Tilesets

[PowerWyrm]

Currently, Angband maintains five tilesets:

- Adam Bolt (16x16)
- David Gervais (32x32)
- Nomad (8x16)
- original (8x8)
- Shockbolt (64x64)

For PWMAngband, I tried to keep all these up to date with monster changes, but I'm not sure that's the case for Vanilla. Currently I'm in the process of adding new monsters for PWMAngband, so I took time to put up an Excel file describing which monsters are mapped to which tiles for each tileset. I've already spent a lot of hours on that during the last three days... and I'm not finished with Adam Bolt tileset yet!!! I fear it will take weeks on my free time to map all monsters, so I have an idea where to map the new monsters in the tilesets so they have a chance to get an unique tile (or at least a meaningful one).

Considering the plans for Angband v4.1 to also add new monsters, I wanted to point out the hassle it will be to maintain all these tilesets. So it's probably a good time to ask ourselves the questions:

- which tileset do players use when they play Angband in tile mode?
- do we really need to maintain all these tilesets?

[Mondkalb]

Count me in for the Gervais tileset.

[Rydel]

I mostly use ASCII, but when I use a tileset, it's usually Gervais.

[t4nk]

Yes, having 5 (!) tilesets is just LOL. That's certainly not maintainable (and was the main reason I decided not to do anything with tilesets). Like previous posters, I like Gervais one the best. That's not to say I like it very much. Here's a great tileset: https://github.com/martin-tornqvist/.../gfx_16x24.png
Simple shapes and simple colors (one color, in fact). Very legible, unlike Angband's tilesets.

edit: If you (the reader) are not very familiar with tilesets, you should note that, like all good tilesets, it looks a lot better "in action" than as a picture. Infra Arcana does look a lot more advanced graphically than Angband, even though it's actually less advanced... Give it a try (I don't like the game itself, though, just the graphics )

[Nomad]

I use and still actively maintain my tileset, so I'll be updating it for any changes to Vanilla monsters.

Currently I'm in the process of adding new monsters for PWMAngband, so I took time to put up an Excel file describing which monsters are mapped to which tiles for each tileset.

I already have a text file listing all the tile mappings which I've attached here. (It's for the most up-to-date version of the tileset with the new traps which I don't think has actually been incorporated in the nightlies yet, but is linked in this post.)

Does anyone still actually use the classic or Adam Bolt tiles at all?

[Derakon]

Yes, having 5 (!) tilesets is just LOL. That's certainly not maintainable (and was the main reason I decided not to do anything with tilesets). Like previous posters, I like Gervais one the best. That's not to say I like it very much. Here's a great tileset: https://github.com/martin-tornqvist/.../gfx_16x24.png
Simple shapes and simple colors (one color, in fact). Very legible, unlike Angband's tilesets.

Two other good examples of effective tilesets are the Oryx tiles and the tiles for Caves of Qud. In both cases they use minimal colors and rely heavily on shape to distinguish different types of creature.

I'm actually kind of curious how much it would cost to pay for an Oryx-style tileset for Angband.

[Nomad]

I feel like the main thing that needs to be done is adding support for player-installed custom tilesets without that requiring code alterations. Then you only need to keep and maintain one set as the default (Gervais would be the logical choice of the existing tilesets, but perhaps try to develop a simple "single-colour icon" type set like these examples for the future) but the others can stay available as optional extras.

[StMicah]

I've always ignored tilesets because I primarily play on a Mac and could never figure out how to set the tilesets to be helpful.

Is there a way to optimize tilesets on Macs so I can see what I'm missing (if I'm missing anything at all)?

[PowerWyrm]

Does anyone still actually use the classic or Adam Bolt tiles at all?

That was the primary question, yes. These clearly use too small tiles and would require a huge rework to add new stuff.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I use ASCII, simply because I play on a laptop and tiles are too hard to see. If I had a big screen computer, I think Shockbolt's beautiful tiles would be my go-to graphics for Angband. I think Gervais' tiles also work very well, but still a bit small for laptops.

[Huqhox]

I use Shockbolt's tiles, they just seem to be more visually appealing (and I like the way the 'big' monsters like wyrms are taller than the square they are on - makes them more intimidating and visually interesting)