User:Sphr/gfx set

Recent News

• Domestic Animals v1.0 : uploaded -- 05:02, 5 January 2008 (EST)
• Tundra Animals v1.1 : fixed an alignment problem for polar bear tiles -- 03:25, 5 January 2008 (EST)
• Tundra Animals v1.0 : uploaded -- 12:50, 4 January 2008 (EST)

Introduction

(you can skip this part... really)

My Guidelines

My guidelines in tile pixel art:

1. Tiles should be distinguishable. Distinguishable != Different (!= means 'not equal', for those who are unfamiliar). Two tiles are different if at least one pixel at the same corresponding position has different value, but that doesn't mean the user can notice the difference when viewing it zoomed out at it's native 16x16 resolution on a 1280x400 window among many other tiles. As much as possible, I try to make my tiles distinguishable, through colors, more distinctive shapes (overlays) etc.
2. Tiles should be intuitively recognizable. Just because tiles are distinguishable doesn't mean you know what it is without consulting some lookup-table or having to enter view unit mode to get more info. As much as possible, I try to make my tiles such that even if a person is looking at it for the first time, he or she can sort of guess what the tile represents and not be too surprised by the actual thing being represented.
3. Lastly, as much as possible, tiles should be nice to look at. While this isn't a strict requirement like the previous two, I figure that nice-looking tiles -> nice-looking game -> happy players. I can't say that all my tiles look good (if any, since aesthetics are really subjective), but I try my best.

I may not always satisfy my own guidelines sufficiently all the time, given the large number of tiles that have to be produced for the gfx set to become usable at the basic level, but I keep the guidelines in mind whenever I do new tiles or remake old ones, when I find better ideas, since I AM producing it for my own benefit and use, motivation will lasts as long as I play the game. But since I find the gfx somewhat useful (could be subjective) I decided to start completing the basic tileset and share it, all in the hope of improving the experiences of some of the players/fans of ToadyOne and ThreeToe's amazing work.

If there are suggestions, especially on improving things according to my 3 guidelines (well, number 3 is a little subjective), please add to this page's discussion. But please do understand that this work is first and foremost meant for myself, so I may not (and will probably never) be able to accommodate all requests. But if I find feasible ideas that can be streamlined into my own goals, and that I can find time to do it, I will incorporate them. So please do not feel slighted/offended if I reject some ideas.

What am I up to now?

• Currently, I'm seeing more of the DF world through an adventurer's eyes. I find that this is the fastest way for me to meet new creatures (usually, I only make creature tiles as I meet them, so that I can tweak them based on in-game view). Since I've been crawling through a lot of cave missions, I'm meeting lots of cave creatures. So much so that I am almost in a position to finish off the tilepage for subterranium creatures. Once I nail down a couple more, I'll finish of the rest of the yet-to-meet creatures in the tilepage and upload the first creature tilepage (for subterranium creatures).
• I've been rethinking over the decision to try to make things DQ v0.94 compatible. I think I will still try to keep things DQC(Dystopian Qantas compatible), but I will also incorporate some changes that I feel are needed. Probably, for most tilepages, I will put up a DQC version which DQ users can directly use by replacing the corresponding image file, and my own variant, which will carry the updated organization and text data.
• After I did the skeletons for some animals and proceeded to work with zombies... I found that I'm bad with zombies. So in the thought of functionality, so that the zombie is not too unrecognizable from the non-zombie variant, I've decided to borrow DR's ideas, of overlaying a "skin" of the original creature over the skeleton of the creature (which is assumed to be aligned), "tear off" some skin and add some blood and goo. I think I did not do a good job, but it'll have to do for now, given the amount of work yet to be done. One good side effect of doing this tiles is that I get to see lots of pictures of real animal skeletons. I only retain the knowledge long enough to do the tiles, but still, it's quite interesting.

Acknowledgements

• As many tiles as I've done, there are still so many more tiles to do to make certain tile pages complete. I'm still using Dystopian Rhetoric tiles myself (those included in DQ) for all those I've not done, as DR is still the most complete set ever (kinda like the MS Arial Unicode among fonts). Only when I started drawing gfx tiles can I truly appreciate just how big the task must have been for DR to put up a complete gfx set. Despite the fact that I'm sort of a "competitor" now in some people's perceptions, my aim is first and foremost trying to improve my own game experience (and hopefully others' too, along the way), and being a long time DR gfx tiles user myself, I have nothing less than utmost appreciation for what he'd done. *salutes*
• Veryinky well deserves a mention too, for organizing all those gfx tiles in a sensible and modular manner so that it becomes much easier for people (like me) to update/maintain them. The organization is based on the raw files organization of the original game itself, so correspondence for modders is easier (e.g. if people add new creature raw, they can add new creature gfx without disturbing the rest using the same pattern). If it isn't for his organization, I think I would never have gotten the motivation to produce more tiles and make them public (under the pressure that one has to make a whole complete set of tiles for all creatures to "publish" them). *salutes*

Race Sets

Similar to other List of user graphics sets, and discussion other items at Talk:List of user graphics sets.

Dwarves

Version 0.9.1

v0.9.* is probably as high as the version can be for some time (less minor tweaks) as I have no immediate plans to do the only thing that is left : zombie and skeleton versions of the dwarves, since they aren't really used in the dwarf mode atm. When I muster the motivation to complete it, that will be the complete version v1.0.

Notes:

• in the last column (column 11), Veryinkey's Dystopian Qantas (v0.94) lists them from top down as COUNT, COUNT_CONSORT, BARON, BARON_CONSORT, DUKE, DUKE_CONSORT, KING, KING_CONSORT, which is strange because I thought it would be more natural if it followed an order of increasing rank (but Count is actually higher in rank to Baron). So in my work, I actually swapped position of BARON with COUNT and BARON_CONSORT with COUNT_CONSORT. The text data at the image's page differs from DQ's in this respect as well. But even without changes to text data, it should be fine as there is only one type of baron/count/duke at any point, if most people are like me who can't be bothered to distinguishing such nobles beyond that they are bags of troubles ;)
• I'm assuming that tile at 9:4 which was previously unreferenced refers to the CAPTAIN_OF_THE_GUARD. This is also recorded in the text data section, which is another area the text data differs from DQ's original.
• (v0.9.1) After a couple of my guards reach champion status, I realised that they become indistinguishable from the controllable champions in the military. So I specialized them. For uniformity, all champions wear golden armor. Champion Fortress Guards wear red capes. Champion Royal Guards wear purple capes. Captain of the Guard now wears a blue cape. Normal champions stays the same (capeless). Unfortunately, this specialization means that I have to make some changes to DQ's organization. Although a copy of the champion tile is still kept at 0:5 for compatibility with DQ v0.94, the new designated positions for CHAMPION:DEFAULT is 0:12, CHAMPION:GUARD is 0:14 and CHAMPION:ROYALGUARD is 0:16 (occupies the free tile below that of RECRUIT:DEFAULT, RECRUIT:GUARD and RECRUIT:ROYALGUARD. And I'm also keeping the convention of controllable military units faces left, civilians and other non-controllable military units (guards/royal guards) faces right. Hopefully this helps in making it even more distinguishable. If the bitmap is simply copied over an existing DQ installation, it will still work, but you won't get the new champions guard/royal guard. To get them, you have to use the updated text data available on the image's page.

16x16 (targeting 1280x400)

For more details and installation instructions, see image page itself (click on image below).

12x12 (targeting 960x300)

Still v0.9. Will update after collating more changes.

NOTE: Available at List of user graphics sets page in an easier to install form put together by Markavian.

This is automatically shrunk from the 16x16 versions with no manual tweaking. So some tiles may become recognizable/unusable. As this is a automatically derived version from 16x16 one, no direct support will be given for this version at this time as I don't want to maintain 2 different sets manually. Just providing an additional channel for people who wants 12x12 instead.

Also, if you think you have a better way of re-sampling the image, you can start from the original 16x16 version.

For the text data, refer to the one for 16x16, but change the line

[TILE_DIM:16:16]

to

[TILE_DIM:12:12]

. Everything else should be the same.

Sample Screenshots

(Only 16x16 versions are shown)

Disclaimer: Most of the following are real captures. A few are faked. Faked doesn't mean that it cannot be done in-game, just that I didn't want to spend the time to do that.

List of civilian professions in Status Screen.
List of military professions in Status Screen.
Whose's blood is that on the barracks floor *THIS* time?
A Tax Collector's day starts in the booze stockpile of the Dining Room.
When Darth Hammer isn't out executing innocent craft dwarves given impossible tasks that are doomed to fail by the evil Nobles of the Empire, he enjoys a quiet evening in his room amidst valuable metal ammo that he had 'claimed' in the name of the Empire. His favourite line: May the Dark Side of the Fortress be with you...
Darth Hammer comes to survey the Storm... eh... Fortress Guards. The Royal Guards accepts his authority in the absence of the Emperor... uh... I mean the King.
A drinking session between Dungeon-"I love chains"-Master and his drinking buddy, Armorer Al. Al: Do you have to bring that silly chain everywhere you go? DM: Why not? I love chains. I love to forge them, I love to use them ... eh.. when chaining animals of course. Al: No need to explain, I won't probe further. At least it was better than that stinking whip you carried last time. DM: I love whips too. I mean... they are used for training animals... Al: ... DM: Really! Al: Speaking of animals, do you HAVE to come to booze session with all the dogs you trained? Escaped the chains that YOU forged... AGAIN huh? DM: It wasn't really the faults my chai... Al:Oh my... what the... did you see what that dog did?? Into that wine barrel??? DID YOU SEE WHAT IT DID??? DM: Don't worry, nobody will notice the difference. It should be harmless to the body. In fact, it could be ACTUALLY be nutritious... Al: I'm NEVER going to drink from a booze stockpile that you've visited... EVER!
A busy day at the trading depot. (Animals are not included in dwarves set. See Domestic Animals in Others section).
The dwarvern gods have decided that a couple of nobles just made one mandate too many... Dwarvern gods' Mandate: a row of cheapskate 1x2 tombs... Can probably lasts about 5 migrations.

Goblins

Version 0.2

Just when I wanted to take a break, the goblins invade... Currently only do enough to handle goblin's invasion + goblin thieves. No ETA on future additions (on need basis).

Version 0.2 adds the "Blood Horns", the equivalent of the goblin's fortress guards, named for the red horns of their elite soldiers. Being not very particular about hygiene, Blood Horns often use actual blood to color their attire.

16x16 (targeting 1280x400)

For more details and installation instructions, see image page itself (click on one of the images below).

Standalone update-friendly version	Dystopian Qantas v0.94 compatible version

Sample Screenshots

(Only 16x16 versions are shown)

Rookie goblin invader party.
Ast the unlucky engineer was reloading a cage trap near the edge of the region when the goblins arrived. He tried to run, but the goblin Pikemaster was faster.
The Champion Squad is dispatched, and as ammo runs out, battle enters melee range.
The battle is won with the invaders killed or chased off. But there was a casualty: a champion who wanted to pick up used ammo on the ground but entered a "Pick up equipment interrupted by goblin blah blah blah" loop and practically got slaughtered while standing still like a duck... Shows that you can wean them through countless dangerous sparring sessions and it still doesn't give them brains...;)
To a dwarf, the most popular tile for goblins comes inbuilt in the game.
A happy family of 5 goblin thieves sits in cages on my animal stockpile, awaiting a one way trip to the execution square. Remember the rule concerning thieves: dogs for kobolds and cages for goblins.

Elves

preview

Sample Screenshots

(Only 16x16 versions are shown)

Elven Traders on Bactrian Camels??? Maybe they came from the Desert... Camels not included.

Kobolds

preview

Sample Screenshots

(Only 16x16 versions are shown)

Thief! Protect the hoard from the skulking filth! Wait, the Fortress is THAT way... Leaving already??? Awwwww... my champions want to play with you....

Humans

Version 0.5

• 0.5 adds skeletons and elite skeletons. Elite skeletons only available in the non DQ compatible one as it requires extra rows.
• I've finished the skeletons and elite skeletons, but I have not decided whether to put it up. The reason is that the original organization used by DQ only sets one row for skeletons. However, to cater for both normal and elite, I need two rows and have modified my local copy to reflect that. The row organization is the same as the other military (one row for normal weapons, one row for elite). Releasing this version will mean a break from the DQ compatibility goal which may make things difficult for current DQ users. I don't know what I'll do yet, prob wait and see. If anybody got good ideas, do tell me about them.
• 0.3 is first version made public. Now has merchants, peasant, child and all military, guards and royal guards.

16x16 (targeting 1280x400)

For more details and installation instructions, see image page itself (click on one of the images below).

new organization	Dystopian Qantas v0.94 compatible version

Sample Screenshots

(Only 16x16 versions are shown)

Armed human trading convoy. Strange that they pair up a horse with a muskox. Animals not included.
The mayor meets the human merchant prince in his cluttered office.
Some sort of town hall in a human town in Adventurer mode. Featuring peasants, child, sword guard, mace guard and the human swordsman adventurer.
Duel with a spear master in a ruin site. I think that guy's a skeleton. That means I'm missing some skeleton tiles...
Same ruins, same skeleton, brand new tile.
Master swordsman meets giant cave spider. Starting to turn and run.

Animal Sets

Domestic Animals

v1.0

For more details and installation instructions, see image page itself (click on image below).

(16x16) DOG;CAT;COW;HORSE;MULE;DONKEY

Sample Screenshots

(using 16x16 tiles)

Domestic animals at a meeting zone. Featuring cats Mk2.

Tundra Animals

v1.1

For more details and installation instructions, see image page itself (click on image below).

(16x16) MUSKOX;ELK;BEAR_POLAR

Sample Screenshots

(using 16x16 tiles)

Muskox pulling a merchant's wagon.
Elk seen on outskirts of human town.
(Reserved for polar bear)	(don't have it yet)

Others

Special occasions

Special tiles for special occasions. (No text data available as these are not meant for usual games, do your own merging.)

Christmas Special 2007

A secret meeting between Darth Hammer and Santa-dwarf. A new conspiracy of the Empire? Overheard: "shining bars... metal" "raw... crystal" "gems... shining" "focusing... light" "blade... red"

Mayor-pretending-to-be-Santa; Craftsdwarf-pretending-to-be-Santa's-Elf; Dog-pretending-to-be-reindeer.

WIP Creatures

Unicorn Test

Not really planning to do animals yet, but there are unicorns on the current map I play... so....

A herd of unicorns moves on, ignoring one of theirs who get snared by a cage-trap. Lesson: Camouflage among the white sand don't really work against traps, then again, camouflage don't work at all! Well... at least not YET...

(placeholder); Adult unicorn; Child unicorn

(placeholder is added because some systems uses top-left pixel to denote transparent colour and I used the top-left pixel for the Adult unicorn. Can be removed if Adult unicorn tile is not top-left tile in the actual bmp)

Lava Creatures

Lava creatures Mk II. Imps gets rounder limbs and wider grin. Magma man gets a more symmetric posture. Fire man gets a few brighter sparks.

Wildlife

Basically, I'm taking things slow and only stop to draw new animals when they actually appear in my current game. But after a while, I feel like a animal wildlife photographer! :) Just getting excited wondering what creature I'll see next (before they end up in the butcher's workshop...)

Hmmm. Thinking maybe I should turn off all hunting and pseudo-play a wildlife conservatory, by creating a large closed surface area safe from invasions and a way to "trick" animals to go in one-way and stay there...

Raccoons sighted. A rare sight, since the hunters on this map quickly hunt down any hunt-able wildlife.
A troop of rhesus monkeys marches cross the map. Too bad there is also a goblin siege going on at the same time. The pantry will have to wait.
A pack of grey wolves enters the region.
This tame cougar is chained to a lonely post on a private plateau accessible only from within the fortress. Too bad there isn't a mate. The hunters were too fast...
Hmm.. I suppose giant variant of animals counts as wildlife too? Giant cave swallow in a ... mm... cave.
Giant bat in the same cave.
It may not be the mightiest, but it certainly is one of the DEADLIEST. Giant cave spider. Run, adventurer, run. While you still can.

Megabeasts/Semi-Megabeasts

The hydra, first of the Megabeasts Series.
Ettin in a tunnel.
To keep up with the digital age, maybe it should be called an iCyclops instead?

Other Creatures

Troglodyte in a tunnel. Yes, this is the reptilian version. I choose this so that the yellow glowing eyes seems more natural.
Ratman in a tunnel. Yeah... same tunnel. Blood there on the wall belongs to the Troglodyte shown above.
Yet another encounter in the same tunnel. This time an antman. Tunnel society must be very advanced, having multi-racial factions all living together in a peaceful harmony, and all united against the one common enemy.... me.
This batman is neither caped nor a crusader.
IMO one of the stranger creatures I've come across. Cave swallowman. I could only guess from the raw data : armless body, 2 wings, beak, equips....