Making a FOSS version

[axx0]

@crhy mentions the possibility of going from open-source to free open-source by making custom art and thus not being dependent on the original's assets to play the game.
The question is if we want to go in that direction (a lot of work would have to be put into replacing all the assets, including sound files, also there are lots of text files).
Or maybe give the player an option to use old or new art. If some of the new files are missing, the game automatically uses old files.

[reubene]

It's not a bad idea, the some parts of the existing image sets will need extending anyway as they only support 8 civs and the engine can support much more than that.

[crhy]

It seems like we could just use AI to make sprites of all the existing units pretty quickly. I bet it could be done in less than 24 hours!

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On Wed, Feb 14, 2024, 11:19 AM reubene ***@***.***> wrote: It's not a bad idea, the some parts of the existing image sets will need extending anyway as they only support 8 civs and the engine can support much more than that. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI3TIKO6DVUQU4UOTNDYTUS43AVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DINZSGQ3DQ> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[crhy]

https://files.catbox.moe/eh5365.png

[crhy]

https://files.catbox.moe/zbgj2j.png

[crhy]

This is really fun. These are SO much better than the original art. https://files.catbox.moe/kz684w.png

[crhy]

OMG This spy is the best one yet: https://files.catbox.moe/69e6pr.png

[crhy]

https://playground.com/create is what I'm using if you guys want to join in.

[axx0]

How big should the sprites be? Is 1024x1024 a good size? Would be good to have them a little future proof....

This all depends on the unit tile size you want to have. Right now the game has fixed unit sizes 64x48 (for MGE). We would have to make a logic that assumes different unit sizes (based on a parameter or read from the png itself) and render the background based on that. Also to consider is the game can zoom in x2.
Actually if we want to expand the game (not just sprites) we will have to came up with different rules, images, etc. logic so that we're not limited to the number of civs, units, improvements, etc. of the original. We're far off from that point but it doesn't hurt to start talking about it.

Anyway compliments on the art you've done. Especially the spy. I like how she's hiding her hands in the pocket, not exposing those 7 fingers.

[crhy]

So let's just stick with 1024x1024 for now. It will be future proof for a long, long time. This is a 2d game after all, and as the funnest game ever, I see no need to alter that yet! Yes the spy is SO GOOD! I'll make a few more now. Should I upload them to a directory here on github, or.... ?

[axx0]

Yes, probably best to put it in a folder on github so it can be used later.

[crhy]

Ok, I'll do that.

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On Thu, Feb 15, 2024, 9:23 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: Yes, probably best to put it in a folder on github so it can be used later. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI4OUU55YDIN34ZIZZDYTZODTAVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DIOBUGQ3TA> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[crhy]

Do you guys have an IRC chat or somewhere we can communicate slightly more real time, at least to get this process going initially? LOL I'm messing up more than I'm fixing I think. blush

[axx0]

You probably can't create a folder. I'll create it for you, then you can upload the files and make a pull request.

[crhy]

Wait, where do I upload the files? I've tried a couple things, but admit to being a n00b.

[crhy]

I've been working on terrain all day. It's not perfect, but a good start.

[crhy]

[crhy]

See? That function doesn't work.

[crhy]

This image alone could start a whole new video game franchise: https://files.catbox.moe/wli7gb.png

[crhy]

early terrain research: https://files.catbox.moe/nzfwsu.png

[crhy]

Just take an isographic diamond out of the upper middle.... would look awesome.

[crhy]

Check out this mine: https://files.catbox.moe/9a2yo5.png

[crhy]

Of course, this is an early rough draft, to see if we can even get them in game, etc.. Will clean them up and rename them and all based on whatever conventions you guys want as needed. Cheers! Happy Aloha Friday from Hawaii!

[axx0]

ok I've made a folder inside raylibui. I had to put some txt files inside as github won't add empty folders.
Of course we will need to make some logic how the game will read this custom art, as everything we're currently doing is related to the old game and that will take some time.

[crhy]

OK, all the first drafts are in Civ2Gold already. You can move them over if you want. LOL I have concrete ideas for version 2.0 of most of them. Not the spy one though. It's perfect already. A few others too actually.

[crhy]

PS If you can get the spy in game and I can play it I'll venmo you or send you some BTC. <3

[axx0]

Ok you need to make a PR so I can merge the changes into the project.

[crhy]

I think i did that? I don't really know what I'm doing. 😅😅😅 I should make a telegram channel or discord or something....

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On Tue, Feb 20, 2024, 1:30 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: Ok you need to make a PR so I can merge the changes into the project. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI3I2DPFF2LP2JJIONLYUSCO5AVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DKMRYG4YDS> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[axx0]

I use github desktop for that stuff. Anyway just look up online how to do a PR, it shouldn't be too difficult.

[crhy]

https://t.me/fossciv2

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On Tue, Feb 20, 2024, 8:42 AM rhy o'drinnan ***@***.***> wrote: I think i did that? I don't really know what I'm doing. 😅😅😅 I should make a telegram channel or discord or something.... On Tue, Feb 20, 2024, 1:30 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: > Ok you need to make a PR so I can merge the changes into the project. > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#102 (reply in thread)>, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI3I2DPFF2LP2JJIONLYUSCO5AVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DKMRYG4YDS> > . > You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: > ***@***.***> >

[crhy]

Before I do too much more work on texture/asset replacement, it would be great to see what it looks like in game. Even a fake screenshot would be useful.

[crhy]

By the way I did this, but I have no idea what to do next. LOL N000000b alert.

https://github.com/axx0/Civ2-clone/pulls

[crhy]

So I also have most of the Wonders and Tech Tree finished. Though currently they all need to be relabeled. https://github.com/crhy/Civ2-clone/tree/master/Civ2Gold

[crhy]

Also the City Improvements, totally mislabelled.

[crhy]

Feel like I've got a good first working draft of most of the stuff now..... Got to label it all though.... Github is hard to manage.

[crhy]

Hey guys! I'm updating my branch with renamed artwork for all Advances, Units, City Improvements, and Terrain. We'll still need art for the cities themselves as they grow, and in the different styles. Unless we want to get rid of the different styles. I always thought that was pretty pointless. I've updated my branch with the advances already. Working on renaming units, improvements, and terrain now!

https://github.com/crhy/Civ2-clone/tree/master/RaylibUI/FOSS%20art

[crhy]

City Improvements Uploaded too now.

[crhy]

Wonders Uploaded also.

[crhy]

Units now uploaded.

[crhy]

Terrain Uploaded as well, should Resources be their own separate folder? I've made a lot of progress on those as well.

[crhy]

If I export them as jpg at 76% compression 1.5mb becomes 225kb. Is that an acceptable filesize? Let me know if that works.... rhY

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On Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 9:38 AM rhy o'drinnan ***@***.***> wrote: Yes I definitely have them stored on my hard drive. No worries. I will experiment with compression later this week. I'm on tour right now with the LeperKhanz. https://rumble.com/v4jkxpx-leperkhanz-cottage-in-the-grove.html I'm just doing everything straight from the GitHub web interface. I'm not keeping anything local anywhere. Other than the images that I'm editing of course. But I don't keep a local repo. I'm on a laptop on the road so.... Cheers guys! Pumped on the whole project! rhY On Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 8:27 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: > Don't PNGs themselves have options for compression? Anyway if you can't > compress them I suggest you store them on your HD until we get to the point > where can use them. Right now our hands are full with more basic game stuff. > > How do I remove stuff from GitHub? It's so annoying that I can't figure > out > how to do that on my own. > > When you do a commit, it reflects changes that you made on your local > repository. So if you remove stuff from there and do a commit, it should be > removed on your repository. > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#102 (reply in thread)>, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI3LULDDYII2JFRJC6TYYM4RXAVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DQMBWGE4TK> > . > You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: > ***@***.***> > -- - Cowboy Crooner, Violinist, Composer, Linux Guy, World's Best Dad, AirShip Designer rhymusic.com OpenAirShips.com ThorntonTechs.com CoinKitty.org SuperMox.me https://leperkhanz.weebly.com/ <http://leperkhanz.weebly.com/>

-- - Cowboy Crooner, Violinist, Composer, Linux Guy, World's Best Dad, AirShip Designer rhymusic.com OpenAirShips.com ThorntonTechs.com CoinKitty.org SuperMox.me https://leperkhanz.weebly.com/ <http://leperkhanz.weebly.com/>

[axx0]

Yes much better.

[crhy]

OK, I'll redo all of them, and upload shortly. Any idea on how to delete the ones I uploaded already? Or should I make a different folder, or.... ?

[axx0]

If you delete the files on your drive and do the commit the files should be deleted on the repo also (I think).

[crhy]

I only use the web interface... 😭😭😭

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On Tue, Apr 9, 2024, 8:25 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: If you delete the files on your drive and do the commit the files should be deleted on the repo also (I think). — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI47NCR7ME4EPZXS4XDY4QB3ZAVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4TANRQG4ZTG> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[axx0]

In that case just do a new pull request with new files. I'll remove the previous two.

[crhy]

OK, so I'm finally back to civilization (reality with a house and a computer). Just so I'm not doing twice the work, what are our format goals? The troops are transparent cut outs, so that precludes using jpg. I can do gif or png, but the default png compression seems quite large file size wise. The other images are all square and I can do jpg and make them super small and still high quality. What is the size goal per image, given that I've already got most images in 1024x1024 format? 200k? 300k? Thanks in advance.

[axx0]

Raylib can read gifs and pngs, but I haven't tried using jpgs.
I've noticed some issues with pngs and transparency however (if you make a new png it works ok, but if you convert a say bmp to png it won't show the transparent parts as actually transparent).
I'm not sure what the best size is, but the smaller the better. Also keep in mind github has limits to repository sizes.

[crhy]

OK, I really don't know how to use github. At all. But I deleted the large assets and replaced them with much smaller ones. From 400mb down to 80mb roughly. I used jpg and gif instead of png. I left them the same resolution so we can stay future proof with higher resolution displays or VR or whatever. They look great, and are MUCH smaller now. Uploading files is a drag. A lot of times the processing of files fails and I have to start over.

I've updated my branch: https://github.com/crhy/Civ2-clone

I'm not sure how to make that into a pull request? I somehow was able to close the two previous pulls. Anyway, let me know if I need to do something else, or if there are some assets missing or anything! Cheers guys! <3

[crhy]

I uploaded the better compressed files today. Over four times smaller than the originals. Let me know if that works out!

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On Tue, May 21, 2024, 4:35 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: Raylib can read gifs and pngs, but I haven't tried using jpgs. I've noticed some issues with pngs and transparency however (if you make a new png it works ok, but if you convert a say bmp to png it won't show the transparent parts as actually transparent). I'm not sure what the best size is, but the smaller the better. Also keep in mind github has limits to repository sizes. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXIYHVDP6Q2WVG5CE6DTZDNLSRAVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4TKMBZGQ4DI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[axx0]

Keep the files on your repo, we'll merge them here eventually when we can actually use them. There's loads of other stuff to do before that can happen.

[crhy]

Ok, sounds good. Thanks! 😍😍😍

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On Sun, May 26, 2024, 9:48 AM axx ***@***.***> wrote: Keep the files on your repo, we'll merge them here eventually when we can actually use them. There's loads of other stuff to do before that can happen. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI67QJKBHSB7TXREIODZEI4ANAVCNFSM6AAAAABDISRHXOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4TKNRTHEYDS> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[crhy]

Just FYI I upgraded my fork with the FOSS art:

https://github.com/crhy/Civ2-clone/blob/master/README.md

Probably a lot to clean up still.

Also I'm happy to retype our edit the text dialogs as well.... Though I haven't started that at all.

[reubene]

Yeah, when we get to incorporating your work from this branch we're going to need a full set of menus, dialogs and labels. They don't have to bee 100% the same as the default but they need to be in a consistent format.

[crhy]

I can probably get started on that this week. Plenty of valid info on the civopedia. Traveling in California right now. Messaged in the chat on telegram too. - Cowboy Crooner, Violinist, Composer, Linux Guy, World's Best Dad, AirShip Designer rhymusic.com OpenAirShips.com ThorntonTechs.com CoinKitty.org SuperMox.me https://leperkhanz.weebly.com/ <http://leperkhanz.weebly.com/>

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On Tue, Mar 4, 2025, 1:12 AM reubene ***@***.***> wrote: Yeah, when we get to incorporating your work from this branch we're going to need a full set of menus, dialogs and labels. They don't have to bee 100% the same as the default but they need to be in a consistent format. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#102 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFBTXI57RZEDMFP3C4HBKCD2SVU6LAVCNFSM6AAAAABYD7E6K6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTEMZYGU4DSNI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[crhy]

Hey guys! Got done with the LeperKhanz tour, and am ready to get back to "work". What's next that I can add? And my branch is ready to pull with the graphics we have done so far. I'll work on Leader Graphics right now.

[crhy]

Here's one of the leaders. LMK if I'm going in the right direction or if we even need these. Also, are we married to the leaders the original chose? IMHO there are better leaders for some of the nations. Definitely Germany, India, England, Ireland. For example.

My favorite Celt leader:

[crhy]

Also, it would be cool if the diplomacy screen just blurred the map in the background, but otherwise functioned the same as before.

[crhy]

Also I'm playing around with the textures I made and seeing what they'll look like in a map. This is extremely rough draft. I hate the plains texture now, and the ocean needs to be a lot more blue. The salmon and whale are cool so far though!

[crhy]

Also, I'm wondering how the original engine made the coast line tiles. Maybe that needs to be seperate specific art? The original game is so much better than you realize once you start trying to re-engineer it!

[reubene]

There are special coast tile sections each 1/4 the size of a tile. one for each combination of land and water at a vertex

[crhy]

I should look at the original art and use that for a template. On it.

Posted this thread too: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/upgrading-the-original-terrain-artwork.697586/

[crhy]

OK, I finished editing and compressing the leaders. Here's the link in my fork: https://github.com/crhy/FOSS-Civ2-Clone/tree/master/RaylibUI/FOSS%20art/Leaders

[crhy]

Just FYI cleaned up and renamed my fork repo today. Found some duplicate files to delete, and synced with the main branch.

[crhy]

These guys have upgraded Terrain already for Civ 2: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/better-terrain-graphics-for-mge-from-eivinds-colonialism-scenario.667221/

Let's see if they'll let us include it in AxCiv

[crhy]

Here's their response: I built the mod using other peoples work from decades ago and only touched up a few things here and there so not really up to me. However as long the project stays opensource and the assets aren't used in a commercial endeavor I'm sure the old artists won't mind.

[crhy]

So that sounds like a go!