We are slowly moving to the less visible features, and the feature I am talking about today is one of them (in a sense).
If you're following the news about SDL (our video and keyboard interface), you know that after many many years, a new SDL version has been released (SDL 2.0). One person found that interesting enough to clone our github repository, and modify the program for the new interface. Unfortunately, he left before I had a chance to look at the changes in detail and discuss them.
Another thing that has come up at times is the question of 32bpp colour (aka full colour) support. At the start of the project, we considered 8bpp colours enough (just like the Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 & 2 programs). However, you see an increasing interest in full colour from users. Also, the video hardware is moving away from 8bpp. In other words, eventually, we will need full colour support for the program. Thus, I took this opportunity to add 32bpp support to the program, together with the switch to the new SDL 2.0 library.
At the top-right you see the
before and
after images. Looks the same, you say? Well, you're right about the grass. In both images it's the same sprite. The shop however is different, as you can see below at 800% zoom. The left part shows the shop as we had it from the start. The right part is the same shop, but in 32bpp. The right image is much smoother at 800%, without the weird coloured pixels here and there.
Technically, the program accepts and renders both 32bpp and 8bpp images. Our current shop sprite isn't a great example of what you can do with full colour support, but I am sure we will get shiny new colourful graphics somewhen.
