32x32 Universal Tileset

[PowerWyrm]

I've just downloaded the new UT32 file and found this:

03-07-2012 Reassigned the lurker and trapped to a transparent tile 0x80:0xFF.

Unfortunately, this won't work. There seems to be a problem with displaying tiles having their char set to 0xFF, which seems to explain why there are no tiles in that column (except on the second line, which is not used).

Why did you put a dark tile at 0x80:0x80? It's not required, as the code puts a dark background anyway when drawing tiles. Reverting to a transparent tile and leaving lurkers/trappers at 0x80:0x80 should be ok...

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by PowerWyrm

Hmm I've just looked at the updated 32x32 graphics for NPP Angband... Many tiles have been redrawn/remapped for monsters/objects/terrain that are present in all variants, eliminating many duplicates in the process, still the mappings in graf-dvg files differ. This completely breaks the purpose of an universal 32x32 tileset...

Yep. Vanilla Angband is still the special case. I'm very hesitant to make changes to Vanilla in deference to David Gervais, who's tileset has been the gold standard forever, but I wouldn't say that breaks the purpose of UT32. There are many variants that support tiles, 1/2 a dozen I can think of. The main point of UT32 was to have the all the tiles in one location so that variants can easily share tiles and even non-graphically inclined maintainers can do some of the (prf tile assignment) work themselves. Don't forget, UT32 is still a long way from completion.

I wasn't my intent for UT32 to alter Vanilla in any significant way. I just wanted it to be compatible with Vanilla so that there would be only need for one 32x32 tileset.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by PowerWyrm

What would be perfect is to add a graf-dvg-base.prf file with the mappings for all common tiles, and load this file at the end of the graf-dvg.prf file for each variant. This would improve readability and ease maintainance...

The difficulty in that is coming up with a standard where each variant can read the tiles. Many of them are assigned to different monster race numbers or slightly different names, so it would be a challenge to create a universal graf-dvg that could be loaded by all variants.

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by PowerWyrm

Why did you put a dark tile at 0x80:0x80? It's not required, as the code puts a dark background anyway when drawing tiles. Reverting to a transparent tile and leaving lurkers/trappers at 0x80:0x80 should be ok...

Because it's referred to as "darkness" in the prf, and I thought that it might be a good idea for it to represent darkness rather than nothing. At the same time, I figured that any unused space would suffice as the lurker/trapper tile. I chose 0x80:0xFF because I thought it would remain unused long into the future. Will fix.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by PowerWyrm

Unfortunately, this won't work. There seems to be a problem with displaying tiles having their char set to 0xFF, which seems to explain why there are no tiles in that column (except on the second line, which is not used).

There is probably some sort of overflow issue with 0xFF, since that would be loaded into a byte or char variable. Maybe the code would be adjusted to properly read it, but is reality we would have to fill up a 127x127 grid with tiles before that becomes an issue.

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by nppangband

There is probably some sort of overflow issue with 0xFF, since that would be loaded into a byte or char variable. Maybe the code would be adjusted to properly read it, but is reality we would have to fill up a 127x127 grid with tiles before that becomes an issue.

Well, now that I know about it, I'll move those tiles. Would physically shrinking the tile sheet, eliminating that last column so that this can't happen again, cause any foreseeable problems?

[buzzkill]

Moved the seeker arrow effect tiles at the tail end of row 0x81 in order to entirely vacate column 0xFF. Also created the 4 missing tiles of that type. As far as I can tell (searching all prf files in both V and NPP), these tiles weren't utilized at all. Just FYI.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by buzzkill

Moved the seeker arrow effect tiles at the tail end of row 0x81 in order to entirely vacate column 0xFF. Also created the 4 missing tiles of that type. As far as I can tell (searching all prf files in both V and NPP), these tiles weren't utilized at all. Just FYI.

Did you move the whole set? I just started using those. If you fire an arrow, it displays the regular arrow tile (pointed to the upper right corner), regardless of direction. Now, in NPP, I use those two arrowsets. if you fire an arrow (or bolt), it will point will point in the right direction as it travels.

It is hard-coded rather than being part of the pref files. Please let me know where you moved it to. Thanks,

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by buzzkill

Would physically shrinking the tile sheet, eliminating that last column so that this can't happen again, cause any foreseeable problems?

Only that, if the game tried to look for something in that column of the tileset, the game would crash.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by buzzkill

If old Morgoth goes anywhere, he'll probably go away. I not a big fan of the tile itself. The multi-colored robes don't do anything for me. I'm content to leave him as he is now in Vanilla, but other variants will get the new Morgoth.

I lobbied for that change. I thought the old-morgoth tile looked more like a court jester than a lord of darkness. Maybe you have to have a large screen to notice it, but the new morgoth tile even has the two remaining silmarils in his massive iron crown. I have no delusions that I am a real artist like shockbolt, but every once in a while I did a tile that I thought looked somewhat decent. Morgoth was one of those.