Topic: New set of graphics

there was zoom feature in Settlers II, I can't remember those features in III and IV version. V was... ekmm... (I will not tell what was that)

einstein13
calculations & maps packages: http://wuatek.no-ip.org/~rak/widelands/
backup website files: http://kartezjusz.ddns.net/upload/widelands/

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I like Rotation but I think as well that it can be rather reesonable to disable that Feature in the Optionsv resp give a short Way to change to "Normal Direction". Other Meanings to help to orientate for Direction gets useful or even necessary. EG a Kind of Compass. Something like a HUD would do a fine Job but does not fit into Scenery of Antike Age. Actually the Models for Sites are afaik HollyWoodStyle what means its just fine for a special Cam-Setting and for FreeCam SiteModels need to get DisneyWorld-fine what means Cam can move around. As long as the Models are flat and just a single Perspective exist for Sites - for Units there are those for 6 Directions inclusive those generated by simple SideFlip.

For cheap ArtWork-REQs I would before try to allow side-fliped Sites resp Sites with Way to southwest instead south-east, which would make the Map look somewhat more natural resp allows new Fredoms for Design of ... Settelement. Especially for SeaFaring I miss MORE Directions than the present six! These should be possible close to/with present Design where Units move only to on e of three neighbored NodePoints. If we think of Positions BETWEEN the Nodes as quasi-illegal StayPositions but for Transition between two NodePoints and these Transfers are actually limited to the Edges of neighboured Field-Trices then the new 6 Directions resp Transfers could from a NodePoint resp Corner cross the Trice and pass the opposited Edge in its Middle and continues same Direction till the NodePoint oppsited to StartPoint over passed Edge. Hard to explain with Words but simple to see. Simply that next NopdePoint between the Directions to neighboured Nodes. Same could work for Roads.

Exist there any Idea to replace that Carrier-Chains with a more rational Model of Carrier-Business?

Eg. a MinerMaster gets evoced and leave its Site and move to another DeepMine where a MinerMaster missses. This Kind of Transfer works for Personal! NOW assume that Worker is a Carrier and he gets always evoked but picks a Ware from DST Destination and move to DST of Ware and drop it and search for closest Ware to pick up and if not same Place move there and pick it etc.

To avoid that some/remote Locations get omited do a simple Func for Priority: eg prio(aWare) = aWare.time_waited * eta1 aWare.distance(carrier) * eta2 + aWare.type.priority * eta3 ... factor in what you consider to be important enough and weight it as much as necessary. With that Form an N-Tupel of Etas (e1,e2,...en) behaves same like another which is simply scaled by any x: x*(a,b,c,..) = (xa,xb,xc,..) -- the Ratio between these Coefficients are the determining Aspect for Effectivity. With Type-specific Priority that means eg a Pizza have practical high Priority due to these have to get delivered as fast possible to arrive still steaming. Wares for VIP-Unit may needs to get delivered as fast as well no Matter if it steams or not.

What does misses? I don't like scripted "Magics" like pick a Carrier and morph it into a Miner by consuming a PickAxe but prefer a Carrier who get a Miner and then GET a PickAxe into its Inventory but with or without the PickAxe he can get a Miner and he can have a PickAxe no Matter what Job he got. So we may assume a Lumberer in his Shaft took the Axe from Site-Inventory in his Inventory and move out to lumber anything and return. When he return with Trunk and Axe he put both into Depot - one for keeping another for WareExit. The Carrier who bring a Trunk put it into WareEntry and for return may pick Wood from WareExit. There are several Points but one is that these Things get distinguished into single different Actions and get sciptable for the Units.

Actually a Site can instruct its Worker to do anything and Player can access Sites only but Ships which are afaik a special Type of Site as well. Excepted the Exception I call that Site-centric Control. I suggest to merge Class Sites and Workes and add Attributes which explains which Abilities are enabled. That Way a Player can access Workers like a single Lumberer to direct him to a specific Tree (to lumber it) or a MasterMiner can instruct "the Site" to do half Production or a Bulder call in a StoneMason for a Column. There may be exist something similar "hardcoded" in C++ but Problem is that it can not get scripted resp customized. Simply assume that Site is a Kind of Worker and Worker Kind of Site. A Site can actually have Workers and Inventory while Workers can move on the Map and do interact with Environment. Eg a Forester can plant Trees and a Lumberer harvest. Assume there is a SmeltingWorks which ask a Mine with two Miners for Ore. Assume there is a SteelWorker who ask for Ore. It does primary not ask ANY Miner but address the Mine at first like a Company. As the Mine as Company does not represent a single Worker there is any MinerChief which is Chief of the Mine resp there exist any Worker who is responsive into these Activities like processing Calls and/or Puts, Matter like from a StockExchange but without StockExchange. Think you sit in an Office of a Company and get a Letter with an Offer from any other Company. You may get buy a Lot Things or none or offer a Lot of Things or none. You don't really buy there something for yourself nor reverse get directly Money from selling Products of your Company. Anyway did your Company these Activities but inverse your Company can not really do anything but the Workers inside. Hard to hit the Nail here but it's clear that these Things are joined but different.

I strongly advice to merge these Classs for Workers and Sites resp inclusive Ships, Soldiers,TrainSites and customize but Configuration and Programs the Behavior of these Things if it gets eg TrainSite or a Soldier and don't deal with different Classes for them. Thus can Sites eg inherit from Soldiers HP and thus damaged resp broken resp get attackable. The resulting Problem from StatusQuo: there exist many different Classes which require special Casting-Work to deal safely with these different Types to avoid Trouble with Interface to omit to grisp into the Vacuum, different StorageClasses and OverHead to put them into a single Storage or reverse to extract them safely on Selection. Workers, especially MINERS can get XP. I miss that Soldiers can get XP from Battle and level anyway up. I miss that there exist no Carreer for other Workers like eg for a Cook in a Tavern and with more XP the Tavern produce faster or better. The annoying Point is: there exist a Lot of Knowledge inside these different Classes but due to it got splitted and offered just from much lesser resp anyway speicalized Classes these Knowledge can just get utlized partially. EG a TrainSite comsumes Swords for training a Soldier in Attack. When gets trained for another Sword Site consumes another Sword. I did try to fix that Matter and teach TrainingSite to produce a Sword of Type N when a Soldier got trained with/for a Sword of Type N+1. I found that that TrainingSite can consume Wares but can not produce Wares. A Fortress offer another Interface to Players than other Sites. It is afaik not possible to define in Conf for Fortress Programs that the Fortress eg send out Partrouls to protect the Frontiers.

Same Way I advice to put other Kind of Bobs into that single Class. EG I am not sure why a Duck should not get customized Code from CONF to keep close to both Land and Water. Elephants may not climb into the Mountains, IceBears not move in the Desert etc.

Actually the Problem is: a Unit, Worker CAN run its Programs BUT excepted Ships Players can not access them, Units can carry a single Ware but don't have an Inventory and I do not remind any Worker who can Interact with other Workers. EG two Carrier can not exchange any Ware but via droping/picking on a Flag. A Site knows to talk to Worker. EG a Lumberer can not ask a Carrier to carry a Trunk with him but only put that Trunk anywhere.

Long Journey to that Point

Ivan the Terrible is dead .. Genghis Khan is dead .. and I do not feel well, too.

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However I do not see this topic as very important right now. For one, you can have a nice approximation of b) by playing fullscreen and lowering your resolution - or by lowering the resolution of your OS. Also, the future of gaming (and therefore of Widelands) is on tablets - the desktop is dying and it is dying as a gaming platform very quickly indeed. (Logical) Resolution on tablets have peaked already and are unlikely to go much higher at this point in time - and Widelands should be very playable on the resolutions they offer.

tablets and smartphones seem to be popular for casual gaming. But the situation is different for complex, long games. Widelands is not the kind of game you play for a few minutes on the bus.

Philipp

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About warping the Texture to archive better Non-Cuttings:
Assume Texture which is already a TriAngle resp Texture is diagonal half one Side Black.
So assume a rectangular Texture which does simply contain a triangle Texture resp complementary
to Rectangle a black Triangle. We assume the black Part of Image as irrelevant resp a Mixture of being irrelevant resp may keep, add and drop black Pixels on Demand to get a TriAngle resp a Rectangle.

Now: Assume a rectangular TriAngle upright standing. We can easily find Transformations to scale Image resp TriAngle in Width and Height. Now the somewhat lesser easy Problem: see the Image as Rectangle
and think we can move&warp with the Cursor by selecting and shifting the upper Corner by a Point
sidewards thus the TriAngle is no longer rectangular.

That Way in different Order of Img-Warps we can warp a Texture Rectange/TriAngle into Shape needed for the uncutted Textures. We may consider any self-written GFX-Lib to perform such simple transformations quckly resp briefly by small Code, eg a single Call of Func to get warped from Args Vectors and Texture.

We can easily calculate Distances resp Angles of TriAngles we need to texture by VectorAlgebra.
Basics here not explained .. Distance of two Points and eg DotProduct of two DirectionVectors to get cosinus alpha. It's basic even it needs to get lerned before can et done but FYI: it's quasi same trivial like calculating Area of a Rectangle while we still think of Numbers and Points and know Area is a Set of Points ... yes via simple Multiplication. Brief Point: you don't VectorAlgebra not by reading few Sentences, calculatings 3 Equations and got the Point but it is anyway same simple and not so simple. Consider learning Natural Numbers and later Fractions resp a/b + c/d = (ad+bc)/bd .. right, simple Addition, we don't know where was the Problem while learning it for Weeks. Btw Vectors are simple! ;)

Distance of two Points resp DiffVector of PositionVectors v1,v2:
sqrt of (v2-v1) * (v2-v1) ... anyway really same like Pythaogoras but SideLengths via Difference of PositionVectors and Length of Hypothenuse via sqrt c^2. Btw: if you can do it via Euklid Geometry you can do it on Paper with Vectors on half Size of Paper as you safe a Lot of OverHead to describe the PayLoad and thus safe a Lot of unnecessary Things. To calculate an Angle between to Lines with Euklid it looks like you want to build a Rocket for Apollo-Programm while with Vectors quasi same looks small and clear.

- DiffVector dv = v2 - v1
- dv^2 equivalent c^2

So we can calculate quasi c as Vector directly from Difference of a,b resp v1,v2 and via Dot-Square of Vectors Result falls on a single Number. Can tell you that Way for Hours and you may think each Time more you did understand but in Fact you have to calculate for half Year with Vectors in many Ways forwared and reward to understand how Things work and real Problem is not to calculate v1*v2 but to know what to calculate when somebody ask much Time does 5 Men need to cut Trunks into Plates when they have 3 Saws and two have to saw as Pair etc... probably solvable via Addition and Mutliplication ;)
If you like for Math when you can draw for Matters a Figure and thus see something visual this is of course most Time also true for Vectors no Matters if you work with spartial Dimensions or Amount resp Mixture of Colors etc. The Vector does not know if it is a Meter Way 5L Milk or 500 Euro ... but you can make a Figure from .. perhaps call it Kind if Chart or something.

However, here we need simply Substraction and Dot-Multiplication to get Distances and Angles.

If we have Distances/Angles and got Lib to warp Texture we have to see how to integrate Stuff cleanly that correctly Textures gets warped on Demand. Anyway I expect here Trouble from Performance due to each TriAngle could mean another Set of Angles and therefore, if we want to deal precalculated Textures to avoid that CPU have to warp each single Pixel from Map then we factor in a significant large Amopunt of installed RAM, or try to safe CPU-Ticks by waiting for HardDisk (FallBack from HyperSpace into TimeTrap .... HDD-Raping .... um wait, have to seek for a another Sector ... oh, wait for avg half Turn of Disk then it will come). So we have as best technical Solution warp Texture on GPU, there exist one-quarter-effective Ways to render that Jon on GPU, IIRC OpenCL was such a HighLevel-Banger, I would go much straighter.... CTM is the Term but addresses actually ATI only as NVidia did not offer anything for and means quasi GPU-ASM. OR 3rd is to offer nice Texturizing via Option-Menu and Player need a Lot of RAM in his RIG. Those who have to have about 16..32GB M*O*R*E RAM on PC just to keep Textures precalculated in RAM. Some could have but real it is sufficient if only all Textures for all visible Fields got precalculated and when scorlling on Map the Members of that SubSet changes. Even better is to store these Textures inside GPU-RAM to reduce needed BandWidth to GPU and CPU-RAM. Assume ScreenArea from about giant 200x200 Fields means 40k Fields resp with hot shotted 20kB per Field&Texture Need for GPU-RAM result in 800MB. That's not a Chunk but a Hump. Brief Idea here: probably reasonable even for moderate modern Gear, more precise Numbers here necessary but with Moore's Law we can for half Amount of RAM add about 2 Years for Limit of supported HardWare. If we think of 128MB as rather close to 800MB (just about 5y distant) we can assert that there exist a Likelihood of better than 50% (consider here 200X200 Fields ... that was almost maximal MapSize Years ago, with theoretical/gpu-ram limited Zoom-Factor of 100X100 on Screen we got already into 128MB-Zone in that Zone is nowhere where I would identify an Objective to aim for 64MB instead. We can nevertheless support older Gear but WITH that Option enbabled not ancient Gear.)

Again small Review: 2D-Warping explained: trivial, no ShowStoppers, 2D-Geometry-Extraction from 3D-Geometry similar trivial. Providing Textures per TriAnlge got utlized from WL since Day One I guess, Tek of Utlization of GPU-MEM for Textures I know from Days of Duke-Nukem-3D .. I wonder if OpenGL already can before next Duke rolls out.

Perhaps start with writing a Class FooPoint, add Transit resp Addition, Substraction etc, rename it Vector and add Multiplications for Numbers (Scalar, scaling) and two Multiplications Vector mul Vector, called cross and dot, the dot is really simple, the cross looks at first wanyway so arbitrary and confusing, it require some Time to understand the regularity resp Symmery of that Kind of Multiplication and then most essential Vector-Arsenal ready to deal less trivial geometric Matters. There exist several important Lemmar ..? like the very essential Term of Linear Depency. It sounds on first Understanding anyway that trivial that it appear currious why that stupid Term get treated so intesively but Reason is it is essential and is same useful for Vector-Algebra like Swiss-Army-Knife for McGyver. How it gets done? Check for Linear InDepencies. Terms like parallel and complanar origin from and appear as some just special Forms from.
Relatede to is the Need resp USe of Gaussian Algorithm. It does not concerns to Vectors directly but to linear EquationSystems which Vectors are as well. Even if GA deals with Scalars resp Numbers it can get well used to deal Question of LD linear Depencies strictly and effiziently. IF Vectors are the Meanings, LD is the Question and GA a good Way to get the Answer - for brief Orientation about these Thingies. IF you try to adapt this Stuff consider that this Stuff goes towards being really not trivial like changing from BiCycle to SportCar or even Lorry - that are really no easy Toys for Kids. If you plan for Stuff above 3 Days or a Week, for real you need for CrashCourse 1 Month. Don't wonder if you think 3 Days later you did not understand anything! Without clear Lessons you would like to mixture Nitrgens to get any Glizerine and may perhaps ask where you get Elektrons from due to you did not really understand what the Matter. You can not stick to Lessons if you don't know that you can get important Knowledge from. Eg you won't believe that you can/should deal with LD for about a single Month and calculate it forward and rewards and sidewards. So you can simply know that you rush ahead to fast when there is nobody who knows that and can tell you. Think ssimply you visit your own DriverSchool and return 3 Days later and claim you can drive. Well, you prepared also the ExamenQuestion. Well, anywhere to start.

Order for Learning: VectorAddition, NullVektor (and THEN Vector-Subtraktion), then Scalar-Multiplication which means Number mul Vector results in Vector: 3*v= 3*(x,y,z) = (3x,3y,3z).
LinearCombination LC: v_lc= s*v1+t*v3+...+u*vn THEN Term LinearDepency LD. Then LC/LD LC/LD forward reward sidewards and then over head. It is not really like the small 1X1 but more like the many reversible Queries fixing resp partiall defining Things for Koeffizients and Vectors. That is perhaps about 2 Month real existing Work you try to accomplkish in a Week and perhaps like to believe you got it really but would it be like that you won't finger like a drunken Blind in the Fog but simply 1,2,3 solve the Matters as the Matters gets mostly rather trivial then. That Matter above with Distance and Angle is at basic Level of VectorAlgebra and not its sweet Fruits it have. Compared with Numbers: don't wonder that 2+-2=0 or 4*5=2*10 .. that's really not its real Magic but .... basic. Best Help I can give: learn from Addition up to LC and LD and stay there and search a very Lot Excessions for in Internet with Aim for odd being and odd looking Excecises and it is for you not about NumberCrunching but Problem-Crunching to map/express PRoblems on Vectors, Relations etc and apply your ToolKit effectively to solve Problems. Don't consider that Incestment of SpareTime into VectgorAlgebra as Minimum necessary to implement Vector-Libs or calculate Distances betweens Points but to deal very effective with geometric Problems. and don't write 100kb arimethic HorrorCode for Things you can get by 3 or 4 Vector-Operations.

In that Context, even it concerns very the visual Behavior of the Game is effefcts very directly the spartial Authenticity of the Game if the Visibility gets also spartial calculated and not geometric. That Means it is very curious that a Castle can look behind a Mountain if that BackSide is near to Castle no Matter how tall the Moutain is. More straighter explained: the Topology and Objects inside Game have little spartial Meaning but the Appearing of the Moutains.


At TopToppie: As you work with 3D-Perspective-Things: may you do some Experiments with artifical SunSets resp Shadows from existing 3D-Bodies inside Game? Actually for eg Sites Shadow is static ArtWork. But for Mountains SunSets would allow Calculation for Shadow from MapMorphology. Players may worry that Shadows of Sites and Units don't behave depending from SunSet while other worry that there is no SunSet what means the latter would like to see imperfect SunSet and thus see Map more plasitcal - I don't know! - but for sure that would make Map appear more dynamical and some Players would like. To disallow the "unnatural ShadowGrowth" like on Equator makings Shadows longright-short-longleft fade out and restart from other Side and then agains short I suggest to consider .. Declination? of eg 22.5 Degrees and thus allow a moderate SunSet resp ShowBehavior between 6Month-Night at Poles and Side-Flip at Horizon. What's the Point here: actually Map looks always same from Aspect of TimeFlow: no Weather, no DayNightCycle etc. 3D-Morphology of Mountains exist ("you get for free").
Matter of SightRange is related to ShadowFall. You can use perhaps use alsmost same Code to calculate MAtter of Pass and Obstacle for Light and Shadow. IF you think of Shadow as Kind of BlackLight emmited reverse from Surface illumintated from Sunlight this ShadowLight have to get projected behind the Obstacle till the4 Ground. So think simply of Kind of PRojection of BlackLight which gets not only by GL as effective MEthod to handle that Kind of MAtter. I am surprisningly not sure how your isometric Things works factoring in Z for Perspective BUT you may think here of a Kind of RADIAL Projection and that is back to VisionRange again same MAtter BUT with DIFF we don't want to know how the Projection looks like but what effectively gets projected and what remain unseen. That is like if we drop Colors from Projection and reversere identify Fields which have a share from Prjection. Simple appears to color each Surface with a specific uniq ColorCode and on PRojection identify the effective Surfaces and ony these gets rendered for VideoOutPut to draw a Map of just the viewable.

The 3D-Thing sounds good at least for Marketing. IMO that Experience sounds more thriving then it gets experienced from People. Hey, do you have Stereo-Speaker? Yo! Sounds better? Yo! Can you hear that Way hear double with two Speaker?` Um....that is not easy to explain, it hear different but I am not sure if Musik sounds doubled tasty ... I mean think about PacMan-3D and then new Faarture Special Dots can let Paccy run through Walls like Ghosts .... the 3DThing buzzes but pays little to effective GameFun. I don't advise here for aor against anything. Balance what you want to put in to increase ROI and from these I can
only know GameFun as PlayerExperience. I am not sure how cheap you get solved 3D-Matter but from Aspect of PlayerExperience I await in long Term more from SightRange and DayNightCycle as this changes the Appearance of Game much more aside of Aspect of Marketing 3D Game buzzes much more than dynamic Shadow and artifical SunSet or SightRange. However, StereoScopy is on my RoadMap and thus also its REQs for Z etc. I did listed here several Things which are anyway related to this Matters and I don't think its valuable to advice to pick all of these Matters onto a single TODO-Item but I think it is valuable to note these Items to consider Relations and Depencies between these. Eg your Z-Matter I did still noit identify as Requirement and now wonder what all is necessary to change to.

First Idea is to use another Parameter for OverHEad GL and thus warp 3D. To get the 2D-Things warped simplest Thing is to put them into 3D-Space and bend them with on the fly.

What Thingies did you identify as 2D/OverLay-Entities? I would btw throw the Dialogs into same Space as well as I won't like to deal with two different but related resp dependend.





btw: perhaps anyway related or useful but for sure via MUL:
http://reference.wolfram.com/legacy/applications/digitalimage/FunctionIndex/WarpMatrix.html

Ivan the Terrible is dead .. Genghis Khan is dead .. and I do not feel well, too.

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