add alpha to walls that visually block open terrain

[tiger_eye]

One of the main complaints about Shockbolt tiles is that they are pseudo-3d and terrain tiles can visually block unobstructed tiles behind them, which can hide HP bars and items. I share this grievance, although I still play with Shockbolt tiles because they just look so beautiful! So, to make the tiles more player-friendly, I suggest adding transparency to terrain tiles that visually block terrain behind them. Below is an example using 60% opacity (40% transparency) for the following tiles:
granite_wall3.png
granite_wall_pillar_7.png
granite_wall_pillar_8.png
granite_wall_pillar_9.png
granite_wall_pillar_small_top.png

alpha_granite.jpg (233.42 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

[Grey]

I think DarkGod said that this was more effort than it looks... Would want more than 40% transparency by the way - to be able to see health bars clearly it should be about 70-80%. Also I think in dungeons at least this is only needed for squares with items or monsters behind them. In forests there is a much wider problem with the trees obscuring open paths, which quite frankly I think it best dealt with by redrawing the trees to not extend out so much.

[tiger_eye]

In forests there is a much wider problem with the trees obscuring open paths, which quite frankly I think it best dealt with by redrawing the trees to not extend out so much.

Agreed. I didn't suggest making trees transparent, though, and I support your previous suggestion.

I think DarkGod said that this was more effort than it looks...

Huh? I didn't do anything fancy or clever here; for example, this doesn't auto-magically make trees that stick above a tile transparent. That could be tricky. What I did was exceptionally simple: made tiles that predictably block other tiles transparent. This could probably be done in-game, but I just modified these files with GIMP. Why make things harder than they need to be when an easy solution exists?

Also I think in dungeons at least this is only needed for squares with items or monsters behind them.

Dunno about that; I might prefer a consistent look rather than conditional transparencies.

Would want more than 40% transparency by the way - to be able to see health bars clearly it should be about 70-80%

Here is an image with 60% transparency, which I think is ample. The player has about 50% health, which would be a bit easier to see if the HP bar wasn't blocked by her feet. Transparent tiles such as these took me less than 30 seconds to get used to; it may be hard for me to go back to normal tiles!

alpha60_granite.jpg (239.4 KiB) Viewed 2188 times

[Grey]

Yeah, 60% works well. I still think it would look prettier overall if the ones without anything behind them weren't transparent, but overall I'd say your implementation is better than the current situation.

[marvalis]

move the health bar to the top as a workaround in addition to transparency?

[Gliktch]

Marvalis, for a second there your suggestion made me think "Of course! It's so obvious, move the health bar to the top! Brilliant!"... But then I remembered Snow Giants and all the other big fellas

I actually started writing a response to this thread when it was first posted, but my comp crashed before I could post (really wish I could afford new RAM already, *sigh*) and the main suggestion I was going to put forward was that, if alpha like this is implemented, it's possible it'll look better if only those upper edges which actually have things behind them are made transparent. Meaning: PC, NPCs, items... Probably not traps since those are pretty visible on the rest of the tile (and it'll trans anyway when the player is on that edge), so in the given visual example above, the cross part would be all solid, and most of the straight edges except for those that the player and mouse are on.

Hard to really tell if that'll look better without seeing it in action compared to the above proposal, just wanted to put it out there though And yes, 60% trans looks good on this nerd's screen

[marvalis]

Ah yeh giants, xD hahaha why didn't I think of that :/. Probably because I always play on ascii :3.

Move it to the side? j/k

alpha60_granite.jpg (9.1 KiB) Viewed 2131 times

[Sirioh]

What about making the tactical display simply appear "on top" of the tiles. I don't mean on top of the unit's full tile, but rather putting the tactical display at a higher "layer" so it appears above the other tiles, regardless of what might be there (whether tree, wall, etc).

[tiger_eye]

Yeah, 60% works well. I still think it would look prettier overall if the ones without anything behind them weren't transparent

Yeah, I think that would look fine, but it would need to be done somewhere, somehow in lua. The following probably isn't the best example one could come up with, but here you go (traps excluded):

alpha60_conditional.jpg (218.12 KiB) Viewed 2076 times