AuthorTopic: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)  (Read 105014 times)

Offline Helm

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #30 on: March 02, 2006, 09:38:56 pm
Check.



40 tiles, 23 colours all in all... if there's any errors they might be in tile placement (I don't snap to grid much, so something might be a bit misaligned, I hope not though).. there's some horisontal mirroring, I don't think I'm breaking any rules... the colours are 5,5,5 rgb bits, like in the real GBA.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2006, 10:54:31 pm by Helm »

Offline ptoing

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #31 on: March 02, 2006, 11:33:30 pm
"What's with the 16x16 tiles? GBA has 8x8 tiles natively and i am pretty sure you can flip horizontally and vertically and it's still the same tile, no matter how you flip it (noflip / x / y / x,y = same tile). You can not rotate tho. and why only 10 palettes and not the full 16? I guess reserve for hud or something? Could you clarify?"

When we build levels, we do so with 8x8 tiles but 16x16 matrixes. Level building is done in 16x16's not 8x8s. Horizontal flips do not eat up additional tiles, but vertical do - that's GBA. As for the 10 pallette rows, that's just the number I decided on.

I just checked the AGB documents (official Nintendo guide to GBA Specs) and tiles CAN be flipped BOTH horizontal and vertical unless you use background modes which allow rotation and scaling, in which case you can not flip tiles at all.

This only horizontal flip thing is simply not true, whoever told you that is talking out of their ass.

And personally i think limiting yourself to 16x16 tiles when in the end it will be 8x8 tiles is a bit silly.

example:


4 8x8 tiles. Using hv flipping i made 12 16x16 tiles and there are way more possibilities. Calling this 12 tiles is silly because the gba handles them as 4 tiles and not 12. Using your restrictions you are not using the possibilities of your tiles to the fullest.

If the restriction is just to test how artists can cope with them i guess it's ok, but using stuff that makes sense for the platform you work on would make more sense imo.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline AdamTierney

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #32 on: March 02, 2006, 11:47:34 pm
Ptoing, it depends on the engine and the game modes used. The tool I use most frequently allows for horizontal flipping but not vertical. Beyond that I'm not going to get into it, but you are talking in absolutes and general specs from Nintendo which may or may not be true based on the engines, modes, methods and tools used in any particular game.

At any rate, all the necessary info for the contest is above. If anyone dislikes the tile count, style, size, layout, limitations, whatever, you're certainly not forced to enter. But adapting to developer limitations (regardless of how practical they seem to be) is a huge part of surviving in the industry. All of the limitations above were thought out specifically based on what I need to test for right now with this contest (and yes, perhaps a bit of an over-restriction to greater showcase the ability of the artist). They aren't something that can be argued.

- Adam
« Last Edit: March 02, 2006, 11:49:56 pm by AdamTierney »

Offline ptoing

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #33 on: March 02, 2006, 11:53:29 pm
Yeh i have guessed so much that it is an engine limitation. I don't know how much sense it makes from a programming perspective but it does not seem to make much sense to me, I guess whoever programmed the engine had a reason to initiate this limitation (there is NO mode which only allows for H or V flipping on the GBA, either on or off, depending if you want to rotate and/or scale your backgrounds.)

I am thinking of participating if i can find some time (pretty busy with work atm.)
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Helm

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #34 on: March 02, 2006, 11:55:08 pm


The Yus bird is bad enough to rescue the president, and there ain't no pink ninjas that can stop him!

Offline ptoing

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #35 on: March 03, 2006, 12:37:47 am
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #36 on: March 03, 2006, 12:54:06 am
i was gonna enter. but all these entries are so good.

Offline Kren

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #37 on: March 03, 2006, 12:56:32 am

thats what i got so far, it's really difficult with only 40 tiles it's still incomplete, well im sure that i will not win XD, but im making this for fun, that's what a contest is for..

Offline AdamTierney

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #38 on: March 03, 2006, 01:07:34 am
"i was gonna enter. but all these entries are so good."

You should never let the talent of your peers discourage you. I've been around long enough to see all these guys come a LONG way from where they were a few years back, and you only get better from practice practice practice. Even if you don't feel up to this contest, the only way you'll master tiling (or pixelling or animation) is by attempting it again and again.

- Adam

Offline ptoing

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Re: WayForward Contest #3: Background artist (tiling)

Reply #39 on: March 03, 2006, 01:16:54 am
I could not agree more.
For one thing i think you should never compare yourself with other artists in a way of saying "meh I will never be that good".
I started pixelart mid 2003 and in early 2005 i was offered a permanent job as 2d/pixel artist for a handhel company just because i kept doing what i liked and maintaining a homepage.

Only practise makes better, wishing or degrading yourself gets you nowhere.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.