NightGFX Base Graphics Set

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:49 am

Welcome to my latest "just for fun" project.

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Inspired by those awesome mock-up screenshots and the decade-old night conversion by Andrex, I decided to breathe new life into the idea of a "night mode" in TTD. It's basically just a night version of OpenGFX, but by utilizing 32bpp capabilities I was able to break away from the restrictions of the TTD palette to get what I feel is a more realistic and 'clean' darkness compared to the old attempt. More importantly, this new implementation allows company colors and other recolor masks to work properly, something the old set simply couldn't do because of the palette.

I've also opted to build this as a base graphics set rather than a NewGRF, which allows you to switch freely between day and night by changing between NightGFX and OpenGFX in the main menu (or, optionally, forcing and unforcing the 8bpp palette by editing the openttd.cfg file, but that's a lot more work

). As fun as this set is to play with, being stuck in the dark for an entire game doesn't sound ideal, so I wanted to at least leave an option to switch sets during games - something not possible with a NewGRF.

Which brings me to the one major problem with this set; you can't use any NewGRFs if you want to be able to switch from day to night.

Besides the fact that there aren't any NewGRFs compatible with this set yet, even if there were, they would be stored in the savegame and thus, you'd be 'stuck' in night mode for that whole game. Unfortunately there is no way for NewGRFs to detect which base graphics set is active, so automatic switching cannot be done that way, it would have to be done another way, and I'm not sure there is one. I'd love to be proven wrong though

So, taking that into consideration, NightGFX is effectively a standalone set, unless someone creates some night grfs and you don't mind always playing in the dark.

Is it perfect? No. In my eyes it's more or less just a proof-of-concept, especially taking into account the NewGRF situation, but it's still fun to play with, especially on a busy map.

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Due to it being 32bpp, NightGFX is only compatible with OpenTTD 1.2.0 or newer. It is too big to upload to the forums so you will have to download it in-game or via the Bananas site. It is of course released under the GPLv2, and you can obtain the source here. There is also a simple guide I wrote up on how to make compatible graphics bundled with the source if you're interested in that. I'll post the guide separately later.

Please playtest it and tell me what you think, particularly about the level of darkness and the lighting effects, or if you encounter any glitches. Enjoy!

P.S. I'm not very good with screenshots, so if you have some better ones, post them!

For those of you who don't have any active NewGRF-less maps to play around with, I've attached one of my own so you can at least see it in action:

Redirect Left · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:58 am

It's an interesting concept, but I do feel - at least from the screenshots - that it may be a little bit too dark.

Trond · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:15 am

I cant find it on Bananas? Am I blind?

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:16 am

Once you're actually playing it your eyes will adjust and it gets a little better.

On a more important note it seems that Bananas refuses to accept the file, it's telling me one of the md5's in the .obg file doesn't match the grf. I've double checked and they are all correct, I even re-compiled all of the grf files and copied the md5's again just to be sure but it still complains that it's incorrect

I get no complaints from OpenTTD though. It is only 11 MB so I can't imagine size is an issue? Any ideas?

Trond · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:45 am

Have you considered putting it on dropbox or something? Would love to try a game or 3 with this

Supercheese · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:45 am

Whoah, this is very cool! :shock:

I'm thinking that NewGRFs could provide (or dirtily hack) day/night support via a few methods such as querying the cargo subtype or company color variable, although the currently-used base set is not a variable exposed to grfs.

kamnet · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 4:11 am

All of OpenGFX+ sets are available under the same GPL license, so you should be able to convert those over as well for industries, airports, trains, road vehicles and landscapes. Also feel free to take any of my work and give it a Night treatment as well.

Eddi · **Joined:** Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:14 am **Posts:** 7094

Andrew350 wrote:

I'm having a little trouble getting it on Bananas right now, so it may not be online for a bit! Sorry!

you need Musa to upload large files to bananas: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=63119

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:47 am

Is 11MB really over the limit though? I guess if that's the case I'll have to wait until tomorrow to sort out musa and try again

andythenorth · PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 9:38 am

Did you paint all of that? Or did you figure out a photoshop action or something?

Grfs could do 'night mode' with a palette switch, code is easy, but working out the palettes would be...a pain in the arse.

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 7:00 pm

Sorry for the delay everyone, I'm having a problem with musa, so until that's sorted out the release will be on hold

To answer your question andythenorth, no, I didn't draw everything manually. :wink:

I used GIMP to darken the sprites quickly and create the masks, then manually painted the lighting.

When it comes to making other night GRFs, maybe there are more options than I thought.

Of course, it's all a moot point until I can get the base set available...

Supercheese · PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 7:43 pm

I would be helpful if you could detail exactly what filters you applied in GIMP and any other such relevant details so that others could follow the same steps to create compatible nighttime graphics if they choose.

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 10:13 pm

Of course.

For the moment all I have is the quick note I wrote myself so I wouldn't forget the basic steps:

Code:

steps to convert sprites in gimp:

convert image to RGB
right click layers menu, add alpha channel
select all pure white and transparent blue, delete
fill whole selection solid black, opacity 80.0
select background, delete

done!

At some point I'll write a little more detailed description, including what I did for CC masks and stuff, but this at least covers converting sprites to the correct darkness. The darkness level may need to be changed though if people overwhelmingly deem it to be too unplayable

kamnet · PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 6:03 am

Andrew350 wrote:

Sorry for the delay everyone, I'm having a problem with musa, so until that's sorted out the release will be on hold

You could always move it to openttdcoop, or contact Owen and request a site on tt-forums.

planetmaker · PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:12 am

Andrew350 wrote:

Sorry for the delay everyone, I'm having a problem with musa, so until that's sorted out the release will be on hold

To answer your question andythenorth, no, I didn't draw everything manually. :wink:

I used GIMP to darken the sprites quickly and create the masks, then manually painted the lighting.

When it comes to making other night GRFs, maybe there are more options than I thought.

Of course, it's all a moot point until I can get the base set available...

There seems to be *some* issue which needs investigation. I tried with a new version of OpenGFX and failed to upload that, too by means of both method, musa and normal http upload - getting the same error as you. I'll come back to you when I know what's going wrong.

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 6:48 pm

kamnet wrote:

You could always move it to openttdcoop, or contact Owen and request a site on tt-forums.

Openttdcoop makes a lot of sense since this set is based on OpenGFX, which is also hosted there. I just haven't looked into it yet, still fighting the bananas thing. Hopefully it won't be too long

planetmaker wrote:

There seems to be *some* issue which needs investigation. I tried with a new version of OpenGFX and failed to upload that, too by means of both method, musa and normal http upload - getting the same error as you. I'll come back to you when I know what's going wrong.

Wow, I'm so glad to hear it's not just me!

Hope it's a quick fix!

planetmaker · PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:34 pm

You could try to upload via musa now again and hopefully also http upload. Server-side the validation was using an outdated algorithm for base sets.

EDIT: And if you want a project at the DevZone, please don't be shy and open a quick issue at http://dev.openttdcoop.org/ask_new_project - it allows me to make you then straight owner of the new project.

Seeing your pseudo-algorithm above I wonder whether the process could be scripted - at least partially (or did you do that)? E.g. OpenGFX and especially OpenGFX+ Landscape already use some gimp scripting to exporting the png sprites files directly from gimp files. Especially for terrain this allows to keep it much easier consistent among different tile types (clear, road, rail, river, canal, coasts...)

Dave · PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 11:14 pm

Andrew this is really great work, my congratulations sir!

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 12:37 am

planetmaker wrote:

You could try to upload via musa now again and hopefully also http upload. Server-side the validation was using an outdated algorithm for base sets.

I'm sorry to report that both methods still fail for me with the same errors

It looks like OpenGFX and zBase were successful though, now I wonder why I'm still having trouble?

planetmaker wrote:

EDIT: And if you want a project at the DevZone, please don't be shy and open a quick issue at http://dev.openttdcoop.org/ask_new_project - it allows me to make you then straight owner of the new project.

Okay, I'll try to do that soon

planetmaker wrote:

Seeing your pseudo-algorithm above I wonder whether the process could be scripted - at least partially (or did you do that)?

I also thought such a thing could be scripted, unfortunately I lack the skills to do that, so I had to settle for manual work. :wink:

Dave wrote:

Andrew this is really great work, my congratulations sir!

Thanks, although you may want to hold the praise until you actually have a chance to try it

Andrew350 · PostPosted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 12:04 am

Okay, since it's now been a full week since the "release", and I'm still having no luck with Bananas, I've thrown in the towel and uploaded the files to my tt-forums site. See the first post for the link.

If someone can pinpoint what in the world I'm doing wrong I'd really appreciate it. I don't know if it's something wrong with the set, or the server is still messed up, or if I'm just completely incompetent when it comes to uploading. Anything is a possibility at this point. :lol:

Most likely I have to believe I've done something wrong when making the set, since both OpenGFX and zBase made it fine.

OpenTTD seems to have no issue using it though, and I am out of ideas at this point.

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