StendhalRefactoringGraphics

This page is to collect missing or new graphics wanted to be made, also graphics which exist but need improvement.

Creatures and items

Right now Stendhal has many monsters, outfits and items so we don't invite general submission of new graphics for these however if you want to offer your services for particular items that we may need, please come ask. Alternatively if you wish to improve any existing graphic, that would be very welcome.

General Specifications

Give your image a descriptive name in lowercase letter and use underscore between words. You don't need to repeat information in the image name that's already given by the directory name.

• The license must be GPL, or compatible, such as public domain.
• File format is PNG, 8 bits/color
• Use only fully opaque, or fully transparent pixels
• The background should be fully transparent

Creatures

Specification

The sprites used for creatures are in the data/sprites/monsters/ directory in the stendhal source.

• Creatures have a dark border of a few pixels
• Creatures should have 12 frames of motion. 3 from the back, 3 from each side and 3 to the front

Most RPGMaker 2000 sprites (like at [1]) work for stendhal. But they are in 24x32 size. Please scale it using scale2x to get the best quality possible to 48x64, for the creature size to be player size. Please use scale2x. Once you have it installed, the command to type is scalex -k 2 old.png new.png

If the images have a coloured background like those from Charas, it needs to be made transparent. See below for how to do that in GIMP or use this Visual Guide.

• Open your png
• Convert it to RGB mode with Image -> Mode -> RGB
• Add transparency to the image with Layer->Transparency->Add Alpha Channel
• Select the coloured background (green from Charas) by doing Tools->Selection Tools->Fuzzy Select (or pressing Z), and clicking on the green background. Make sure that the 'threshold' is set to 0 which means it will only select exactly that green colour. Also turn off 'Antialiasing' and 'Feather edges'. These settings should be available on the gimp main window.
• Remove the green background by pressing Ctrl-k (or Edit->Clear). Gimp should show the transparency as gray checker board pattern.
• Repeat the selection and clearing steps for any remaining green areas, if everything was not cleared at once.
• Save your changes

Huge creatures

Large creatures, like the black dragon do not look good. At the moment they are just many times scaled as described above. They should be redrawn properly. At least the following creatures should be redone:

• balrog (being redrawn; don't pick this (kiheru))
• black dragon
• some others

Items

Specification

The sprites used for items are in the data/sprites/items/ directory in the stendhal source.

• Items have a white or black border of 1 pixel unless there is a good reason not to add it
• A non animated item should have a 32x32 pixel sprite
• An animated item (like money) should have a 32N x 32 sprite. E.g. if it has 5 frames in the animation it will be a 160 x 32 sprite. It will automatically appear animated
• Items go in the folder data/sprites/items/<class>/<subclass>.png

Corpses

Specification

The sprites used for corpses are in the data/sprites/ directory. Once more corpses are drawn, we will likely make a new directory for them.

• Images should be a multiple of 32x32, the size should depend on the creature like the ones in the source code.

We need various sizes and types of corpse. The ones marked with an asterisk exist already but may need improvement or to be brought in line with any new images made.

• humanoid
• giant humanoid
• animal
• small animal (rodents) *
• huge animal *
• huger animal (necrosophia, flying golden dragon) *
• enormous creature (balrog) *
• mythical creature (black dragon) *
• small humanoids (little people, fairies)
• ent
• golem (?)
• player (should look different from humanoid corpse for usability reasons)

Map tiles

See the tileset specifications for the requirements. New graphics should meet these, and it is an ongoing (and important) task to update old images to satisfy them. Improving existing graphics could be the best use of an artists time, unless it's been specifically requested to draw something new.

Building

Entrance

There are entrance graphics missing that exactly match to earthen_2.png (the graphics on the right)

Stairs

• stair graphics to the north and south

Wall

• graphics missing for the inner row, the one's that are black and green in int_grey_dark
• corners for int_wall_brick_wood

Window

• windows for brick walls

Ground

Ridge

• more tiles for ice ridges (currently they can't cope with concave angles (see level_0\ados\rock.tmx for example))

Water

• boat graphics
• graphics for a pier

Item

• childrens toys
• decorative ornaments

Armor

• Single weapons, so they e.g. can be put on a table

Furniture

We have a lot of furniture facing 'down' (south) that can be put on a back wall, but very little that can be put on a wall that is running north to south, i.e. facing to the side. We could use for example, shelves, long sofas, cabinets, chests of drawers, large equipment that a blacksmith might use, bathroom furniture such as toilets and basins and baths, all for the side walls.

We have little that 'faces north' also, but for these be very very careful with perspective.

Light

• Candles that can be placed on a wall

GUI

Splash Screens

We hold a competition to judge user-contributed splash screens. Please see SplashScreens for details.

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