Preview: Pollution

[Balthasar]

Well, since my first suggestion was universally ignored, I thought I'd offer a compromise between Goldfool's worthy idea of coloring pollution to look like volcano ash, and Vuldacon's "dead tree" pollution which I like alot, but still has the obnoxious orange of the original pollution graphic (no offense). What I've done is take the orange out of Vuldacon's graphic, and replaced it with volcanic ash taken from a texture of actual volcanic ash. Taking a cue from Goldfool, I've added some ash-covered trees and an ash-covered building or two. I think it came out pretty well. Here's a pic of it on one of my own terrains-in-progress:

I would think the credit would go to me, Goldfool and Vuldacon since it's an amalgam of ideas from each.

 

[Vuldacon]

Not concerned about Credit at all... In fact Balthasar stated what he was doing.
Anyone can mix and match as they please to make something different they like for their game. If no one would use what I upload, I wouldn't bother

 

[Balthasar]

Well Vuldacon, since it's Goldfool's idea, introduced on this very thread, and basically your excellent graphic recolored, I could hardly claim it as mine, all mine...

I do agree about "fair use" of what I make - if I didn't think anyone would use it, change it, even abuse it - it wouldn't make any sense to post it here.

 

[Vuldacon]

Balthasar... Well, You put this different Pollution together in your own way... so that changes the Pollution to something you did, not me anyway. Ideas are one thing and actually making them reality another.
... as you stated, we all upload files for use and even if the files are used to help create something new, they are at least helpful in that way. I certainly would not expect everyone be able to use or like everything I do. I only uploaded the Pollution as something different and also for the purpose of using it to make what ever you like. I also stated this in the "Read Me".

... IF you want my opinion of the new pollution you made, I think it is something different again and that can be Good for those who also want to use it.
I would like to see More Texture to the Ash because it is rather smooth.

You could Change the Pollution you started with to sort of a Grey Scale by removing the Color Saturation to 80% or more. This will have some very slight color remaining. Experiment with the amount of Reduced Color Saturation. Then you could add some very slight color to that (colorize, with a slight Tint). The Point is that this would keep the Original Palette indexes so you can alter any specific Color Slot rather than using Grey Scale itself which would create a new Grey Scale Palette.
Then Change that to 16 million colors and add dead Bodies, etc... make the Palette and you would have more light/dark areas to show more texture at CIV Scale. Many Combinations of Slight Color and Contrast with this sort of method could make more interesting Pollution

 

[Balthasar]

Okay Vuldacon,

This wasn't done exactly as you suggested, but I did discover a Gimp filter called "HSV Noise" that provided plenty of texture to the ash. Here's Mt. St. Helens:

Thanks for the suggestions, Vuldacon. I think I'll go with this as my version.

 

[Pounder]

Okay Vuldacon,

This wasn't done exactly as you suggested, but I did discover a Gimp filter called "HSV Noise" that provided plenty of texture to the ash. Here's Mt. St. Helens:

Thanks for the suggestions, Vuldacon. I think I'll go with this as my version.

View attachment 211247

That's pretty good.

 

[Vuldacon]

Yes, I like that much better with texture.
I would also suggest to add more single pixels of the colors you used scattered around the more dense areas to provide more of an ash look. You know, speckles from the dense part out but not all tiles with the same application of them. A slight dispersed dusting so to speak from dense to diffuse.

 

[Balthasar]

Sort of like this?

any more than that and it starts to look like snow...

 

[Vuldacon]

Balthasar... sort of like that only with more diversity of speckles (not so many in all tiles) and not continuing so far from the Mass of ash... Used more around the edges of the Masses of Ash on each tile to give the ash look rather than precise Splotches is what I was attempting to convey. These speckles would go from dense to nothing in a short distance with a variety of shades you used in the ash.
Adding a variety of the darker shades for them intermittently would also look better and prevent the Snow look as it creates more texture effect that would be seen at a distance.
Snow is all the same basic shade and that is the thing to avoid. Even though ash would also be seen this way, to avoid it looking like snow, I would use several shades in the speckles and basically only use the speckles sparingly to make the edges more Dust looking. A few areas could have more speckles at a greater distance but not many.

 

[Balthasar]

That's pretty good.

Thanks Pounder. With Vuldacon's advice, it might just work out.

To wit:

This latest version is more restrained. I made a special effort to eliminate straight lines and edges.

 

[Goldfool]

Well Vuldacon, since it's Goldfool's idea, introduced on this very thread, and basically your excellent graphic recolored, I could hardly claim it as mine, all mine...

I do agree about "fair use" of what I make - if I didn't think anyone would use it, change it, even abuse it - it wouldn't make any sense to post it here.

Balthasar, I think they are great, you have made pretty much exactly what I wanted.

Bottom line for me, I don't really care who made them, I just want something that I can use to make my game look better. I'm happy you took the time to do this and make them available to us.

You should post them in the Graphic Mod forum.

 

[Balthasar]

Then my work is done here. All further work on my Volcano Ash pollution pcx will continue in the Graphics Mod forum here. Thank you Goldfool for the idea, and for the use of your thread to develop it.