World in Flames is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. World In Flames is a highly detailed game covering the both Europe and Pacific Theaters of Operations during World War II. If you want grand strategy this game is for you.
If I start with a rendering that is 2:1, the red will be a true circle and not an ellipse (does anyone have a bitmap of Japan's flag in 2:1?). Zoom level is 8.
It should be easy to have a 2:1 aspect Japanese flag. Just take the one you have, and cut the right & left sides into a graphic program until you are at 2:1. The background is just uniformely white it won't show.
Same for all flags who are not 2:1 at start. The German one seems like this for instance. Just cut the right & left sides into a graphic program until you are at 2:1.
For the UK you can't do that, it would show.
For the USA, just cut on the right side to achieve the 2:1 ratio.
For the Natinalist Chinese, here is one flag.
I took the Italian battle flag that Patrice provided, since the missing crown on the cross of the official flag wouldn't be visible anyway.
It's not because I provided it, but I find it beautiful [:D]
Czechoslovakia is aligned with Germany while Austria is simply part of Germany.
For Germany, I think it should be trimmed to be 2:1 (by cutting the right & left parts of the picture before being scaled down) because it seems very slim compared to the others. The right part seems longer too.
For the cross, it's high part is not visible in the black of the flag, as Greyshaft predicted.
Anyway, I'm not quite pleased with this German Flag, it is simply not WWII German enough.
Maybe you should re open the votes by showing 3 screenshots using the alternate 3 proposals ?
Here is Free France, the second 'winner' for Germany, and the offical Italian flag.
Note the change I made to the aligned flags. It is both a smaller intrusion and instead of an opaque white it is now translucent. I think it is an improvement.
Attachments
GFIFlags01042006.jpg (129.08 KiB) Viewed 352 times
The last in this series. To expedite things I am showing 2 German flags here. What I call the fancy flag and the cross in the circle. Obviously the cross in the circle is too badly distorted. Somewhere along the line I'll modify it so that it looks correct as a 2:1 image.
Im voting for the flag with the cross in the circle - obviously requiring less of a distortionin the 2:1 image.
As for the fancy flag i am tempted to quote Froonp about the lab test in danger of escaping the lab - please kill it quick! The fancy flag really doesnt convey any "3. reich" feeling (for me at least).
Very impressed with all the options you present before deciding
Note the change I made to the aligned flags. It is both a smaller intrusion and instead of an opaque white it is now translucent. I think it is an improvement.
Here is Free France, the second 'winner' for Germany, and the offical Italian flag.
Free France is neat.
This German flag is really the best to my eyes. It have a real IIIrd Reich flavor and no svastika. The red may be too dark though.
1) Do we have to use that 2/1 ratio for flags? To me it looks pretty awkward. Could you try 3/2 maybe?
2) Okay, now we have the "Reichskriegsflagge" (at least it looks that way, hard to tell at that size) too, while not WWII, it's also a prohibitted symbol in Germany as I mentionned before.
3) A compromise for Germany might be red flag with white circle and no cross whatsoever. That would be quite recognisable.
Here is my conclusion on the flags. I'll revisit it in a month or 2 but for now I am putting it to bed and moving on to other things.
================ The Use of Flags in MWIF
(as of January 5, 2006)
MWIF uses flags for two primary purposes: to indicate which major power controls territory and to indicate which major power is on move. In both cases the bitmapped image of each flag, as it appears on the screen, is small, only 48 pixels wide by 24 pixels high in 24 bit color.
There are 238 named countries, territories, and geographical areas in MWIF and 128 of them have units. Potentially, flags for each of these could be included in the game. However, the purpose of MWIF is to enable players to play World in Flames, not be a device for displaying flags. So, there are only 9 different flags used in MWIF, one for each of the 9 major powers that can ultimately control territory as defined in World in Flames, Final Edition. These are the same 9 major powers that can potentially be on move. In no particular order they are:
1 - Nationalist China
2 - Communist China
3 - Japan
4 - USSR
5 - Germany
6 - France (France before Vichy, Free France, and Vichy France)
7 - Italy
8 - Commonwealth
9 - United States
As indicated above, there are 3 different flags used for France. Vichy France is never “on move”. Its units are controlled by either Germany or Italy depending on which of them declared a Vichy France. However, for game play purposes, it is important to indicate which hexes are Vichy France, so a different flag is shown to indicate hexes in Vichy France.
MWIF has a separate subdirectory just for bitmapped images of flags. The players can change which bitmapped image is used for each major power whenever they wish, as one of the standard game interface options. Most of the bitmapped images in the directory when MWIF ships are 256 pixels wide by 128 pixels high, 24 bit color, BMP files. These images are compressed automatically by the program to the 48 by 24 images shown on the screen.
Here is a list of the different flags in the directory. Where more than one is listed, the asterisk indicates the starting game default.
1 just 1 flag
2 just 1 flag
3 official Rising Sun flag of Japan and a “Sun Burst” flag (*)
4 just 1 flag
5 plain Red Cross in White Circle; modified official German flag with Iron Cross replacing the swastika; simplified modified official German flag, with the smaller Iron Cross removed (*); tricolor black, white, and red; tricolor black, gold, and red; official German flag of the late 19th century
6 just 1 of each
7 simple tricolor; official Italian flag of the period; official Italian battle flag of the period (*)
8 official Commonwealth flag, Union Jack (*)
9 official USA of the period
Players can add their own flags to this directory. Each added flag has to be a 24 bit, BMP file but it can be of any width and height. The program will automatically stretch and/or shrink them to 48 by 24 for display on the screen. Note that this can cause distortion to occur if the BMP images are not in a 2:1 ratio of width to height.
1) Do we have to use that 2/1 ratio for flags? To me it looks pretty awkward. Could you try 3/2 maybe?
I'll think about this - but my knee jerk response is 'no'. One solution is to automate retention of the original aspect ratio by adding transparent pixels to the BMP image until a 2:1 is achieved. Then the rendering on the screen would be compressed to 48 by 24. I'll revisit this again in a couple of months. There is more important stuff to work on.
6 - France (France before Vichy, Free France, and Vichy France)
Just a note here to say that writing "France before Vichy" is not completely correct.
First, there is France (in S/O39).
Then, the German arrive, and there is Vichy France and Free France.
Then, the Americans arrive, and there is no more Vichy France and no more Free France, and there is again France.
[:D]
6 - France (France before Vichy, Free France, and Vichy France)
Just a note here to say that writing "France before Vichy" is not completely correct.
First, there is France (in S/O39).
Then, the German arrive, and there is Vichy France and Free France.
Then, the Americans arrive, and there is no more Vichy France and no more Free France, and there is again France.
[:D]
IMHO the Union Jack is the most appropriate flag for the Commonwealth. It's difficult to express how "British" people (well the white people anyway) of the Commonwealth felt in those days. I'm Australian, and it was not uncommon in the 70s to still hear old folk talk of Empire! People would speak of the "Far East" when it was really the "Near North"!
The sunray flag for Japan would seem most appropriate but we must ensure that it has no political problems. The whole issue of personal preference and legalities might mean that a user selectable system is best. What if the game is only available for download? In that case, swastikas won't be able to be removed from a German/Austrian release without denying them to everybody else. I don't want my history revised.
