H3SW: General Graphics discussion

Ragoon wrote:

The question is who would search through the whole forum in search for useless art, collect it and post in the new topic again? It's a lot of work imo, maybe you can do it

I will do it. However you(and others) could also share after I have the old stuff. Surely you have a lot of discarded concepts... Sure, I am not saying this should be a priority to anyone who does these things, justa bonus!

It might be helpful, and it might also be interesting honestly! a more behind the scenes "what could have been" look of the H3SWmod...

The thing is that some concepts may not really be considered "discarded" ("rejected" is a proper word). It concerns creatures especially.

I'm back from a long vacation.

Wishing you guys good luck with the rest of the drawing.

It's looking good!

Greetings from Holland.

Hello everyone
So, after 7 days of work, many, many hours I've managed to remake the main screen, so that we can finally make the buttons on signs useable Had to change the perspective of every building and its components by hand, redraw some parts (green hang for the shield for example) etc.

So here is the result!



And here are some pics with descriptions from the process for those interested

CLICK (lots of imgs):

Tell us what you think, what would you change etc.

Damn Ragoon, you are at the top of your game again!

Everything is really great about it. A few details here and there (like vases ) would be nice to see, however I like it this say, it's like a follow up to the original, like this was taken a different day hehe

I like that it's darker, I think it's just a little to dark. It worked good with the older one because it was lower resolution, but with this one I think it doesn't look as good.

Otherwise, it's good all arround. This is my view as a normal person though, not a pro.

Thanks!
Note that it might look even darker on bright forum, on the full screen it will look a bit different (you can try to open it in full screen to see for yourself). But you might be right here, I'm not denying that, lets see what others think
About the vase, I was going to redraw it, because the old one was of no use for me, but I didn't felt like doing it, maybe I'll add it before v0.8



PS That's why I had troubles with GIMP program before, because it has almost white interface vs Photoshops dark grey&black :p And it was the first work to be done completely in photoshop, using mainly the tools I learned in school

PS2 Added 2000x1500 & 800x600 versions on dropbox, no psd because of the size (150mb) unless you want me to upload it there too.

I want to congratulate us all with the creation of the main menu. That is truly outstanding work, and I am sincerely happy Ragoon was able to implement all ideas I asked. I am proud that the project is attractive to such talented and creative guys like him.

The way you remade the signs and the barrel is awesome, with no visible difference in graphic style with the original author, Ashirox. It's also amazing to see the banner in a proper color; the project logo seems to be fitting there just fine.

I am a bit in doubt about the current mod subtitle (it's red and the font is looking a little too synthetic), but that's absolutely not your fault and perhaps it's only my imagination. The only note I can leave here is that perhaps the logo could be a little more saturated and in contrast with the background (see the letters in the center, HEROES in particular; probably the lightness effect (did you use Dodge tool there) is too much). But it can be different in the guys' eyes.

One more note is about the New Game shield. Did you try to widen the distance between the upper rivets so that they satisfy the H2 original more? Was it looking bad enough?
The horizontal ones are maybe okay, but the vertical ones seem to be a little misplaced, see comparison.


P.S. it's right that you made the New Game text smaller so that it doesn't stick out from the shield, because the original H2 text has darkened edges on the letters, making them standing out more as if they were part of a neon lights (i.e. having volume, shifted towards the viewer). They also have shadows underneath in the H2 original, contributing to that impression I described.
Perhaps in future you may want to make the font closer to the original, keeping that in mind. But for now having full alphabet is more important because we will be able to design VK, FB and ModDB interfaces easily, preparing them for the incoming users just after the mod is released. Cyrillic and Extended Latin (for Polish letters) is the thing I can only dream of.

I've also got an idea which may be not so well recognized by some users, so that I present it as purely an idea at core.

What if we follow the example of classic Heroes 3 townscreens and add a disclaimer (alongside a version mark) just like it's done, for example, in HotA:









And an option with a bit of opacity:


What do you think? Will it ruin your impression of a 'H2 remastered' feel?

I agree with the text. It looks good, but not great. Needs that "magic touch" to make it just right...however I can't tell what must be done exactly.

As for the text under it, I never really noticed it honestly, or maybe I did and forgot it. I agree that it is a good idea, at least adding the website is great.

As for that,a little off topic: is there any backup for these forums? who knows what might happen...

That main screen is awesome! Congratulations Ragoon!!

This is such an amazing work of art you did Ragoon! I am very glad and impressed with the result which to make is a beautiful recreation of the classic H2 menu screen. I have nothing to put my finger on here, but maybe I just can't imagine how it could be even better. Fantastic picture!

P.S about the disclaimer. I actually would like if we could avoid it, because it ruins the picture quite much to me. I don't think we need it for legal reasons. I support a version number though

Maybe put the disclaimer/website URL there, but give an option to turn it off ?

That way if someone new plays the game (and doesn't get it from here) he will see the website name, and then he can just turn it off if he wants too

I think a version number somewhere in the corner will be enough. Let's wait for the final improvements from Ragoon!

Fixes: Barrel, Shield, Banner

GIF Comparison (heavy):

Top notch work. The project now has a face thanks to you, and the release must happen as soon as possible.

I am only in doubt about the subtitle font/color. Will need other opinions to be absolutely sure about it.

The experiment with the shield letters can exist, we will see how it will look in the game to users after numerous launches.

I've made buttons!

! IMPORTANT !

Orzie, I'm reuploading 800x600 PNG on dropbox, because I messed up the conversion before and it will now be sharper. I've made the buttons to work with the new version only (called "SWmenuRAGOON800x600_3").

So, here they are:

normal:

mouseover (one at a time):

click (one at a time):

dim (when the brown bar is up, after clicking on the button):

The brand new main menu is up and running!

- Implemented Ragoon's graphics at their finest (also fixed broken transparent pixels in the source images)
- Fixed the old in-game error with the Cancel button it was being pressed incorrectly
- Implemented the brown panel in that way so it is not a part of the background anymore so the first level of the menu is now visible

- Awaiting the last fix with the Campaign button where it launches the Custom Campaign menu automatically (v0.8 feature)
- Awaiting the Credits button to be fixed (didn't work even before we started updating the menu for some reason)

Getting it to work:

1)
Dropbox\The Succession Wars Mod\Graphics\Interface\main menu\!test
Put all DEF and BMP files in Succession Wars.pac (don't touch "src" folder)

2)
Dropbox\The Succession Wars Mod\Sources\Binaries\mainmenu.bin
Dropbox\The Succession Wars Mod\Sources\h2sw_mainmenu.era
Put both files to EraPlugins folder

Rejoice!



P.S. I think that still we must do something with the red subtitle. Now it's clear that it is not only me, because there were comments about it on our info sources.
Perhaps, we can switch it back to the earlier version which didn't have grey background so it won't stand out so aggressively?

Without the grey bar:

Amazing! I look forward to seeing it in-game I agree that the red text fits better without the gray area that surrounds it, just like Ragoon shows it.

I guess so. You can play with the new menu even now if you follow my instructions above

For now, here is my progress with the Sorceress.

It is true that the Capitol in the shape of a ziggurath is a really bad tone, and in future versions it will probably be replaced with a new structure or built in another way (widened, but not raised). For now though, we have more important matters to deal with. Reconsidering the current function of main buildings will lead to total rearrangement of the townscreen which is currently undesirable.

There are some decorative objects planned, like the Gazebo the purpose of which was mainly to fill the place near the Town Hall and perhaps some additional inactive Sprite houses appearing with the growth of the Town Hall (H3 vibe). In future, it will be nice to have an Alchemist lab somewhere on the townscreen as the source of Mercury. For now though, it is supposed to be the Well (kinda weird, but it's easier to assign other duties to other buildings that way for v0.8 ). The Gazebo will probably be used as the H3 Mysterious Pond for now (v0.8 ), Crystals stand for the Sprite growth, Rainbow is for the Fountain of Fortune, and the Statue is a decorative part of the Town Hall.

In the following days, I am supposed to draw the lacking water and Rainbow/Red Tower, and fix somehow the Town Hall and, ultimately, the skies which need a lot of love for the time being.

Will we be able to change the horde growth building effects? For instance as you say the growth boost could be for sprites instead of dwarfs and druids.

Yes, we can and supposedly will. The same fate may also follow for the Well which may be later reconsidered and made an Elf/Satyr/Unicorn horde too.

Sounds good. I can't seem to find the mainmenu.bin file though. Did you forget to put in the DB?

I supposedly did, so please check the same folder. Should be there now.

Okay, everything that Orzie, Agar and the rest of the Team have prepared for Dervish and Sorcereress townscreens has been added to the Mod! Towns are probably not in their final form, but they are working flawlessly