What does everyone think of something like this?
The popup with a sample of the tileset shows only when you mouse over the listbox (which expands to the appropriate size when you roll over it).
I made the samples out of the same save, same location so comparisons can be made easily, which I think is pretty cool.
Are you familiar with hermano's raw tile merger?
The idea is that you provide it with a set of modified raws and it transfers ONLY THE TILE DEFINITIONS from these raws and transfers them to a specified set of raws.
This is great because it allows using a "raw-mined" tileset with a modded DF or quickly transferring a tileset to a new DF version. Unfortunately, many people find it too complicated. So what I meant-
-Place a raw folder (with both graphics and objects definitions) in DFConfig
-Specify your DF folder in DFConfig
-Provide the user with checkboxes to select whether he wants to modify the raws in the main folder (for world generation) and which of the save folders does he want to mod.
-Even better- for lineage games-
1. Install a set of raws and backup the originals
2. Play the game
3. Uninstall the changes - restore back to the original raws and pass the game on
EDIT: and yes, the raws need to be linked to a tileset. Probably by having a separate folders with both /raw/ and an appropriate /data/art/ in it. So first the user would choose the graphics set (creature graphics, a set of tilesets and a set of raws appropriate for the tilesets) and THEN choose which of the tilesets in the set to use.
I read your post a few times, and I'm curious, are you sure this doesn't already do what you want it to do?
I will add a global "default all" button, for sending games to other players though, that's another obvious idea.
A few posts up I list what I do to switch different graphic/tilesets. I guess I don't a have full understanding of graphics/tilesets because I thought what I did is most/all of what people did to change what the game looks like.