Holy crap, epic idea there Argyle! I actually kinda like it . . . hmmmm . . . would it work . . . is there enough support/interest to make it happen? I don't know. I will lend my support to it if it ever lifts off the ground.
For the resultant new printed vinyl wall-covering I'm going to charge that old corpse of a pope dearly for the job, more than Michelangelo ever dreamed!
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Thinking more about your idea after coming back to this post. I have further thoughts to add/augment. But I first want to conduct a sort of "feasibility study". If it's results are negative there's no sense in wasting time pondering it further.
1) ptoing owns the whole concept, and he's also the one spearheading and responsible for the project so far. His consent is required.
2) Probably already determined, will there be enough support for it? Judging from the first two hex collabs, it's a definite yes, imo.
3) Details. All technicalities need to be well established beforehand. We can't enter such a project unprepared.
One of my foremost thoughts includes making not only the final interlocking 7 hex collabs (once all 7 are done) blend seamlessly, but also making the whole 7 large cluster tile with itself, seamlessly. If Hex3 is started before this aspect is worked out and it's not accounted for, it may be too late to make it work (haven't done a test yet but am pretty sure), since there will too many non-tiling sides.
Once the Hex1 collab was finished I made a seamless filing texture of it. ptoing created the hex grid perfectly, it fits into itself on all 6 sides. Of course, the seams were evident where opposite sides didn't blend. But if my idea works and it's used then this problem will be solved and we'll all have a seamlessly tiling texture of pixel art seven times large than just one hex collab. Think about that.
If there is real interest in this I want to create an explanatory animation outlining how it will work, probably in good ol' Flash.
Please post your thoughts. This is major.