Zitat von Scotty im Beitrag #49I updated the server today. It runs now on Archlinux. Unfortunately I didn't manage to configure email. But all other features should work well.
If you cannot connect right now (2014-Oct-21, 20:00 UTC): The temporary service was available for 24h only and has been canceled now. If you reboot, the DNS cache is updated and you should get redirected to the correct address.
I have not been able to log in for a long time now. It says "Network Error: Connection refused".
I have also tried three times to connect with various people directly, but that doesn't seem to be working either...
Here's how this theme looks right now, thanks to new changes made by Scotty recently. Hi-res board textures are now possible! Not only that, but the option to toggle the board coordinate boxes on and off has been added, so the skinned boards now look much better. Now I need to figure out how to make all of my designs work with 3D gameplay, also! I think it's just a matter of integrating the coordinate box render settings, but I'm not sure. In any case, here is how the "garden" theme looks:
Like the marble & gems board, this one will look MUCH better when I can get transparent textures working properly. The natural grass looks much, much better than that repeating pattern!
It's not finished completely, I think there are many tweaks left until it's as good as it can be, but there it is for right now. Scotty, I know you don't like the tile texture, but none of the others I tried looked anywhere near as good to me. I'm not saying that I won't change it...I will, I just have to find something that works as well visually. Is this okay with you, for now?
I had to slightly resize all textures in order for them to be rendered correctly, but now they all look great.
But I will say this, I have been doing a LOT of research on the internet, in an attempt to discover a way to solve this issue. The Wings3D guy was extremely helpful and informative, and I read up on opengl, texturing, etc. I don't know why, but for some reason it's been very important for me to try and make this dream happen, for many years now.
Zitat von Scotty im Beitrag #6If you simulate light by texture you will not have any dependency on position, angle, light settings etc. It makes no sense to have light in textures. That's what I tried to demonstrate.
I don't really understand why it doesn't make any sense though... I mean I CAN See your point...opengl renders these effects ACCURATELY for you, but I think we should be able to make aesthetic decisions that include light reflections/refractions, as long as they look good. When you use the right tile texture, you don't have to bevel...in fact it looks better if you DON'T bevel. I opened up a discussion thread when I presented the new version of this theme. I was hoping I could get some feedback then, while I was working on it!
Zitat von Scotty im Beitrag #6@all: Apollonius found the reason why textures are ugly, independent from their size. It's because I rescale them internally. And that can be fixed.
Zitat von Scotty im Beitrag #3You shouldn't add light simulation to your texture. That's what OpenGL does for free. Just create a model with bevel and adjust the light. That's all. The texture would get enlighted as well, of course.
Wait...so you removed them? Sorry, I didn't understand what you meant at first, but now I do.
So you don't like them...and you removed them? in your screenshot it shows my design without the tile texture in place...was that just an experiment, or for demonstration purposes?
Zitat von Scotty im Beitrag #3And about tiling, I don't see any reason why you don't map the background texture multiple times in this design; if you have the original tile without the dark center.
I know this is only my opinion, but you asked. To me, tiling a tiny texture across a surface makes ANY program look like it's from 1991. NOTHING dates a program as badly. It just looks horrible to me.
After a lot of small tweaks, this theme is ready. :)
I added some brightness to the textures, hopefully without losing too much detail. I also re-aligned the tiles and board, and updated the XML file to reflect the correct version of the theme.
I hope you enjoy!
Oh! Scotty, if:
- A) You want to release this design with the next exe release, and - B) You add a way to toggle the coordinate boxes on and off...
...would you please toggle the board coordinates OFF by default before you release it?
I did not use the letter plane (the "placed letter" value) to color the tile, that is the color of the bitmap image. I usually do not like using the "placed letter" value because when the board is tilted, you can see the original color underneath. This is the same bitmap for the tiles that the other two designs use, I just re-mapped the palates to recolor them.
I would be willing to make several different tilesets for each design, if there was a way to switch them. Alternately, is there any way to put the "placed letter" color on all 5 exposed sides, or at least the 4 front ones? That way I could just make all the tiles white, and users could switch them to any color they wanted. Maybe it could be as simple as choosing a "placed letter" color currently is?
...Or we could just keep it the way it is. :p It probably doesn't bother anybody but me. LOL!
However, I would like to be able to provide some flexibility for people, without having to feel limited myself. I don't want to have to make all of the tilesets beige or white, for instance. I can even make alternate dsgn files... to have "Garden-ORANGE" or "Garden-WHITE", etc. I think that would be too much clutter though.
I just think it would be a shame for people to miss out on enjoying a design that they really like, simply because they find the tileset illegible. Some people are colorblind, and in varying ways! And then there are simple matters of personal taste.
Oh! And I had planned to attach the design file after I'd made it look a little better, but if you would like I will do it sooner than that. Just please don't release it officially yet!
[EDIT] I think I may have misunderstood what you meant about "normal pieces", Scotty!
This is another theme that has been in progress for a long time, but unlike the afghan and gems themes, this one has not been released yet, in any form. This will just be a development thread until the theme is complete, but in the meantime I have some pictures to show my work so far.
Here is the overall board, as it exists right now:
As you can see, the board frame looks very rough right now. Hopefully that can be fixed soon, but there is what it will basically look like. Also, right now the grass looks more like astroturf, because it's the same tile repeated over and over. If transparent tiles can make a comeback, then this board will look SO much better. Same for the board coordinate boxes...when they can be toggled on and off, the board will look much better.
But in the meantime, I am still working on getting this theme looking as good as I possibly can. I just added grass to the edge of the letter tiles, so they now look like they are actually resting in the grass. :) The effect is subtle, but that was what I was going for. I'm pretty pleased with it!
Again, that board will look a lot better with a solid background in the "normal" spaces.
What do you think?
Does it look okay so far, in spite of what's wrong with it?
Does the orange tileset look ok, or would you suggest another color?
I THINK I HAVE FIGURED THE PIXELATED TEXTURE PROBLEM OUT...MAYBE.
I have been in contact with one of the developers of Wings3D, in an attempt to find a way to make full-design (not tiled) boards look better, and he suggests turning off the blur filter in OpneGL. This filter makes very low resolution images look better, but makes high resolution images look worse by blurring them. Is it possible for this to be turned off?
If this is true, and it's possible to put it into effect, I will help you make the default board textures look better, so that the blur filter will not be necessary!
I can see why the board might look pixelated when you zoom in, but I'm using high-res images. They look great in Wings3D, even when enlarged to a HUGE extent.
Why can't I tell it to expect to repeat the pattern exactly ONE time? It just makes no sense to me.
Okay...I think this might be a "ghost" setting in the cache.
I've noticed that sometimes, when parts of a dsgn are missing, S3D will display an image from its cache, to make up for the missing data.
Am I right? Is there a way to purge old settings? I mean...I know that is already supposed to happen, but sometimes settings seem to get "stuck".
I usually have a light wood tone for my tiles and "new letter" color, so maybe that setting is somehow "stuck" on everything now?
I'm just grasping at straws here. :-/
[EDIT] Oh, and I checked out the dsgn, Scotty. Thank you for making that. I really don't want to have to tile a pattern, I want to skin an entire object with one design. :( It just kills me that it looks so nice in Wings3D, and looks so horrible in S3D. I still keep using that dsgn though...this board has been a dream of mine for years. I will be patient, and together, we will find a way to make the miracles happen! :)
Community projects are a wonderful thing, and I am proud to be a part of this one.
Zitat von Apollonius im Beitrag #53I wonder why you can get a pure white, and I can't...
Maybe OS Windows versus Linux...
Maybe...? I didn't think about that! I don't know enough to say really, but my bf has a linux system. Maybe he can experiment with it? I know he has scrabble3D on his system already...
The board I posted already had no normal.bmp in it. :( I also just tried to put a normal.bmp that I made pure white into the dsgn, and it still looks exactly the same.
It's not just one board. Even on my afghan board, when I try for a light blue, it winds up being light green. Here's what the original bmp looks like, and then how it's displayed in the game:
I wonder why you can get a pure white, and I can't...
What I mean is, if you set a board color (let's say the "normal" space) to white, the space USED to look white on the board when you played. Now it doesn't. :( It looks like a pale yellow, or white walls in a heavy smoker's house. I have adjusted all of the lighting settings, nothing fixes this.
Because of it, if you try to make a pale blue board, it looks green because everything seems to have this yellowish tinge to it.
Here's what I'm talking about:
The board color for the "normal" space is set to pure white, like in the bottom circle in that picture, and what is displayed is pale yellow, as in the top circle. It only started being this way after the new update.
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13.11.2014 19:41
