Oblige Skies

[andrewj]

Oblige now has some code to generate random sky textures, which will make the levels a bit more interesting to look at.

Earthy:


Hellish:


Can do Starry as well.

[jute]

Great work!

What are those maps?

[Csonicgo]

holy jesus that looks incredible. will this be in lua so we can make our own skies?

and is that a beta of the new layout of the maps? that looks interesting.

[gggmork]

Awesome, so it actually generates/draws a new pseudorandom sky each time (rather than randomly choose from premade skies)? Since you like generative stuff you might want to check out LP5 by autechre. As far as gameplay goes, I really like the settings of obhack (particularly how it allows harder difficulty in general).

[r_rr]

pretty cool

[SulfurOccult]

those sky textures look pretty good, I'm very impressed.

[andrewj]

Cheers everybody :-)

The generation algorithms (yes it is all randomly generated from scratch) are very basic ones. I'm surprised myself how well the mountains look because that was really just a quick hack. Better algorithms are planned for the future [I could spent heaps of time on this...]

@Csonicgo: Lua doesn't make the skies, but it will control various parameters, especially the colors to use (palette indexes), also the fractal dimension (the smoothness or roughness), how high the mountains are (etc etc).

@gggmork: thx for the reference.

@Jute Gyte: the maps are Oblige generated, I've been doing a lot of work on rewriting the map algorithms and so far it doesn't create anything worth looking at, no doors or stairs or monsters or other stuff. Right now I'm working on the hardest thing: laying out a room (putting in stairs where needed, where the walls will be, etc etc). After that I will redo the monsters/items code and finally there will be playable maps again! :)

[Graf Zahl]

Nice. Can the height of the sky textures be customized so that ports which support tall skies can use this, too?

[andrewj]

Graf Zahl said:

Nice. Can the height of the sky textures be customized so that ports which support tall skies can use this, too?

Taller skies will be easy to support.

Eventually I'd like to make true skyboxes too, for QuakeII and OpenGL Doom ports.

Maybe you can tell me a litte about ZDoom: will it use tall skies automatically or only under certain circumstances? What is the correct or best height to use?

[Gez]

Height should be 256 I think. The following screenshot shows what happens when I use a 256x200 version of Episode 1's sky taken from Skulltag.wad to replace the normal 256x128 version. In GZDoom it's fine but in ZDoom it's too tall to be stretched and not tall enough to avoid being tiled.



Heretic uses 256x200 skies as well, but I haven't noticed such problems, probably because Heretic featured looking up and down so the levels are built so as to avoid this kind of situation, contrarily to the Doom levels.

[Graf Zahl]

Actually, 256x240 seems to be the best for ZDoom.

[40oz]

Whoa! I'm baffled by this. Will you be able to extract the skies from the wad?

[NiGHTMARE]

Awesome :). It'd be nice to be able to make 1024 wide wraparound skies with this, too.

[leileilol]

a simple 'bump' light filter could bring more depth out of them. Right now they're reminescent of Scorched Tanks for the Amiga.

[MasterOFDeath]

JohnnyRancid said:

Whoa! I'm baffled by this. Will you be able to extract the skies from the wad?

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to, since the skies will have to be saved in the wad to even be seen. :P

[CODOR]

leileilol said:
Right now they're reminescent of Scorched Tanks for the Amiga.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the screenshots was that the mountains looked like Scorched Earth's...

[esselfortium]

I agree with leileilol that the mountains look a bit flat, particularly the "Earth" mountains (which could also probably benefit from one of Doom's softer tan ranges), but this is still really cool. :)

[jute]

If you also make it generate all new textures, sprites, sounds, and music, Oblige could become an open content project generator.

[phi108]

About what you said about true skyboxes, Thay look great in ZDoom as well, you just have to build a 512x512x512 sector with a skybox thing in the middle, and skybox textures on the walls/ceiling. It would be great if you could incorporate this into the map building.

Anyway, Thanks, its looking to be a great generator! (not that it isn't already!)

EDIT: And Im pretty sure 256x228 is the sky height that keeps the base of the texture at the same place it is in doom, but adds 100 pixels, which is the extra vertical look distance zdoom allows. 200 is too short, and 240 is too tall.

[Sunny Day]

Id do an option to not have mountains, just sky, some may not want them.

[myk]

Or other skies. I bet a randomized urban sky should be possible, as well as a flesh-like (or hellish) one.

[leileilol]

CODOR said:

The first thing I thought of when I saw the screenshots was that the mountains looked like Scorched Earth's...

except scorched earth did not use gradients or any fuzz - it's completely one flat color.

[andrewj]

myk said:

Or other skies. I bet a randomized urban sky should be possible, as well as a flesh-like (or hellish) one.

Sillouetted skyscrapers is something I'll try soon, should be fairly easy, with the occasional odd-shape roof and a few antennas here and there.

[CODOR]

leileilol said:
except scorched earth did not use gradients or any fuzz - it's completely one flat color.

Version 1.5 can use scanned images of mountains (which are dithered down to Scorch's palette). There's a random chance (customizable) of a level using a mountain texture, in which case generated dirt (from dirt clods, rockslides after explosions, dirt charges, etc.) has a random look to it.

[Vegeta]

Do you think there could be possible a random titlepic generator? You insert the words you want (with a limit of characters) and the program would generate a logo using a random font, with a random sky as background.

[ReFracture]

Oblige has always made me think about the first Diablo game. When you start it, you never know what the layout will be, and it was always entertaining.

[phi108]

When using ZDoom, if the "stretch short skies" option is on, it stretches skies that are 128 pixels tall. With 228, 240, 256 height textures, they don't stretch.

So eventually this could be in the options- "Sky type: Original, Tall (pix height), Sector skybox, GL skybox"...

And the theme for the episode could be chosen? Episode 1: Urban, Mountains, Hell, Space, etc

Just thinking about this makes me drool...

[andrewj]

Vegeta said:

Do you think there could be possible a random titlepic generator? You insert the words you want (with a limit of characters) and the program would generate a logo using a random font, with a random sky as background.

Yeah, possible. It's a wonder nobody has done it already, what I'm doing is certainly nothing new (I was playing around with this spectral synthesis stuff over 10 years ago).

Unfortunately I'm not interested in making a stand-alone program with these algorithms in it, even though that would be more useful to the community.

@phi108: OBLIGE III lets you select a theme for all the levels (or leave it as "Mix It Up"). The generated skies will match the level themes. The sky height will depend on which Engine is selected, e.g. 128 for "Limit Removing", 240 for "ZDoom".

[andrewj]

This attempt at Silhouetted Skyscrapers needs some work:

[40oz]

Heh. I like where it's going.