C'n'P cities from RoN graphics

[T-mun]

I'll see what I can do to make them look more natural. BTW I think I will come back to something closer to what I used to have, because when I tried them in-game I kept having towers build on water tiles, which looked bad. If I put them down a bit, one cannot see the bottom of the tower and it seems to be built on land.
I have also been working on my first idea: larger cities with some houses around them, growing up with time. Cities get larger but they also get higher. Here's what I just finished:

In-game preview:

Spoiler :

 

[Ozymandias]

Your work is excellent Just so you know, RoN conversions were also made Long Ago & Far Away in 2005 by Hoowler and ArbitraryGuy.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Lookin' good!

 

[T-mun]

Lookin' good!

Thank you Thorvald

Your work is excellent Just so you know, RoN conversions were also made Long Ago & Far Away in 2005 by Hoowler and ArbitraryGuy.

I didn't know these ones, but as I said in my other thread, there have been other conversions but they had palette problems, had different scales (villages are too big compared to cities), and were badly placed on the grid. I also adjusted the contrast and brightness. Last point is the Indian set and the American Natives set had never been converted, and there were no "walled" cities like the ones I tried to build.
The ones by Hoowler look a bit like mine, except that I'm using simple houses, apartments and offices instead of barracks, temples and such because the player can choose to build them or not and see them in the city view.

 

[Blue Monkey]

The first era cities have the sort of "everything blending together" problem discussed above. Sometimes rather than moving things around a bit of work with contrast/brightness, saturation/lightness, and sharpen will do the trick.

This is far from perfect, just a 5 minute demo, but it gives an idea ...

Given a little more time the changes can be made more subtly. Or even CnP some from one onto the other to enhance shadows and highlights.

 

[Takhisis]

Yes, the one on the right does look much better.

 

[Ozymandias]

Thank you Thorvald

I didn't know these ones, but as I said in my other thread, there have been other conversions but they had palette problems, had different scales (villages are too big compared to cities), and were badly placed on the grid. I also adjusted the contrast and brightness. Last point is the Indian set and the American Natives set had never been converted, and there were no "walled" cities like the ones I tried to build.
The ones by Hoowler look a bit like mine, except that I'm using simple houses, apartments and offices instead of barracks, temples and such because the player can choose to build them or not and see them in the city view.

Oh dear I never meant to criticize your work (indeed, quite the contrary, I've praised it in this thread.) I just like to keep the clan as well informed as I can - and perhaps supply some pcxs which might be directly worked with ... (recall I straightforwardly refer to myself as the, "Village gfx idiot.")

,

Oz

 

[T-mun]

I thank you for informing the clan and myself, Oz I really have no idea where you found these. I don't need pcx to work with because I have the original files and found a way to make working palettes.

Blue Monkey, could you give the values you enterred to get this result ? The shadows already look too dark in my pcxs, so I'm not sure they need to be enhanced. But the rest looks great.

 

[Ozymandias]

I really have no idea where you found these.

Why, in the Great Library - Um, I mean The Archives. I managed to preserve quite a bit from before the Great Hacking.

,

z

 

[Blue Monkey]

Blue Monkey, could you give the values you enterred to get this result ? The shadows already look too dark in my pcxs, so I'm not sure they need to be enhanced. But the rest looks great.

Honestly don't remember the exact values because it was done on the fly. Powers of 2 generally seem to work the best for me. I tend to use +/- 8 or 16. As in contrast one way and brightness the other. Or in the same direction but one up 4 and the other up 8, for example. Playing with the sliders until it looks good enough. I keep the original on a second layer for side by side comparison.

With GIMP ( probably the same in other programs) free (or wand) select an area. Then the adjustments only happen in the selected area. For example, only the shadows can be lightened - or contrast increased in parts, but not everywhere. Also, sometimes if contrast/brightness is enhanced, then saturation needs to be slightly reduced so the colors don't get too garish. Often helps to select and make changes while viewing the image at 200 or 400 %. Part of the grind fun of pixel work. Gets easier (more intuitive) with practice.