Gary's New Graphics Thread

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Vic

This is indeed amazingly well done work!
Did make a note here in my personal files

Hi Vic,

Have a question for you or anyone who may know the answer:

Ormand had mentioned something about too many graphics slowing the game down. My question is, is there a way to implement a system like the following without significantly slowing the game engine down?

Suppose I want all "people" and "regimes" in the game to use the same "overlay" graphic for "medium tank" subformations, for example. However I want each "base" image for the medium tank to change dependent on the "people". What I want to do is use a translucent flag (as Webizen was suggesting) as the "base" for each and every subformation. Thus each "people" will have a "base" image of their own translucent flag in the background for every one of their subformations.

Would that pose problems with the game engine doing it that way? And is there a way to easily set things up so that only a different base image will be used in such circumstances while the overlay will stay the same for all "people" and "regimes"?

The image below illustrates what I'd like to do.

Thanks.

[Josh]

Would that mean that each of the SFT would have this "translucent flag"? I mean eight SFT fit in an unit, so that would mean you see 8 flags in your unit, wouldn't that make it a bit cluttered? Maybe use this translucent flag for HQ's only?
I admire your dedication Gary. [&o]

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Josh

Would that mean that each of the SFT would have this "translucent flag"? I mean eight SFT fit in an unit, so that would mean you see 8 flags in your unit, wouldn't that make it a bit cluttered? Maybe use this translucent flag for HQ's only?
I admire your dedication Gary. [&o]

Hi Josh,

The idea behind the flag backgrounds is to have a background that won't detract from the unit graphics. For example, when one of my infantry units is in a city, the standard city background sort of makes it difficult to discern some of the features of the unit. What I'm trying to come up with is a background that isn't so "busy" that you can't easily see the quality of the unit graphics. I welcome any ideas anyone may have.

I suppose I could tone down the flags a little more. Would the "after" version below be better?

[Bloodybucket28th]

This stuff all looks great. Appreciate the work.

[GaryChildress]

Thanks!

Since most people seem to like the landscape best so far, I'm going to go ahead and do all the units with the landscape background. Which means I'll go back over the prior packs and incorporate the landscape background for them as well. Here's a preview of all the vehicles. I think this finishes up the ground forces. I'll try to get to the air and sea subformation graphics next week probably.

[GaryChildress]

OK. I think this wraps up the ground units. Please let me know if I've missed any but I think I've gotten everything plus a few. Next I'll try to get some air and sea units done.

I'm going to try to put the graphics in at least two large packs. One pack will be units alone, another pack will be units with background. But I'll need to see how big the files will be and if they'll fit the forum limits. [X(]

[GaryChildress]

VEHCILE PACK: Files attached

NOTE: This file has been updated as of 3/6/15. Flak was added.

[GaryChildress]

Update: The vehicle pack above has been updated. I added a flak to it. If you downloaded the pack before today please re-DL. I apologize for the inconvenience. Below is a preview of all the subformations included in the vehicle pack.

[Magpius]

Great work here Gary.
Will you be modding terrain/ map graphics also/

[cpdeyoung]

@Agent S (Sorry for the off topic, Gary)

My old friend from "Road to Victory", "Time of Fury/Wrath" and "Storm over the Pacific", how are you doing? Have you been watching all the fun we are having with the mod "GD1938"?

It gives me the same fun strategic/operational feel of RtV, but with ongoing mods, and a few more "multi-players" in the pool. Please consider joining us as it is the most fun game I know now. The AARs should give you a good feel.

Chuck

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Agent S

Great work here Gary.
Will you be modding terrain/ map graphics also/

Thank you Agent S. I'm not very good at terrain graphics. Probably I'll just be doing unit subformation graphics.

[GaryChildress]

SHIP PACK: Files attached

[GaryChildress]

And a preview of what is included in the ship pack above.

[GaryChildress]

UNIT BASE IMAGE PACK: Files attached

NOTE: See Below, these are background images to place my new units on top of.

[GaryChildress]

Here is a preview of the pack above. These are basically background image which can be used as base or underlying images for my new subformation graphics. Below is a preview of what is in this pack. You can basically use these images to create a complete subformation image. I will try to post instructions on how to modify the game to utilize these graphics.

[Josh]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

And a preview of what is included in the ship pack above.

Uhm if I may...don't you think that it's easy to misidentify the ships? As they are all from the same angle, they sort of look a like. Not wanting to diss your hard work, but ingame I think it would be hard to see the differences.

[GaryChildress]

What if I flip a couple of the ships around so they're facing in the opposite direction like below? Would that help a little? There is of course a text caption above each subformation in game to ensure that the player knows what type of subformation it is. I would think the carrier, cargoship and submarine are pretty easy to distinguish. Maybe the cruiser and battleship might be the closest looking. So if I flip one in the opposite direction maybe that would help.

[LJBurstyn]

ORIGINAL: Ormand

I uploaded several at2 files and Gary's graphics so far to the Scenario Bank. This is an atzip file that contains the graphics and several at2 files that have Gary's current graphics in place for various SFT's. This will not overwrite the basic game features. The graphics are replaced inside the at2 files with the editor.

The graphics will go into graphics/Gary-SFT directory.
The at2 files will go to the usual destination atgoldscenarios.
I also updated my mod files to default to the files with Gary's SFT graphics.

The at2 files are:

generic-gary.at2 --- Standard ATG file (original map graphics, no NATO counters unless you installed Webizen's)
anewdawn-gary.at2 --- ATG A new dawn (original map graphics, no NATO counters)
anewdawn2-gary.at2 --- ATG A new dawn with tank models (original map graphics, no NATO counters)
4Seasons-NewDawn-Basic-gary.at2 --- 4 Seasons + Gary graphics, equivalent to A new dawn
4Seasons-NewDawn-Basic-v2-gary.at2 --- 4 Seasons + Gary graphics, equiv. to anewdawn2
4Seasons-NewDawn-AddUnits-gary.at2 --- 4 Seasons + Gary graphics, a newdawn with new units
4Seasons-NewDawn-Divisions-v3.0-gary.at2 --- 4 Seasons Divisions + Gary graphics
4Seasons-NewDawn-Regiments-v3.0-gary.at2 --- 4 Seasons Regiments + Gary graphics

I think they are working OK. But, please check. I think I did Regiments and Divisions manually for each sft (boring). Later I realized it would be faster to do say Rifle I, and then copy this three times, rename it to Rifle II, III, and IV, load the data from the original SFTs, and then do some fixes. These involved making sure the upgrade path was OK and that they pointed to the correct production item. Hopefully, I caught all the "fixes" I needed to do. It was much faster to follow this path.


Made a small correction at 4:00 PM PDT. One of the new Peoples in Regiments was wrong.

I am looking for landscape types I can use to represent the seasons (and subseasons)...where can I find these.

[GaryChildress]

I recently purchased a really cool uniform set for my 3D figure I use for making SF infantry graphics and have been toying around with it. I think I may do a whole new set of figures based on the new materials I have now. I really like this set better than what I was using before. Also I think I'll revisit my vehicles and ships and do some aircraft using more professional models instead of the cheesy ones I created myself.

Below is a sample set of graphics, my new "rifle" formation graphics, including an elite rifle unit for each people. The elite unit will take the place of "mercenaries".



Below is the old set of Rifle graphics for comparison:

[Josh]

Gotta be one of the best I've seen so far Gary, impressive.