels. Now, that I have many levels and progress runs smoothly, I will show a screenshot in world. I did showstats 0, so the gui and the player will not hinder seeing the level (as you have already seen both gui and player).

Within the Kingdom of Aaymar, lies a small town called Thilinor. To the north of the town lies a small farm, with a chicken pen outside and cows within. This screenshot shows that area.

Please, give me comments on a few things - The chickens, how the tiles flow, and the "Villager Body". (Villagers and NPCs will have a whole different gani and everything then the player body, I have a few reasons for this I will not say here).

Re: First In-World Screenshot!
 

Yeey! Fai's house!! Long time no see!! *makes love*
Everything is greate exept the guy and the chickens (seems evil) and the trees.

The chickens look like aliens. And the tiles dont flow "freely" that well. The swamp tiles (or whatever they are) don't blend in with the grass tiles that well. Maybe you should decrease the lighting on them a little. The rock shouldn't be that bright either. And whats with the bright blotches everywhere? Is there a forest overcast or something (where theres a brief break in leaves and the sun shines on the ground)? And for the character, the legs look like stubs. Try making them a tad bit longer. The only thing I'm really likeing in this picture is the houses, and maybe the rock a little (just because of the detail).

what are those yellow light effects?like fogs or soemthing?I dont like the rock either they look at shells or clamps and the chicken looks weird

Almost everything is good when looked at by itself. But, it looks like it was all thrown together randomly. You need to work on the over-all atmosphere. I can tell it took a lot of talent to make this, but what you need to do is work harder on putting it together.

Re: Re: First In-World Screenshot!
 

well, i think the tree's look good (from what i can see) the houses look awsome...

but yea... the chickens scare me... i think i seriousely might have nightmares now
=X


but other than that, it looks VERY good

maybe you should rethink the chickens and turn them in to some sort of baddie or center a whole quest around the evile alien chickens....

WHOA!
Those are the coolest house's ive ever seen!!!

The light effects just make that look that much sweeter. Gives that forest feel where trees block most of the light.

Excellent, except for the bodies.

Those chickens look evil. :(

I think its good except for those evil looking chickens..

The chickens look awesome when in game, because they are animated and look like chickens. Trust me =D.

As for it "not going together"...well, I think you just need to look at to together. And understand what you are seeing. It all comes together nicely at that...the reason it may not is possibly because I have the light effect to dark.

Oh, the house is made by Fai, originally for Murasamune. So, I would like to thank Fai again for it.

The dude's proportions look a little weird but I guess that's down to artistic style. Having different ganis for the NPCs and the players is a strange move, but you don't want to discuss that so okay. My primary concern, then, is this:

The dude would need to crawl to get through those doors.

The chicken is still going to look like an alien, wether you animate it or not.

Well, it is mainly because of the animation of the player animation, actually. The player animation is that of a guy in a hurry, and the player moves faster then a NPC so it looks good. But the NPCs have a different story, they don't have a care in the world...so they would be moving slower. Thus, they have a different animation...I also have another huge reason, having to do with a technique I have discovered to have shading on the character, at the same time as being able to recolor using the default recoloring stuff, but that gets a little more complicated and I would rather not have others doing it.
Ah, also the door would look rather strange if it was the same height as the player; trust me on this one.


As for the chicken, I have discovered the problem (actually, I forgot to finish it..take a look at the eyes). They look like regular chickens now, because they don't have evil eyes anymore.

Well, fair enough, but that's no reason to have different idle ganis.

Uh... huh. "Default recoloring stuff"? I'm not sure what you mean. Shading on the character? What kind of shading?

But heck, you don't have to answer these things. I'm just curious as a scripter.

Well, yeah, but he has to crawl to get through the door. That's pretty strange too, if you ask me.

Well, once again my shading technique, which I will explain below comes into play.

You know, setcharprop #C<0-5>,<color>;

Basicly, when I was shading in PSP, I was shading on a second layer over the player. I had 2 colors, white and black, and I had the layer at 50% transparant. So, when I finish, I made the shading one image, and the body another. Then, in the gani, I used attatch sprite so the shading is over the body, then in the gani script I set the mode to transparant, strength to 50%...while the body used the same basic colors of the default graal body. So, as a result, I can recolor the character using the default method, and have shading.

Reason I am willing to do this, is because this world will require light effects to play. Regardless what players say, I will not change my mind on that...

Hehe, well, I am sure I can create a effect where it looks fine just walking =P.

All I can say is, Good luck!
:asleep:

Have faith :cool:

Haven't you seen Gandalf walk into the hobbit house? ;)

With the classic bodies, using colors for sleeves, coat, etc.

Suggestion: If you make the bodies themselves monochrome and use setimgcolors on the shading mask (and, obviously, split it into several sections), you can create a totally dynamic coloring system with as many segments as you want (ie, you're not limited to the five that the #Cx variables give you).

Risky, but commendable.

Could you explain that a little more? I think I get what you are saying, but then again I don't see that as working, so before I come to conclusions I would like to know more.

Heh, well, a risk which should be taken. Graal should not be limited by peoples primitive hardware. My old TNT2 could easily handle these graphics, and my new GeForce4 easily handles it. People need to upgrade, and I refuse to limit my quality.

I had a change of mind when I considered overlapping. But this seems to be as much a problem for your system; what happens when two players' images overlap? If you are applying a simple darkening mask then they will collide and produce a superdark region.

He's a wizard.. they pull magic all the time!
You dont have a scruffy beard, overplastered wrinkles, and a magic cane now do you?
:p

I like it, very nice.. :) I hope you can kill the chickens.. :rolleyes:

No, overlapping does not matter. Each NPC is not drawn on the same layer. I used ganis for this, remember, and I guess those are handled like a image. No showimg in my gani, so no layers to worry about.

Plus, I wouldn't be worried if that did happen. No players will be using these bodies, as they are my NPC Villager body. Player bodies do not use this technique of shading, rather the normal.

Don't tempt me :D

Ah, I thought you were using showimg. So let me see if I understand. There's a body image and a shading mask. The shading mask is just a black image, but the gani script sets the transparency to 50% (or whatever)? I didn't think that was possible so it seems likely that I've misunderstood.

Wrong choice of words, on my part. It is more like gani commands...

EFFECTMODE <sprite index> <mode>
COLOREFFECT <sprite index> <red> <green> <blue> <alpha>

Basicly, you add that anywhere within the script.

That is how I get my transparant shadows (look closely..), and other various effects.

Ah, now I see. Do those commands allow for dynamicism? That might not even be a real word, so I'll rephrase: Would you be able to supply a variable as one of the arguments so that you could have a dynamic alpha or suchlike?

Hmm...actually, I am not sure. Perhaps...by using a PARAM, but it is a guess. Give it a shot.

Me likes your graphics.

:-(
:-(

Why oh why did I choose doomsday again... ;-)

? Care to clearify?

Just saying, if I worked with/for you on this project. It might be worthwhile.

Cause you're stoopid :p j/k of course..
*cough* :D

Looks pretty good overall, but that door IS ridiculous.

Well, it truly would look even worse if I increased the size, surly you all understand that right?

I don't understand that at all, unless the house is leaning over and is at a completely different angle than the player.

It just doesn't look irght, trust me. I think it looks good the way it is...

I think the solution is to make the character smaller.