Monday, 14 January 2013

The Graphics Guy

As the guy who draws the graphics I don't get to show off amazing videos of building paths, modifying terrain or opening shops, though all the graphics in those videos are my work. As I said before we are aiming to produce all the graphics ourselves. This may seem like a crazy huge task, but it will give us more flexibility and ease in getting the fundamentals of the game up and running - we can custom make any and all the graphics exactly as we need. "Home made" graphics certainly doesn't mean we are compromising on quality though!
Basic track tiles

It is likely that about 20,000-30,000 separate images will be needed for all the game graphics. This is a huge number but through smart use of 3D software and automation making these graphics is comparatively simple. Since starting the FreeRCT project I have been working on several projects with similar graphical requirements to FreeRCT. These projects have let me work out streamlined workflows for creating this type of image; my last major project was an extra zoom level graphics set for OpenTTD. If you are interested you can read more about that project at these blog entries: Making a Massive Graphics Update, Moving to 3D, Automation, The Finished Product.

The very first shop

So far land, cliff/foundation, water, path and path support graphics for FreeRCT are made (although there are some technical issues that still need working out). The next big challenge will probably to make templates for track rides, in particular the track pieces which stretch over more than one tile.


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21 comments:

  1. Anonymous15 January 2013 at 07:36

    Thanks for the interesting read Richard.

    I had a read through your Blog; found it to be incredibly interesting, full of many creative and insightful ideas.

    You seem very passionate and motivated, and have a wide spectrum of talent and skills.

    Thanks for the post and great work on the RCT/TTD projects.

    Tim.

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  2. smartsuite18 January 2013 at 10:23

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. GigaG19 January 2013 at 03:48

    Could I edit the graphics to make brake sections, if you don't mind? Probably won't be able to do anything, but nice project anyways.

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    1. Zephyris19 January 2013 at 10:47

      You are very welcome to, but it is likely that the track tiles will change a bit still. I would wait until they are more finalised.

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    2. GigaG19 January 2013 at 12:57

      How would they be finalized?

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    3. Zephyris20 January 2013 at 17:34

      I still need to make all the other slopes, corner radii etc. and the chances are the 3D model will have to be altered to allow that; any modifications to the image would then have to be redrawn from scratch.

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  4. Loewensenft20 January 2013 at 17:04

    Hi there!

    What are the plans about zoom levels / number of bits used (32bits?)? For sure, using your automatic sprite-generation makes later changes easier. But the pictures/videos up today look quite RCTish in "original means"!? Will this be the first target of FreeRCT?

    Best regards
    Max

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    1. Zephyris20 January 2013 at 17:38

      At the moment the game is using 8bit graphics with a 64px tile size, like RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, the primary aim will probably be to get the game working with these graphics first.

      I am making all the graphics in 8bit and 32bit with 64px, 128px and 256px tile sizes in parallel, so as and when the game can support them they are ready to be included.

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  5. Michael21 January 2013 at 17:24

    Will you be adding new track pieces? I'd love to see a 45-degree turn that also goes up or downhill.

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    1. Zephyris21 January 2013 at 17:58

      The initial aim is to match the type of track tiles seen in RollerCoaster Tycoon. There will hopefully be the flexibility to add more tiles later.

      Delete
  6. Johan28 February 2013 at 06:56

    This is awesome! Haven't seen this before. Best of luck to you. I'll bookmark it and come back every once in a while!

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  7. Caleb15 March 2013 at 11:38

    This will be very cool when it is finished! I look forward to see more progress in future posts

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  8. Hazzard16 March 2013 at 01:42

    I love this project. The other day I was trying different URLs and I came across a project of the same name for HTML5: http://freerct.wordpress.com/
    Probably worth taking a look at.

    I have one other question: is there likely to be a feature to load original RCT2 and RCT save files into FreeRCT?

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    1. Alberth19 March 2013 at 21:53

      Looks like a nice sister project, only just started it seems.

      As for the save files, it's not likely to happen any time soon. First of all, there is not so much information about those files available. Secondly, the FreeRCT game is completely separately developed, so likely the internal data structures don't fit at all.

      (As a matter of fact, FreeRCT cannot save its own games yet :) )

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  9. Jbroderick19 March 2013 at 20:26

    Any news on when the next update is coming? Kinda getting excited about this project. ^^ Thanks

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  10. ProfeMilenial20 March 2013 at 04:31

    You can see the Subversion commits lists. It's interesting, there are a new format for data files. It reminds me the Locomotion object data Wiki, but better documented.

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  11. tomvd23 March 2013 at 08:25

    I wish you all of luck with this project. As a developer on the opensource remake openxcom I know how timeconsuming things that seem obvious at first can be.
    All developers at openxcom are RCT fans too, so we are following this project closely :)
    Too bad we don't have a dedicated graphics artist :(

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  12. Buss10009 April 2013 at 05:17

    Please post an update! I don't want this to die off.

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    1. Hazzard9 April 2013 at 23:29

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Hazzard9 April 2013 at 23:34

      I'm actually not too worried judging by the 20+ commits just added, but hopefully we can get a new blog post soon (hint).

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  13. ProfeMilenial12 April 2013 at 16:25

    Do You accept some simple elements?
    I can model a bins, benches, street lamps...

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