CEaW Graphic Improvement Mod Little Update!!

[Stalka]

Hi People!!

I´m Currently Working on a graphical improvement Mod for CeAW.
The Mod will contain new Buttons, Backgrounds, Flags, Techpics, Arrows, etc. and maybe a new textured map!!
It will take some time to make the graphical improvements, but as soon as i have some news of finished graphics and about the release, i will post it in this thread!!



More screenshots are comming soon.

29.10.08/30.10.08:
Textured Map:

Here are some screenshots of my current works:
(Sorry, if it has some Graphical loss, but i had to reduce the size for the net)

United Kingdom


Greenland/Murmansk Hex


Norway/Sweden


America


More to come!!!

[IainMcNeil]

Very interesting

[Stalka]

Updated

[Redpossum]

Interesting, and a cool new look on the splash screen. I cannot honestly say I care for the new terrain; it's a little too retro for me.

One caveat. Be very careful of copyright issues when using graphics like the background to that splash screen. If you have borrowed that from another game, it can really come back to bite you in the butt. Wikipedia, Wikimedia and Wikisource are all good resources for public domain photos and such.

[Stalka]

Interesting, and a cool new look on the splash screen. I cannot honestly say I care for the new terrain; it's a little too retro for me.

One caveat. Be very careful of copyright issues when using graphics like the background to that splash screen. If you have borrowed that from another game, it can really come back to bite you in the butt. Wikipedia, Wikimedia and Wikisource are all good resources for public domain photos and such.

Thx for the Comment. I know, its a bit retro, but i think it looks a bit emotionally than the static map but when the mod will be finished you can decide if u want to play with the modded map or the old map!!

The background i have found by searching in google on a reporting side about WWII. Why?? Have you got that picture also in a mod or seen???

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I think personally that the new map looks a bit too dark and it's hard to distinguish between the different terrain types (rough, swamp, forest and clear). Mountains are easier to see because of the 3D look.

You also have to think about how the map should look like when using the 3 different color overlays to show who controls the hexes. The western Allies, Axis and Russian have each different color overlays. The map terrain should be possible to see through all these overlays. Each overlay has two different darkness levels. One for hexes within visibility range and one outside the visibility range.

So it's actually very hard to find workable textures for each terrain type. One map design I particularly like is the one made by Craig Besinque for Columbia Games' Eurofront 2. Here you can easily distinguish the different terrain types and it's not too dark. Look here for example:

http://www.columbiagames.com/pix/3407-euf2map-1200.jpg

I won't say this one can be used for CeaW, but it shows one way of how an easy to read map can be made.

[Stalka]

I think personally that the new map looks a bit too dark and it's hard to distinguish between the different terrain types (rough, swamp, forest and clear). Mountains are easier to see because of the 3D look.

You also have to think about how the map should look like when using the 3 different color overlays to show who controls the hexes. The western Allies, Axis and Russian have each different color overlays. The map terrain should be possible to see through all these overlays. Each overlay has two different darkness levels. One for hexes within visibility range and one outside the visibility range.

So it's actually very hard to find workable textures for each terrain type. One map design I particularly like is the one made by Craig Besinque for Columbia Games' Eurofront 2. Here you can easily distinguish the different terrain types and it's not too dark. Look here for example:

http://www.columbiagames.com/pix/3407-euf2map-1200.jpg

I won't say this one can be used for CeaW, but it shows one way of how an easy to read map can be made.

You´re right!! I´ve seen the problem with the textures i used. I wanted to use a bit more realistic Textures, but i must add more difference in the terrains and lighten it more up.
I´ve seen the hex colors that the Allies, Axis and Russians use and i will fit them to the map, so that the hexlayers will also be visible and of course not too confusing!!

I will do a retexture of Great Britain and Ireland and upload it, when i´ll be finished!

The map from Craig is really nice!!

[Stalka]

I´ve improved the Textures on my map!
Just take a look and tell me you oppinions!

Thx in advance!!

[Peter Stauffenberg]

The coloring definitely looks much better now. Maybe the clear terrain color could be more yellowish so you won't confuse the green color to forest terrain.

It would be nice to see which colors you intend to use for all terrain types:
* Clear
* Forest
* Swamp
* Rough
* Mountain
* Desert

I would suggest you use something like this:
* Clear: light green, light yellow or something green/yellow
* Forest: Sharp green with some 3D textures indicating trees
* Swamp: Grey blue color with some green tint and with some 3D textures indicating swamp
* Rough: Tan. Good as is
* Mountain: Grey or dark brown with 3D textures showing altitude
* Desert: Orange / yellow with maybe some tint of pink. Not much textures here to show the fine grained sand.
Desert rough should have textures showing the rough terrain, but based upon the desert base color

[Stalka]

The coloring definitely looks much better now. Maybe the clear terrain color could be more yellowish so you won't confuse the green color to forest terrain.

It would be nice to see which colors you intend to use for all terrain types:
* Clear
* Forest
* Swamp
* Rough
* Mountain
* Desert

I would suggest you use something like this:
* Clear: light green, light yellow or something green/yellow
* Forest: Sharp green with some 3D textures indicating trees
* Swamp: Grey blue color with some green tint and with some 3D textures indicating swamp
* Rough: Tan. Good as is
* Mountain: Grey or dark brown with 3D textures showing altitude
* Desert: Orange / yellow with maybe some tint of pink. Not much textures here to show the fine grained sand.
Desert rough should have textures showing the rough terrain, but based upon the desert base color

Ups, thats what i forgot to tell what type of terrain stands for what!!
I´ll show you at the Terrain of Norway and Sweden, which i have finished before:



For the Desert i must look which looks like the real sahara!!
For swamp i´ll use a mixture texture between water-plain or water-forest, i must look then, when i´m editing the russian landscape.