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Topic: New Immovables

GunChleoc
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Posted at: 2015-03-12, 15:20

Trees have exaggerated scale, just as the carriers and houses. I think it would look better to think of the peaks as background landscape elements rather than foreground elements like trees and rocks - they are part of the mountains.

Where a steep peak would look good is a volcanic plug. Normal mountain summits are much flatter - the elevation should be done by the terrain around them, and they will just be the tip.


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kaputtnik
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Posted at: 2015-03-12, 17:29

GunChleoc wrote:

Trees have exaggerated scale, just as the carriers and houses. I think it would look better to think of the peaks as background landscape elements rather than foreground elements like trees and rocks - they are part of the mountains.

Yes, you're right. Maybe my translation of summit wasn't correct face-smile.png

I want to make something like:

face-smile.png

But a flatten summit is also a good thing.


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chuckw
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Posted at: 2015-03-12, 18:16

Nature itself shows a great variety of topographical features and it would be thrilling to see some integrated onto our maps.

I like what you are attempting, kaputtnik. It is no easy task. As you are discovering and as GunChleoc has observed, there exist many of what I like to call "paradoxes of scale" in Widelands. To present every element on the map in the SAME scale would be very awkward if not impossible and detract from the game play. So our aim must be to convey the idea of the various elements in ways that will allow the player to mentally compensate for the discrepancies easily and get on with playing the game.

The immovables present special challenges in this regard in light of the fact that the proximity to moving elements such as workers and critters may ask the player to excuse too much discrepancy in scale. For example, a wolf may appear reasonably sized when compared to workers or even some small buildings, but place that wolf on a mountain peak and it will appear huge.

Workers and critters aside, perhaps the biggest hazard comes from the trees. Well, not so much the trees themselves, but their shadows can break the illusion of distance and scale. So when considering these geological elements It may be wise for us to consider how close we wish these other illusion-breakers to approach.

In the end, the Widelands world is fantasy but where we attempt to mirror the real world, we have to be cautious of how far we ask viewers of the maps to stretch. Are mountain peaks too far a stretch? I don't think so if we can avoid shattering the illusion of distance and scale.

Edited: 2015-03-12, 18:22

I see little people.

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kaputtnik
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Posted at: 2015-03-12, 18:35

Thanks chuckw for explanation. I think beside the height, the texture makes some of the illusion. If it is to much detailed, the immovable appears to big. I'll try to work on this further, regarding your explanations face-smile.png


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GunChleoc
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Posted at: 2015-03-12, 20:07

Maybe having a flat-topped version might be easier to pull off, because we expect them not to blend in anyway - the rock is usually different from the rock of the surroundings anyway, and the slopes are quite steep and can be even vertical.


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kaputtnik
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Posted at: 2015-03-25, 19:34

Does these hills fit better against the last ones?

hill03.jpg

Edited: 2015-03-25, 19:37

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GunChleoc
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Posted at: 2015-03-26, 16:09

That's a resounding "Yes" face-smile.png


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