Diagonal moongates

Post by **marzo** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:29 pm

I was looking recently at some graphics in the Keyring mod, and came across the diagonal moongates I had made for the Orb of the Moons. And it got me thinking.

Basically, they look horrible. I mean, they look good, but they stick out like sore thumbs when inside the game because they completely ignore the game's perspective. I can't believe nobody ever complained about that.

So I went out and made perspective-correct moongates, which use the game's oblique perspective. And now I want opinions on which one is worse, the old ones or the new ones

On the left, are the current (old) ones. On the right, are the corresponding moongates I made following the game's perspective. The latter are mathematically correct, and do not stick out while in the game. In fact, they can be used to build a perfect oblique octagonal prism together with the game's horizontal and vertical moongates, which alone proves that they are "correct". But they look odd. And the NW-SE (top right) one is kind of bland.

Opinions? Which do you hate the least?

Achiledragon · Post by **Achiledragon** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:45 pm

From top to bottom the second row on the right

MeddlingMonk · Post by **MeddlingMonk** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:09 am

Can't tell. It looks as though you've lost your domain.

Post by **marzo** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:55 am

Looks like it. I will see what is going on.
[edit]: In the mean time, I have uploaded the image to another location.

TdI · Post by **TdI** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:26 am

I vote for the "mathematically correct" ones.

I always tryto stay on the good side of math... lest it open a black hole underneath my butt and suck me to another dimension.

Petrell · Post by **Petrell** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:42 pm

Both Feudal Lands and Seven Towers are gone

Petrell · Post by **Petrell** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:03 pm

that did not take long :p They're back again

Post by **marzo** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:12 pm

that did not take long :p They're back again

As far as I can tell, no they are still gone; are you sure you're not using a proxy?

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:44 pm

The domain expired.

My fault, and I apologize. I haven't been able to get online but maybe once a week to check email.

~ Wizardry Dragon

Post by **marzo** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:56 pm

The domain expired.

Yes, I thought that might have been the case. Which is why, to be perfectly honest, I did nothing at all in the mean time

Welcome back, by the way (however briefly it might be).

Petrell · Post by **Petrell** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:07 pm

Yes, they work just fine again.

Was writing news for Dino's Ultima page (http://gigi.nullneuron.net/ultima/, domain expiration being one of the intented news. Had to do with your mod updates instead :p) and decided to try them again, and voila, they were back.

Will update the mod files on my site as well momentarily. Keep up the good work Marzo! And thanks to WD for getting the sites back online.

Post by **marzo** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:26 pm

Yes, they work just fine again.

I guess the DNS information hasn't propagated to Brasil yet, then... Oh, well, it will, eventually.

Petrell · Post by **Petrell** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:50 pm

New versions uploaded. I'm sure WtFD at Aiera will update his files as well soon.

Post by **marzo** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:12 am

In any case, you can all tell me which moongates you prefer

Petrell · Post by **Petrell** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:14 am

Would have to see them in game to make good judgement (been probably decade now since I last played

) so I'd have to compare to screenshots and they look rather small if you compare them to blue teleporters in http://exult.info/images/screenshots/love.png screenshot.

But I wouldn't use the top right one in any case.

Is there reason trying to do them diagonal instead of how everything else is in game?

Post by **marzo** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:47 am

Is there reason trying to do them diagonal instead of how everything else is in game?

It would be for the orb of the moons -- the moongates on the diagonals, to be exact -- so it makes sense that they would be diagonal. The Keyring mod already has some diagonal moongates -- the ones on the left, in the image -- which stick out so badly when in the game, once I've actually *seen* them in action, that I decided to replace them with new ones.

Zanyth · Post by **Zanyth** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:16 am

Well from the screenshots in the initial post, the ones to the left look better I find, could you post a screenshot of all 4 ingame?

Post by **marzo** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:43 am

Sure thing:

In this one, all four diagonal moongates are shown next to walls and characters. Also, the aforementioned octagonal prism can be seen.

Zanyth · Post by **Zanyth** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:19 am

Ahhh I see, when you put it in the octagon the new ones look perfect for it

Are the images only used at a time when the octagon of moongates is up? If so then definitely the new images, the NW->SE new image would not be good all alone by itself though, but with the other moongates matches it great!

Post by **marzo** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:10 pm

Are the images only used at a time when the octagon of moongates is up?

The moongate octagon actually never comes up; only single moongates appear.

Another reason for diagonal I forgot to mention earlier is that it makes it easier to know if you created a moongate for a destination lying in the diagonal. (although by that logic, I'd have to make more moongates for NNW/SSE, NNE/SSW, ENE/WSW and ESE/WNW directions if/when I add destinations at those points).

Zanyth · Post by **Zanyth** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:10 pm

Okay thanks for clarifying about the octagon (I was wondering if it was perhaps part of the keyring-mod, a portal room or some such),

The issue that I see is say with the NW->SE, and I'm sure you've noticed, is that if it's not against a wall, and the avatar is heading towards it from the SW, well all it is is a line, if a wall was on the SW side then it would look fine but otherwise that one is odd

The older version of NW->SE looks odd somewhat out of place as you mentioned, but in the scenario above where the portal is by itself and not pressed against anything, it'd look better

Any chance of using both, whichever one depending on where it's being used? It doesn't seem like either of the 2 NW->SE images will be able to fill both situations

TdI · Post by **TdI** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:54 am

Maybe you could add a red pulsating one pixel border on both sides of the northeastern one to clarify it as being a moongate.
You know... make it a little animated like the other ones.

Post by **marzo** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:38 am

Maybe you could add a red pulsating one pixel border on both sides of the northeastern one to clarify it as being a moongate.

That is a good idea. Currently, they have only the rise/sink-from/to-the-ground sequence(s), but it remain relatively static otherwise; a 1-pixel animated border can give a good change.

MeddlingMonk · Post by **MeddlingMonk** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:11 pm

Yes, the right-hand side diagonal gates are the best. And the pulsating border is defintely a good idea, but it would maybe also be a good idea that instead of simply pulsating (such as all the outlining pixels blinking in unison, which is how I'm interpreting the original suggestion--maybe unfairly), that the border 'swirl' using all the same shades of red that the face of the moongate uses. By 'swirl' I mean just about any kind of rhythm other than the pixels merely seeming to chase around the border. Maybe something like the back and forth sweep of a Cylon eye, but with the parallel sides--long and short--moving in opposite directions to avoid giving that impression. I can't quite visualize how that would really look but the idea would be to give the impression of the swirling vortex of the moongate face even though it's only one pixel wide from that angle.

Post by **marzo** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:14 pm

that instead of simply pulsating [...] that the border 'swirl'

I simply assumed TdI's suggestion was a swirling moongate, so no worries about that.

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:52 pm

I'll set up some sort of webspace when I'm able Marzo, the old site files are still somewheres in the depth of the webserver.

~ Wizardry Dragon

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:28 pm

The (horribly outdated) TFL site is available at lfs.lfhost.com/u7feudallands/

~ Wizardry Dragon

Post by **marzo** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:42 am

I've been able to log to CPanel through lfs.lfhost, and could see that the files are all there. It seems that they are unaccessible anywhere else, though.

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:50 am

Yeah they're in /home/seventowers ... though if you can access them and download them I can easily make a lfs.lfhost.com/seventowers or whatever webspace you would prefer.

Then when I can get the domain sorted I'll just have the subdomain point to the files there.

~ Wizardry Dragon

Post by **marzo** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:32 am

though if you can access them and download them

No need for that, I have a full backup in my computer at all times; I actually make all the edits locally then upload the modified files.

I can easily make a lfs.lfhost.com/seventowers or whatever webspace you would prefer.

That would be fine, yes.

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:59 am

I'll destroy the old account and remake one as a subdir. I -may- have to just make it a FTP account ... as I believe making a new cpanel account needs a domain or a subdomain for CPanel ends up icky if you try to do xx.yydomain.com. ... that alright?

~ Wizardry Dragon

Post by **marzo** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:24 am

I -may- have to just make it a FTP account ... as I believe making a new cpanel account needs a domain or a subdomain for CPanel ends up icky if you try to do xx.yydomain.com. ... that alright?

It would be fine: I only ever used CPanel to see webstats anyway...

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:10 pm

I've set up a FTP account for you, email me at my address and I'll send you the pass.

~ Wizardry Dragon

Post by **marzo** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:54 am

Seven Towers website is up again, at a new address: http://lfs.lfhost.com/seventowers/.
(and thanks once again to Wizardry Dragon for hosting the site).

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:08 pm

I'm just sorry it was down for a while there

Hey Marzo -- if you want to repay the favour, it'd be doing me a huge favour in making the TFL site a lot easier to maintain if you could maybe make a stylesheet for your system in the TFL site wood-ish design I have going. Right now the site is so horribly out of date because with my day job I just don't get the time to slog through HTML if I at all want to be productive with TFL and my personal life, heh.

~ Wizardry Dragon

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:23 pm

The only problem is the top right one (original post). If I didn't already know it was a moongate, I wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at.
I vote for no diagonal moongates.

Petrell · Post by **Petrell** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:20 am

what was changed in SIFixes and Avatar pack or is the date due to reupload? (newest files in avatar pack are from last year (28.4.2007) but few files (mainshp.flx and usecode) in SI fixes are dated 29.2.2008 but the readme is unchanged).

Oh and readme of BGKeyring mod on the site is from previous version. Also news page is empty.

Post by **marzo** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:21 am

Oops... the news page was missing a comma(!); it is fixed now. Sorry about that. The difference is simply that they are "basically a recompilation of the versions previously available because some recently-introduced bugs in the Usecode compiler rendered them all but playable."