Pictures for cargo items

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 12:45 am

I have used various stock photo and free image resources to come up with a bunch of 128x128 jpegs to represent the cargo we buy and sell in Vega Strike. I have put them up on my webspace, looking for some comments (and help!).

http://students.washington.edu/peteyg/b ... mages.html

Now that we have some pictures to put next to the cargo... is it possible with the current interface? It seems from past dicussions that it would be. But, if not, then I think that an existing body of images would be a good incentive to add the feature.

Anyways, browse and comment away! Don't bother clicking on any off the links, either... the thumbnails are bigger than the pictures they link to, I think.

Silverain · Post by **Silverain** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 3:10 am

Had a look, quite a few were VERY appropriate

.

Comments:

Gases
Astral: how about something like a picture of nebula gases? That was how I imagined it.
Atmospheric: <option> gas tanks and a breathing mask?
Halogen: tanks and a lit welding kit?

Stone
Construction: I like. <option> picture of a castle wall up close to see the fitted stone?
Natura Sculptures: Hmm, I imagined more of a beautiful natural (say, sand carved) stone sculpture, rather than man made?
Alleyne Sheathing: <option> picture shop marble, changing color of the stone and veins>

Food
Animal Products: the eggs are good. Any chance of combining eggs with a generic milk picture?
Standard Mealpacks: what is it? I can't tell.

Ration Mealpacks: spot on!

Liquor
The Rlaan/Aera I picture as fanciful bottling...
The pictures you have are good.
Space Grog: makes me think of pirates for some reason.

Resources
Rubber: a rubber duck ?!?!?

Entertainment
Erotica: a sheep? At least give it stockings!

. <suspicious> Are you poking fun at kiwis (New Zealanders)?

OK, money where my mouth is. As soon as I figure out how to use the scanner, I will try to put together some pictures to post you.

Silverain

ezra-s · Post by **ezra-s** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:16 am

I like the slave pic, lol

))

IxianMace · Post by **IxianMace** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 6:53 am

Isn't the slave pic a cut out image of the 'farmer' in an advertisement when Vegastrike is loading?

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 8:14 am

Yep! the slave picture is the same guy from the splash screen. It's a stock photo from deviantart.com. I think he might fit better into a 'colonist' type cargo pic though.

@Silverain:

I definately agree with you on the astral gases. I'll scout out some Hubble nebula shots for a good square we can use.

Not quite so sure about using something other than a gassy / ethereal type pic for gas though... perhaps a diagonal from top left to bottom right, one half with a gas image, the other with a practical application?

Stone:
Yeah, maybe a pic of stone blocks or bricks would be better for the construction one.
I am down with what you're saying about natura sculptures. I will scour the US national park websites for some stuff like that.
Good idea for the Alleyne Sheathing.

Food:
Animal Products: I'm on it.
Standard Mealpacks: It's just a jumble of scrambled eggs and various breakfast meats. I couldn't find anything else. Though a TV dinner would probably do well... I'll see if I can scrounge any pics of those up from free sources.

Liquor
How well do you think the two bottles I have in the top image directory would do for Aera/Rlaan stuff? The more exotic the better, I suppose. Any ideas for sources?

Resources: Yes, a rubber duckie! Though I'm sure there is something that would fit better... (like rubber coming out of a tree or something), I figured since I couldn't find anything like that, going for the laugh factor would make up.

As for using a sheep as the picture for erotica.... well, I'm not making fun of anyone (though if I were, I would definately whale on the kiwis). But using sheep to represent porn is a cheap laugh I've seen many times in my life, especially in computer games! The old Sierra adventure game Phreddy Pharkas: Fronter Pharmacist (made by the Leisure Suit Larry guy) had a bit of sheep - porn humor. As have a few other games, I think. I was most recently reminded of this by reading Penny-Arcade. http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?d ... 7-18&res=l.

My only regret is that I haven't been able to find a FLUFFIER sheep picture.

I think it's really funny, and only slightly suggestive of inappropriatness. Besides, I've heard nothing but bitch bitch bitch, moan moan moan from the few females I put into the splashscreens and stuff.

Post by **jackS** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 9:03 am

PeteyG wrote:
Liquor
How well do you think the two bottles I have in the top image directory would do for Aera/Rlaan stuff? The more exotic the better, I suppose. Any ideas for sources?

Even if the term Liquor is being used to describe alchohol analogs, anything that resembles storage for terran libations would be odd for the Rlaan, if only because of the temperature ranges involved... namely, the normal liquid range in Rlaan thinking would correspond to the liquid range of ammonia rather than water which, assuming similar atmospheric pressures, is ~ -78 C to -33 C. Most pictures of things that humans drink tend not to look quite so... chilled

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:00 am

The necessary feature has been implemented, so this is no longer a time waster project!

I've gone and done a bit more work, tracked down a new resource full of obligation-free stock photos, and have added on to what i've got going. Comments are welcome!

The easy things, like food, plants, and rocks are coming along okay. There's quite a lack of the more advanced cargo items... like robots, flying cars, super-futuristic computers, etc. If anyone can come up with good art for that, that would be most welcome.

http://students.washington.edu/peteyg/b ... mages.html
Don't click the links! the Konqueror gallery generator messed things up somehow
The pictures you're seeing are 128x128 anyways, so they're exactly what I've got in my little working directory.

Post by **hellcatv** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:42 am

one comment:
the pictures tend to look better when they are "cut out"
i.e. they aren't square 128x128 pictures but instead have alpha maps that render all but the item invisible

for a good example check out textures/holo.png
this guy would be great for holo projectors
otherwise good goin'

Post by **ace123** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:45 am

They look cool!

I agree about the alpha maps, but I thought jpegs didn't support alpha.

One thing... Could you tar or zip them up so they are easier to download in one batch rather than right click -> save image -> ok on each pic

Post by **hellcatv** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:55 am

well I think they should be png's anyway
they're so small--and that way we can play with the alphamap

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 10:41 am

I could easily make them .pngs.

It would take a lot of time to turn the backgrounds into transparency, and next to impossible in some cases. I think most look better without any transparency, but I suppose some would look niftier with.

Here's a zip of what I've got so far, all in one place, one megabyte. http://students.washington.edu/peteyg/b ... pics-1.zip

Post by **hurleybird** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:35 pm

I thnink that we should put some sort of a border around the image so that pictures not 'cut out' still look good. 'cut out' pictures could still look good, and you could also add a few generic backgrounds (like some sort of a starfeild for ships and missles. The ship pictures look really weird cut out too IMO.

Post by **hellcatv** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:22 pm

well that's how the hudimages are

unless you override them in the mpl

Post by **hurleybird** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:30 pm

Couldnt you put a stardrop background behind the HUD-image, that would look cool.

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:28 am

I've got another update done. Like fifty new images. I've started using wierd lighting effects for the obscure technical cargo items like research and such. Check it out.

If anybody's got suggestions, or can come up with some images for things I don't have yet, or something better than what I've already got... feel free!

Gallery - http://students.washington.edu/peteyg/b ... mages.html
Straight Zip - http://students.washington.edu/peteyg/b ... pics-2.zip

Post by **hurleybird** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:40 am

Looks awesome IMO. Though i think 'surgical techniques' should be renamed to 'surgical equipment' or 'prototype surgical equipment' or something of the like.

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:47 pm

Dirty Magic has done some really neat cargo pics, that I think he should post here. I'll try and update the gallery sometime soon.

Also, for anyone else who wants to help out, I just found a site full of small, neat, open source-style free pictures. http://draves.org/pix/kdn/

DirtyMagic · Post by **DirtyMagic** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 8:26 pm

Said...

Done!

Here's a handful of new cargo pics, all original:

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=2210