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Topic: New overlays (Read 488 times)

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Terrorantula

#1 October 01, 2010, 07:07:10 pm

It's Me, Picasso
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IceManual's request for overlays inspired me to try my hand at making some. I believe they''ll work- they're the correct color and size levels for Rm2k3- unless I missed converting a few- and have visual interest as well as dark and light segments. I'll admit I'm not quite clear whether overlays must be pure B&W to be effective, or if they can contain varied shades of gray, like these images.
Feedback welcome.

Last Edit: October 01, 2010, 07:15:06 pm by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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Terrorantula

#2 October 03, 2010, 05:01:17 am

It's Me, Picasso
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Look guys, I really wanna know what you think. Give me some feedback here.

Last Edit: October 03, 2010, 05:18:05 am by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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15312

#3 October 03, 2010, 06:56:21 am

Now it's Time for Change. Now I'm Horus.
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This is Amazing. I never use Overlays like this in My games. The Third from Top gives me an Idea for my game in RMK2K3.

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DS

#4 October 03, 2010, 12:23:21 pm

DragonSlayer o_O
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Rm2k3 uses 320*240 resolution.

To Never Be Known Is The Worst Death

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Terrorantula

#5 October 03, 2010, 07:59:03 pm

It's Me, Picasso
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Whoops- I got mixed up! Overlays are pictures, not panoramas, aren't they? I'll post properly-scaled versions in a jiffy. Anyone's welcome to use them, but please credit me. Thanks.

I''l put the restr up later *yawnj*

Last Edit: October 03, 2010, 08:38:26 pm by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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Renegade

#6 October 04, 2010, 12:26:49 am

It's coming along nicely...
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I really like the first one you posted, but I'm not overly impressed with the rest. For a first shot though, you did a pretty darn good job.

Sweet online game in alpha.
http://trisphere-rpg.com/index.php?refer=bucchus

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Terrorantula

#7 October 04, 2010, 02:23:44 am

It's Me, Picasso
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Thanks. Here we go, but for two:

Just to give proper credit, the symbol in the top image is one of Obsidian Dawn's Arcane Circles brushes.
BTW, please move this to the Resources subsection.

Last Edit: October 04, 2010, 02:50:37 am by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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the bloddy ghost

#8 October 04, 2010, 02:37:20 am

::pulls another Hideo Kojima::
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I think the overlays would work better if they were separated into parts. Like the funky symbols in the first one should be a separate image.

has a girl in his bed. pot in his pipe and family guy on the tube. i like life

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Terrorantula

#9 October 04, 2010, 02:49:16 am

It's Me, Picasso
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which would violate the TOS. That circle of symbols is merely the brush- I can use it in a composition, but not merely plop it down on black and pass it around. Besides, part of the point here is to combine the materials in creative ways to make new things.

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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the bloddy ghost

#10 October 04, 2010, 05:45:38 am

::pulls another Hideo Kojima::
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Well, most of them are kind of pointless as overlays. I could see someone using the third and the last one, but that's about it.

has a girl in his bed. pot in his pipe and family guy on the tube. i like life

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SegNin

#11 October 04, 2010, 03:55:43 pm

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RPG Maker 2000 & 2003 can't display pictures with a color depth higher than 256 colors.

So, your overlays need to have their color depth reduced to 8 bpp (bits per pixel)

8 bpp = 256 colors
24 bpp = 16.7 million colors

You can use a graphic editor, like IrfanView, to reduce the color depth to 8 bpp.

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Terrorantula

#12 October 04, 2010, 06:47:36 pm

It's Me, Picasso
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Wait, I thought I'd done that before posting them. . . OK, I'll fix that. I'll alos put up some items I did completely on my own, though I'm not certain they're convincing as natural light. Of course, in a fantasy setting, there are any number of sources of unnatural light, such as spells, monsters, Yog-sothoth, etc . . .

Last Edit: October 04, 2010, 07:26:18 pm by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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dada

#13 October 05, 2010, 12:09:02 am

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You really should build these things to match the map. old example

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tuxedo marx

#14 October 05, 2010, 12:28:31 am

Fuckin' A.
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yeah dada is right, they only ever look good when they interact with the environment (like, y'know, real light does)

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IceManual5580

#15 October 05, 2010, 12:45:00 am

Bushido Brown
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Sorry for the late response, Terror,

But thanks a bunch for these, I'll try and experiment.

. . . salty is right

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Terrorantula

#16 October 05, 2010, 03:09:36 am

It's Me, Picasso
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Sure. Just double-check to make certain they're the right color level before you do so- apparently I forgot to drop the colors down to 8-bit, though I'll try to post corrected versions ASAP. Also, if you give me screen shots of your maps, I could attempt to design overlays to fit them ,as Dada suggests. Cloud are more general-use, I suspect. . .

Last Edit: October 05, 2010, 03:14:57 am by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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dada

#17 October 05, 2010, 11:37:46 am

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Here's what I always did to simulate real transparent overlays (since rm2k3 only supports 1-bit alpha in images):

1. reduce colors of overlay to the amount of images you're willing to use. 8 is usually good enough.
2. bring image back to 32-bit colors so you can edit it more easily (at least, in photoshop)
3. use the magic wand (set to no anti-aliasing and no tolerance) to cut every shade of the image into its own separate layer.
4. now recolor all your layers so that they don't fade to black anymore. so if your overlay went from white to black, all your layers should be white after this.
5. now save all individual layers as separate images. import these into rm2k3.
6. display all images at the same time. the layers that were originally darker get lower transparency than the ones that were originally bright (before you made them all white).

note I we didn't do this in the screenshot I posted just now because it was okay for the whole thing to be a bit darker. if the scene needs to be fully bright by default, something like this can be useful. of course this only APPROXIMATES real alpha translucency and you'd really do well to move on to an engine that doesn't impose these absurd restrictions on you.

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Terrorantula

#18 October 06, 2010, 03:22:42 am

It's Me, Picasso
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That's really complex. I mainly made these for IceManual, so he'll have to decide how far he wants to go. Another option would be to use a frame to obscure the unlit parts of the area- occasionally useful in dark caves.

Clouds and mist are by definition going to obscure the view, so their use seems quite simple.
Ice wanted some clouds, so I'll see if I can whip some up....

Last Edit: October 06, 2010, 03:49:05 am by Terrorantula

Everyone has the right to be himself; wise men know how to,when, and whether to navigate the boundary between their rights and those of others when they collide.

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IceManual5580

#19 October 07, 2010, 03:54:40 am

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Quote from: Dada on October 05, 2010, 11:37:46 am

Here's what I always did to simulate real transparent overlays (since rm2k3 only supports 1-bit alpha in images):

1. reduce colors of overlay to the amount of images you're willing to use. 8 is usually good enough.
2. bring image back to 32-bit colors so you can edit it more easily (at least, in photoshop)
3. use the magic wand (set to no anti-aliasing and no tolerance) to cut every shade of the image into its own separate layer.
4. now recolor all your layers so that they don't fade to black anymore. so if your overlay went from white to black, all your layers should be white after this.
5. now save all individual layers as separate images. import these into rm2k3.
6. display all images at the same time. the layers that were originally darker get lower transparency than the ones that were originally bright (before you made them all white).

note I we didn't do this in the screenshot I posted just now because it was okay for the whole thing to be a bit darker. if the scene needs to be fully bright by default, something like this can be useful. of course this only APPROXIMATES real alpha translucency and you'd really do well to move on to an engine that doesn't impose these absurd restrictions on you.

Holy fuck. why have i never thought about this.

. . . salty is right

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