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RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 7:25 pm
by digiartst
ORIGINAL: Jason Petho
Outstanding, James.
If you create the 6 view vehicles, I am more than happy to create bit's for them and include them in future UPDATES, or even has temporary graphics patches until the UPDATEs are ready.
Hope you're well!
Jason Petho
OK Jason: Let me tell you I am an artist and not that technical when it comes to all the programming stuff, so
right now we have to stay in the CS framework, indexed colors, roughly 100x100 resolution, right you aren't asking me to put out 200x200 even though I would love too. we just have to cruise along at the old CS settings right.
James
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 7:57 pm
by Jason Petho
ORIGINAL: digiartst
OK Jason: Let me tell you I am an artist and not that technical when it comes to all the programming stuff, so
right now we have to stay in the CS framework, indexed colors, roughly 100x100 resolution, right you aren't asking me to put out 200x200 even though I would love too. we just have to cruise along at the old CS settings right.
James
Hi James, yes, at this point the standard format should be used.
I have inquired to Erik from Matrix Games on the possibility of increasing the graphics to 24-bit or 32-bit. Still waiting to hear back what is involved and how realistic is to achieve.
Jason Petho
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 10:53 pm
by junk2drive
Thanks Jason. The terrain and 3D models aren't so bad as they are now but the turn indicator popup, scenario pics and unit info pics in 8 bit black and white are pretty bad in this day and age.
James it will be fun watching for your projects to pop out from time to time. We players have been waiting for updates to WF and RS for so long and are still here. We will be here for your work no matter how long it takes.
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 7:25 am
by MrRoadrunner
+1 Junk!
RR
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 7:28 am
by Warhorse
I've been trying, particularly in the K'talan mod, to have color scenario and unit pics, I also redid the F2 unit info menu. Turn indicator also.
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 7:28 am
by Ashcloud
ORIGINAL: MrRoadrunner
+1 Junk!
RR
+2
Graphic question
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 7:47 pm
by digiartst
SO if I make a batch program in Photoshop and batch process all the CS art to double res , will it work in the game?
James
Then I would have a better res to do work on but can the game handle the change of base res.
RE: Graphic question
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 9:10 pm
by Jason Petho
ORIGINAL: digiartst
SO if I make a batch program in Photoshop and batch process all the CS art to double res , will it work in the game?
James
Then I would have a better res to do work on but can the game handle the change of base res.
You could test one one of existing bmp and bits and see how it looks in your game?
Jason Petho
RE: Graphic question
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 9:41 pm
by digiartst
ORIGINAL: Jason Petho
ORIGINAL: digiartst
SO if I make a batch program in Photoshop and batch process all the CS art to double res , will it work in the game?
James
Then I would have a better res to do work on but can the game handle the change of base res.
You could test one one of existing bmp and bits and see how it looks in your game?
Jason Petho
No that is not what I meant looks, I meant will it center correctly , line up correctly etc. I might just run the script and go for broke and try the game the script will probably run all night long to update everything.
James
Wait do the bit files tell resolution oh that would be bad?
RE: Graphic question
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:12 am
by RJL5188
does this mean that JTCS is going to have a graphics update as well as a regular update? I still play this game on a regular basis
RE: Graphic question
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:53 pm
by Josh
I certainly hope so, it's one of my classics, it's been on my HD ever since the first EF came out. It could use some sort of graphic update though. It looked smashing back in the day, but things sure have moved on from then.
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:37 pm
by Nebfer
ORIGINAL: digiartst
Gentlemen: I was a part of the old Talonsoft graphics team for East Front 2 and West Front. I was not paid staff but a fan. I became a part of the team based on all the graphics mods I did.
To answer your questions, Talonsoft used GHQ Miniatures primed and took photos of them on white lit for no shadow, the miniature was on a small turntable with marks to line up the 6 angles needed for the vehicle.
With East Front 2 they did not have alot of miniatures of the poles or hungarians to call upon . Charlie Uncliss from Talonsoft asked me if I could build the vehicles they needed from line drawing they would provide for me, I built almost all the Romanian units and many of the Polish and Italian trucks and guns that had no miniature representation. also the 6 rad german scout car and one of the other 4 wheel scout cars, basically anything they did not have a miniature for. The reproduction of the rulebook leaves off alot of the old credits or you would see my special thanks credit in the back of the manual.
When I first got East Front the German units were all desert color, so my first mod was to make the units Grey with mud,these are the standard units you see in the Game now. Basically in photoshop I retinted the units grey and pulled keys to only make the brown paint turn grey. I also made snow, and Western Front Camo units, but back in those days you had to manually load the different graphics because they did not write the progam to change the art by Season untill West front came along.
I only did the vehicles so I do not know how the did the terrain. but I was turning out 1 vehicle in 3d a night and I did about 40 vehicles in total ,when I did the camo I chose the big vehicles that the camo would show on the most, that took awhile to digitally paint all the camo schemes so that was the slowest, to turn the brow to grey was the fastest, do a magic wand on the brown and desaturate it , any brown edges left over looked like mud or dirt so that was Ok. To increase the graphic quality would be to increase resolution of the various art pieces, but there are thousands of pieces, now granded the pieces seem to hold up fairly well to a 200% blowup in photoshop then some retouching to bring the blurryness back into sharp but still we are talking about thousands of assets. Would I love to see it you bet.
Could the game engine handle a double the resolution type revamp or would its centers be off and new code have to be written to support the new graphics? That I do not know.
I do know the Mr Rose and the Talonsoft team were a great team to work with, and have to me turned out the best graphics for this level of wargame still to this day. I am also so happy Matrix got this game and have done what they have done so far to improve it.
Here is an example of the tiger tank graphic up-rezed to double resolution. I then adjusted the various values contrast,whites and blacks and got the tiger detail back. Could I get it sharper sure I could with additional reworking in photoshop.
The up resed infanrty would give you more to work with , I remember experimenting with waffen SS Camo for the infantry and just not having enough resolution to make it look good, but again the infantry you see in the game came from miniature figures ,sprayed with primer then digitally painted. To get the scale right as some people have wanted which is the infantry in correct size to the vehicles or towns,and still have great detail when zoomed into,it would mean the vehicles would have to be triple res at least. which would mean a simple up-rez would fall apart in detail and have to be replaced by new vehicle artwork from scratch or if Matrix was lucky and was given the high res photos that were taken of the original miniatures ,matrix could digitally paint on the high res pictures making a highly detailed piece of artwork.
I do not see Matrix investing into that so for me I just enjoy the amazing artwork that took at least a year to make by a team of very talented artists.
I hope this kinda sheds a light on how Talonsoft did the original artwork
Digiartst
Formally known as Jager56 for Talonsoft
and part of the Beta Brigade
Well I wondered why they looked like the GHQ minis... Good job.
------------------------------------------
The Units are fine, though I would be great if they could get updated with a higher resolution for a sharper look. The 2D I think could use more improvement. The Terrain could perhaps use some more types, more buildings and what naught.
But I think the AI could use some work... And perhaps the Generic (Random mission) campaigns could use some improvement (like selecting a start and end data, and number of battles to fight during the campaign). Though I would like to see the units not so spreed out in map, I mean a single Battalion could be spread out over a 25 square kilometer area and and the same area has elements of two other battalions...
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 8:08 pm
by Dumnorix
Take a look at my 3D units for Panzer Corps. If Matrix will put out a new JTCS I can give all my work. Slitherine have no interest on my WW2 and WW3 art - they will use his own bad unit graphics.
tm.asp?m=3057447
H.Balck [:)]
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:16 am
by 4rakbtl32
ORIGINAL: Dumnorix
Take a look at my 3D units for Panzer Corps. If Matrix will put out a new JTCS I can give all my work. Slitherine have no interest on my WW2 and WW3 art - they will use his own bad unit graphics.
tm.asp?m=3057447
H.Balck [:)]
Dumnorix, the units are nice, but can you make this units in all 6 views and scale that use by CS ?
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:56 pm
by Dumnorix
Dumnorix, the units are nice, but can you make this units in all 6 views and scale that use by CS ?
Yes - but I can't do it for the old JTCS engine - if Matrix have interest to produce an improved new game between Panzer Corps and JTCS I can give more than 500 units. BTW - not for free !!!
H.Balck
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 12:11 pm
by MrRoadrunner
Oh my. [X(]
I thought the General Discussion forum was full of spam.
I see Dumbasrocks still is generous ... and humble.

Please lose the giant faces. Ugh!
[:'(]
RR
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 11:50 pm
by junk2drive
Any word from digiartst lately?
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:30 am
by USS Wyoming
For myslf there are only two graphics improvements I could really use.
1. Another level of zoom in 2D to enlarge those icons. I literally need to make them bigger to see them clearly and I'm not blind. I like to play in 2D, but have to jump to 3D to get a closer view.
2. Please let us change the "highlight" colors because I have severe red-green color blindness and cannot easily see the change in colors when you highlight organization or any other display. I can see it while looking directly at it, but cannot zoom out and see the differences, especially in 2D.
Those two items would really improve my enjoyment of the game.
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:57 pm
by XMG
in this forum I can not post pictures and other WEB Sites. You are not allowed to post links for 7 days from the date of your tenth post..
That's why I start uploading at TheBlitz Forum small details for EF / WF
RE: Better Graphics
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:42 am
by Josh
Sorry that was to combat the spammers.
For anyone interested in XMG's work here's the direct link to the Blitz;
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=64101