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[Deon]

Okay, so I think I've tried to make dwarven graphics like 100 times, this time I intend to publish this as an actual graphic set, maybe someone will like it.

Here's what I have finalized so far:


I am posting an unfinished work mostly to get some feedback on contrast/visibility. Lately I don't play with graphics a lot, so if all the graphics guru could provide their vision and possibly leave some suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

[Meph]

Black background is a bit harsh, especially if they run around near green grass or light floor tiles. Maybe something more neutral?

Whats the red guy with the red face? Is it a mask, or his skin?

[DragonDePlatino]

Hmm...There are a number of things you could be doing better here.



For starters, there is little to no contrast between some of these designs. These I have outlined in red, cyan, purple and green. Secondly, it is hard to distinguish what some of these military dwarves are. Is the guy with 6 from the left a hammerdwarf? What is that dark brown shape your crossbowdwarf is carrying? What is the difference between your axedwarf and halberddwarf? Not to mention, like Meph said, your red dwarf could be interpreted as an executioner, thief, master thief or even an undead covered in red flesh.

So on the bottom two rows, I drew my suggestions for some alternate designs. I brightened up and altered the weapons a bit, gave the wrestler a bandana to set him apart from the recruit, and I changed the designs of the 2nd noble and executioner(?) a bit. When you give hooded characters Vivi-style eyes under a dark hood, it makes a world of difference to how the player inteprets them.

As for the pure-black background, I'm very on the fence about that. Personally, I love the ASCII-like contrast that black backgrounds provide, but I can see how some people would dislike it.

[Deon]

The red guy is indeed supposed to be a hammerer (executioner).
The black background is just a part of photoshop file, I just put it down to see how it would look in DF.

Also 1 and 2 noble are identical, I just did not find out what I want to do with them yet. The guy with bandana is supposed to be blowgunner. But I see what you mean, great idea for a wrestler.
It's a bit difficult to work with 16x16. The weapons in your suggestions look much clearer.

That's the kind of feedback which helps a lot. Thank you!

[Meph]

If its the 16x thats the biggest issue, then maybe check out the poll in DragondePlatinos signature. Most people seem to use 1920x resolution, which is perfect for a 24x tileset. Maybe that offers more options for designs?

[Deon]

Honestly it makes sense because I play with zoom when I use 16x tileset myself. I should seriously consider a bigger tileset for those who use big screens as I do.

[Taffer]

I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this, and with the "ASCII" racial graphics that you mentioned elsewhere.

As far as resolutions go, I have 1920x1080 myself and I can't play with anything larger than 12x12. I much prefer a "zoomed out" view of things, but it seems many people disagree with me.

[Meph]

But with 24x you can still zoom out. There is no downside.

[Taffer]

But with 24x you can still zoom out. There is no downside.

Well, aside from the horrible, blurry scaling that results from using it. I suppose most people don't mind it though? My first tweak to my game is always to disable zoom entirely.

[Deon]

Yes, the main problem is that when you zoom out with large tiles, they look horrible. Was someone working on a plugin which allows you to switch tilesets if you zoom? I think there was a talk about that in the past.

[Meph]

If someone (mifki) would work on it, then mifki.

[Dirst]

Yes, the main problem is that when you zoom out with large tiles, they look horrible. Was someone working on a plugin which allows you to switch tilesets if you zoom? I think there was a talk about that in the past.

We're going to bring LOQ to tilesets?

Would be fun to put completely unrelated tilesets together.

[Taffer]

Okay, so I think I've tried to make dwarven graphics like 100 times, this time I intend to publish this as an actual graphic set, maybe someone will like it.

Here's what I have finalized so far:


I am posting an unfinished work mostly to get some feedback on contrast/visibility. Lately I don't play with graphics a lot, so if all the graphics guru could provide their vision and possibly leave some suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

An attempt at being helpful, as I already derailed things and I know how rare specific feedback can be.

• The hair seems a little "flat". Shading with a secondary colour might fix this, as would giving them a higher hairline or hats. If it were my set, I'd probably make them bald. It's quite difficult to draw hair at tiny resolutions.
• The light and dark colour selections for shading are too similar. I think your set could improve the most by fiddling with colours a little. I like Dawnbringer's palettes here and here. This example from DragonDePlatino shows off improvements partially stemming from nice colour selections.
• Some of the examples are quite "modern". This isn't a bad thing, but I think the construction hats clash a little with the medieval armour and weaponry.
• Removing their mouths might clean things up a little. Giving them a proper "moustache" makes their mouths seem too low for their heads.

I hope this helps! Keep it up!

[Deon]

Using different colors for shading sounds like a nice idea. I am used to big sprites so I tried to use natural colors, while eyes actually percieve small images in a different way because colors blend together. Thank you for those palettes.

By the way, SPhr's dwarves have construction hats for woodcutters as well .

[burned]

Yes, the main problem is that when you zoom out with large tiles, they look horrible. Was someone working on a plugin which allows you to switch tilesets if you zoom? I think there was a talk about that in the past.

Much like you and Taffer, I avoid zooming because of the horrible squashed looked. But, if you set your [GRAPHICS_FONT:WithSome24SizeTileset.png] and your [GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:WithSome12SizeTileset.png], you can use F11 to "Zoom out" so to speak.

Furthermore, if you set [TEXTURE_PARAM:NEAREST] your 12x12 character sprites will scale up to 24x24 without distortion (similar to scaling pixel art by resampling with "Nearest Neighbor") even with your tile dimension set for set for 12x12 images in your graphics.txt (i.e.[TILE_DIM:12:12]).