New Title Screen

[Terrorgrim]

Just a thought, it's not meant to cause any offence.

 

I was looking at the title screen, the opening one when you initially load the game up?

Graphics wise it looks far more dated than the actual game graphics themselves, I'm presuming it was designed quite a while ago and that the in-game graphics have improved somewhat since then.

But am I the only one who thinks it could do with a little smartening up? (Again I say I'm not out to piss off designers/developers etc)

I'd be interested in others thoughts.....

[Acelon]

It was updated a few updates ago.

[Cyprom]

Still I agree, the mountain chim + stone + beaver are like one

It's nice but I wouldn't mind a prettier image

 

-- Cyp

[conavar]

Must agree. with how good the ingame graphics are getting now ( well done Devs/ Roja) the title screen doesnt do the game justice .

[Stardark]

I never really liked the title screen, except the unicorn

[Roja]

Perhaps you people don't understand that there's a texture size limit in the game. All textures have to be square in size. The title screen is not square, so the texture is streched and fuzzy looking. Nothing we can do about it.

 

Other than that, I think the title screen shows the graphics very nicely and looks great

[scarr]

i think the welcome message is kinda boring at intro tho :>

 

the picture shows good at my screen tho :]

 

if you dont like the picture you could make a custom pic urself and put it there

[Roja]

Geewiz...I never knew that no one liked it. Oh well, I love it personally, so it's staying there. It's not boring or ugly, or outdated. I really dont' know what your problems are.

[Sistema]

It looks great if you ask me. And besides, it's still much too early for a change even if there would be one

 

(I forgot what the old one looked like by the way:confused: LOL)

[kl4Uz]

I think it looks nice, yet it could be improved. The login screen is the first thing a new player sees, so it should really be fancy and state-of-the-art (well, state of the game's art ). And lately there have been so many new and exciting things added to the game and I think does should be represented through the login screen. Maybe you could add some of them, Roja? Or have a new animal/monster in there, every time a new client update is released?

[pennifuin]

I like the title screen...theres little one could do to better it. Shows perspective/fog/and some of the animals....cant really go wrong...IF i was going to be picky and anal, i would probably say that a more aesthetically pleasing monster could be used instead of the armed goblin......possibly Feros or something of the like...

 

love love. (i dont think i have any quarm with any of the artwork, im quite jealous actually, as a fine art degree student I have much respect for what roja does. its not as easy as people think. The animations on the other hand.....hmm dont get me started!)

[Aislinn]

I like it, it gives an olde world feel.

Something too modern and flashy and high-tech would probably turn me off from the game before I started.

[Cycloonx]

Well it's not bad, but like someone else said, a little improvement would be welcome. And i'm not sure it's possible but can't the picture be made at a higher resolution because at 1280x1024 it is looking way too stretched and this resolution is quite common nowadays.

Edited February 23, 2007 by Cycloonx

[Roja]

Well your "little improvements" are very subjective, as art is and always will be. Something that's pleasing to me may not be to you, and vise versa. In the art world, you can never make everybody happy. So why try?

 

As for the resolution, so far 512 is the limit, unless that recently changed, I haven't tried yet.

[ttlanhil]

Well your "little improvements" are very subjective, as art is and always will be. Something that's pleasing to me may not be to you, and vise versa. In the art world, you can never make everybody happy. So why try?

I mostly agree, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's nice to update it now and then (as you have)

As for the resolution, so far 512 is the limit, unless that recently changed, I haven't tried yet.

there's an alternative, though; centring it instead of stretching. this makes it a bit tricker to have something else fill the outsides (some basic pattern, maybe? it could be clipped or scaled as required by the client) but it's then more ready for widescreen or other views. you also do away with the artifacts from stretching.

unfortunately, that would probably mean doing away with the current login screen (at the very least, it'd mean one that isn't compensated for stretching like the current one seems to be), since it'd be easiest with something not having stuff sticking off the edge, but it's an option for next time

[Learner]

One option if its worth our time is to cut the picture up into several pieces and tile them all together. Lower res screens would see fewer tiles then high res screens.

[ttlanhil]

One option if its worth our time is to cut the picture up into several pieces and tile them all together. Lower res screens would see fewer tiles then high res screens.

I thought of that too, but there are the problems about aligning them... there's comments in the code already about cases where opengl calls don't always line stuff up right (whether that problem would still happen when you're doing the same call, of a texture to an area, vs textures and lines, I dunno... but there could be issues. plus, just how large will it be, eventually? that takes a lot of wasted space for those without a huge screen)

[Terrorgrim]

Blimey! what a can of worms! lol.

I must admit I never really considered the technicalities of my proposition, I still stand by the fact it does looks slightly blocky on a high-res laptop but that is in no way meant as a complaint of Roja's fine work.

I've read people's comments and there's a lot of different views and opinions on this one, I think (personally) my solution would be to perhaps change the picture? Possibly to a city view or something, perhaps portland? for it's beautiful architechture? or maybe even one of the maps?

both are supposed to be quite jagged and rough (brick buildings and olde world maps) and so would, to my eye at least be slightly more asthetically pleasing?

 

That's my last word on it coz I'm frightened of p**sing too many people off!

 

*Runs and hides*

[Cycloonx]

Well your "little improvements" are very subjective, as art is and always will be. Something that's pleasing to me may not be to you, and vise versa. In the art world, you can never make everybody happy. So why try?

 

I think I misphrased this one. With little improvements I mean changing the loging screen now and then (like 4 times a year or so). I like seeing new login screen. And with little improvements I meant like changing an animal on it, add some collection of items on (like a small table with some rings). And I know you never can please everyone. And like I said I like it as it is though (but some variation is welcome).

 

As for the resolution, so far 512 is the limit, unless that recently changed, I haven't tried yet.

 

I guess from other people's comments (like learner's one) it's not possible, but it would be nice if you ever find the time to check it out

[Learner]

As for the resolution, so far 512 is the limit, unless that recently changed, I haven't tried yet.

 

I guess from other people's comments (like learner's one) it's not possible, but it would be nice if you ever find the time to check it out

In the past, some drivers have had problems with textures larger then 512x512. So even if they are texted and work ... do you want to risk having problems?

[Cycloonx]

do you want to risk having problems?

 

Well it depends a lot on how big the risks are For myself I don't really care about problems because I always try to solve them. But for other people it might suck offcourse, and then it's not worth it. But I'm not a programmer (yet) so I can't say anything

[Roja]

I think I misphrased this one. With little improvements I mean changing the loging screen now and then (like 4 times a year or so). I like seeing new login screen.

 

It of course may change again in time. However right now I don't see any reason for it. Nothing on it is outdated and the game hasn't had any huge significant changes.

 

And I'm against using a screenshot there..it would just look stupid imo.

[Vanyel]

And I'm against using a screenshot there..it would just look stupid imo.

 

While I'm not big fan of the contemporary log in screen I fully agree with Roja here. The screenshot would be really lame.

[TheComet]

A little photoshopping could always give the game a little more flare I guess, I kinda like the current one though for some reason

 

 

What I think someday might be nice is to have an animated background for that, perhaps of the camera panning across the towns and fading between towns, could be done with a video file or possibly an animated .gif (filesize would be crazy though...)

[majestyk]

Most "commercial" games don't restrict themselves to in-game graphics or textures. For box covers, opening screens, even often during in-game cut scenes artwork with much better graphics is used than what is available using the game engine. Just the best is good enough to attract more players

 

I also think that EL could use a nicer opening screen. Maybe a drawn image of an actual in-game map, or inspired by one (some c2 maps come to mind), along with some creatures/monsters/players?