Reskinning Step 1 : Duplicating game objects

[Drakous79]

Zyxpsilon, interested :)

[johnnylump]

@ Ghost

 

Thanks. My concern would be the configurability using ini and int edits alone to add entirely new lists -- particularly for nationalities that may draw from multiple distinct namelists (ie Canada), or may have feminine forms for last names. Without that, we'd have to map out everything we might use ahead of time unless you want to get stuck with maintaining this when changes are needed.

[Zyxpsilon]

... Once the strategy flag textures get set, I think the general plan will be to create a single new texture file to contain both the strategy and armor flag textures. The armor flag textures could have mipmaps and a custom tfc creates if someone wants to go that far.

 

Exactly. Beyond optimal coding choices and/or decisions - there is always the customizing possibilities that have to be considered carefully. I tend to lean towards flags variety ( which will certainly happen now! ) and the capacity to offer complex (and indirectly, various) alternatives to players.

When size matters... SVG can come to the rescue (for HUD related assets like the Barracks list or Trooper card headers) while Modeling a relatively small rectangle on Armors only requires a mind to focus on Zoom factors that can expose pixelization artifacts but only at VERY close UI-Range (camera Shots for example).

 

Custom TFC is what worries me a bit more since it involves tricky principles with Unreal Engine SDK. I realize JL might be inclined to prevent the Installer from growing too large though... yet, the balance scale tilts in favor of new features, AFAIC.

If all of these new random map LZ (tremendous work by wGhost) were justifiably great for LW gameplay... so should the additional Flags however vast or limited the amounts & graphical qualities will end up being.

 

Just hoping this wonderful stuff makes it to 14G overhere. If not, i'll have to wait as usual! :)

[Zyxpsilon]

Zyxpsilon, interested :smile:

Alright then, i'll insert it (256x128 sample) here once i'm done --- soonish. :D

Edited November 24, 2014 by Zyxpsilon

[Amineri]

I've been discussing with XMTS the issue of configuring additional strategy-layer flags, which basically requires some GFX / Actionscript changes to allow dynamic loading of additional flags.

 

He's a bit busy, so I'm going to try and fumble through the necessary steps (being not as expert as he is with GFX changes!), including allowing the higher-res 256x128 flag textures in the strategy game. In general I'd think this should mean the strategy and armor flags should be fairly similar, although :

 

1) Strategy flags have a 'clean' icon-like look, with no border pixels

2) Armor flags have a 'cloth-texture' look, with 1 or 2 border pixels between adjacent flags in the composited texture.

 

Since I'm upscaling the strategy images, this basically is going to mean finding replacement higher-res textures for the existing 36 strategy flags (which I'll take on, since it's my idea). However, if Zyx and Drakous are working on additional (beyond the current 36) country flags, if you can keep in mind the clean, borderless, icon-like 256x128 strategy flag icon, it would be much appreciated.

[johnnylump]

Y'know, in terms of implementation for Long War's purposes, if it's not hugely additional trouble, add all the flags you want (definitely including the ones I laid out), and then we can figure out how to configure as many as possible later on.

Edited November 24, 2014 by johnnylump

[Zyxpsilon]

Roger that!

 

Clean strategy versions and Cloth+2 pixel wide "Framing" for the Armors, it will be...

 

Here's two quick rather simplistic test images i've just designed for the XCom flag sample phase. It's the original Logo re-formatted and slightly edited to fit into a balanced 2x1 ratio.

 

1) Regular "feel".... And 2) A "Flipped" alternative that gives high(er) angle perspective to the basic #1 design...

 

http://s21.postimg.org/c15mjqi07/XCom_Flag1.png --- * --- http://s3.postimg.org/xhrjueh6r/XCom_Flag1_Flipped.png

 

These would possibly receive the necessary +2 pixels and the cloth effect (which i've already made as an overlay for other custom flags) layer ( refer below! )-- if anyone & JL approves of it.

 

About expanding the pool... Anything can be produced, AFAIC. As long as some definitive list is given, i'm fairly sure we'd (Drakous79 & i) be able to roll out the presses fast enough to keep pace with Amineri's code work.

 

Drakous, here's my "Cloth" file (Save As from Nexus if you need it);

 

http://s22.postimg.org/aldendbo1/Flag_Diffuser_Transparency_Layer.png

 

Never mind *HOW* it shows up in the post... alpha channel should be kept when saved. I found that adding slight contrast or sharper edits to it when dealing with various coloring flag schemas helps to almost reproduce the exact Firaxis methods. The 2 pixel wide framing is integrated in that file too. :wink:

 

Here's a few (with the cloth above) that were created for some people as a custom TexMod TPF...

 

Portugal... Finland...

http://s29.postimg.org/86tmbni7b/Portugal_DIF.png --- http://s7.postimg.org/qxckqvpkr/Finland_0x04434_CC9.png

 

Denmark... Switzerland...

http://s21.postimg.org/5bh644k2v/Denmark_0x_BDEBC83_C.png --- http://s15.postimg.org/kfhyb7diz/Switzerland_0x_CFB01111.png

 

Sooooo -- Copy/Paste, if you want to run some tests with such stuff!

 

In the meantime, i'll be waiting for a "finalized" list of suggestions for the rest.

:wink:

Edited November 24, 2014 by Zyxpsilon

[Amineri]

In terms of getting public domain flag images, the best source I've found so far is just using Wikipedia, e.g. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Zimbabwe.svg

 

I'm downloading the svg files and then directly rendering them to 256x128 pixels (which often slightly changes the proportions) using GIMP, which avoids issues with pixel re-sampling. This is for the strategy-side images, btw.

[Zyxpsilon]

Have fun... but, let's try coordinating any further tasks -- shall we?

 

Nobody wants to waste everyone's precious time, AFAIC.

 

Besides, anyone has pretty much anything they might need to go very far into creating both kind of assets with what i've given in the earlier post... aside from some authentic WikiPedia files -- of course!

 

PS; Amineri, I'd recommend clip/crop edits if need be. For example, Portugal above *HAD* to be re-designed since i felt the symbol was too smallish (for our UI) on their "official" National Flag.

:D

Edited November 24, 2014 by Zyxpsilon

[Amineri]

In the interest of sharing, I've put 126 SVG flags that are consolidated, and that we are vaguely considering using. They are in the publicly available Long War Art Assets share drive here : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxrv8QdeQ-cyLWZIMldRbkV5WWc&authuser=0.

 

These include replications of all of the vanilla flags (there because I'm re-creating higher-res versions for the strategy game), as well as a bunch of flags that are stretch goals (and some that controversial).