The Screenshot Thread 2

[Ellie]

I think if you're going to go retro pixel-art you should make it consistent with UI buttons, logo and fonts

Normally I would agree, however because I am using 3-up graphics rather than 2-up, text takes up so much room on the screen (or looks horrible and unreadable). What I have gone for, to differentiate between the game and its menus, is 3-up for the game and normal for menus. I know I have committed cardinal sin, however it does make the game more readable, and I think makes menus and important text pop out a little. I could be wrong!-, if someone can provide an example of 3-up text looking nice while still providing enough space to show lengthy chat as well as all other gameplay going on.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

I think if you're going to go retro pixel-art you should make it consistent with UI buttons, logo and fonts

Normally I would agree, however because I am using 3-up graphics rather than 2-up, text takes up so much room on the screen (or looks horrible and unreadable). What I have gone for, to differentiate between the game and its menus, is 3-up for the game and normal for menus. I know I have committed cardinal sin, however it does make the game more readable, and I think makes menus and important text pop out a little. I could be wrong!-, if someone can provide an example of 3-up text looking nice while still providing enough space to show lengthy chat as well as all other gameplay going on.

I think what you're doing looks fine. The practical being able to read things is more important than overall graphic integrity.

Still not happy with the HUD, will likely remove help text and make it more pleasing, I've had a good idea of how to make non-intrusive tutorials.

Something like this.

 

[Sated]

Stuck some ripped Crystalis graphics onto a tileset because I really like how that game looked. They're kinda challenging to work with, but I think they look cool. Credit for the original rip goes to Zephiel87, although fitting it to a chipset wasn't as easy as I thought it would be:

Spoiler

Here is a forest using graphics ripped from the same game. Credit for these go to HylianFox. Turns out NES graphic artists were more capable of making forest graphics than the RMVX/RMMV RTP spriters are

Spoiler

I uploaded both the chipsets over on RMN if anyone is interested in them.

 

[Sated]

Have a GIF!

Spoiler

 

[coyotecraft]

Here is a forest using graphics ripped from the same game. Credit for these go to HylianFox. Turns out NES graphic artists were more capable of making forest graphics than the RMVX/RMMV RTP spriters are

Spoiler

Because it has diagonals? Still looks unnatural and boxed-in to me. I hate VX's forest tiles.

 

[Ellie]

YES IT IS A PERFECT LOOP I AM THAT SAD

 

[BizarreMonkey]

@Prinny: Hey if you took out the Imperial 'u' in Colour would it all be perfectly aligned textways?

I think doing that would look cooler, if less true to our us imperial englishmen and our fancy lil' u's.


Ooh, my turn isn't it?

Well, I've actually made some wonderful progress on PFC recently, mostly because i was able to find plugins for the sodding thing, but here we go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czd85MEAFJI

 

[Ellie]

Nice.

This might be the first game I actually use a canopy tileset in... Oh god.

NOT a map, just seeing how the tiles are put together.

 

[R.J.]

Trying out the "modern day" tileset in RMMV... I don't like the default RTP much, it's too blocky. And 48x48 tiles are awkward to work with.

 

[Sated]

@Amy:

That forest tileset looks pretty good. I don't mind canopies when they're done well, but the RMVX and RMMV ones are awful and a lot of people don't even know how to use them properly so it's like a double-whammy of terribleness.

@RJ:

The size of the cars is really off-putting. Look how big the cars are compared to the charsets, or even to the ATM (I think?) on the left. Eugh. Obviously not your fault, but those cars could probably be twice as big as they are there and still look slightly small.

 

[R.J.]

That's my problem with this. Everything in MV is one tile big, with very few exceptions. So nothing overlaps and everything has to fit in in one tile. Same with the wooden benches, I want to make the back side of them overlap with the fence, but I can't, because it's on one tile.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

That's my problem with this. Everything in MV is one tile big, with very few exceptions. So nothing overlaps and everything has to fit in in one tile. Same with the wooden benches, I want to make the back side of them overlap with the fence, but I can't, because it's on one tile.

You can stack tiles on another indefinitely.

No tile events.

Also made some good progress on PFC both saturday and sunday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KZAC1D9T5Y

 

[Ellie]

Ooh, toilets.

 

[Sated]

BM, they weren't talking about whether or not you can overlap tiles. The benches don't overlap the wall in their screenshot because the bench isn't tall enough. The chipset needs editing so that only half the bench is on one tile, and the other half is on a separate tile, so that it looks like it's actually against the wall instead of looking slightly offset from it. Some tiles on older RTP chipsets (notably beds) have the same problem and need a quick edit.

 

[R.J.]

BM, they weren't talking about whether or not you can overlap tiles. The benches don't overlap the wall in their screenshot because the bench isn't tall enough. The chipset needs editing so that only half the bench is on one tile, and the other half is on a separate tile, so that it looks like it's actually against the wall instead of looking slightly offset from it. Some tiles on older RTP chipsets (notably beds) have the same problem and need a quick edit.

Exactly, but then you run into another problem. The character sprites in RMMV are only one tile tall, so if you make the bench two tiles tall, it will still look stupid.

This is why I much prefer XP's RTP over that of VX (Ace) and MV, even though a lot of people dislike it.

 

[Xilef]

I'm very confident that you can change these things with MV. Tileset edit for the objects, then in code move all actor graphics using character sets up a tad.

If I remember correct, XP had events aligned to the tiles too, but most of the graphics had blank padding below each sprite to offset them in the +Y direction.

I suppose the concern would be incorrect draw-order/overlap? Someone will need to clarify if that would be an issue in MV.

 

[R.J.]

Also, the shadow pen only overlaps objects on layer A, but not any of the others. Hnnnngggg.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Also, the shadow pen only overlaps objects on layer A, but not any of the others. Hnnnngggg.

They do really need to fix that.

Also yeah, I misunderstood, sorry.

Working some on PFC's Story, giving each character a unique font for dialogue.

 

[ZenVirZan]

I don't think the font for different characters works very well. Visual consistency is important.

I think maybe if you had two very similar fonts with specific quirks, you could use those for good and evil, or something. Or perhaps swap them depending on intended tone, but I think the difference seen here is jarring.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

I'm inclined to agree, it's fun to entertain but its so messy!

I'll likely then use Perfect dark for systems, interface, etc, and something else for text... either Hobo STD or Caligula.

*cough*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC2hLtK4RP8
Ooh, well wouldja lookit that! A video that was an RP hairball.