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Author Topic: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?  (Read 6684 times)

Shonai_Dweller

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #30 on: June 17, 2016, 03:13:40 am »

Ha! Yeah. I've had to constrain myself many a time when noticing another "Do you play DF with a tileset or not" threads. We pretty much all play with a tileset even if it's the default curses set. Also amazing how people don't notice that vanilla DF comes with a choice of different sized tilesets.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2016, 03:17:09 am by Shonai_Dweller »
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Putnam

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #31 on: June 17, 2016, 05:01:56 am »

it's too difficult to tell if someone means "tileset" or "non-packaged tileset"?

Dirst

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #32 on: June 17, 2016, 10:46:14 am »

it's too difficult to tell if someone means "tileset" or "non-packaged tileset"?
Kind of like asking an accountant if they want to pay by "credit or debit," or when someone refers to their whole computer as a CPU, or when every journalist ever mixes up the terms "dry drowning" and "secondary drowning."  Sometimes insisting on 100% technical accuracy just slows down the discussion without adding anything useful.

Yes it would be nice if folks differentiated it as "default tileset" and "modded tileset" and "graphics pack," but the way things are said now seems to work just fine.
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smakemupagus

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #33 on: June 17, 2016, 10:49:32 am »

Third place on the eternal suggestions.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php

Cast your vote if you want.

Starver

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #34 on: June 17, 2016, 12:48:13 pm »

Third place on the eternal suggestions.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php
"Full Graphics Support" means what? Make it workable in EGA, VGA, SVGA, XGA, etc?  Hercules graphics card compatible?  Occulus Rift compatible? Can be played on a holographc Dejarik board?

The link in the title doesn't work, so its hard to tell.

I think that it's not beyond the wit of Toady to put an in-interface (helpscreen and/or front-page) menu that lets one choose which tileset (from those already present) and associated Init settings, in the advanced world generation style but with a sideframe upon which some reference symbols (walls, dwarves, trees - let that, like the arena, be configurable?) to sanity check what you're getting. A line of text by the side of the tileset file chooser tells you where to dump your own/downloaded files.  -   Although it would be a diversion, when UI Change aren't yet his top priority.

Because it's not lacking graphics, to any extent that I can see, unless you're talking a native Stonesense level of graphics.

(I must admit I've played Vulture's Claw/whatever isometric versions of nethack/etc, but for all the 'advanced' graphics, it's obvious the engine is the same. The only problem I see with DF is that either people see the 'simple' graphics (Codepage-alike or fancy Phoebus/whatever) and assume that it's an '80s-era complexity beneath so avoid it, or else they start the game despite/because of this and get overwhelmed by complexity they were not seeking.  The opposite of a basic Android game dressed up in glorious artwork.)

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Cast your vote if you want.
I must review my years-old votes and see if I can/should change them...
« Last Edit: June 17, 2016, 12:51:47 pm by Starver »
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Putnam

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #35 on: June 17, 2016, 01:01:21 pm »

Third place on the eternal suggestions.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php
"Full Graphics Support" means what? Make it workable in EGA, VGA, SVGA, XGA, etc?  Hercules graphics card compatible?  Occulus Rift compatible? Can be played on a holographc Dejarik board?

Support for graphics for things that aren't creatures.

Starver

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #36 on: June 17, 2016, 01:22:56 pm »

Support for graphics for things that aren't creatures.
Or walls or trees or bridges or...?

Not a 'graphics' user, but I thought that was all covered. Perhaps a better title (and working link!) would be advisable.
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Putnam

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #37 on: June 17, 2016, 01:26:59 pm »

Support for graphics for things that aren't creatures.
Or walls or trees or bridges or...?

No, you have to replace the tiles in the main tileset for those, which is why the world map with custom tilesets is always such a clusterfuck. Creatures are the only things that can have custom graphics.

I would really appreciate if you don't ridicule suggestions if you don't even know the most basic facts about what they're suggesting for.

Starver

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #38 on: June 17, 2016, 01:29:43 pm »


Not ridicule, merely genuine confusion, that you have now partially cleared up.

Perhaps a better title (and working link!) would be advisable.
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Putnam

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #39 on: June 17, 2016, 01:33:20 pm »

Can be played on a holographc Dejarik board?

see when you come up with obvious ridiculous exaggerations, that's usually done in order to ridicule an idea, which is where the confusion comes from

Starver

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #40 on: June 17, 2016, 01:38:10 pm »

see when you come up with obvious ridiculous exaggerations, that's usually done in order to ridicule an idea, which is where the confusion comes from
What I was aiming for was 'too ridiculous to be inadvertently read as argumentative', but obviously I missed and ended up somewhere as bad.
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smakemupagus

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #41 on: June 17, 2016, 02:08:55 pm »

Perhaps a better title (and working link!) would be advisable.

Possibly using the little button there to PM the original creator of that suggestion could make it so.

in the meantime you can find the thread by substitution of the old URL for new

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=41266.0 (broken)
--->
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=41266.0 (works)

Max™

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #42 on: June 17, 2016, 02:16:56 pm »

I never knew about the voting thing, huh, I remember seeing the list but never voted for some reason. Lots of neat stuff but in the end I couldn't pass up fluids/volume/raw cities.
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smakemupagus

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #43 on: June 17, 2016, 02:45:03 pm »

I don't know whether we know, how much stock Toady puts in the Eternal suggestions voting (I don't follow FotF etc. closely).  Either way, suggestions board is probably the place for any concrete ideas about graphics, although newer players might as well know that it is a topic well worn many times over by now.  And it's not a topic that is ignored... Toady has put in the effort to enable some graphic support, and many players have worked hard on tilesets, graphics and visualizers.

I suppose I could also chime in on the specific question that OP posed -- No, i don't think it harms DF significantly, because the LNP exists and is well maintained, so i think new players have the resources they need.  Also, I'll add to the chorus saying that the default tilesets and their community made variants are quite nice.  The fraction of players or games media that neither want to put in the time to acclimate to ascii-like tilesets nor proactive to find out about LNP, maybe it is OK that they aren't the target audience at this stage in alpha development.  It would be more of a mistake, perhaps, for Toady not to think about how to reach out to that crowd when the game is much closer to completion.

p.s. Sorry, i'm pretty sure I'm not always using the terms tilesets and graphics properly :)
« Last Edit: June 17, 2016, 02:48:04 pm by smakemupagus »
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Chase

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Re: Are default graphics why DF can't gain popularity?
« Reply #44 on: June 17, 2016, 10:58:23 pm »

Dwarf Fortress gets much of it's publicity due to the fact it lacks official graphics.
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