34 replies to this topic

[Revfan9]

Hmm...

/M/: I know the shot is WIP, but nothing seems to work together in this shot. The majority of this shot is composed of the TMC trees, with brown outlines. Now, I know that real is brown, but it just doesn't look good here. The palette could use some work as well. It's probably the reddish-brown outlines around everything, but it looks like Link is in the middle of some trippy dream world, not an actual forest.

CastChaos: Looks like you took the DoR set, slapped some tiles down and called it a screenshot. Bleh.

Evan: Again, you just slapped tiles down, and you didn't even give notice to transition tiles. Also, lol adventure set'd @ those trees

Sharon: As others have said before me, the grass is too repetetive, the palette is too bright for the graphics, and the screen flow is akward. Looks annoying to have to walk through those gates.

ZF: Oh zf... ZF... What a nice way to show how not to use the SD3 graphics. Lemme name the problems here:

The screen is near devoid of objects.

There are no shadows, anywhere.

You filled the screen up with mountain tiles. The mountain tiles in SD3 work the way they do for a reason: They look bad when you put a whole bunch of them on one screen, so that gives you good reason to spread them out.

The water is just terrible.

The cave tiles couldn't have been used in a worse way.

The grass tiles are just randomly placed. Lemme say this now: The SD3 grass tiles do, in fact, follow a pattern. You know that 3x2 block of tiles that you always see the SD3 grass organized in? It's that way for a reason. Look in the game, in the areas where that grass is used: It's that same block of 6 tiles repeated over and over again, not randomly laid down. Here's an example shot for the caves and grass:



Also, try actually experimenting with different heights of the mountain tiles instead of just using the 4-tiles that are in the combo list.

[nicklegends]

/M/:
I'm not sure why the shot has a sharp red tint to it, but otherwise it's very good. It's fairly detailed, and the subscreen is exceptionally well-done.

CastChaos:
Unfortunately, Pure tiles don't allow for the same level of tile detail that other tilesets offer. As a Pure screen, it's fine, but in comparison to the others, it lacks definition.

Evan the Great:
Meh, this shot isn't bad, but the perfect angularity of the shoreline repulses me, for some reason.

Sharon Daniel:
Regardless of everything else, there's very little tile detail in the shot which makes it look incredibly flat.

Zeldafreak:
I'm a sucker for that tileset, honestly. It's incredibly detailed, it's well-shaded, it's colorful, and the shot as a whole has a real attitude to it. It's very impressive. (Vote gores here.)

[CastChaos]

/M/:
CastChaos:
Unfortunately, Pure tiles don't allow for the same level of tile detail that other tilesets offer. As a Pure screen, it's fine, but in comparison to the others, it lacks definition.

People, would you stop calling my DoR screens Pure screens? Even who thinks that the two is the same should realize the two different names... It's so easy to tell the difference between the two! See, for example, DoR has bandits as moblins. Also, Pure has an "empty", "clean" feeling most times, while DoR screens are somehow bold...

It's just irritates me... It's just like saying "Hey, that Faxanadu character doesn't look cool in your avatar." while that is from UltimaIX... So, you understand... Or not.

[Sharon Daniel]

I agree that it's a little absurd that people can't tell the difference between Pure and DoR. Radien heavily altered nearly every tile he ripped from Pure, so a DoR screenshot should be immistakable.

[Revfan9]

But, sadly, everyone uses DoR the same way as Pure. The trick to making DoR look good is to not fill up the screen with lots of solid objects, which is what everyone but Radien does. The secret to DoR is to keep all of the detail on walkable ground tiles.

[Radien]

Hmm... practically every shot has some sort of problem, though the overall quality isn't terribly bad...

/M/:

I'm really at odds with the colors used here. The hues used for the black and dark green just look wrong -- there's too much red in them. Otherwise it's a pretty good shot, except that there really isn't any action here. What is Link swinging at, anyway?

Castchaos:

Well, it's my tileset, so some of the things I might complain about are my fault, like the lack of detail on the grass and flowers... but there's not a lot going on here, and the greenery looks too "straight." Also, the colors ZC picks for translucency are kinda ruining whatever you were going for with the shallow water.

Evan the Great:

All of the enemies are facing upward/backward and Link was flashing at the moment this was taken, so consequently it looks awkward. Better timing would improve this shot. Otherwise the screen is fairly middle of the road... nothing terribly wrong with it, though, and it looks quite playable.

Sharon Daniel:

Hmm... everything here looks too neat and tidy for an outdoor shot. For whoever made the tiles: nice try, but keep trying, and don't try to make it look quite so neat and tidy. The trees are also lined up way too straightly for a forest. Give us some of nature's chaos.

Zeldafreak:

This may just be a dead end with some enemies, but it looks pretty good all around, and I know SD3 graphics are hard to use. The enemies work well with the added outdoor tiles. The subscreen is also very slick. I have to go with this one. *vote*

The grass tiles are just randomly placed. Lemme say this now: The SD3 grass tiles do, in fact, follow a pattern. You know that 3x2 block of tiles that you always see the SD3 grass organized in? It's that way for a reason. Look in the game, in the areas where that grass is used: It's that same block of 6 tiles repeated over and over again, not randomly laid down. Here's an example shot for the caves and grass:

3x2 pattern? In my experience I only ever found a 2x2 pattern for SD3's grass tiles. There are only four different tiles in the standard grass pattern, so anything beyond that would require a repeat of another tile.

Below is what I consider to be the default placement for the four tiles. Try dividing them up and you'll see parts where blades of grass extend from one tile into another.

I'm willing to bet that the design team created a standard 3x2 "paintbrush" for grass, which lays them down in the same pattern across any given range of open space, just to save time (since laying them down individually takes a lot of effort, with little reward). 2x2 looks too repetitive to be used on its own as the master pattern, but that doesn't mean that their 3x2 pattern was the only way to account for that.

One thing you should keep in mind: the people who draw the graphics for a game are not necessarily the same people who choose where to place them on the actual maps. If you want a working example of a game where this has led to improper tile use, try playing Link to the Past. Look carefully enough, and you'll find bad tile placement, less-than-ideal choices of tiles, and even a few blatant mistakes. Just ask Dart Zaidyer.

[Cobgoblin]

Yeah, if anyone read my sig, it would have said I was leaving temporarily until I finish a quest, well I came back for SotW for a bit.

/M/ gets my vote, I would have thought it was weird looking at first, but then I read the map title and understood why, good job.

Everyone else did good too.

But, sadly, everyone uses DoR the same way as Pure. The trick to making DoR look good is to not fill up the screen with lots of solid objects, which is what everyone but Radien does.

What is this supposed to mean, Revfan? I mean yes, Radien does, in fact, use his tileset well, but I have a question about what you said earlier about one of my DoR shots in the Quest Screenshot thread. You said it was empty and that I should put more things about, other than barrels. Unless you mean something else by what I thought you said. Just wondering.

EDIT: Ah, OK, thanks Revfan.

Edited by Nuvo, 23 April 2007 - 05:09 PM.

[Revfan9]

Yeah, if anyone read my sig, it would have said I was leaving temporarily until I finish a quest, well I came back for SotW for a bit.

/M/ gets my vote, I would have thought it was weird looking at first, but then I read the map title and understood why, good job.

Everyone else did good too.
What is this supposed to mean, Revfan? I mean yes, Radien does, in fact, use his tileset well, but I have a question about what you said earlier about one of my DoR shots in the Quest Screenshot thread. You said it was empty and that I should put more things about, other than barrels. Unless you mean something else by what I thought you said. Just wondering.

In your "boardwalk" shots, most of the tiles were the same tile over and over again. For DoR to look good, it needs to have plenty of detail on the ground, but it has to be walkable...

[Sharon Daniel]

Sharon Daniel:Hmm... everything here looks too neat and tidy for an outdoor shot. For whoever made the tiles: nice try, but keep trying, and don't try to make it look quite so neat and tidy. The trees are also lined up way too straightly for a forest. Give us some of nature's chaos.

The reason The trees are lined up that way is that I'm "stealing" the graphical style of the GBA Pokemon games. I know I can do much better, but I just love Pokemon's style.

Those tiles are all made by me, and they clearly suck. I just started this tileset after a long hiatus from ZC and spriting. It didn't take long for me to get back in the groove though, here's what's become of the tileset in three days' time:


(The rocks and trees will be dealt with eventually. They suck.)

[NoeL]

Look'n great Shazza

[nicklegends]

People, would you stop calling my DoR screens Pure screens? Even who thinks that the two is the same should realize the two different names... It's so easy to tell the difference between the two! See, for example, DoR has bandits as moblins. Also, Pure has an "empty", "clean" feeling most times, while DoR screens are somehow bold...

It's just irritates me... It's just like saying "Hey, that Faxanadu character doesn't look cool in your avatar." while that is from UltimaIX... So, you understand... Or not.

I agree that it's a little absurd that people can't tell the difference between Pure and DoR. Radien heavily altered nearly every tile he ripped from Pure, so a DoR screenshot should be immistakable.

Jeez, so I made one mistake. Just replace every instance of Pure with DoR, and it's fine. Regardless, it doesn't really change how I view the shot.

Edited by nicklegends, 28 April 2007 - 12:19 PM.

[link3505]

Looks like /M/ won this round... By a landslide

As usual, it's Saturday, and I don't have any new entries for 160, so get on it people!

[Evile]

I would whip up a shot super quick for you Relic, but I dont want to make the same mistake as I did last time. Maybe next week...


Oh an congrats to /M/ winning! Good Job!

Edited by Evan the great, 28 April 2007 - 01:18 PM.

[Sharon Daniel]

I don't have any new entries for 160, so get on it people!

* gets on it *

EDIT: Submission sent!

[Lemon]

You could always do SoTeoW (Shot of the every other week)... it seems the way thigns are going people only send shots in half-hazordly and quickly throw them together in order to keep it going, which isn't what the competition should be about. Not really sure if its that great of a solution... perhaps putting smoe kind of "prize" for winning SoTW? That would draw quite a bit more attention.