Friday Facts #144 - The gfx report

[slpwnd]

This week's Friday report has been written by Albert and gives an overview of our gfx process and future outlook: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-144

[NoPantsMcDance]

Those trains <3

[saturn7]

I wonder what the signal with number 44 on the right means.

Edit: maybe it's not a signal but something logic-related?

[Gandalf]

I wonder what the signal with number 44 on the right means.

Edit: maybe it's not a signal but something logic-related?

Pretty sure that's just the ghost of the item he's currently holding to be placed. (The 44 indicates how many of it he has in his inventory. It's red because he can't place it in that location.)

[Neotix]

It's amount of signal he have in inventory. He took that signal to show new feature that is spots near rails when you can place signals.

About that FF I don't know if I like it. Albert is graphic artist not a writer so why entire FF is about technical aspects and complexity of the job he have. Where are graphics? Where're examples of his work?

I remember in previous FFs when it was about graphics, you show us graphics even if it were just concepts or abandon ideas.

[Zeblote]

HD sprites confirmed!!

But that's not for 0.13, right?

[brunzenstein]

I wonder what the signal with number 44 on the right means.

Edit: maybe it's not a signal but something logic-related?

No.
It's certainly the new counter for how many items there're on one belt - to be introduced with 0.13

[Zeblote]

I wonder what the signal with number 44 on the right means.

Edit: maybe it's not a signal but something logic-related?

No.
It's certainly the new counter for how many items there're on one belt - to be introduced with 0.13

How did you get to that conclusion? That's a rail signal on his cursor with invalid placement, and we know they never re-use sprites



Also, this post has an alarming lack of pictures and gifs! Especially one about graphics needs one after every paragraph.

[Ghoulish]

The motivation was to take off quite some responsibility from our shoulders but also to give other team members the opportunity to present their work - which we believe can be interesting to the readers.

Please do continue to do this! I find it totally fascinating to read about Factorio's development, and how things work behind the scenes, it really is interesting to have this small insight.

Three days until 0.13! Sqweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal !!!!

[FlyHigh]

I was wondering how easy/hard will it be to mod trains since this sprite is now different from any other with the varying length. Does the game adjust a 'standard graphic' on it's own or does it use two sprites with different lengths? I would like to see a deeper explanation on how this particular sprite behaves.

Whenever a graphic change comes to a game it always comes to mind the EA's Spore fiasco where a great game mechanics was ruined by a graphics department that wanted stuff to look cute and round. I'd hate that to happen to Factorio.
To be honest I've reverted some of the icons back to 0.10's version. I missed the Cyberpunk vibe Factorio used to have and is gradually losing.
I don't frat too much about the graphics decisions as long as there's a way to mod sprites and icons back or take them into an independent direction, though.

[cappie]

Please do continue to do this! I find it totally fascinating to read about Factorio's development, and how things work behind the scenes, it really is interesting to have this small insight.

I remember seeing a video of their unittests and being blown away

So awesome to see an indie developer taking the time to develop a game the right way as much as possible

[malecord]

Whenever a graphic change comes to a game it always comes to mind the EA's Spore fiasco

From this statement The Question naturally follows: will we be able to build dicks in Factorio?

[MiiNiPaa]

Is... Is there a side picture of the train car?

From this statement The Question naturally follows: will we be able to build dicks in Factorio?

Well, Now I know what shape my new train hub station will be.

Don't be silly, it is not a sandbox game until you can build a dick in it.

[Urbs]

I wonder how hard would it be to add couplings between cargo wagons. Its odd to see them like that as if connected by air.

[Zeblote]

I wonder how hard would it be to add couplings between cargo wagons. Its odd to see them like that as if connected by air.

If you zoom in far enough, you'll see they already have couplings

[jorgenRe]

Those new train wagons seems to have some opening/filling animation to them seeing as they are seemingly open

[Urbs]

I wonder how hard would it be to add couplings between cargo wagons. Its odd to see them like that as if connected by air.

If you zoom in far enough, you'll see they already have couplings

lol wow had to zoom in a lot!

[TOGoS]

The actual terrain we use now is fine to me, but we would like to expand it in order to get more variety in the final picture.

More large-scale terrain structures, like mountain ranges, would be cool.

I just discovered water feature size = very large as I wrote this post. Still think mountains would be cool, though. Edit: What this guy said w.r.t. 'fake cliffs' back in December: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12771

I wrote a random-world exploration game several years back, and just generating water, beaches, low plains, high plains, impassable rock based on a single noise function (especially one that uses several octaves and ridging both within each octave and on the final result) made some worlds that were pretty interesting to explore. I think the slightly labyrinthine maps generated by that algorithm would be great for Factorio.

Also wouldn't hurt if there were a way to cross narrow bodies of water. Something as simple as allowing the player to fill in sections of water with large quantities of rock and brick would suffice. And that sounds easy since it's just terrain modification so I suppose there's already a mod for it...

[Xterminator]

Interesting to see another perspective and more about what happens behind the scenes. I personally would of liked some more graphic examples, but the train looks awesome enough to make up for that I think.

Also very excited to hear about terrain enhancements, been wanting that for a long time and I think it could add a lot to the game!

Only a few more days until 0.13 though. The hype is real!

[Bart]