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I'm making new version for my Merging Chests mod. I'm going to let players merge arbiteraly large rectangle of steel chests into one entity. I already worked out how to do it, I just need sprites that can be tiled to create these entities. I'm looking for factorio like graphics.

I will need 3 sprites and 3 ingame icons for these sprites:

• - Chest
  • - will be used when merging 1xN or Nx1 rectangle (this is what my mod is doing up to limit of 42 length)
    - I will need sprites for horizontal and vertical chest
    - These sprites will have 3 parts (see example): chest ends (red), chest middle (green), shadow (gray)
    - Green part will be copied next to each other to get desired chest length
    - Sprite sizes of 2x1 and 1x2 of gametiles should be enough
  - Warehouse
  • - used for from 2xN to 6xN and from Nx2 to Nx6 (limits subject to change)
    - This sprite will need to be 9 segments so I can tile sides and middle to create arbiteraly large sprite
    - see example: corners (red), sides (blue), roof (green)
    - Green and blue parts will be copied to create desired size
    - Sprite size of 3x3 of gametiles
    - I'm thinking something between Factorissimo and Warehouse buildings except with flat roof for easy tiling
  - Trash dump
  • - used for every other size. "Walled" off (or fenced off).
    - Also 9 segment sprite.
    - Some non functional gate will be nice as well as some "trash" sprites I will randomly populate the middle with.
    - Sprite size of 5x5 (I had problems with tiling when smaller) of gametiles

It would be awesome if every sprite would have it's shadow in seperate file but it's not needed (even better if every sprite segment and its shadow is in seperate file...like stone wall). It really helps sell the combined sprite. Difference is shown on these pictures: both pictures have a 5x5 "trash dump" (it's one entity) next to line of wall: shadows in one sprite (shadow is drawn above other entities) and shadows in seperate sprite (shadow is drawn beneath other entities).

Thank you in advance.

Edit:
For trash dump I'm thinking of linked fence like in Dectorio. So maybe that isn't needed (if they allow me to use it). Also chest sprite is pretty easy and eve I'm able to do it so it goes down only to warehouse.

I can facilitate. Looking forward to area chests.

Contact me on irc.esper.net #factorio Bordo

I'm new to IRC so I don't know how to use IRC properly but when I tried it told me my IP is banned.

Do you have any solution or alternative mean of communication? Skype would be best for me.

Do you run discord?

Hit me up at:
Antony [Bordo - Burner Inserter]#5757

I added you. If it didn't work, add me:
Atria#9764

From what i understand you are improving the mod to allow arbitrary shapes? Like this for example? This works in a similar way to your mod but far less efficient since it has a sort of liquid kind of behavior and is dependent on large quantities to sort of work.

If one of the reasons there is delay in the release is a visual problem, could you make a release where there is no visual change? I actually would prefer if chests continued to look exactly the way they where placed, but treated like a single entity, i personally dislike how chests look when you merge them, and in arbitrary shapes they probably would look weirder.

I won't be allowing arbiterary shapes. Goal of next release is arbiterary size but still a rectangle.

Sorry

Could they be individual chests but with a connecting beam between them where they are merged?

Otherwise I think it would be good to have a much larger chest sprite for tiling so the large chest doesn't look like the same tile repeated over and over. Maybe use 2-3 layers with different granularity. For example using 2, 3 and 5 sizes for layers a chest size 30 would have no exact repetitions.

Note: include option to use just one boring layer for cpu/gpu starved players.

Don't worry, I already have prepared warehouse sprites, I wait for Danielv123 to have time to make trash dump sprites. Once that is done, we'll finish final touches and I'll release it.

For now I use 1x1 sprite and a looot of layers. GPU memory requirement should be really small. CPU performance is questionable. But part of finishing touches is making larger sprites for decals.

One layer is out of the question (even current version is using a lot of layers). Game doesn't allow to load extremly large sprites. Plus it would be massive GPU memory hog.

For warehouses and train stations I usually place warehouses 7m apart but they are only 6m long.

Can those be joined anyway? Give a larger warehouse with 6m*13m?

Or will there be a Warehouse extension that makes a warehouse 1m wider and I have to add 7 of them for a 2 car train stop? (or 2 warehouses + 1 extension to join them?)

There will be some treshold where sprite switches between chest look, warehouse and trashdump. But sizes are completly arbiterary, configured in mod settings.

Excited for the new release, the mod is fantastic!

Ahh, so a warehouse is simply 6 or more chests placed in a row then. I thought you had a separate entity Warehouse and placing 2 warehouses next to each other would make a larger warehouse.

The idea was: place any MxN area full of 1x1 chest and merge them into one entity.

• - If M or N is 1 => Chest (like the mod is now)
  - If M and N is between 2 and 6 => Warehouse
  - Otherwise => Trashdump

Anyway it seems that Danielv123 won't be able to finish this request so the request still stands.

2 years later.

Are you still accepting warehouse sprites?

Can be a replacement or another option.





I copied the warehouse.png spritesheet layout but did not use any of the accessory variation, I just copied the 9x9 over 6 times. I could probably do a better job on the top face of the chest if need be.

Thanks.

Hi,
this would be a good replacement for 2xN warehouses. Basically shipping containers. I'd just prefer for it to be higher (now it looks like smaller than a player and shipping containers are about 3 meters high IRL).
Also separate shadow sprite would be nice, so that game renders it correctly, but if you were doing it by hand (like I did the 1xN chest sprites) then probably don't worry about it.

Did you modify the coordinates of sprite segments or used old warehouse's coordinates?

Hi Atria,

This is what i have come up with so far.



Grid spacing is 64x64 with a 128 high "front". Could use left sprite for Nx2 or NxN and right for 2xN size chests.



The box sprites and shadow sprites are indeed seperate in this second attempt, with the shadow image being 192px high. (Will send zip when you are happy with results.) The first attempt, I used the old warehouse spritesheet as a template and overlaid the steel box design right over so I didn't have to touch the code. This one however, i started from scratch. I've never created spritesheets or done any modding in any way, so please tell if anything needs to be done or missing.

Comparison to player:


Thanks.

Hi bennybobz,
Complete spritesheet have 9 segments:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
and 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 must be tileable. Segment 5 must be 64x64, segments 2 and 8 must be 64 pixels wide and segments 4 and 6 must be 64 pixels high. It is not necessary but generalily easier to just make a sprite that would 3x3 merged chest have in game (while being mindful of tileability). The sprite will be cut up into segments in the code. The actual size of the sprite is not bounded (it can overhang over entities above it in game), but it is not advised, since it will hide entities (like inserters) directly above the merged chest.

I don't know if this sprite would look good when tiled over large NxN areas. If we would agree only to do sprite only for 2xN and Nx2 chests then it would require two sprites (for 2x3 and 3x2 merged chest) plus their shadow sprites. And since they only will have shadow in their right side, the shadow spritesheet needs only segments 3, 6 and 9.

So basically you are really close to being done. We only have to take care of the tiling and overhang the sprite will have. I attached the warehouse sprite with its segments shown. You can see that some height of the warehouse is not used, because it would obstruct entity above the warehouse too much. I expect same being needed for this new sprites (the top row being super slim while bottom row being super high). The first draft I'd would use the whole sprite and then we can settle on how much overhang the container would have, so you shouldn't worry much about it and just do how you think should 2x3, 3x2 or 3x3 merged chest look like. And if you would have more time and ideas on some decals I could get you up to speed on how they can be used.

Do you have a discord/skype so we could communicate more quickly and so I could send you the mod when I added your sprites for you to check out?

Sorry if something doesn't make sense, I had to write this up quickly before I went to work.

I must say, this would be fantastic if there was an update to the sprites. The warehouse in particular looks really out of place in the current version of the game

The only thing I can offer is my encouragement though, would be awesome to see this updated

For the trash dump maybe drop in a random crashed spaceship part or remnants. Lots of sprites in vanilla now that look broken or like garbage.