Shockbolt tileset

[PowerWyrm]

Angband 3.4-dev comes with this new tileset. It looks great, albeit unfinished, and after doing some testing, I've got a few questions.

The licence:
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Before today, it was clearly stated that the tileset could only be used in V, meaning that no more variant could be created from the current V code anymore. The new statement in copying.txt is less restrictive, but still too vague.

Permission is granted to:
[...]
- use the tileset with in-development and released versions of Angband
- incorporate tiles designed by the author for variants of Angband and use and distribute them with Angband under the terms above

Permission is not granted to:
[...]
- use or distribute the tileset with other games or projects

This still doesn't say if you can use the tileset in variants, just that the author can draw tiles for variants and add them in V as an universal 64x64 tileset. The problem is that some code has been added as part of the core of V code (mostly the latest additions from Bluebaron: graphics.txt, handling of alphablending and double-height tiles).

So what about variants? Can we use the tileset "as it is" in our variants? I bet the author won't have the time to redraw all tiles for all variants in the world... and for all new ones. Or will we have to remove the tileset in variants?

Universal 64x64 tileset:
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What's the current state of this tileset in V? How many tiles have been remapped from the 32x32 tileset and how many are left?

Display problems:
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It seems that the cursor is not correctly updated when checking something with a double-height tile. Any idea why?

[Magnate]

I can't answer for Shockbolt but IMO it would be really helpful for a number of reasons if the tiles could use a Creative Commons licence. BY-NC-ND seems like it would fit the bill.

[fizzix]

As far as the cursor update. There does seem to be a minor bug there, although it's much better than it was before the most recent blubaron fixes. I put it in the class of minor bugs that would be nice to have fixed for 3.4 but won't really prevent the release.

I haven't tracked down the error but graphical display is probably my weakest area of the code.

If you find any other anomalies with tiles, please let me know.

[Shockbolt]

@PowerWyrm : as stated in the text, permission must be acquired in order to use the tileset with variants, it's as simple as sending me an e-mail asking to use the tiles with a specific variant of Angband.

As before, the tileset was painted for free, I spent hundreds of hours painting these tiles and therefor I want somewhat control over how they are used, I'd hate for them to end up in a game that anyone has to pay for to play.

By requesting permission to use the tiles by e-mail, I can at least have a record of which variant is using the tiles with my blessings.

The tileset is complete, but I can't say if any new additions to creatures/items have been added to the game after the tileset was completed late in 2011.

Andi/Takkaria I assume, would not let me use the former copyrights, so the text had to be changed so he could avoid any legal matters tied to the tileset and Angband V.

[Derakon]

So as I understand it, your main objection to Creative Commons is that you want to maintain some level of control over which projects can use the tiles. Even if functionally the result is that any project that would qualify for CC-BY-NC-ND (or whatever) would also get your approval.

Incidentally, thanks again for making those tiles. They're gorgeous.

[Magnate]

I'm not a licence expert by any means, but I thought the whole point of the ND licences was no (re)distribution without permission, just as NC prohibits anyone charging people for a work which uses them. So it's hard to see what's achieved by the custom text.

[takkaria]

I'm not a licence expert by any means, but I thought the whole point of the ND licences was no (re)distribution without permission, just as NC prohibits anyone charging people for a work which uses them. So it's hard to see what's achieved by the custom text.

The ND is not "no redistribution", it's "no derivatives" - which means that you can use it how you like but you can't change it.

[Shockbolt]

Incidentally, thanks again for making those tiles. They're gorgeous.

Thanks! What I would love to see done "next" is creating a proper village using custom tiles, instead of the blocks of stonewalls currently displayed as shops. I have already made much of the graphics for this and logically thinking, it shouldn't be too much work to change the code for that, if this is something you guys want to see in the game.

[Magnate]

The ND is not "no redistribution", it's "no derivatives" - which means that you can use it how you like but you can't change it.

Ah, thank you. I hadn't understood that - I see now why the CC licences don't work for Shockbolt, since there isn't one that allows a permission-led redistribution. Fair enough. I will keep looking for an off-the-shelf licence that does what he wants though, because the free legal advice inherent in such licences is worth quite a lot.

[getter77]

Thanks! What I would love to see done "next" is creating a proper village using custom tiles, instead of the blocks of stonewalls currently displayed as shops. I have already made much of the graphics for this and logically thinking, it shouldn't be too much work to change the code for that, if this is something you guys want to see in the game.

I for one can't imagine why a better village situation would be a bad thing, especially considering it is the first thing seen by a new player and that generally impacts initial receptions and reactions in a big way.

[PowerWyrm]

Concerning display problems, I'm currently trying to fix the issue for both Win and SDL clients for my variant and it should be easy to port that to V. This involves removing the calls to Term_mark and actually redraw the tile just above and just below the current tile when it's a double-height tile.

[PowerWyrm]

Wow I'm actually struggling with this... There are a ton of side issues when using double-height tiles apart from redrawing tiles and cursor. You need to check if a tile has a picture, if it's double-height, which tiles above and below need to be redrawn... and most important if there is text to redraw instead of pictures (for example when a tile is not mapped in the corresponding prf file and needs to be drawn as an ASCII symbol).

[Magnate]

Wow I'm actually struggling with this... There are a ton of side issues when using double-height tiles apart from redrawing tiles and cursor. You need to check if a tile has a picture, if it's double-height, which tiles above and below need to be redrawn... and most important if there is text to redraw instead of pictures (for example when a tile is not mapped in the corresponding prf file and needs to be drawn as an ASCII symbol).

It might be easier to move away from the tiles-as-characters paradigm and implement z-canvas.c ... ;-)

[PowerWyrm]

It might be easier to move away from the tiles-as-characters paradigm and implement z-canvas.c ... ;-)

z-canvas.c? o_O

Anyway, I managed to fix all issues regarding double height tiles. I could post my resulting code (although it would be the code for my variant) if anyone is interested of fixing that for V...

[PowerWyrm]

The tileset is complete, but I can't say if any new additions to creatures/items have been added to the game after the tileset was completed late in 2011.

I discovered while trying the latest nightly build that the tiles for half-elves PCs and some spell effects are missing (they are still mapped to the old DG tiles). Planning to add them in the future?