[Freeciv-Dev] Clarifications on Civ2 Isometric Tileset

[Tim Smith <yoohootim@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings, members of the FreeCiv tribe!

I'm Tim Smith, the creator of the HiRes ("high resolution") graphics
patch for Civ2.  Thue recently posted some screenshots of this tileset
as used by Civ2. I took a look at the recent discussion threads here
concerning the isometric tile approach, and it is clear to me that there
are some mosconceptions that I would like to help clear up.  Please
forgive me in advance for the length of this note!

(1)  The HiRes tileset is nothing like most Civ2 isometric graphics!
Please don't get hung up on the specifics of my tile set!  My work is
very different from most Civ2 art.  If Thue can host a couple more
screenshots (thanks, Thue!), I will show you some examples of more
typical Civ2 graphics sets.  The theme of my graphics patch was to
provide ultra-realistic highly detailed graphics.  Most Civ2 artists
produce work much closer to the original style - more icon-like.  My
graphics do not appeal to all Civ2 players, so please don't make your
decision based on them alone!

(2)  Isometric means you are not confined to a single tileset!
There are dozens if not hundreds of megabytes of art created for Civ2.
Players can swap in whatever graphics patch or combination of graphics
they want.  Civ2 supports the design of scenarios, so there are graphics
sets created for very specific worlds, for instance the American Civil
War, Hannibal's campaign, or Star Wars environments.  Ideally the
FreeCiv client would also allow the player to use alternate graphics
files..  Virtually all Civ2 graphics were created as freeware, so I
doubt anyone would object to their use by your community.  After all, we
are all Civilization enthusiasts, regardless of age, race, gender - or
platform!  :-)

(3)  Gridlines
The screenshots of my graphics were created with Civ 2's optional
gridlines turned off (I think most play it that way).  I will try to
post an image which shows what it looks like with gridlines toggled on -
they make movement much easier until you are accustomed to the isometric
view.

(4)  Bit Depth (amount of colors)
The graphics you saw are GIF files, but in actuality this does not
matter as the relatively primitive Civ2 graphic engine is far more
restrictive that the GIF format.  I don't know the exact number, but I
think Civ2 only allows use of a few dozen colors (only three reds, for
instance).  My original graphics files were created as 24-bit, so they
could look better in a game system which supported a greater bit depth.

(5)  >"They look very much like Civ II, even the text; so much so that I
started to wonder if they don't infringe on copyrights ..."
They look like Civ2 screenshots because they ARE Civ2 screenshots!  :-)
If I sent you screenshots of my raw graphics files, you would have no
idea of how they look when used by the game.  It is the game engine
which generates the text, it has nothing to do with my graphics.
Remember, in the Civ2 community, we all use the Microprose client.  It
is very open-ended, allowing for extensive changes to the graphics and
behavior of the game (see my mention of "scenarios" above).  But no
matter what world we are playing in, we are always using the Microprose
Civ2 engine.

I will be glad to answer any questions or offer any advice I can about
the use of isometric graphics in Civ2. I know next to nothing about UNIX
systems and their graphics capabilities, so you will need to forgive my
ignorance in those areas.

Best of luck with your excellent project!
 - Tim Smith
yoohootim@xxxxxxxxxxx