AuthorTopic: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset  (Read 16895 times)

Offline startselect

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #40 on: October 18, 2018, 11:12:40 am
Removing outlines worked great on the sleepers worked great! And the dustpiles too!
Made the turn 8 pixels wider too and re-aligned the tracks to be 2 tiles wide instead of 3.
This is as far as I've gotten with it.

The diagonal timbers look really terrible and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Offline yrizoud

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #41 on: October 18, 2018, 12:02:45 pm
In general, wouldn't it be better to make the horizontal tracks thinner than the vertical tracks ? It would convey the idea that the RPG perspective is at an angle, not top down.

Offline startselect

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #42 on: October 18, 2018, 12:34:54 pm
They are supposed to be round timbers which wouldn't change size in different perspectives, but I guess they look kinda flat.

Offline yrizoud

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #43 on: October 18, 2018, 02:12:54 pm
I was rather thinking of the spacing between tracks, and thus the length of sleepers.

Offline startselect

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #44 on: October 18, 2018, 02:50:27 pm
Ah, in that case I did do that, the horizontal tracks are 11px between and the vertical are 12px. Maybe it should be a pixel more though...

Offline eishiya

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #45 on: October 18, 2018, 07:04:47 pm
That's not much of a difference. In isometric perspective (which some non-iso RPGs use as well), it's a 1:2 ratio of height:width. In a typical RPG view with a slightly higher camera, it's usually 2:3 or 3:4. 1:2 makes for the easiest tiling, but may be too extreme depending on the style of other assets.

Offline startselect

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #46 on: October 22, 2018, 11:05:37 am
I tried it with 12:9px and I think it looks better, still might be weird when you start thinking about it because the terrain is 1:1 oblique projection but I think most players wouldn't think about it.

Did another turn, still think the diagonal boards look really really jagged but I'm not sure how to smooth it out.

Offline eishiya

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #47 on: October 22, 2018, 01:26:49 pm
The diagonal boards have banding, that probably makes the jaggedness more apparent. Reduce the banding and they'll probably look better. 2:1 and 1:2 slope steps usually look fine without banding, but if you feel the contrast it too high even without banding, perhaps adding AA could help. Also, remember you can add some dips and "overlapping" dirt on them, hiding the jagginess.
To get rid of the banding with minimal work, you could make the sleepers (including the horizontal and vertical ones) mostly be that shadow colour, with smaller/fewer highlights. That would also help the sleepers look like they're in the ground rather than lying on top of it.

Your terrain isn't really 1:1, the rock shapes on the ground being wider than they are tall suggest a lower camera, something closer to 2:1. The fact that we can see so much of the vertical walls without them being squished vertically also suggests a lower camera. The character movement might be 1:1 (but that could be changed if you wanted to), but it's not likely to be noticeable as a problem.
You're right that most players won't think about it. Sword of Mana mixes 2:1 and 1:1 and even lower, almost side-view cameras and no one bats an eye xP
« Last Edit: October 22, 2018, 05:16:19 pm by eishiya »

Offline startselect

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #48 on: October 23, 2018, 11:11:38 am
Changed the sleepers to be the second darkest brown in my wood curve and gave them small highlights. I think it looks much better and gave the whole thing a new sense of depth! Didn't do much for my jaggies though xP But piece by piece I'm slowly getting there I think!

Regarding the projection, I thought that if a 16x16px cube showed 16x16px top and 16x16px side that made the projection 1:1? That's what I have for a base at least but it's true that most of my props and such have a higher ratio, like the rocks and stuff. But maybe I understood it wrong all together. xP

Offline eishiya

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Re: [WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

Reply #49 on: October 23, 2018, 12:44:59 pm
The ratio as I describe it is the width:height of a square on a horizontal surface. So, 1:1 means a square on the floor will actually look square. 2:1 means it'll be squished to half its height.

Height is a whole different beast and there are multiple ways to calculate it, depending on the look you want.