Best geology...

Share graphical tips, notes and queries related to our favourite screen layout and its editors.
Ralf
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Re: Best geology...

Post by Ralf »

I would say this background in Yie Ar Kung Fu is something inspired by traditional Japanese art. It just became very symbolic on Spectrum, hard to tell what is what.

I can't find a good reference but it would be something like this - mountains and waterfall:
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IvanBasic
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Re: Best geology...

Post by IvanBasic »

Towdie has surprising design in rocks outside the castle (and I think that the castle blocks and columns are the best of all Spectrum games; I know these are not 'geology' but I can't help to refer to these).
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arkannoyed
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Re: Best geology...

Post by arkannoyed »

I keep coming back to Melkhiors Mansion, but hey its one heck of a graphical achievement, and when Bob Smith has converted it to the 128k then minus some of the colour we can hopefully enjoy exploring;

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Ralf
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Re: Best geology...

Post by Ralf »

I keep coming back to Melkhiors Mansion, but hey its one heck of a graphical achievement, and when Bob Smith has converted it to the 128k then minus some of the colour we can hopefully enjoy exploring;
This is certainly some good pixelart. On real Spectrum it would be hard or impossible to get it so colourful but in monochrome it should look very decent too.
redballoon
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Re: Best geology...

Post by redballoon »

Rocks are, uh...hard...to do. You could take the easy “that’ll do” root and create random noise, but I think that looks really rubbish. The surrounding rocks for Vallation was “easier” - 2 different blocks for each level. They pretty much tiled but deliberately kept blocky to give a console-y stylish look.

For Melkhior’s Mansion, I actually studied various rock types before I put pixel to screen. Similarly to Vallation, I created 4 variations of different sized rocks; tall, medium, small and rocks. Before we decided on the rough stone cavern doors, I created more rocks that could be assembled into a blocky door frame, I suppose they could be used as walls, too, but we never used these. Before the each rock wall section was finalised, I tiled each rock and retouched sections that didn’t look right when tiled.
I saw rocks and rock textures whenever I closed my eyes and even when I slept! I certainly don’t mind pixeling rocks now. Pixeling different rock types for a project is the next thing, though.

Don’t get me started on the rock floors.

C’mon Dave, put the effort in ;)

Bob Smith is working on the 128k version. He teased this screenshot last month.
https://twitter.com/bobsstuffgames/stat ... 10981?s=21
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Joefish
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Re: Best geology...

Post by Joefish »

A big problem is saving memory. You don't want all your rocks looking the same, but if it's a unique piece of art for the background then that's all your memory gone in just a few screens.
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PROSM
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Re: Best geology...

Post by PROSM »

Joefish wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 7:16 pm A big problem is saving memory. You don't want all your rocks looking the same, but if it's a unique piece of art for the background then that's all your memory gone in just a few screens.
I totally agree. Slightly unrelated to geology, but Jonathan Cauldwell's Egghead 6 gets around this by scattering random tiles when building the level surfaces, which makes each section look unique without using too many bytes. My only complaint is that he uses a different RNG seed each time a screen is constructed, which stands out when flipping back to a screen just moments later. I use a similar technique in my game, but with the brick walls, by randomly scattering 'broken' tiles over the brick surface after the original image has been decompressed into the background buffer.
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Cole
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Re: Best geology...

Post by Cole »

I always quite liked the rocks in the second level of Dynamite Dan II.
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Alessandro
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Re: Best geology...

Post by Alessandro »

Ralf wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 11:21 amI would say this background in Yie Ar Kung Fu is something inspired by traditional Japanese art
Chinese. It's called Shan shui, lit. "mountain (and) water". The Japanese imported that style from China (among other things) in the Nara period, ca. 8th century.
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Lethargeek
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Re: Best geology...

Post by Lethargeek »

cave level of Viaje al Centro de la Tierra:
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also 2nd level of Che-man - blocky but good:
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DouglasReynholm
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Re: Best geology...

Post by DouglasReynholm »

Perhaps less rock like than some of the other suggestions, but I always liked the 'rocky cores' of the planets of Starquake and Cybernoid.
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