High Quality Townmaps

Discussion in 'Arcanum Discussion' started by Anonymous, Oct 24, 2008.

Remove all ads!
Support Terra-Arcanum:

GOG.com

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!
  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Another big improvement!

    I've always felt that townmaps (maps for local areas) were poorly done. Indeed, they were downscaled with nearest neighbor type resampling, the most primitive technique, thus they looked jagged and pixelated.

    Finally, I devised a more complex way of generating townmaps, and I've regenerated them all using bilinear resampling (probably the best resampling method that doesn't cause any artifacts).

    Here's a side-by-side comparison of old and new townmaps, just three examples.
    [​IMG]

    Now they look much better!

    Townmaps take a plenty of space, so this won't be included in the UAP, but will be a separate download. And it's already available!

    DOWNLOAD (112 Mb):
    Mirror 1 (courtesy of Terra-Arcanum.com)
    Mirror 2 (courtesy of ComputerGames.ro)
    Mirror 3 (courtesy of Patches-Scrolls.de)
    Mirror 4 (Megaupload)

    P.S. Since it's just a graphics change, it won't cause any incompatibility issues. It also fixes the missing "K'na Tha 2" townmap and many other inconsistencies (they never bothered to update some townmaps, so they had old graphics/objects/layout/etc). All in all, there's absolutely no reason to not use this pack.
     
  2. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    Why did Troika hire a whole team, when all they would have needed was one Drog?
     
  3. Frigo

    Frigo Active Member

    Messages:
    2,107
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2006
    On a side note, I have implemented a general kernel-based filtering class, and several filter kernels (bell, box, cubic /including cubic b-spline and catmull-rom/, gaussian, hermite, lanczos, linear, sinc and sink), as well as 2x1D resampling, radial resampling and bilateral filtering. I can help if mathematically precise resampling is needed.
     
  4. Dirtman

    Dirtman New Member

    Messages:
    305
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2007
  5. The_Deathsangel

    The_Deathsangel New Member

    Messages:
    106
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2008
  6. frosted ambassador

    frosted ambassador New Member

    Messages:
    74
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2008
    I'm incredibly impressed.

    Perhaps you could inform us as to how you went about doing this?
     
  7. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    Are there any noticeable differences in performance? Not that I expect there to be any, but for the poor people out there on low-end machines...
     
  8. rroyo

    rroyo Active Member

    Messages:
    3,319
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2006
    What the four posters above me said.

    Nice work!
     
  9. Hans Maulwurf

    Hans Maulwurf New Member

    Messages:
    37
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2008
  10. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,734
    Likes Received:
    12
    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2007
  11. GrimmHatter

    GrimmHatter Active Member

    Messages:
    1,274
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    It does give them a nice, polished look, especially the sprites of light sources in dark environments.

    [Offtopic] I just noticed...is Drog's avatar the bartender from Bloodlines?[/Offtopic]
     
  12. FourHorsemen

    FourHorsemen Member

    Messages:
    579
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2004
  13. magikot

    magikot Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,688
    Likes Received:
    4
    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2003
    I've always thought so.
     
  14. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    Yup, that's the fat, ugly vampire at the Asylum.
     
  15. Dirtman

    Dirtman New Member

    Messages:
    305
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2007
    Damned Bloodlines and their bugs. It never worked properly for me. :( Laggy 'n' shit!
     
  16. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    The only problem I've ever had with Bloodlines is the ridiculous black screen you get if you're above 60 hz. Have you installed the patch?
     
  17. Dirtman

    Dirtman New Member

    Messages:
    305
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2007
    Never got the black screen. I've installed the patch. I've even installed the unofficial patches. I never got very far, since it was even worse on my old PC, which I had a couple of years ago when I bought the game. And even that one exceeded some of the requirements.

    Trying every tweak and advice posted on the internet, I've managed to reduce the lag, but it still annoys the shit out of me.

    I'm planning on buying a new PC this winter, maybe ridiculously new technology like Quad core processors will be able to handle it, but I doubt it.

    A question for all of you native English speakers... Is the phrase planning on buying a correct and existing phrase in the language? I've written it a few sentences back, but since my English is degenerating rapidly from not speaking it, I'm generally insecure in my knowledge of English grammar.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

  19. Dirtman

    Dirtman New Member

    Messages:
    305
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2007
  20. Peter Quincy

    Peter Quincy Member

    Messages:
    880
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2002
    Thanks for the continuing improvements, Mr Black Tooth. Am I the only one who thinks the new townmaps now look like the sims 1's neighborhood veiw?
     
Our Host!