lights.png file

[StevieLee]

Is there a guide out there for how to create/edit these? When I open it in GIMP it's just a blank file.

[Veitikka]

If you zoom in you can see transparent white dots where the roads have the lights at night. The game engine blurs them so they're not that blocky in-game. I'm not an image editor expert, but it's possible to pick certain colors from a map file (e.g. the roads) and then replace them with something like these dots.

[Issue8]

Here is the lights pattern

[Issue8]

Basically, the idea is to fill a layer with that pattern, and then use masks, both on that layer, and in a group mask. So if you are using Gimp, you will need newer versions of Gimp that have group masks.

If you use the select by color tool, and shift select all the building colors that would likely have lights around them and then grow the selection by about 4 pixels, then you will get a mask for the lights layer.

Then for the group mask, select all the roads that will likely have lights and use that selection for a mask.

[Issue8]

THe masks would look something like this for the buildings:

[Issue8]

And something like this for the roads:

[Issue8]

Using both the masks together gives an intersection effect:

The actual lights.png is hard to see because of the alpha channel

[StevieLee]

Issue8: Thanks much for the great explanation!