[Kde-games-devel] Kolf Art?

[Stefan Majewsky]

Am Mittwoch 02 September 2009 22:37:33 schrieb Arturo Silva:
> You've supplied plenty of food for thought, but bottom line for my end
> is we need some pleasant pattern textures and FAST so that we can meet
> the 4.4 deadline, where Kolf 2 should look and perform at least en par
> with Kolf 1.

I'm pretty sure that we can't have feature parity. Because Kolf 2 is 
physically correct, we'll lose all Kolf 1 courses, and some objects will be 
missing. The editor might have some rough edges, and the OpenGL parts will not 
be in the first release. Still, I think we'll perform better on other fronts, 
and the codebase will be much better.

> After the deadline, hopefully we can then focus on adding plenty of
> goodies so that it can grow into a very feature-rich desktop game.
> [and hopefully maybe even the base engine to a KDE pinball game?
> *wishful thinking* :D ]

Actually, my long-term plan is to split off the basic parts into some library. 
Everything is fairly generic.

> I only need to know three things:
> 
> =============
> 
> 1)  Is there any particular place you want me to post up my proposed
> graphic files?  I have a website which I use for storage as well, so
> by default I will just upload it there and link it here for review.

Sounds good. I'm probably a bad address when it comes to reviewing graphics 
stuff, but we have talented artists here to do that. *wishful-thinking*

> 2) I'm a bit fuzzy on how the actual courses with texture patterns
> will be built, but will the near-future code allow for unmerged
> graphics?  Meaning that while grass, rocks and even water will be
> capable of blending in nicely with eachother, I need to make sure that
> Greens, bridges and fences can still retain their rigid form.  And for
> that matter, will the engine be capable of foreground elements?
> (meaning graphics that appear "over" the ball).

Something like a separate green is not planned (after all, this is minigolf, 
not real golf). For bridges and fences, I'd rather have the designer put these 
on the course separately. The textures should really only be used for flat 
stuff on the ground, because these textures are reused in the 3D view.

> 3) I guess I'll see this more once I start testing, but what's your
> goal for simulating depth perception?  The current Kolf does it by
> color gradients and other golf games (like Wii Golf) allow you to
> toggle a temporary elevation map for easy (albeit cheat-laden)
> reference.

I hoped to get enough depth perception through the texture blending, i.e. 
through usage of different textures for different height levels and by making 
these textures darker and lighter at lower and higher points. Of course, this 
concept benefits from different textures being available for different height 
levels.

> But it might also be possible to use visual markers in the
> terrain pattern themselves, with patterns spaced out farther in higher
> elevations to simulate "closeness" to the viewers field of vision.

I like it. Let's put this on the "ideas for 2.1 and beyond" list. ;-)

Greetings
Stefan
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