Recently, King Mir and I worked a bit on the wiki's
tileset page (updating it for 40.11, adding some categories useful for tileset creators), and in the process an idea formed to add more information on DF's graphics on a separate page.
The target audience would be people that look into making their own tileset, graphic set, creature graphics, etc.
Amongst other things, there is not enough concrete information on creature graphic syntax, all the tile magic with transparency, inverted tiles and so on; as well as putting it all on a central page that is easy to find instead of having to search on 3 or 4 different pages for all the auxiliary files (TTF, color scheme, init files, raw changes...). In addition, a basic photoshop/gimp tutorial (layers, alpha channels, masks) and good practices (non-destructive editing, organization) could be of use for people. I'm not sure if the latter is out of the scope of the wiki though.
In practice, this would mean
adding a new page to the wiki called 'graphics' that acts as central hub and first place to look at when people want to change their graphics, either by switching to existing alternatives or making their own.
As such it would contain
- an overview about how DF displays information, what all these words mean, and what you can and cannot change
- instuctions on how to change the various components (tilesets, creature graphics, TTF, color scheme, settings in raws and init files)
- a link to existing alternatives (tileset repo, graphic set repo, color schemes)
- and finally instructions on how to create your own
Right now, I think the best practice is to keep the detailed documentation in the "subpages".
This would mean adding a page for creature graphics ("graphic set"? see below), and possibly True Type font.
I've made a basic draft of the organization on my
user page and there was some discussion at the end of
this thread.
Now, I come to you with a request for opinions, feedback and help.
If you can contribute or correct anything, please do! Discuss it here, state your opinion, or edit the user talk page linked above directly (wait, can others even edit someone's user talk page?)
1. What do you think of the organization I propose? Should I change anything? Add/remove anything?
2. Anything incorrect?
3. Which information should go on the central 'Graphics' page, and which should go on "subpages" like 'tileset' 'color scheme', etc.
4. Are there any parts you know about and can help writing?
5. Any details about the exact way DF blends FG and BG of a tile and how to replicate it in PS/Gimp?
And most importantly:
6. Can you please clarify the correct use of and differences between these terms:(see also the end of the discussion thread linked above)- Tileset
- Graphic set
- Graphic pack
I'm not sure about it because, I used 'Tileset' and 'Graphic set' to distinguish between tilesets that change the raws and tilesets that don't. But from what I see, 'graphic set' is used for creature graphics (which I refer to just as 'creature graphics'). And if so, how do I distinguish between 'vanilla' tilesets and tilesets that require raw changes (other than writing a convulted sentence about it)?
Graphic pack is just tileset+creature graphics+color scheme+etc, though; right?
After all, it would be nice if I knew how these terms are used
before I start writing wiki pages about it.