Reviving Iso-Angband, an isometric view addon for Angband

[EpicMan]

This is looking really good! Andrew, now you are going to need an option to rotate the movement keys so that they work right in iso mode :-) (and only half kidding)

[Hajo]

Thanks for the reply, Andrew, good to know that it "works as usual/intended"!

Meanwhile I've been busy again, and I think I have another release-worthy update, Iso-Unangband WIP 4.

Small code changes to help display of spell effects and shops in town. But mostly I've been configuring and adding more images. Once again, a bit more complete than the last version, but still a lot left to do ...

Click for full size.

... other places might look much worse than this screenshot. Levels are themed and some themes lack most images.

Download

=> http://www.funkelwerk.de/data/iso-an...4-iso-wip4.zip (5.1 MB)

Images and sources are included. A windows executable is supplied, and two start scripts "start_large.bat" and "start_small.bat", as known from the former Iso-Angband releases.

Changes since WIP 3

- Roughly-hewn granite wall.
- Web-covered granite wall.
- Mossy granite wall.
- Vine-covered granite wall.
- Slime covered granite wall.
- pebbles in the shade.
- Rubble pile image and config.
- Cave lizard config.
- Ooze config.

- Temporarily added a hardcoded solution for spell effects, since I could not find out how to configure those through pref files in Unangband. The supplied example from dvg pref did not parse.
- Also added a hardcoded solution for town shop display. Some day I hope to display real houses there.

Slowly it starts to look more solid and consistent.

[andrewdoull]

If you start a new character in Hobbiton, it can happen that you get a block of several dark grey X text character in the middle of the screen. They go away when you move. I don't know yet what causes this problem.

This bug affects all graphics versions. I've yet to track it down but IIRC Nick fixed it somehow in FAAngband. I don't believe he knows how though...

I keep finding early scrolls and potions is small stacks of 2-4 items. Is this intended? Did I break something?

This is intended - to make these items worthwhile keeping.

Andrew

[Hajo]

A small update that should help to display a good number of the early wall tiles better:

=> http://www.funkelwerk.de/data/iso-an...res-wip3_1.zip

Unpack this archive and copy/move the font-sdl-iso_features.prf file into the Iso-Unangband lib/pref folder. You might want to backup the old file, just in case. You need Iso-Unangband WIP 3 for this, see the former message in this thread.

Changes

- Roughly-hewn granite wall.
- Web-covered granite wall.
- Mossy granite wall.
- Vine-covered granite wall.
- Slime covered granite wall.
- pebbles in the shade.

Why does searching change the green vine-covered granite wall into orange vine-covered granite wall? I'd find a transition from orange before searching to green after searching more logical.

Edit:

Throwing/shooting already seems to work in WIP 3. Spell effects do not. I think I found a solution, which will be included in the next release. But I want to accumulate some more changes before publishing a new release already again.

[Hajo]

Iso-Unangband WIP 3 is available now. No code changes this time. I've mostly been configuring and adding things that I discovered in sewers level 1. Again, a bit more complete than the last version, but still on each tour into the dungeon I discover something new ...

Click for full size.

... other places might look much worse than this screenshot. Unangband is just full of surprises.

Download

=> http://www.funkelwerk.de/data/iso-an...4-iso-wip3.zip (5.2 MB)

Images and sources are included. A windows executable is supplied, and two start scripts "start_large.bat" and "start_small.bat", as known from the former Iso-Angband releases.

Changes

- New dusty floor image.
- Scroll flavor config (all white so far, and all got the same image).
- "Pebble" type floor.
- Food config.
- Faery image and config.
- Basic books config.
- Whirlwind image and config.

There were more changes but I forgot to write them all down ...

If you start a new character in Hobbiton, it can happen that you get a block of several dark grey X text character in the middle of the screen. They go away when you move. I don't know yet what causes this problem.

I keep finding early scrolls and potions is small stacks of 2-4 items. Is this intended? Did I break something?

[Hajo]

What some of the graphics tilesets do is have one tile for all un-IDed scrolls, and for IDed scrolls they have the scroll graphic with some symbol indicating what the scroll does. Look at the tilesets to see what I mean.

If that is what Angband does by default, then I guess this will happen with my graphics, too. I just thought I could remap the scrolls through a pref file, like the other flavored objects.

I have separate images for books and scrolls already. Was just wondering if I should try to give the scrolls more graphical variety. From your explanation, I guess that only works for IDed scrolls then. Which would be alright, I think.

[EpicMan]

Scrolls are white '?' to distinguish them from spellbooks, which are colored '?' symbols. Scroll 'flavors' are the gibberish titles.

What some of the graphics tilesets do is have one tile for all un-IDed scrolls, and for IDed scrolls they have the scroll graphic with some symbol indicating what the scroll does. Look at the tilesets to see what I mean.

So you could have un-IDed scrolls be a whit e? (or whatever symbol) and add a symbol on top of that indicating the type of scroll if that type is identified.

[Hajo]

I noticed that by default all scroll flavors are white '?'. Should I keep that when remapping them, I mean, make them all white scroll images? Would it be better to make them colored? Should I use several scroll images?

Potions already have a lot of colors, but I could remap some with different images as well. Would that be a good idea?

Edit: Are only the edible mushrooms randomized through flavors, or will that randomize the other food types as well? UnAngband has some sorts of food other than rations appearing in the dungeon level, too.

Edit 2: Only the edible mushrooms seem to become randomized. For the moment I keep the comma for the mushrooms, it looks kinda funny.

[Hajo]

Thanks, I'll try that. UnAngband is so full of surprising details

[andrewdoull]

How can I remap UnAngband "regions"? I ran into a "debri" which threw "valuable pottery" at me. It is entered in regions.txt, and to have it display correctly with the iso view I'd need to remap it. At the moment it shows up as a text "*" but at a wrong position because it is drawn as text and not as graphic tile.

Does someone know how to remap such things? I have studied the existing pref files but could not find anything.

Region remappings are done using the 'N' prefix. I haven't added any region mappings to the preference files, but if you use the same format as 'K'inds or 'R'aces you should be fine.

Andrew

[Hajo]

The second work in progress release of UnAngband with the iso view addon. It is still full of quirks and things that need to be polished and improved, but it is "playable" to some extend - a bit more than WIP 1.

Click for full size.

Download

=> http://www.funkelwerk.de/data/iso-an...4-iso-wip2.zip (5.2 MB)

Besides the things that were already in WIP 1, this has gotten some more code fixes, some more images, and some more config entries to actually show the images. There is still a whole lot missing, but I'm confident that it will work out eventually.

From my dev log:

- fixed some display quirks.
- added display of item stacks.
- added hack for region display (will fix later, once I have info on region mapping).
- new picture for "flask of oil", different from potions.
- new tiled floor.
- insect swarm.
- floor with inscriptions.
- tried to configure potions flavors (untested, might have failed)
- tried to configure ring and amulet flavors (untested, might have failed)
- configured the metal type treasures.
- arrow, shot and bolt config.
- cloak config.
- mouse and rat config.

- There are some things in for inscribed and painted walls, but these are likely to change again.

There was more, but I lost track of all the changes ...

[Hajo]

How can I remap UnAngband "regions"? I ran into a "debri" which threw "valuable pottery" at me. It is entered in regions.txt, and to have it display correctly with the iso view I'd need to remap it. At the moment it shows up as a text "*" but at a wrong position because it is drawn as text and not as graphic tile.

Does someone know how to remap such things? I have studied the existing pref files but could not find anything.

[Hajo]

Some sort of grouping will be good. Thanks for the suggestion At the moment it's very simple - each row is filled up to 8 items and then a new row starts.

So 26 pebbles look like this, which is not very compelling:

Edit: I changed the display to 6x6 tiles for stacks, instead of 8x8. If stacks contain more then 36 items, the code will paint several layers.

[Derakon]

Neat! What you might consider doing for ammo is making each visual stack be 5 units of ammo, so a stack of 30 arrows would look like 6 quivers, say. Or if you felt particularly clever, have quivers for sets of 5 and arrows for individuals, so 27 arrows would be 5 quivers and 2 arrows.

Just food for thought.

[Hajo]

I've added a small trick, the iso-view can now show item stacks. An example with 3 oil flasks - I had nothing else at hand for the test.

At the moment it shows only stacks, not piles of different items. If there are really many items they will be displayed in a grid instead of just a row. I think this will be handy for quickly guessing the count of ammunition or other items that usually come in stacks.