User Tag List

Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

  1. #1
    Wizrobe C-Dawg's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    4,205
    Mentioned
    1 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    vBActivity - Stats
    Points
    6,630
    Level
    25
    vBActivity - Bars
    Lv. Percent
    2.86%

    Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

    I've been tinkering with the Dungeon Carving and Isometric modes, and I think they're amazing. The problem is that they require massive setup time; once I got the hang of it, it still took me fifteen minutes to set up a single Isometric drawing set. Dungeon Carving I'm still not sure about.

    If you're planning on re-using the same walls or paths throughout your quest, this is no big deal. A one-time investment of time saves oodles later - the saving of time when designing in isometric mode in particular is mind-blowing.

    The problem comes in when you want to use many different wall or path or river styles. Or if you're using isometric mode for several things- I was using it to set up my forests. As the number of isometric tiles scales up, your time savings goes down.

    I'm wondering if it's possible to simplify the setup of isometric and carving modes somewhat. This should, in theory, be possible, since we all go through the same routine motions to set up the tiles. For path tiles, for instance, we need only draw one-forth of a tile in three states: (Ill use water as an example) One all water, one a water corner, and one with water on three sides. For simple isometric tiles, I think this is all that you need; the rest of the tiles are just permutations of this one-forth of a tile.

    Walls work sort of the same way. If Zelda Classic has a three example tiles: the top of the wall, the bottom of the wall, and the floor pattern, it should be able to spit out the complete carving set. All you'd be doing is rotating the tiles and overlapping them at a diagonal, usually.

    Obviously you'd have to touch up the tiles later for some more complicated things. But so much of the setup for these modes is so predictable that I'd like to see it mechanized in some way.

    Awesome job on the new beta, by the way. Astounding, even.

    -C

  2. #2
    Gibdo
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Age
    41
    Posts
    910
    Mentioned
    3 Post(s)
    Tagged
    1 Thread(s)
    vBActivity - Stats
    Points
    3,267
    Level
    18
    vBActivity - Bars
    Lv. Percent
    41.1%

    Re: Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

    No reply?

  3. #3
    Patra Jigglysaint's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Location
    Shady Oaks
    Age
    44
    Posts
    7,738
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    vBActivity - Stats
    Points
    7,903
    Level
    26
    vBActivity - Bars
    Lv. Percent
    98.52%

    Re: Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

    I think it's a great idea, although I don't know if Zquest is able to synthisyze the tiles just based on the few tiles at hand. Also, for some tiles, flipping would not make them look right. For dungeon carving though, I don't see why this shouldn't work. You have the 2 wall tiles, 2 corner tiles(these kind of walls are easily flippable), and floor pattern.

    What else would be good is if you can just pick the start tile from the combo sheet and the rest follow(except I can't remember if that's how you do it or not).
    The name might be missleading, I'm not jigglypuff.


    "...A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible."
    Second Nephi 29:3

  4. #4
    Developer
    ZC Developer
    jman2050's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Do you really need to know
    Age
    37
    Posts
    3,883
    Mentioned
    8 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    vBActivity - Stats
    Points
    5,728
    Level
    23
    vBActivity - Bars
    Lv. Percent
    49.49%

    Re: Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

    the thing is, you still need combo definitions for the screen. ZC doesn't have any provision for drawing anything but combos, so the only way dungeon and isometric modes work is if there are enough defined combos in the proper order to do so. Or, another method would require more set up time.

    What I might do is write in a provision so that you can draw a screen with all the neccesary combos, select a location in the combo page, and it'll set up all the correct combos in the right place based on the screen. If there's enough clamoring for it that is.
    AGN's Resident Zelda Classic Developer and Sonic the Hedgehog Fanboy

  5. #5
    On top of the world ShadowTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Southeastern New York
    Posts
    12,231
    Mentioned
    31 Post(s)
    Tagged
    3 Thread(s)
    vBActivity - Stats
    Points
    29,598
    Level
    46
    vBActivity - Bars
    Lv. Percent
    61.53%
    Achievements It's over 9000!

    Re: Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

    There just might be. :p

    Okay, jman, how about this. The ZQuest user him/herself can create a 4x3 group of tiles which will have all the tiles necessary to produce the proper setup.

    From the Combo Pages, you'd right click where you'd want to set up the Relational/Dungeon Carving series, select Relational Or Dungeon Carving, then select the upper left hand corner of that group of tiles in the tiles menu, and it'd build the necessary combos from that. (The user can then delete that group of tiles.)

  6. #6
    Developer
    ZC Developer
    jman2050's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Do you really need to know
    Age
    37
    Posts
    3,883
    Mentioned
    8 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    vBActivity - Stats
    Points
    5,728
    Level
    23
    vBActivity - Bars
    Lv. Percent
    49.49%

    Re: Simplified Combo Setup for Carving/Iso

    You would also need a location to store the 16x16 tiles on the tile page, but besides that it just might work.

    I'll talk to DN about it.
    AGN's Resident Zelda Classic Developer and Sonic the Hedgehog Fanboy

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
About us
Armageddon Games is a game development group founded in 1997. We are extremely passionate about our work and our inspirations are mostly drawn from games of the 8-bit and 16-bit era.
Social