NeoLemmix 24-bit/Hi-Res Graphics & Sprites

[namida]

Just wondering - do you expect to get these done fairly soon? If so, I'll put off the V12.8.0-RC build until they're done. If you think it might be a while, that's fine - I'll just do the RC build with a note that the xmas sprites still need some touchups.

[WillLem]

Just wondering - do you expect to get these done fairly soon? If so, I'll put off the V12.8.0-RC build until they're done. If you think it might be a while, that's fine - I'll just do the RC build with a note that the xmas sprites still need some touchups.

Sorry for the delayed reply on this, I've been very busy over the holidays. I'll get on these as soon as I can and get them over to you in time for the 12.8 release - makes sense to get it all done in one package! Is there a rough deadline that you'd need these by in order for this to be achieved?

[namida]

It's no problem at all if you're busy - this is more just a "let me know so I can plan around it" thing.

I'm hoping to get V12.8.0-RC* released this weekend, but if you think you need a bit longer than that (but not too much) to get the sprites done, I'll delay it a bit. There's still a couple of bugs I need to fix as well, so the sprites aren't the only thing that would be holding this up.

The actual V12.8.0 stable release, which would be more important to have them ready for, would be sometime next month, preferably early next month.

* RC = release candidate. Kind of like a beta, I guess, but for the individual version rather than the product as a whole. It's intended to be a near-final build of the upcoming version, useable to prepare content or (hopefully) find those last few bugs.

[WillLem]

I'm hoping to get V12.8.0-RC* released this weekend, but if you think you need a bit longer than that (but not too much) to get the sprites done, I'll delay it a bit. There's still a couple of bugs I need to fix as well, so the sprites aren't the only thing that would be holding this up.

Might need until the next weekend if that's OK, so the 18th/19th - I can get them ready for then. I'll try and get some test versions done mid-week so we can look at possible improvements in time for the weekend.

The actual V12.8.0 stable release, which would be more important to have them ready for, would be sometime next month, preferably early next month.

No problem

-WillLem

[namida]

Yeah, that's fine. I'll aim to release the RC build next weekend then.

EDIT: I'll also add, they don't have to be perfect for the RC build. The closer they are, the better, but it's acceptable if they're not quite there yet. Again, the stable build is the one where it's more important.

I'd actually think - the directional digger anim might be the more important one here. We know (and can show off) roughly what the Xmas sprites will look like already - they just need a few minor tweaks to look their best. By comparison, IIRC we still just have my "throws dirt in one direction" digger sprite - I'm quite happy with the general idea of that one (though open to other ideas) but the animation could be much better I think.

[WillLem]

Here is an initial draft of the finalised xmas sprites, with the following addressed:

Blocker - the animation for only a half-head turn doesn't really work for the xmas style because of the hat swinging from left to right. Getting rid of this detail makes it feel a lot more static - could we leave this the way it is just for the xmas sprites?

Digger - haven't yet animated a directional animation for either default or xmas style. What's the feeling on the drill sprite? (attached)

Disarmer - not sure about the green hard hat & vest... if the Lemming in question has a permanent skill assigned then this sprite would be entirely green! I've changed this back to yellow hard hat & neon vest as per my personal preference, but obviously feel free to implement whichever version you wish.

Miner - I've straightened up the pickaxe on the penultimate frame, making the upstroke a bit smoother.

Shimmier - The swinging-arm movement between the two specified frames has been smoothed, and I've moved the Lemming's body & head back 2 frames whilst keeping the gripping-arm stationery. I've also tidied up the feet in a few of the frames as well. I think this is currently looking much better, but I might look at it again to make further improvements towards the end of the week.

Shrugger - Sorted out the affected frames, this now looks fine.

The "lemmings" folder contains updated low-res xmas sprites; I've added white trim to their hats and gowns, and coloured in the pickaxe, glider and umbrella handles. I've also implemented the above change to the penultimate frame of the miner to smooth it out, all the others are pretty much the same as the original sprites so they should be fine.

Any thoughts/suggestions, let me know!

-WillLem

[namida]

Blocker - Git suggests this file is unchanged from the previous version, is this correct? Regarding leaving it as is - for high-res sprites, I'd want to put this to a public vote, and my vote would be "no" but if the general vote is "yes" I could leave it as is. Remaining as-is is an absolute no-go for the low-res sprites, as it doesn't show direction, unless you've got an alternate idea here (and I don't feel that the side of the foot tap is visible enough, personally).

Disarmer - "if the Lemming in question has a permanent skill assigned then this sprite would be entirely green!" - Disarmer itself is a permanent skill, so the lemming will always have one assigned. The vest and hat (once recoloring bug is fixed - again, this is an NL bug, not a fault with your images) end up red in-game. My main issue with the yellow hat / neon vest is that they don't really have much of an Xmas-y feel to them IMO, perhaps there are other colors that fit better that do have such a feel? (Side note: Your sprite has slightly wrong shades of red, I think. But this is a very easy fix that I can handle if we decide to use this sprite.)

Miner - Looks good now!

Shrugger - Same here!

Shimmier - And here!



The drill-digger, this is another one that I'm not personally too keen on, but I could accept if the community as a whole prefers it. Do keep in mind that we need a suitable digger animation for low-res, too, and this shouldn't be too different (eg: if high-res is a drill digger, low-res shouldn't be digging with his hands; but it'd be perfectly fine - in fact, I'd expect this - that low-res wouldn't have the hard-hat / clothing, for example).



Regarding the low-res sprite changes - I quite like them personally, but I feel this too is something the community should have input on. I'll include your new sprites in the RC build, but if people generally don't like them, they'll be reverted to the existing ones for the stable release. If the overall opinion is neutral or positive, I'll keep your ones.

[WillLem]

Blocker - Git suggests this file is unchanged from the previous version, is this correct? Regarding leaving it as is - for high-res sprites, I'd want to put this to a public vote, and my vote would be "no" but if the general vote is "yes" I could leave it as is. Remaining as-is is an absolute no-go for the low-res sprites, as it doesn't show direction, unless you've got an alternate idea here (and I don't feel that the side of the foot tap is visible enough, personally).

Yes, it is unchanged for now. I definitely vote to leave the hi-res sprite as-is from a purely aesthetic point of view, others may feel differently so let's see how it develops. Just to confirm, the low-res sprite goes from middle to side.

Disarmer - "if the Lemming in question has a permanent skill assigned then this sprite would be entirely green!" - Disarmer itself is a permanent skill, so the lemming will always have one assigned. The vest and hat (once recoloring bug is fixed - again, this is an NL bug, not a fault with your images) end up red in-game. My main issue with the yellow hat / neon vest is that they don't really have much of an Xmas-y feel to them IMO, perhaps there are other colors that fit better that do have such a feel?

Fair shout, I'll give this some thought and see what I come up with. At least for now we have your green version if you feel that's best; and if it appears red in-game, that's probably fine!

Miner - Looks good now!

Shrugger - Same here!

Shimmier - And here!

Ace! Glad these are better now

The drill-digger, this is another one that I'm not personally too keen on, but I could accept if the community as a whole prefers it. Do keep in mind that we need a suitable digger animation for low-res, too, and this shouldn't be too different (eg: if high-res is a drill digger, low-res shouldn't be digging with his hands; but it'd be perfectly fine - in fact, I'd expect this - that low-res wouldn't have the hard-hat / clothing, for example).

Fancy opening this as a poll topic in the correct category? I would, but I'd probably end up pick the wrong category to post it in!

Regarding the low-res sprite changes - I quite like them personally, but I feel this too is something the community should have input on. I'll include your new sprites in the RC build, but if people generally don't like them, they'll be reverted to the existing ones for the stable release. If the overall opinion is neutral or positive, I'll keep your ones.

Brilliant, thanks for considering these.

Attached - I've also made the above changes for miner and shimmier to the default-hr sprites, and made a final version of the glider which I feel is a better relative size to the walker/faller sprites. Let me know what you think.

Cheers!

[namida]

Poll for Digger sprites (in general): https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4598.0
Poll for high-res Xmas Blocker sprite: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=4599.0

We'll revisit Disarmer once the recoloring bug is fixed so we can get a proper in-game look at it. Again, it's not a huge deal if we don't settle on a final decision before the RC release - as long as we do settle on one before the stable release, and at least have some kind of proposal present in the RC release (which we now have two options for, so no problems there).

I'll take a look at these new updated sprites later.

[namida]

Regarding the new default sprites - the shimmier looks good, but the alignment issues (where the frames are incorrectly positioned inside the PNG file) have resurfaced for the Glider and Miner, and I don't really feel like correcting these all over again - especially right now, given I have a few code-related issues to deal with before the RC release, which I'm hoping to have ready this coming weekend. I'm happy to use the new ones if someone else corrects their positioning, as there's nothing else wrong with the graphics themself, just this technical issue with the positioning of the frames inside the PNG file. If you're not sure what I mean by this - test them in-game (using the exp build) and you'll see. You could use the previous images as templates to line them up correctly.

[WillLem]

Regarding the new default sprites - the shimmier looks good, but the alignment issues (where the frames are incorrectly positioned inside the PNG file) have resurfaced for the Glider and Miner, and I don't really feel like correcting these all over again
...
If you're not sure what I mean by this - test them in-game (using the exp build) and you'll see. You could use the previous images as templates to line them up correctly.

I have several different versions of each sprite due to the work I've been doing on them. If you can send over the correctly-lined-up versions, I'll get on this straightaway.

[namida]

Here's the current images.

On a side note, it looks like the polls are quite in favor of the 90 degree blocker head turn and the throw-to-side digger rather than the drill one.

[WillLem]

Here's the current images.

On a side note, it looks like the polls are quite in favor of the 90 degree blocker head turn and the throw-to-side digger rather than the drill one.

Great, thanks for these. Yeah, I've seen the poll results so far - no shame in being completely outvoted!

I'll get to work on the 90 degree blocker head turn and these sprites for now, and then I'll have a look at getting a new digger sprite sorted by the end of the week. I'm still generally in favour of keeping it as close to the original sprite as possible, so I'll see if I get any eureka moments in the meantime!

[namida]

I posted a possible low-res sprite for it somewhere (but rather than leave you to dig it up, attached again to this post). The animation could be a lot better, but I think this general idea should work for both resolutions.

Not sure off-hand if this works as-is in game or if it needs modifications to scheme.nxmi. Attached the current scheme.nxmi just in case.

[WillLem]

I posted a possible low-res sprite for it somewhere (but rather than leave you to dig it up, attached again to this post). The animation could be a lot better, but I think this general idea should work for both resolutions.

Not sure off-hand if this works as-is in game or if it needs modifications to scheme.nxmi. Attached the current scheme.nxmi just in case.

That works! I'll give both versions a proper look tomorrow.