AuthorTopic: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?  (Read 9353 times)

Offline API-Beast

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The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

on: July 25, 2013, 08:54:07 pm
In the whole time I made tilesets, the most problematic one always has been the grass tiles. Most examples simply don't look good, and better looking games often even avoid them entirely. A textured approach is often too noisy, rendering single strands or bush-like structure tends to look bland, barely better than just flat color. Anybody having a insight on this? Maybe a different approach?

There are some examples of good grass I know, but they are kind of limited on their own.

Jetrel had some very interresting grass for his unfinished RPG project but it depends on a lot of tiles and careful hand-placement of them.


Frogatto seems to walk arround this issue by not having larger areas of grass, only small detailed patches on a very rocky surface:


My own approach is still using flat colors with just a few clusters suggesting grass structure here and there:



If anybody else knows some worthwhile examples of grass tiles please post them in this thread.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2013, 08:58:19 pm by Mr. Beast »

Offline Pix3M

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #1 on: July 25, 2013, 09:06:23 pm
It seems that suggesting the existence of all that grass is easily one of the more effective approaches.

This is one of my more successful attempts at a more textured approach. I think it's good for about anything that needs short grass, but I don't have other people's eyes.

Offline Anarkhya

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #2 on: July 26, 2013, 01:25:21 am
It will vary a lot depending on the view (top/iso/side) and the style (minimalistic/realistic/...)
Here are sideview examples I have in my ref' collection:



well, It's Actraiser, not Actraisers
« Last Edit: August 11, 2013, 12:28:31 am by Anarkhya »

Offline malifer

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #3 on: August 06, 2013, 11:22:24 pm
the side view looks nice using mixed vines, flowers and bushes. I would try this approach with isometric views. Every book ive ever read has said get the various volumes. dont try and draw every strand of hair. dont try and draw every blade of grass.

for me to much grass detail just makes it not look like grass anymore. I like what the game Bastion did. almost every tile is interesting to look at.

Offline hapiel

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #4 on: August 10, 2013, 06:06:45 pm
I stumbled upon this lately. Three more pages of grass in games refs.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #5 on: August 10, 2013, 07:46:03 pm
I stumbled upon this lately. Three more pages of grass in games refs.

The hell's that guy using for screenshots in some of those?  Some images have gradient backgrounds when they shouldn't.  Some have the main sprite using some drop shadow effect.  And Yoshi's Island's background is blurry as heck.  Very odd.  Some cruddy new emulator effects perhaps?
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Offline hapiel

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #6 on: August 12, 2013, 03:07:03 am
The hell's that guy using for screenshots in some of those?  Some images have gradient backgrounds when they shouldn't.  Some have the main sprite using some drop shadow effect.  And Yoshi's Island's background is blurry as heck.  Very odd.  Some cruddy new emulator effects perhaps?

I am guessing they are from crappy flash remakes. But ask the guy, he might be able to tell :)

Offline Conzeit

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Re: The grass tile - a unsolved problem?

Reply #7 on: August 16, 2013, 01:14:31 am
I stumbled upon this lately. Three more pages of grass in games refs.
The hell's that guy using for screenshots in some of those?
it's just some pixelart enthusiastic, completely aestethic illitarate dude, trying to *spiff up* the pixelart so that his site looks better. He does the same drop shadow thing on some other sprites on his page...just let him be :p

I think with grass as with any pattern you can tile it in 3 ways.

1-make a completely obvious yet beautiful pattern

2-make endless variations to simulate that organic feeling

3-leave it mostly empty, with some sparse detail here and there and a border to signify what all that empty detail is supposed to be
Below I used the mid-dark for obstacles and lightest for higher/important stuff, downplaying the importance of interior detailing.