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[gramks2k]

I've been playing with Phoebus' pack and it's a pretty good pack. But then I got to digging some marble and the graphics just didn't cut it. I like a fair bit of immersion. So, I've come up with a short list of things that I want from a graphics pack and I'm wondering if there is one that exists that fills these needs.

1) Phoebus style Races and Creatures
2) Water that has different levels shown somehow (maybe compromise here with the 1 through 7 like Phoebus')
3) Rock tiles that look like rock, and gems that look like gems (not just one big gem, or a symbol representing rock, textures)
4) Text needs to be readable, no decoding to read a Dorf's description.
5) Undiscovered rock tiles as black, discovered correctly hued/textured.

Essentially I just want a step up from ASCII. A true Dwarf Fortress graphics pack. Also, my computer is getting really old so it should probably be the standard size tiles  (saying this not knowing what standard is).

I've looked at all of the graphics packs from this forum and the wiki. "Ironhand and Wormslayer's" is pretty, but it's too graphical and I would rather plain text. "Deep Qantas" is getting pretty close, but I do want some sort of ground, not just black space (though undiscovered rock should be black.


Another possibility is that I could start my own graphics pack, with some guidance. I've done some of this sort of stuff before, I just need to know how to set up the new pack in the beginning and the size of the tiles and then go to town making the stuff as I go. Is it really that hard or what?

I want Phoebus' complete pack with natural looking rocks, gems, sand, and metals.

[gramks2k]

After thinking about it... I would really like to use Phoebus but with some rock tiles that aren't purely informational...

[WormSlayer]

You could always have a got at copy pasting bits you like from different tilesets into a frankenmod

[Deon]

After thinking about it... I would really like to use Phoebus but with some rock tiles that aren't purely informational...

That's what I had in Genesis some time ago. I want to bring it back soon.

[existent]

1) Phoebus style Races and Creatures
["Sphr is to thank for the vast majority of the units. Dwarves, Humans, Elves, Goblins, Kobolds, large mountain & riverlake creatures, monsters, subterranean creatures and several wildlife creatures." -Phoebus]
2) Water that has different levels shown somehow (maybe compromise here with the 1 through 7 like Phoebus')
[This has been done, I forget where. I know Ironhand does something, but the one I'm thinking of had the numbers 1-7 "filling up" with water.]
3) Rock tiles that look like rock, and gems that look like gems (not just one big gem, or a symbol representing rock, textures)
[Look at Ironhand or RantingRodent]

[gramks2k]

I think my goal now is to use the Phoebus complete pack with changes to sand, rock, ores (in rock form), and gems. So I need to find a set of tiles that's like Ironhand's but the same size as the Phoebus pack tiles.

[Deon]

Okay, check the 0.48 of Ironhand

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I don't see ANYTHING wrong here .

[WormSlayer]

I do: Your still using O's for pillars, you can change that in the ini now

[Deon]

Yeah, I forgot about that . Thank you for reminding me!

[gramks2k]

The problem with Ironhand's is that it works great for a resolution that my computer can't handle.

As it is I average ~35 fps with only 7 Dorfs... And it starts creeping lower the more that show up (duh). I might end up compromising and going for an even less intense graphics set than Phoebus... Though I do love the way those Dorfs look.

[existent]

you could always mix and match.

[gramks2k]

What are some common ways to increase FPS? Will a smaller X by Y tileset increase FPS? I know a smaller embark area will increase FPS, working on that right now.

[WormSlayer]

Really, the GFX arnt going to be doing much if anything to your FPS it will be pathing, fluids, temperature, etc.

There are many threads discussing ways to stop FPS death.

[Shaostoul]

I have never seen a boost or degrading in performance with different tile sizes or graphics or anything related to visuals.

Running water/lava is a really big hitter. Try to limit how much you have. A water fall might be totally awesome, but if you get tired of low FPS, plug the waterfall. A brook can even do some hits on FPS to some lower end computers. Plugging these can be tricky, but the fps boost might make it worth while.

Temperature is also a big hitter. If you don't have a problem with water freezing or boiling away or just don't want to deal with those effects, I'd suggest turning this off. I've seen huge improvements with this off.

Weather surprisingly is also a really big hitter. If you don't have to worry about evaporation and have some other way to get water and don't much care for snow, I'd suggest turning this off. I've seen huge improvements with this off.

Pathing is the biggest and most formidable foe for FPS. In my opinion there is only simple stuff you can do to improve on this. Toady will most likely have to update his pathing algorithms in order to see anything super drastic. My biggest suggestion here, is if you play with a 1 tile wide hallway typically, go to 2 at the very least. I suggest for any common walkway 3-4 tiles wide is good. I've noticed that when dwarfs "walk over one another" they can stop and have a conversation or it takes them forever to move apart from one another and one typically sits longer than the other. This is extremely noticeable with something like [SPEED:1] on.

Underground stuff... with the release of .31 I've seen some pretty insane sizes and events that occur underground. However, I've seen problems... and typically the problems are either not there or they are grand. Like whole sections of area missing (typically from reclaims) and creating huge underground waterfalls. With the addition of hell, I've seen problems where the giant magma ocean can start draining into it. There is a lot of FPS drop when that starts moving.

Numbers... Dwarfs, animals, etc. Huge drops here. Mostly not because of their sheer presence, but because they all move and pathing around is costly on the cpu. Try and keep animals caged or limited to areas at the very least. I cage all my animals just because it gets annoying having to deal with them sometimes. A corral seems to work decent as well.

Hope this helps.

[gramks2k]

That helps a lot. I figured that graphics had something to do with it, but it makes a lot more sense that all of the calculations are the cause (due to the INTENSE nature of the graphics  ). I had just read the wiki entry on it before posting (just wanted to see if there was anything not mentioned there). I'll be fooling around with a few things to increase my fps, mainly making a new fortress and caging all the animals except the necessary ones as they enter the map. Maybe that would make for an interesting playstyle.. All monsters must be killed and animals caged for the FPS gods to be pleased. Anti-PETA, hehe. Anyway...

Back to the discussion of the tileset. I'd like to know more about the display of tiles with regards to the gems and smeltables. I'm really heavily considering editing the Phoebus package to change the walls, smoothed floors, and the rocks. So let's kick off that discussion.

What program should I use to edit the png to maintain transparency? When I open it up in paint it looks like the transparent portion of the file is black. Anything that is defined as a color shows up as that color in game. And everything has a dedicated tile that defines it (no overlapping using transparency or anything crazy).

tl;dr
What tools do you guys use to edit the graphics files? Any pointers on how to? (I have Win XP and Ubuntu, paint and gimp)
Anything else I should know before I jump in and try it out?

P.S. Looking the forums over for this information and it looks like there are lots of posts regarding the other more complicated aspects of modding, such as reactions etc, but not much in the way of custom graphics. I assume that it's simple, and will start looking in to it after I finish eating.