Ancient sprawl graphic set

[Keroro]

I need help.

Prompted by Civinator, I have decided that an ancient sprawl graphic set, similar to the industrial sprawl graphics included in PTW, should be made. I'm guessing that no-one will be that keen on doing it, so I'll do it myself. But, I am a cut and paster, not a real creator. What I am asking, nay, begging for, are some small buildings that I can adapt and cut and paste into the graphics. The buildings really do have to be small - the smallest would be about 20X20 pixels, and the largest about 50X50. I would prefer the buildings to be fairly culturally un-specific so they could be used from China to Rome, though a slight leaning towards the classical greek style would be fine by me.

If anyone can help with providing some source material then I can get to work. If anyone is willing to create building specially for this then that's great, otherwise some pointers towards where I could c'n'p stuff from is equally useful. It would also be interesting to hear what anyone thought about the idea.

Many Thanks to you all, good people.

K.

 

[Civinator]

This is great and you got my help.

Scurk-buildings (even ancient ones at CFC): http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2477

I attache a temporary zip-file with Ancient Scurk- buildings. In addition some of Varwno´s buildings and some other civ2 buildings (the same resource for the last to download as the Scurk-buildings) can be used too.

This is a gigantic task.

Edited: Of course the main source, even for the Industrial Sprawl graphics are the Civ 3 Vanilla\Art\ City View graphics.

 

[Spacer One]

if you need any more help, Im getting better at bryce, and need practice...

Id be glad to make anything you think youd need

 

[Keroro]

Civinator - Of course I should have thought of the city view graphics. They are perfect for this task and should do for the majority of what I need. I took a look at the Sim City stuff too, but I don't think that much would be usable. It's a bit large (and therefore grainy when re-sized), and even the buildings that are meant to be ancient look a bit modern to me. I've picked out a few that may help though.

Spacer One - Thankyou sir for the offer. It's most generous, and I may take you up on it. Firstly, I think that I'll try to get the main work done with the easily available cut and pastes.

Now a few questions for anyone with the knowledge:

1 - I'm assuming that the railroad graphics are simply laid over the top of the road graphics, am I right? I'll probably produce two versions - one for roads and one for railroads (with a stone paved effect).

2 - Do roads go over the top of irrigation - I'm hoping for a yes here.

3 - How the hell am I going to find time for this?

 

[Virote_Considon]

1. Yes, and the road graphics on its tile "disappear", unless it is not connected to surrounding RR tiles

2. Yes

3. Win the bingo?

 

[WildWeazel]

The RR graphics aren't exactly "laid over" the road graphics, they replace them. A RR won't necessarily follow the same path as the road it replaces.

Good luck, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with

 

[Civinator]

Keroro, did you have a look on the other "city"-graphics for Civ 2, especially the buildings ripped off from Cesar III? : http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2475

Even the buildings large and small files from the city screen folder or the different terrain buildings (for instance here I remember a roman castell)could be intereesting resources.

 

[Keroro]

Virote/Weasel - thanks.

Civinator - thanks, and I think that I have enough buildings for now.

I have made some progress, and was thinking about posting a preview. Then my computer crashed and half the work was lost. Ho-hum. I haven't lost everything though, and will try to post something tomorrow after I've done a little more. There's a heck of a lot of tiles to go through though - it'll take a while.

 

[Keroro]

A small example of how things are going:

Using Ares' terrain, Pounder's irrigation and the standard cities. It would probably look a bit better with other cities.

Any comments on how it's going? It's not finished yet - so far I've mainly done the tiles with most buildings on, but that will change as I go on and get more tiles done.

 

[WildWeazel]

It's looking great already! When you get to the less dense tiles, it might be a good idea to use more rural buildings like shacks and huts.

 

[Quinzy]

If you add some sort of shadow (horribly awkward though) it would make it all the better!

 

[Keroro]

Thanks Weasel. I'm thinking about adding more trees and some ruins on the less populated areas.

@ Quinzy - It does look like it will need some shadows, though I can see that being a bigger job than doing the set in the first place. Unfortunately all this is cut n' paste rather than in 3D, so it will be tricky. I may be able to sort out some shadows by using a separate layer in GIMP.

Anyone got any good tricks for doing shadows (in 2D) while we're on the subject? It looks like the civ standard is to have shadows pointing left (with the sun in the East).

 

[Spacer One]

lame c-n-p shadows trick #1...

make a copy of the subject, on the pallet cause a fade from True black, to a few shades lighter, rotate/stretch the copy to the desired angle to match the civ shadows...paste the original subject over the "shadow"...

its not pretty, but Ive gotten good results...it doesnt help with shadows ON the subject graphic tho (remember the FIRST & LAST words of this post are "lame")

 

[Gen. Rommel]

...it doesnt help with shadows ON the subject graphic tho

I don't think that poses a problem in this case, since the actual buildings themselves do have shadow (on the western walls, for instance).

This thread gives me an idea, though I will need to fiddle around with it before actually releasing my idea.

 

[Keroro]

Thanks for the 'lame' tip Spacer - it does work OK as long as you zoom out enough. I have been able to get some results using that technique but I'll have to see how they work out.

I'll post some more shots soon - soon being in about three weeks since I'm on holiday from Wednesday and won't be able to get to a computer. See you all soon.

 

[Stormrage]

I wonder what kind of BBQ party could you make if cows were really that big..

... nice stuff you have there, Keroro

 

[Blue Monkey]

I wonder what kind of BBQ party could you make if cows were really that big.

And imagine how nicely the roses will bloom.

 

[Keroro]

Digging up this old thread since my old computer seems to have gained a mini burst of life since I started looking for a new one.

I've more or less got all the tiles filled now, though I think that it looks a little too busy perhaps? I'm sorry to say that I more or less gave up on the shadows since they were too difficult to implement. I think that someone will probably do a 3D version sometime that might look better (Varwnos or Pounder perhaps), but this 2D set might be sufficient for now.



How does it look? I'll go and make Christmas lunch now, I expect someone to tear my work to pieces by the time I come back.

 

[Virote_Considon]

I like it! This will go strait in my Greek scenario when finished!

 

[Sandris]

Here you can find graphics for Roman, Hellenic, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Celtic and Germanic cities (houses, buildings).

Cities