Graphic features and other improvements

[raystuttgart]

@Hussar114
Thanks for the contribution.

 

[Hussar114]

@Hussar114
Thanks for the contribution.

Hello raystuttgart,

No problem, it was fun for me to create it.

Maybe I'll make a better "make-up" for some other FFs later. If all of you creators (big respect!) agree of course, sorry for "barging through the door" out of the blue sky

 

[raystuttgart]

Maybe I'll make a better "make-up" for some other FFs later. If all of you creators (big respect!) agree of course, sorry for "barging through the door" out of the blue sky

If you want to do further modding, please contact @Nightinggale over in our discord.

We could give you direct write access to our git repository so you could directly implement contributions in the development branch.
It would be much more efficient and causing less overhead than posting files that somebody else then has to merge.

 

[Hussar114]

If you want to do further modding, please contact @Nightinggale over in our discord.

We could give you direct write access to our git repository so you could directly implement contributions in the development branch.
It would be much more efficient and causing less overhead than posting files that somebody else then has to merge.

Ok, thank you! Although, I really don't plan to do anything too big, and I really prefer you who are true "founding fathers of WTP" to check my artwork first.

For now, I just wanted to do make-up for three guys: Robert Bakewell, Sir John Harvey and Carl Von Linne. So, just polishing of the existing file/pic. And for all I know, maybe you'll still like your original versions better.

As for Sir John Harvey, so far I managed to do this:

So, let me know if I'm going in the right direction

 

[raystuttgart]

So, let me know if I'm going in the right direction

It looks very nice.

Your version is definitely better than the one I created.
My version was basically simply cut out from a picture I found only.

I really prefer you who are true "founding fathers of WTP" to check my artwork first.

Problem is that this would require either me or @Schmiddie to be active at the moment though as the rest of the guys usually do not work with graphics.
But both of us are currently taking a break from modding to actually play games again ... and having to merge and commit work of others is not really fun.

In WTP we are basically a modding community where contributors work self responsibly.
We do not work really work in a controlled or centralized fashion. We try to avoid micro-management or any unnecessary process overhead.

So again, if you want to contribute it is best you get write access to GIT and commit your changes directly yourself.
Of course you can still show your work here first, but please let us not create unnecessary overhead with others having to merge and commit for you.

-----

Summary:
Your work looks fine and you are welcome to join our efforts. It is also highly appreciated if you show what you are doing from time to time.
But please try to work self responsibly and directly on the development branch using GIT to avoid causing overhead for others for merging.

Thanks again for the motivation to contribute.
And welcome in the modding community.

If you need help setting up GIT or any other stuff to get the development version running, do not hestitate to contact us in our discord. (link)
It is not that difficult to get it running and really the most efficient way to cooperate. Everybody who ever supported us was working that way.

 

[Hussar114]

It looks very nice.



Summary:
Your work looks fine and you are welcome to join our efforts. It is also highly appreciated if you show what you are doing from time to time.
But please try to work self responsibly and directly on the development branch using GIT to avoid causing overhead for others for merging.

Thanks again for the motivation to contribute.
And welcome in the modding community.

If you need help setting up GIT or any other stuff to get the development version running, do not hestitate to contact us in our discord. (link)
It is not that difficult to get it running and really the most efficient way to cooperate. Everybody who ever supported us was working that way.

Ok, I'll try to handle GIT, no sweat. I'm not very fast with modding, especially I won't be now when holidays are coming. But I'll post everything here first, and no worries I'm not in any hurry either. If nobody came here for days it won't bother me

P.S. As for "our" Sir John Harvey, I'll finish it and try to add him first.

 

[Hussar114]

Evening everyone...

So, I finished improving FF portraits, as promised, including:
Carl Von Linne, Robert Bakewell, Sir Johny Harvey, Admiral William Penn (I added him later)

A sample:

And as a special bonus (new face, because the old one was very bright) Otto Friedrich Von Der Groeben. My way of saying "have a happy holidays".
A sample:

For now I'll attach all files here. After your approval, I'll (hopefully) put it directly into GIT file-store as well. Buttons are all fixed and tested, so basically you can just paste it over existing files, and enjoy the game.

I'm not completely satisfied with what I done, but I hope it's an improvement.

 

[Mr. ZorG]

I checked the new images in the game - they look great

 

[raystuttgart]

They all look great.
Definitely an improvement.

 

[CirqueDuMal]

This is great work! Thank you!

 

[Hussar114]

Many thanks to all who supported my artwork.

Next plan: to give Eusebio Francisco Kino a proper portrait. I managed to find something that can help: a 3D model of him here. So maybe I'll manage to do something out of it. I hope I won't break any copyrights.


Btw, I noticed how FF Gilbert and Raleigh have a very similar picture. I know there is a lot of confusing material on the internet, and same pic can sometimes be titled as one, sometimes as the other. I also know they were half-brothers, so there is a chance they were strikingly similar to each other, especially with the same outfit and same beard. Can anyone explain this a bit more?

 

[raystuttgart]

See here:

Walter Raleigh - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Humphrey Gilbert - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

They really had a very similar style.
Probalby because they lived in the same time. (Late 16th century.)

Sir Humphrey Gilbert (1539 - 1583)
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618)

But indeed, if you google for one of them you will also get shown pictures of the other. So maybe something got mixed up.
Google is kind of strange when you search for pictures of historic persons ... as it often will also bring up other historic persons.

 

[Hussar114]

@raystuttgart

Thanks, and yes - I also checked wikipedia first. However, even wiki can be wrong sometimes. If I can conclude anything from the given pictures in general, Walter and Humphrey were similar in appearance.


Furthermore, this also confuses me. I'm asking questions in order to make the game better, and more reliable source of informations - sorry if I'm pain in the rear. According to Colopedia, this is Samuel Bloomaert:

However, internet pages claims it's Henry Hudson:

Other example:

Henry Hudson: Definition & Discoveries - HISTORY

Henry Hudson was an English navigator and explorer who made four trips to North America, encountering the Hudson River, Hudson Bay and other important landmarks.

www.history.com

While "real" Samuel Bloomaert looked like this:

Samuel Blommaert - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Is Colopedia wrong or am I missing something?

 

[raystuttgart]

Is Colopedia wrong or am I missing something?

The picture looks close enough to me to what I see in Wikipedia but I never cared that much about historical perfection of these images.
Modding is not about "perfection" ... it is about achieving what is possible with the skills, time and motivation modders and supporters have.

In some cases we simply took suitable images that we found that would look "close enough to the real person" as other pictures simply had too bad quality.
Hardly any player or even historian would notice the difference and it is still just a game. Also in modding often compromises are made simply to reduce efforts.

Thus it is of course possible and likely that when searching the internet for pictures some mistakes where made or images were or chosen due to lack of better alternatives.
So if you notice that an image does not fully match and you are motivated to search for a better picture and creating a new image, just go ahead.

Feel free to improve things as you are motivated.
If you notice a problem, don`t ask for permission.

I'm asking questions in order to make the game better, and more reliable source of informations.

We are also no historians and would also need to look in Wikipedia or other sources online. So many years later I do not remember any details anymore.
I do not know if all the images of the FFs in the mod are historically correct. Most are probalby quite accurate ... some may not. As explained above, we made compromises.

So sure, go ahead and ask, but most likely what you find out about how these people looked in your research will be more accurate than what we still know about their looks.
It was years ago that we implemented them and even then the research we did was done relatively quick as our time for modding was limited and endless things had to be done.

 

[Schmiddie]

I'm currently not sure (also I have currently not the time to check out) who made which new image respectively which are new and which are not. However, if there is such a nice image as (obviously currently) for Samuel Bloomaert we should not delete it without any notice. I'm sure at some point we will catch one which was made with passion by another modder. Let's then check first if that's the case (I remember I did some of them myself long time ago but can currently not remember which ones) and if one shall be changed - if that's really one that needs to be changed. I like the current one for Samuel Bloomaert and if it looks at least a little similar I would not expect a change - unless there definitely exists a better one.

 

[raystuttgart]

Agreed, it is probably best to focus work on those graphics that currently have low quality and do not look as good as the others.
If the image looks really nice and comes close enough to the most likely looks, it can stay as it is - from my point of view there is no need for "historic perfectionism".

 

[bookaneer]

at the end we will end with this one for

"Samuel Blommaert"​

Weiterleitungshinweis

Just kidding, sorry, guys

Keep up the good work.

 

[Hussar114]

Agreed, it is probably best to focus work on those graphics that currently have low quality and do not look as good as the others.
If the image looks really nice and comes close enough to the most likely looks, it can stay as it is - from my point of view there is no need for "historic perfectionism".

Hello raystuttgart, hello guys,
Sorry but I barely managed to read the answers, being really busy with whatnot for the last few days. Bookaneer gave me a good laugh, in a good way of course Yes I also tried to find any useful portrait of Samuel Blommaert myself, but no luck so far.

Anyway, I was able to fulfill my promise and made the alternative portrait of Eusebio Francisco Kino / Eusebius Franz Kühn. Oh boy, this was a though one because I didn't have any decent picture to start with. Eventually I used the pic I already sent, and after some grinding, testing, deleting, trying again etc. - voila, something usable came out. Let me know is it okay

Naturally, I fixed and tested button as well. As usual, you only have to paste attached files over existing ones.

 

[raystuttgart]

Anyway, I was able to fulfill my promise and made the alternative portrait of Eusebio Francisco Kino / Eusebius Franz Kühn.

Looks better than the image we had previously.
(I had cut it out from a low quality picture I had found somewhere.)

Here is by the way the thread where we had discussed / collected graphics last time:

more Traits and more Founding Fathers [IMPLEMENTED]

Hi guys, our feature "Growing Improvements" is currently not considered in any Trait. It is a pretty important feature though and would deserve its consideration in Traits. It could be considered in "Civilization Trait" to better balance one of the weaker Civs. It could also be considered in a...

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[Hussar114]

Looks better than the image we had previously.
(I had cut it out from a low quality picture I had found somewhere.)

Here is by the way the thread where we had discussed / collected graphics last time:

more Traits and more Founding Fathers [IMPLEMENTED]

Hi guys, our feature "Growing Improvements" is currently not considered in any Trait. It is a pretty important feature though and would deserve its consideration in Traits. It could be considered in "Civilization Trait" to better balance one of the weaker Civs. It could also be considered in a...

forums.civfanatics.com

Thanks ray. Of course it's (by whole mile) more important to work on lower-quality portraits than chasing perfection. This is why I announced E.F. Kino right away. I also found that old pic of E.F.K. that was already integrated into the game, even tried to do something with that picture first, but it was futile. Maybe some "Expert Designer" ( it costs 1800 at the docks ) can do something out of it, but I wasn't happy with the result.

I checked the link, some pictures I already find, but some I didn't. So thx! I will not make any promises for now, until the New Year passes.