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[Wokko]

Please make a toggleable outline for creatures in both fortress and adventure mode for steam graphics.
Sometimes it's hard to notice some creatures on the screen, even if they will have graphics instead of ascii now. A toggle for an outline would be good.
Colors for npc/player dwarves could also be either blue/white, or blue/green, or yellow/blue, and red for enemies. Or make it customizable.
Example (modified devlog screenshot):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Bumber]

It came up in the discussion/suggestions thread last year:

Toady saw the suggestion and thinks a small color-coded something below the creature, with friendly/neutral/hostile would be a good idea. With an on/off button.

I think outlines were assumed to be too much work, but basic shapes that fit multiple creatures are doable.

[Mr Crabman]

It came up in the discussion/suggestions thread last year:

Toady saw the suggestion and thinks a small color-coded something below the creature, with friendly/neutral/hostile would be a good idea. With an on/off button.

I think outlines were assumed to be too much work, but basic shapes that fit multiple creatures are doable.

Were they? I don't recall even a suggestion of outlines in the thread. It would be done programmatically; the game would find/calculate the texture borders based on which parts of a sprite/texture were empty/had nothing in it, and then render an outline at this border.

My real worry about the idea of outlines would be how noticeable they are when zoomed out a lot.

[jecowa]

Maybe a pulsating glow as an outline, so it sticks out when the game is paused.

If it's done with a software effect instead of with additional graphics files for every creature, it might be possible to make it resize itself so it is visible at any zoom level.

[Bumber]

Were they? I don't recall even a suggestion of outlines in the thread. It would be done programmatically; the game would find/calculate the texture borders based on which parts of a sprite/texture were empty/had nothing in it, and then render an outline at this border.

It was right after images of undead with purple auras were released. Pillbo brought up colored flags/borders. MoltenIdol brought up colored auras around units.

Toady approved "a small color-coded something below the creature" afterwards. However, it's possible he only looked at the suggestion forum thread, which doesn't mention those.

[Mr Crabman]

Maybe a pulsating glow as an outline, so it sticks out when the game is paused.

If it's done with a software effect instead of with additional graphics files for every creature, it might be possible to make it resize itself so it is visible at any zoom level.

Hm, maybe that would work (making the outline thicker when zooming out would also be great).
Of course, it's always hard to tell how stuff will work without seeing it in action.

[Starver]

No. Make the outline exactly as thick when zooming. Always one screen-pixel, regardless of zoom-level.

(Whatever the zoom-adjusted sprite turns out to be, any unmasked (fully transparent) pixel of the original built composite that is orthagonally adjacent to a masked one gets converted to a border-pixel. - This would entirely depend upon there being a precedence of layer-rendering that has a 'gap' between compositing functionality that allows native-resolution functional access rather than still being stuck with the source-level graphical adjustment. Various streamlining decisions might dissallow that, without adding temporary mask-layer export also to be post-zoomed ready for final processing of an overlay, it depends on Tarn's exact approach, which of course I'm not privy to.)

[rda]

If the ring is toggleable, it would be great if there’s an option to only show it for visitors and hostile, but not your dwarves. Would make the screen look way too busy.

Instead of green and red, blue and red might be better as well, easier for colorblind people to see.