After that blog yesterday, I've implemented a chunk loading and unloading system that works like a charm so far. Still have yet to implement the way AI handles it, but that'll be an adventure I'll have to save for later. Right now I have the foundation laid out.
Here's another big issue I've been facing.
World ArtUp until now I've been using a tile system. As you'll see, I've been called out on it looking like shit. Now, while I could easily add to the tile collection (what I currently have are just placeholders to show where the dirt, rock, and tunnels are), I've been considering dropping it altogether in favor of something prettier.
(That ugly brown shit color is just placeholder since I haven't laid out any tiles yet.)
So I'm at a wall here. Tiles, believe it or not, actually slow down GM considerably more than they should. This is amplified further in GM8.1, which runs this game like a pussy. I'm not sure why else 8.1 would have terrible framerate in comparison in a large world with few objects (so far). Sizing down the room didn't do much. But deleting all the 32x32 tiles did.
So aside from being ugly, the tile system is also stupidly inefficient. I'm currently in the process of moving tiles to different layers per chunk so when the chunk is deactivated, the tiles are too. Even though GM shouldn't draw them off-screen. Fucking GM. Why not move on? Because I'm busy prototyping.
For what it's worth,
the room size is 32768 x 4096.
Here are my options.
What do you think would make world art look pretty and unique?- Tile system (obviously revamping the tiles)
- Hand-drawn background art (I can't do this by myself)
- 3D modeled background art (a la Creatures, but I can't do this myself)
Or, if you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear. GM also doesn't support image files that are greater than 2048x2048. So other forms of background art are iffy as well.
This game has given me so much trouble but it's also my most rewarding so far.
TL;DRI need a system of doing world art. Please take these into account and recommend something. I'll take any and all suggestions, I just need a foothold of some kind.
- The world is 32768 x 4096 pixels
- Tiles slow down in GM
- Tiles are ugly
- Backgrounds cannot be bigger than 2048x2048
- I have no scene drawing talent whatsoever
- Multiple rooms are not an option because of the need to process AI in different rooms
- I have Googled the fuck out of these subjects
Oh, I see what you mean. Basically single-use tiles in some places. I actually like it, and considered doing that for places with uneven ground. Would be more taxing on filesize but might save on processing time.
And the majority of the game is overworld, that was just where I could show off how bad the tiles were because the sky has none. In regards to parallax, I've taken a liking to Terraria's background style. Simple, unique, but doesn't capture the depth of the world itself. For example, you make a zone transition and the entire background changes. Not very atmospheric when the other option is to have the plains slowly transition into sand and rock when you're by the ocean.…If that makes sense….Using a 16x16tile as background slows down the game a lot more than a 64x64 background consisting out of 16 of these 16x16 tiles. Besides that, you can add more detail to the walls or the floor, the environment as a whole pretty much to make it more interesting and nicer to look at.
Those repeated tiles you see in the background are 512x512. The tiles in the foreground are 32x32 because that's not so simple to do.
I'm looking at a variety of options right now and still the only thing I can see is to either stomach this tile system or get someone who wants to draw a fucking huge background. The latter probably isn't going to happen.Didn't read anything, but I looked at Rez's comment. I love you Rez.
(I have to get these sorts of comments in before Steven posts the rules).Also, stfu [furry], you suck. +1 if you agree.(this comment is also meant to derail the blog).But now I feel bad, so I'm gong to read the blog and comment on it (but I'm not going to read the comments). I know it doesn't seem like it to you, the average reader, but 5 minutes has passed since I ended that sentence, and I am prepared to write a comment about what I have read:This is a blog about a topic I know nothing about. I have nothing useful to say. =/:'C
I suggest big pixels: http://i.imgur.com/i3DEY.png
The screenshot's background is generated with https://github.com/serprex/ElectronicFunk/blob/master/spr/S.pngThe hassle is that you're pretty wide. 16x16 pixels is a bit big. But there should be workarounds to only have some of the texture in an image at a time. Also while my example screenshot is chunky, that's because Kae and I found we preferred it to the smoothness achievable with GL_LINEAR