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[Dibujor]

Yep, I'm not convinced with that either.

For now the big floor tiles should be enough. I'll think about it. I'd like to make the normal smooth floor with octogonal designs, but I think that doesn't look right for workshops as the entire building is a square (in normal floor the tiles go until they reach the wall, so no octogonal border shows up).

By he way, it seems for showing the impassable tiles the squares work better than the "X" right?

I first thought of giving every workshop an unique icon in the middle. But then I thought of something  unique to every workshop and, at the same time "half useful"... showing the impassable tiles (I actually didn't check if every workshop has different impassable tiles, if two of them use the same... lol)

May think of ways to convert those squares into "dwarvish" designs.... we'll see

[Dirst]

Images are great, as usual, the idea how to show impassable tiles is so nice. I don't like the border on the last two floors, though. When other elements are placed on top of border it looks weird.

The workshop is a single image, so there's no real need to stick to the map grid.  Identifying impassible tiles is really helpful, but pulling everything in a couple pixels would allow the borders to coexist with the built-up elements.

Next question is what to do if the fort's floor shows through?  A border can still be applied, but it's hard to imagine it working well with all possible floor types.

[Dibujor]

Oh, didn't know that. I thought workshops were built from tiles.  I commented that with  the first one I made.  So if they are made from a single image then you can arrange things inside as you wish, hmm.  I still like the idea of maintaining in some way things organized as they are in the wiki.  If only because that way you can recognize them better.

That allow to keep the borders also if people like them moving things away from the borders of the square.

Certainly that's  a good way to visually show the limits of the building if  you want.

A light border that keeps the color of the floor (but lighter) should integrate fine

[Rose]

I'm not convinced on the need for having special floors for the workshops. You can see the floor through them in vanilla, after all, and I like to see the floor materials. If you do use a special background, perhaps make that background take the material from the floor?

[Dibujor]

Well, that was my idea in the beginning but, now that I think of it, even if mifki can (When) find a way to discriminate what gets what color, if you include the floor into the workshop, I think it would get the color from the material used to build the workshop, not the flooring. I don't think you can tell the game to "use construction material color for this, room material for that and leave that other thing alone...".


Later I'll post a mockup with another idea, using borders to delimitate the workshop but leaving the normal flooring below.

Another possibility could be using a light colored alpha for the background so the workshop gets the same color as the floor but lighter?

Or just keep the workshop without background. Anyway there would be optional overrides for those who don't like the "default" options as I will implement them.

[Dirst]

Oh, didn't know that. I thought workshops were built from tiles.  I commented that with  the first one I made.  So if they are made from a single image then you can arrange things inside as you wish, hmm.  I still like the idea of maintaining in some way things organized as they are in the wiki.  If only because that way you can recognize them better.

That allow to keep the borders also if people like them moving things away from the borders of the square.

Certainly that's  a good way to visually show the limits of the building if  you want.

A light border that keeps the color of the floor (but lighter) should integrate fine

Workshops are built from tiles currently.  Early on Meph suggested something along the lines of using 9 unique ASCII characters in a workshop then overriding them to build a single image, and now that mifki is up to working on workshops he's gone all over-achiever on the idea allowing workshop-sized "tiles" and even a way to do animation.

[Dibujor]

Hmmm, being able to make workshops as a 9 tile size images would allow for some more visual things, like adding a chimney to the furnace and things like that. And animations... I can see that lava "flowing" but that would impact performance if we go all crazy with that sort of things, wouldn't it?

Here we go with that workshops showing the normal floor under the buildings and using borders to delimitate the zone. Of course I moved the funrnaces to the left ocupying two tiles at the same time.

We should wait to see if mifki can make another miracle before going crazy with the designs....

[Max™]

That forge is cool as hell, but the idea of having the impassable tiles displayed in the middle is awesome!

[mifki]

Hmmm, being able to make workshops as a 9 tile size images would allow for some more visual things,

What do you mean? They're currently 3x3=9 tiles.

[Meph]

"use construction material color for this, room material for that and leave that other thing alone...".

You can, at least for custom workshops. COLOR:x:x:x: and COLOR:MAT:, but the hardcoded workshops already have the included. Some parts look the same, some parts take on the material color. Most workshops will be white, light-grey or dark-grey, keep that in mind. Most people build with cheap, normal rock.

Yes, using 3x3 tiles or 1 large image is the same in the end. And while yes, you can use an image as you like with no limitations to tiles, it looks a bit out of place if done so. Better to keep to a tile-based graphic, with each detail/item occupying one tile. Otherwise it doesnt fit well into all the other DF graphics. At least that's my experience and I'd have no problem with being wrong in this case.

[Dibujor]

What do you mean? They're currently 3x3=9 tiles.

Ow, my english skills.....

Let's see if I can explain it better:

 I make the workshops on a tile basis, I work with a program that already divides the "canvas" into tiles so whatever you draw gets "cut" into tiles.

What I meant with "an 9x9 image" as opposed to a "tiled" image is drawing all the elements not respecting the tile borders inside that 3x3 grid. So if you divide that image into tiles, the elements inside can ocupy part of two tiles. The visual result is the same, more or less, but the "whole" image lets you rearrange things to use the stone borders without ovelapping, for example (if tiled, furnaces fill one whole tile's width so borders look wrong).

I agree with Meph though in that while considering the 3x3 as a whole image opens new possibilities, may clash visualy with the rest of the game because everything else is perfectly squared and the workshops will look slightly misaligned, and the dwarves inside won't seem to "fit well".

To sum it here's a visual reference of what I meant with "whole image" vs "tiled image" (I've erased the stone borders on the second image to better see the grid):

 

[mifki]

Oh I understand now but I've never said the image must be "tiled". In fact, it just doesn't matter.

[int_ua]

Wow. Images are fantastic.

[Rose]

Oh I understand now but I've never said the image must be "tiled". In fact, it just doesn't matter.

It matters stylistically.

[mifki]

Oh I understand now but I've never said the image must be "tiled". In fact, it just doesn't matter.

It matters stylistically.

We were talking about the technical side here.