Tileset Proposal: Stone Bridge

[Arbiter Bestiarum]

As some of you know, I am working on a game project of my own and since I will be using a few of the tiles made by the Mana Team, I would like to share something back. So, this is the latest thing I have made, a tileset for a stone bridge. It containins crossings, corners, tees, balconies and shadows.

The image posted below is simply a preview which shows most of the tiles in one particular arrangement. They can be combined in many different ways.

If you are interested in using these tiles in TMW, I will provide you with the png files from which the image below has been composed. These are high resolution (about three times the resolution in the image shown below) and have transparent background. The ground shadows are in separate pngs.

I made these tiles, using only freely available resources. I assure you that I do have the full copyright on them. If you decide to use them, you will have my permission to distribute them under the GPL.

Using these graphics in TMW will probably require resizing and some reformatting. Since I am not familiar with the exact requirements and also because I have my hands full trying to finish my own game project, I do not volunteer for that task.

So, let me know if you like it

Stone Bridge Showcase.jpg (230.75 KiB) Viewed 3808 times

[Crush]

These tiles look really nice, but I am not sure how well they fit the TMW style, especially when they require resizing before they can be used. Hard to tell from a jpeg, though.

How about you posting the PNGs and we see what we can do with it?

I would also be interested in more information about your project. Do you have a website?

[Matt]

I doubt you made that, so we can't use it.

I can't believe someone is able to create such perfect tiles and uses TMW tiles that doesn't match this style at all.

And may I quote len (http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopi ... &start=120)

Of course, I made these images myself . Well actually it depends on how strictly you interpret the term. Some of the objects are from other places such as the Dundjinni forums, but most I rendered myself.

Don't eye roll emote
You posted without accrediting the source... which is essentially saying you made all of it
GPL or not please do not do this

Next time just do this

I spent a lot of time playing around with these tiles. Here are some of the results, hopefully someone likes them.I made most of the objects myself but also used some of the objects(ect) from (Link) and (link) they should be GPL.

If you do this you will go far
You will live in happiness too

[Arbiter Bestiarum]

@Crush
I uploaded the full-resolution png-files to rapidshare, here is a link
http://rapidshare.com/files/333294868/Pontus.rar.html.

Sorry, no website for my game yet. If I have permission from you, I will post a link when I have one.

@Matt
If you are interested in a polite conversation, I will be happy to give you some background on my methods and my motivations. Just calling me a liar is, however, very unfriendly.

Please note that I am treating everyone here politely and with respect, in spite of the fact that I have been insulted, shouted at and generally been treated like an idiot. I am still hoping for some friendly collaboration, but you have to make an effort, too.

[Crush]

Can you please use the "Upload attachment" feature of the forum? Rapidshare is pretty annoying when you don't pay them.

[Arbiter Bestiarum]

Yes Rapidshare is annoying, I agree.

I would be happy to post as attachment, but there seems to be a file size limit of 256 Kilobytes. The total size of the files is above 10 MB, because i rendered them in high resolution. I had to do a huge amount of patching and stitching (you can still find some scars if you look close enough) to convert my renders into something tileable, so the high resolution was essential for me to work on these files.

As the GPL says,

The “source code” for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.

I consider in this case, the high-resolution files are the preferred form for making modifications, so that's what should be distributed if these tiles are GPLed.

[Matt]

Please note that I am treating everyone here politely and with respect, in spite of the fact that I have been insulted, shouted at and generally been treated like an idiot. I am still hoping for some friendly collaboration, but you have to make an effort, too.

Well I did nothing like that. Excuse me for being suspicious when your (not so strict) defintion of "made myself" is "Some of the objects are from other places such as the Dundjinni forums, but most I rendered myself.".

There are many threads on this forum about "selfmade" stuff which turns out to be ripped / stolen / whatever.

I don't want to scare away a skilled artist like you, but unfortunately most time a really good, professional work like the one you posted turns out not to be made by the poster.

If this isn't the case for your work everything is fine and I said nothing.

[Arbiter Bestiarum]

Very good, so I hope we can proceed more professionally from here.

Let me make a few things clear, to avoid further misunderstandings. I am not an artist. I am a programmer who knows how to use some modeling and image manipulation tools. I am trying to make a game, as a family project with my kids to teach them programming and a few other things. This needs a lot of graphics, more than we can make ourselves. So I look around for resources that are freely available, even if it means that the styles do not always match.

One resource which I recently discovered for myself is the DAZ3D shop. When I buy a model or download one of their freebies, the copyright for the model remains with the author, but the copyright for any rendered image belongs to me. In the FAQ on their website it says

Question:
Can I use DAZ 3D's products in a video game that I am producing?
Answer: The EULA (End User License Agreement) for our content products allows you to use the renders from the products you use. You can make a still picture, an animation, or even use special hardware to make a physical 3D representation, such as by a CNC. You, the creator, own the legal rights to these creations.

The model on which my tiles are based is a freebie download from daz3d.com, called the Pontus Bridge. To get it you must register at DAZ3D, then you can find it here:
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detai ... ree_id=252

Thus I feel I am completely clean on this one.
a
The screenshots I showed on the other thread were simply meant as a glimpse into the work I do and posted in the hope of starting a conversation. I expected people to say 'Hey I like this or that object, can you post it in a way we can use it for TMW' and then I would have gone back to the sources and checked if it was possible. Instead I got loads of nitpicks and accusations which was no fun at all.

Hope I can do better this time around. By the way, it took me a full week to create this.

[Crush]

Thanks for the input, but I am afraid in the time I would need to make these graphics usable for TMW I could also create a similar tileset from scratch.

3d rendering and the TMW pixelart style just don't work together.

[Matt]

So it looks like you didn't make something after all - just rendered it?

http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/entry/252/full.jpg

I doubt we can use stuff like this because the model, the source isn't freely available.

Plus the tileset is fully out of style and since you only rendered the image it seems you can't modifiy it to match TMWs style like I expected you to do.

I would suggest that you contribute to the programming part of this project - the art department isn't maybe the right place for you...TMW is not Stendhal

[Arbiter Bestiarum]

So it looks like you didn't make something after all - just rendered it?

After some experimentation with lighting and perspective, I created 8 renders (4 directions with and without shadows). Then I spent the best part of a week in Paintshop Pro processing, lining up, and combining the parts, eliminating the seams and extrapolating the missing parts, making the shadows transparent and correcting the color and breaking the result into tileable pieces.

Just rendered it. Yeah. Thank you.

I doubt we can use stuff like this because the model, the source isn't freely available.

Again, the GPL defines the source as the preferred form of the work for making modifications to a work. If you want to make a modification to my tiles, you don't want to do it on the 3D-Model, because that would mean you would have to render again and repeat all the post-processing. You do want the high-resolution files, because these are easier to modify with smaller loss of quality. Therefore, the files I posted to Rapidshare are the source, I do own the copyright and everything is fine.

since you only rendered the image it seems you can't modifiy it to match TMWs style like I expected you to do.

The result of my work is a set of bitmap files. They sure wouldn't be easier to modify if I had done them in Paint. You can still push them through any Gimp filter you like. The high resolution helps with that.

Anyway, the style of the TMW tilesets already varies wildly.

I would suggest that you contribute to the programming part of this project

As I explained, I already have my own game programming project. One is more than enough. Plus, I do Java, not C.

[Jaxad0127]

Anyway, the style of the TMW tilesets already varies wildly.

Not going forward. Much of what we have on eAthena was done when no one cared about quality, as that server was only temporary and would be replaced "any time now".

[Rotonen]

Anyway, the style of the TMW tilesets already varies wildly.

Not going forward. Much of what we have on eAthena was done when no one cared about quality, as that server was only temporary and would be replaced "any time now".

I could take that one personally. I've always cared for quality: none of the stuff going into eA went through me. For the new server, as some might have noticed, it is a bit different.

Also, for eA content, sure, if someone wants to map with these, go ahead, but I don't like the pre-rendered 3D feel of these (which actually comes from rendering them in 3D). Reminds me of backdrops used in 90's games. It can be a very great style and work magnificently, but TMW is about pixel art, even if we do happen to use a few modern niceties to get things like the perspective down.

You may keep posting your renders here: I'm generally interested in what kind of a direction you're taking your project to. Also it might inspire one of our artists to make a derivative work based on yours, which I see as a huge potential benefit. Architecture design concepts and concepts about how to relay nature in computer art are something we cannot have too much of.

Lastly, I like your stone texture there, even though it is almost completely garbled up by the jpeg compression (did not bother with the package you provided).

[Arbiter Bestiarum]

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I will post something again, when I think I have something suitable. Bye for now.