Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

[Martian]

to Ponicus

Thank you, Ponicus!

I am very glad to hear you liked this mod and I really appreciate you expressed it in kind and thoughtful feedback.
I would like to know more details about your comment on planets atmospheric effect. Do you think it's too strong for all types planets or only some of them? Also, is it thickness or opacity or colour of the atmosphere too strong?

And great thanks for your recommendations!
To be honest, I would be very happy to participate in DW development as an artist if offered. [8|]

[Sirian]

Oh yes! Just what I have been waiting for. I have started modding those icons as well. You use very bright coloring, I am rather fond of more discreet icons in monochrome. But I might "borrow" some of your your shapes, they are very clean and very easy to discern.

I would also suggest making some atmosphere effects less intense, especally the swamp planets followed by the ocean ones and continental (and I would presume forest but I have no images to check right now). The atmosphere effect is just a bit too much. Maybe half the effect, its hard to tell without an image to judge. Event the volcanic planets are very red, Ice and barren are ok to me, I wouldn't change them.

The problem with planets is that the images are used in many different locations. On the main screen, the planets are looking good, but in the colony list and expansion planner, they look rather odd since there is no shadow there.

I borrowed your idea of surrounding ships with outlines, but I do not use colored outlines, just black ones. I found that when outlining ships and starbases, they look way better if they are positioned on top of other ships or planets.

[Martian]

to Sirian

Thank you!
I also like your resource mod, although still didn't have enough time to fully enjoy it as I was busy with finishing and releasing last update for my mod these few days...

In daily life I also prefer plain colours for working interface but for this mod I used bright coloring for quicker and better identification. Another reason is because most of DW interface's elements are very small which makes it difficult to discern things with standard colours. Generally these new pictograms don't look so bright or annoying inside the game as they are usually surrounded by lots of plain-coloured space (unlike my preview in first post where they are put all together and look like a rainbow [:D]). Also I've noticed some pictograms look dimmer inside the game than they really are. But of course, generally it's the matter of personal taste. [:)]

Thank you for detailed suggestion on atmospheric effects.

Personally I am quite satisfied with current planet's look. The reason why I made atmospheric effect for marshy swamp, ocean and continental planets more "thick" is because I believe these planets should have much more humid and dense atmosphere than for example desert or ice planets. I wanted to display that difference.

Also as original continental and marshyswamp planets look very similar, I made swamp atmosphere even more dense and greener.

And for volcanic planets I added more red to make them easier to discern from barren rock planets, especially when reviewing star system and all its planets from a distance.

But I appreciate your and Ponicus's feedbacks on this issue so I will check it out again and try to improve it.

Considering planets and ships graphics improvement, game's visual artifacts (aliasing and blurring) when zomming, rotating are bigger issue for me. And also another thing, as you mentioned, that "the images are used in many different locations" and in different scales.

Thanks for your notes on "outlines" for ships and stations. I am very glad my ideas are generally welcomed by other DW players. Looking forward to see your shipsets!

[Yskonyn]

Great job and thank you for the hard work!
It truely is a superb mod! Insta-download and install!

[Gareth_Bryne]

Superb!

[Martian]

to Yskonyn

Thanks, your kind words are very appreciated! They give me additional motivation to develop this mod. [:)]

[Martian]

to Gareth_Bryne

Happy! [:D]

[ASHBERY76]

Awesome icons.The bland UI just got slightly less bland.

[Ponicus]

ORIGINAL: Martian

to Ponicus

Thank you, Ponicus!

I am very glad to hear you liked this mod and I really appreciate you expressed it in kind and thoughtful feedback.
I would like to know more details about your comment on planets atmospheric effect. Do you think it's too strong for all types planets or only some of them? Also, is it thickness or opacity or colour of the atmosphere too strong?

And great thanks for your recommendations!
To be honest, I would be very happy to participate in DW development as an artist if offered. [8|]

Regarding the atmospheric effects, I was talking about the same things Sirian brought up in the post after mine. The effect gives sense of depth, but I feel that towards the edge of the sphere it gets too thick. I just wonder if a lighter application of the effect would still give you what you want but avoid looking too opaque at the edges. The side effect as Sirian also brought up was that it also looks somewhat awkward in the list screens and the lower-left pane when you have a planet selected.

Would you consider offering alternate ship graphics with your black detailing and outlining applied to all ships (which I consider essential) but without the color outlines for military ships/bases?

Thanks for the great work!

[Sirian]

ORIGINAL: Martian

Considering planets and ships graphics improvement, game's visual artifacts (aliasing and blurring) when zomming, rotating are bigger issue for me. And also another thing, as you mentioned, that "the images are used in many different locations" and in different scales.

Yes, that is a big problem. Using the same icon in a resolution between 100x100 and 20x20 pixels makes designing icons something between challenging and impossible. *g* Currently experimenting with components, those pictures are also being used in different resolutions.

My shipset is nothing spectacular, I play this game, Gratuitous Space Battles and I like those ships. Someone even made DWL shipsets from them but I didn't like all of those ships so I made a more reduced shipset with "better" stations. (I confess I am picky when it comes to stations) I am still tweaking here and there and also creating a system where I can design 5 different color sets at once, so its not ready for release yet. But I added a screenshot to peek.

I hope I can get to play the game again... I am doing far too much modding.

Regards, Sirian

[Martian]

to ASHBERY76

Thanks, man!
I always appreciate your straight and unprejudiced comments! [:D]

[Martian]

to Ponicus

Regarding the atmospheric effects, I was talking about the same things Sirian brought up in the post after mine. The effect gives sense of depth, but I feel that towards the edge of the sphere it gets too thick. I just wonder if a lighter application of the effect would still give you what you want but avoid looking too opaque at the edges. The side effect as Sirian also brought up was that it also looks somewhat awkward in the list screens and the lower-left pane when you have a planet selected.

Yes, I will revise atmospheric effect and try to improve it for the the next update. But I guess it can't look perfect both in the main view and in the list screens as long as the game use one source image for both places. And I think considering the planets - the quality for main view should be priority over list view.

Would you consider offering alternate ship graphics with your black detailing and outlining applied to all ships (which I consider essential) but without the color outlines for military ships/bases?

Sure, probably with a next update. Only for military ships? (remove red outline only?) How about exploration, colonize and construction ships?

[Martian]

to Sirian
[/quote]

I hope I can get to play the game again... I am doing far too much modding.

Yeah, I know what you mean... [:D]

[Ponicus]

ORIGINAL: Martian

Sure, probably with a next update. Only for military ships? (remove red outline only?) How about exploration, colonize and construction ships?

Sorry, meant all ships with the colored outline. So it would be the black outlining/definition to all ships but without any of the colored outline. Gives a choice to the user of this wonderful mod if they want the color outlines or not.

[Baleur]

I love what you've done with the interface, and i like the idea of stripes or 'something' to distinguish the different classes of ships. But frankly i dislike the outlines and as such will not be using them.
The fact that you managed to make a new star glow animation is also great, but i somewhat dislike how dark the neutron and white dwarf stars are now.

As for the planets, very similar to what i did back a few months ago, here:
tm.asp?m=2962283&mpage=1&key=&#2962283

Compilation
tm.asp?m=2965615&mpage=1&key=&#2965615

[Gareth_Bryne]

Martian, I have just installed your GEM of a mod, and it's awesome! However, several problems arose:

1) The galaxy backdrop makes it hard to see some of the races' colors.
2) It also makes it hard to see the blinker for pirate\quest information locations
3) In short, something has to be done about the contrast between the backdrop and the rest of animations.

[Martian]

to Gareth_Bryne

Thank you,
Unfortunately I am extremely busy these days. No chance do any modding work until Wednesday. After that I will try to fix all noted issues and requests, including ship outlines, planet atmosphere and backdrops.

Cheers!

[SecuransRule]

Beautiful mod. I like it a lot. Thanks for doing it. [:)]

[Ralzakark]

Really nice [:)]

Particularly like the new planetary landscapes and ruins.

[putzinator]

I really like this mod... great work! =)

The icons were a welcome addition.