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Well now how to see where your units are moving? Especially with the tanks who already face a direction?
Easy. A flashing, green arrow indicates movement in a direction (8) and a flashing red arrow, also in a direction (8) indicates battle.
I just want to gauge if I'm on the right track.....? Comments appreciated.
Panzer 1's with Support:
Panzer 2's with Support:
PzKpFw 38(t) with Support:
So, the worms have been banished!
One thing worries me slightly - the three vehicles look good in Stettin, but wouldn't they look a bit weird in a small province like Berlin, overlapping the borders too much?
I'd also think about reducing the size of the infantry sprites just a touch.
But overall, very good.
Wait... Isnt this now the same thing as your counters, but worse now? I mean they are great, cant deny that, but sprites are meant to be animated. Now if every actions are represented by flashing arrows its just prettier counters.
Who says sprites have to be animated? And anyway, my sprites are animated. The flashing arrow is animation.
But, the reason why I'm doing the sprites this way, you forget, is ...
Before now, hoi2 sprites were all 3D models and animated, i.e. they "twitched a little" were "blurred", and if you look at a non-modded game, all the sprites were the same for every country, especially the infantry and tanks. But, the game is a visual experience. So I think the graphics should be better.
Also, 3D modelling is a niche effort. How many mods have there been for new sprites, maybe 4 or 5 in 10 years? (guessing). Why?
Because the effort is enormous, a niche interest for guys maybe training to be professional modellers in real life?
By doing 2D sprites, I'm making people realise (hopefully) that the game graphics is for EVERYONE. Sure, there is lots of work still to do, but if modelling is not needed, and simple drawing and colouring is enough, then we all can do our own sprites to suit us, or post more mods for everyone's enjoyment.
The idea of making sprites and not counters is this: There is only 1 counter strip in the game. So, yes, you can draw new images, but all the countries will have the same images... no point!
With sprites, you can have different images for every country, especially the 6 major powers in the game. Really Good, if this can happen, as the game will be more visually enthralling and entertaining.
So, the Germans will have Panzers, the US, Sherman tanks, the Russian's T-34's etc etc. ..
I think this has to be better. Don't you?
I see the advantage of sprites, but movement is what do set apart sprites from counters!
Oh I dont even know what to add, I see your point, yet... :sleep:
Oh I dont even know what to add, I see your point, yet... :sleep:
How about making them like this?
I just took this image and resized it
Thanks nachioos for the contribution. Yeah, this is the problem I've had since I started ... I find an good image, like yours, reduce it... but when I take it into GIMP and bitmap it... I get shit! .. just a load of pixels with the image barely recognisable. I did ask Francisco how he maintained the quality of his images when reducing them, but he didn't reply.
So HOW do you maintain the quality and still bitmap it PLEASE?
edit: Your reduced image still looks a bit blurred? I was hoping to get away from blurring...
I've kept the grey/black colouring for Germany only. Soviets will be green, etc. I'm not an artist, so I was hoping better artists would take this up and do a better job.
I've nearly Germany completed, so the US, UK, France, Italy are still free to do, if you want to? I was planning to do the Soviets myself, next.
Well, yes the image is still blurred if you zoom it. The only way would be to vectorize it with Inkscape. I'm currently working on it, but it takes time with complex tanks such as Tiger 2. I'll post the results once I finish.
Even that won't give you perfect quality. An image only has so many pixels. One pixel can only be one colour, therefore low-resolution images like these sprites can never look ultra-good.
Progress so far...
Of course is still needs to be sharpened the same way it is in the tank's gun end
Of course is still needs to be sharpened the same way it is in the tank's gun end
Progress so far...
Of course is still needs to be sharpened the same way it is in the tank's gun end
You are still at original size: My advice (from limited experience) is to reduce it to the size you need, and then start colouring, else you'll end up blurred again.
Am following what you are doing, to learn...