Terrain Edging
Potential RPG July 20th. 2009, 3:28pmI’ve been so busy improving the game world that I haven’t even taken time to write about it lately. There are several significant improvements that are almost ready for Alpha testing. For the moment, here is a glimpse at a new rendering capability: Terrain Edging.
The world surface is composed of hexagonal terrain tiles, which, despite the elevation in complexity they incur, I’m quite pleased with in general. In practice, they do tend to create rather pointy, unattractive edges. The purpose of terrain edging is to provide visually appealing (see artistic disclaimer below) transitions between terrain.
Inspired by the article Handling Terrain Transitions, the world now automatically computes where to place edge tiles where terrain types meet. The system can support general-purpose edging for each terrain type, as well as special-purpose transitions from one terrain type to another. For example, grass edging may include general-purpose crinkly edges, but provide an embankment when next to a lake.
To make this work, each terrain type must include a set of edge tiles. More to the point, all the terrain and edge tiles must be drawn, preferably by someone with more artistic capability than myself. The screenshot shows the potential for terrain edging, but Alpha testers will have to tolerate my graphics until I can procure better art. (Note: Trees not drawn by me.)
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:57 am
Wow, the addition of the edging makes a huge difference, looking good! You could also add some noise to the green terrain to make it look more like pixel art. (IMHO)
I laughed when I saw that you have 100 000 lines of code, my game only has 1 000 (so far), you must be pretty manly!
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Thanks for your comments. I’ll try adding some noise to my terrain textures, but I’m also in the process of procuring better art. Nice blog you have – hopefully someday you can critique my game’s UI for improved usability.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
Sure, just leave a comment on my blog, or email me and I’ll take a look/feedback. Cheers!
August 18th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Are those trees from UO? They look shockingly familiar :)
August 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
They’re from an open licensed tileset by Reiner “Tiles” Prokein.
I took a look at some UO screenshots and see no similar trees. Could you enlighten me?
By the way, I’m in the process of acquiring my own graphics. If you know any (indy) artists, I’m on the prowl.