Mod "Ferraris Map" for JTS Nap

[phoenix]

Thanks! They do work, I think. I'd have to play a bit more to see if there were issues. But I don't think it's worth putting in a lot of time to mod REN at the moment, whilst it hasn't got that higher zoom in proper resolution, as both the landscape and units come out a little blurred at highest setting. Thanks though! Others, that play the title more, might appreciate these though.

Did you see my query above about the field tiles?

[Aoi99]

Did you see my query above about the field tiles?

Yes. I had already observed it before and tried to solve it without success. Right now I am doing some more tests, but I am convinced that it is a problem with the game's graphics engine that only affects the tiles of the fields. A solution would be a redesign of all the tiles to hide the error, but I am not sure.

[phoenix]

I see. Thanks. I noticed there was no space between that top line of the field tiles and the tiles immediately above them on the graphics file, so didn't see how you could do anything about it.

[phoenix]

I see. Thanks. I noticed there was no space between that top line of the field tiles and the tiles immediately above them on the graphics file, so didn't see how you could do anything about it.

I notice, Aoi99, that in some of the later Bill Peters titles in the Napoleonic series, where Bill has really gone out of his way to make the landscape detailed, with lots of fields, the effect with your new field tiles can be quite cluttered and difficult to read. It helps to use the original hex edges in these titles, I think, so I put them back in, in order that the beautiful contours don't get lost. Picture below from RBR, from a piece of map near Jemappes, so you can see how the original contours are a bit more visible in these high-density field titles...


 
But I looked again at Ferraris and I noticed that his fields are much less labour-intensive affairs. Here's a pic from Ferraris also near Jemappes. You see the fields represent a much more sweeping kind of Belgian field, whereas your more detailed fields look more like bocage type tiles, maybe. Just a thought. The use of fields a bit more like those used in the Ferraris image would reduce the clutter, of course, and still be accurate.

[phoenix]

You could take a look at the fields in the attached zip, Aoi99. I mean in terms of not losing sight of the woods for the trees as a consequence of your own truly excellent and beautiful fields being a very 'detailed' version of Ferraris. I'm very clumsy at doing this kind of modding, so they're not much like the Ferraris 'big' fields in the pic in the post above, but you might get the idea...they're just your own field tiles modded to try to get those sorts of less noisy lines that we see in the Ferrari picture in the post above.

https://www.theblitz.club/uploads/files/...%20zip.zip


At 100 zoom, they look like this - they're no where near as pretty, but they do allow you to see detail more, such as the contours: 



But I'm sure you could do something much better. Sadly, I don't have your art skills.

And none of this solves the 'top hex edge' problem in the field tiles. I think that must be some kind of bug, you're right.

[phoenix]

Even if I put my vague field tiles in, plus the original contours - to ensure clarity - this provides an absolutely stunning map. It's really gorgeous, Aoi99, a real work of art, and makes such an immersion difference in this series, I feel.

Look at this beautiful map detail from RBR:

[Aoi99]

Thanks

But I'm sure you could do something much better. Sadly, I don't have your art skills.

The map looks pretty good. I encourage you to make your own modifications. It is not difficult, although it does take a lot of work to achieve an acceptable result. My art skills are no big deal, this is my first project with a graphic editing program. Well it's actually the second one, earlier I made a counter mod for the old version of the Napoleonic JTS. 

And none of this solves the 'top hex edge' problem in the field tiles. I think that must be some kind of bug, you're right.

Yes, it is a bug, since the light band is not due to the separation between the field tiles but is part of the base soil that overlaps. I'm still working on a solution for the fields.

[phoenix]

Notify David, or Rich Hamilton, if you really think it's a bug. He might be able to fix it. I think it was David's team who were responsible for the recent updates to the Napoleonic series, but best to tell Richard Hamilton at JTS first, I think. Sometimes, they can fix things quickly. You never know. David is very precise, i think, and if there's a graphics glitsch that his team left in he would usually want to fix such things.

[Xylkerom]

Thank you very much for your amazing work! It looks fantastic!

[-72-]

Fwiw: I noticed that your field hexes are 63 px in height, but almost all of your other full hex features on your 2D Features file are 61 px ... was looking at the 200 size (although I think I found one that was 60 px).

100 size is 32 px and 30 px respectively.

50 size is 16 px and 14 px respectively as well.

The files themselves double in size from 50 to 100 to 200 - so in theory, the maths with the individual graphics should also be made to double - otherwise, in effect you are allowing the program to calculate the rounding however it wants to -and it doesn't always do it correctly.

Fair being fair, I don't think this is not a genuine 'bug'; as described it was sounding like it was about the order of layers something was being drawn, but if that were the case it would be happening with the other terrain being shown on that file (swamps, marshes, woods, orchards, etc...) and there wasn't any mention of that.

-Disclaimer: I got the files (that I tested a second ago) from your initial post, so maybe there was another link added later to this thread (I didn't look that far).

-Fwiw: based on my direct experience working with the publisher, your best case result would be a polite reply declining doing anything --- and that is because the draw order thing came up when designing SYW from the artist working on it at the time, and it wasn't something that they were willing to devote any programming time to.

However, it really does seem like it probably is not a drawing layers thing, but rather the system not being able to handle with different sizes being used ... sounds more like size and alignment (just based on working with that type of file for these products).