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Archives (read only) => Glest Advanced Engine => Feature requests => Topic started by: Zoythrus on 30 September 2010, 03:00:34

Title: Showing the faction's symbol during selection [Implemented v0.3.2]
Post by: Zoythrus on 30 September 2010, 03:00:34
i had two ideas that are pretty similar:

1. during the screen before a game (faction select, map, rules, etc), i think that there should be the faction's logo next to their name. this would be a purely cosmetic idea, but it would make it look more official.

2. you know the rings around units (health bars), i think they should be overridden if you have a faction logo. you would just put a picture that has been fully alpha'd, and it would show beneath the units (and would brighten or darken with damage). this is also purely cosmetic, but it would look cooler...
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: John.d.h on 30 September 2010, 03:58:15
The first sounds kinda cool, but GAE is already planning on nicking the image loaders from MG, so it's kind of already covered.  How would the second one not be completely awful?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Zoythrus on 30 September 2010, 03:59:53
well, it would show the faction logo (which looks cool), and adds some personality and diversity to the factions.

maybe we can make the logos team color?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: ChupaReaper on 30 September 2010, 14:36:21
I was thinking about #1 on the bus the other day but forgot to suggest it lol, I think it would be really good to show faction logos during the game start up menu and the game over screen.
As for #2, imagine hundreds of units selected all with their faction logo underneath them rather than the health ring it would a bit crowded. The faction logo could be placed somewhere in game, maybe when units are selected in the GUI their faction logo could be shown somewhere.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: John.d.h on 30 September 2010, 14:48:29
The faction logo could be placed somewhere in game, maybe when units are selected in the GUI their faction logo could be shown somewhere.
Glest's UI is really uncluttered.  I would like to keep it that way.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Psychedelic_hands on 30 September 2010, 14:53:02
What about having the Logo being shown in box where the unit info is?..... but only when there are no units selected of  course.

Anyone agree?  :|
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: John.d.h on 30 September 2010, 15:29:11
What about having the Logo being shown in box where the unit info is?..... but only when there are no units selected of  course.

Anyone agree?  :|
Down with clutter. :thumbdown:
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Psychedelic_hands on 30 September 2010, 16:33:05
It really wouldn't clutter, I mean... the place it would go is usually filled up anyway.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: ChupaReaper on 30 September 2010, 20:00:46
Perhaps there could be a setting for displaying faction symbols in game so you can disable it in the options. As I'd like to see the symbols somewhere, one symbol wouldn't clutter things up much and it would add more to the feel of playing the faction but if you disagree then the option to disable it is there.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Zoythrus on 30 September 2010, 20:50:47
Perhaps there could be a setting for displaying faction symbols in game so you can disable it in the options. As I'd like to see the symbols somewhere, one symbol wouldn't clutter things up much and it would add more to the feel of playing the faction but if you disagree then the option to disable it is there.

this i can agree with...
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 1 October 2010, 05:33:48

For 1. I think there is agreement, will add a ticket.

For 2. In it's original form I agree with john/chuppa, too much for every selected unit, with bigger selection size already (24) and unlimited coming...
I think Psychedelic_hands' idea of using the display panel when nothing is selected (in it's 'compact mode') would be really cool, will make it optional, but true by default (if the faction provides such an image, that is).
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Zoythrus on 1 October 2010, 16:26:53
Does this mean that the Tech and Magic will be given logos too?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: John.d.h on 1 October 2010, 20:52:36
Does this mean that the Tech and Magic will be given logos too?
Sounds like we have a volunteer. ;)
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Zoythrus on 1 October 2010, 23:00:23
Does this mean that the Tech and Magic will be given logos too?
Sounds like we have a volunteer. ;)
i hate you...

well, i have no artistic talent, so anything that i make will suck...and i mean really bad...
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 5 October 2010, 13:58:13
Ticket #216 (https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/glestae/ticket/216).  Magitech doesn't really need them, they will of course be optional.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Psychedelic_hands on 23 October 2010, 05:06:06
I'd just like to point out that tech does have a logo...... as seen on here:

http://glest.org/images/galeria/personajes/battle_machine.jpg

I've noticed it on a few units...
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Zoythrus on 23 October 2010, 06:36:22
good point, i had forgotten about the gear! now, does the Magic have a logo?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Psychedelic_hands on 23 October 2010, 09:51:21
Well the battlemage has this thing on it..... http://glest.org/images/galeria/personajes/battlemage.jpg

But that's the only place I've seen that.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 23 October 2010, 12:45:36
As always, some interesting issues popped up as soon as I started on this... I wanted transparency and also team colour... obviously I couldn't use the alpha channel for team colour, so at the moment the three colour channels are averaged and then multiplied in with the team colour.

How do you guys want this to work? Maybe I should make this system an option, with another that doesn't use team colour at all, or uses the alpha channel for it ? ?

(http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv231/silnarm/glest/magic_logo.jpg)
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Omega on 24 October 2010, 00:28:35
What about a technique I've seen some other games use? They have a set color, usually a bright pink, that is the transparency, and it becomes replaced with the transparency in game. Only downside to it is that you can't have anti-aliasing... :(
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 24 October 2010, 02:13:25
What about a technique I've seen some other games use? They have a set color, usually a bright pink, that is the transparency, and it becomes replaced with the transparency in game. Only downside to it is that you can't have anti-aliasing... :(

I did think of that, but that's effectively single bit transparency as you pointed out, which is not so nice...
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Omega on 25 October 2010, 00:02:13
Indeed. Personally, I'd rather see a non team colour image than one that wouldn't be able to have AA.

Another idea (abet, more complex, but solves the AA problem):
Use a monochrome image where pure black = full transparency, while pure white = full teamcolor (opaque). Thus, greys could cause AA. No way to set explicitly how dark or how light the team color should be, though you can specify the how transparent the part is, which gives the illusion of volume. This should be possible, as I've seen other games do it, as well, it's a very common method for terrain rendering. Probably very complex to code though.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: wyvern on 25 October 2010, 19:03:57
tech should have the thing they have on aircraft and walkers as a symbol, (the targetting cross)
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: ChupaReaper on 25 October 2010, 19:18:42
I'd like all the options open, the alpha channel for alpha and some trick where it is converted to team colour should be optional. Or can you use extra channels in TGA or a separate greyscale image to act as a team colour map.
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: John.d.h on 25 October 2010, 19:26:17
tech should have the thing they have on aircraft and walkers as a symbol, (the targetting cross)
Err... you mean the gear?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: wyvern on 26 October 2010, 01:06:42
Its a gear, i always thought it was a targetting cross at any rate it would be a good tech symbol
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 29 October 2010, 02:31:42
Ok, using two images I can get what I wanted,

(http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv231/silnarm/glest/magic_logo2.jpg)

So you can specifiy a 'team-colour' image and/or a 'rgba-image'.
You can use none, one, or both.

The team-colour one just multiplies the colour intensity at every pixel with the team colour, idealy a two channel image (grey, alpha) would do here, but the engine wont read 2 channel images at the moment, so use 4 and confine yourself to greys.

The rgba one is just a straight image, if you use both, the team-colour image is read first and then the rgba one is blended over the top.

Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Omega on 29 October 2010, 06:10:08
Ok, using two images I can get what I wanted,

(http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv231/silnarm/glest/magic_logo2.jpg)

So you can specifiy a 'team-colour' image and/or a 'rgba-image'.
You can use none, one, or both.

The team-colour one just multiplies the colour intensity at every pixel with the team colour, idealy a two channel image (grey, alpha) would do here, but the engine wont read 2 channel images at the moment, so use 4 and confine yourself to greys.

The rgba one is just a straight image, if you use both, the team-colour image is read first and then the rgba one is blended over the top.

Looks great silnarm. Not completely sure I understand what you mean though... Can you post the two images that would be used to make a demo logo?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 10 November 2010, 11:55:31
Here's the ones I'm currently using for Magic,

(http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv231/silnarm/glest/faction_logos.jpg)

The one on the left is the 'team-colour' texture, the colour intensity from the rgb channels is multiplied in with the team colour (so just use greys), the one on the right is just a straight rgba image, which is blended over the team colour texture (if present).
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Zoythrus on 10 November 2010, 15:13:49
so, does it work? i mean, can we use it now?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: Omega on 10 November 2010, 22:15:12
That looks fantastic silnarm. Precisely what I had in mind a bit earlier (and better). This will be in 0.3.2 I assume?
Title: Re: Showing the faction's symbol during selection
Post by: silnarm on 15 November 2010, 12:42:59
...Precisely what I had in mind a bit earlier (and better). This will be in 0.3.2 I assume?

Yes, was done in the 0.3.x branch and will be in 0.3.2