Acid Hydras anyone? #4524
Replies: 7 comments 20 replies
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Just discovered that the PNG loader has R and B channels mixed up. Here's a fix: f7a9610 With our hydra that's barely noticeable because it's mostly green and gray colors. ;) |
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Hello @a1exsh, For your information, the video in the first post is not viewable. I think that recoloring already existing sprites is okay for personal use. |
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Cannot say, "almost all" here... Orcs, Trolls, Elves, Dwarves, Liches, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Cavalry, Archers have differences in sprites. Actually, I've just checked: the major differences (If we won't mention colors) are hats. :D (Note, that not all creatures have upgrades at all, so this is not the small part of "professionally improved" creatures. ;) |
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@a1exsh and @Branikolog , yes, most of upgraded creatures in the game are recoloured with minor changes. Others have some notable changes upon upgrades.
I'd say this is good start towards adding a new content to the game but it requires little more polishing. |
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Fair points — I agree with all that. I don't myself think Warlock needs an upgraded hydra urgently (unless other factions have ramped up their troops themselves) — that just was my kid's request ;) I want to share the outcome of this experiment so it doesn't get lost and maybe we learn something for future work. |
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Absolutely. As I wrote it's a good start and as I can see we need to do some architecture redesign to allow new creatures to be added in an easier way. |
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And especially if he is going to San Francisco. 🤣 |
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@LeHerosInconnu can you try with the following one (used a different video codec): Acid_Hydra_lavc.mp4 |
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Hello @a1exsh,
It's the same, with a lower video quality. :) |
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I'm not able to see this other video. |
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Out of curiosity I've created composite images of base and upgraded creature sprites to highlight the re-coloring and details (some of this I have never noticed):
That's all, folks! :D Upd: forgot about Elves, added. |
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Note that in Heroes 2 only human-like creatures have an upgrade. :) |
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@a1exsh , amazing findings! We might need to fix Great Druids colouring issues. I fully agree that all upgrades look mostly like recoloured but if we do the same way many fans will go into rage mode and throw into us rotten tomatoes for so-called "cheap" work. This is due to a fact that players are used to existing monsters in the game and they expect something "new", not just recolouring. |
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Never thought about it this way, but seems to be true. Then the monster who is actually lacking an upgrade is Cyclops! :D
Well, one can only see these after zooming in heavily, so I wouldn't rush it. ;) |
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Hello @a1exsh,
And Nomad, Ghost, Genie, Medusa and all Elementals, and Bone Dragon is also a Dragon and then can be another exception. |
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If you are looking for new content, take a look at the HoMM3 mod "The Succession Wars": https://heroes2.forumactif.com/f24-development-board |
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Hello @Schlumpf,
While this may eventually be feasible for personal use, we will not "plunder" the work done by the designers of another mod (or even use it with their consent). Fheroes2 must have and keep its own character. :) |
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Don't steal their work! |
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Hm, while I have my reservations towards their implementation of the Fortress castle, I do find the new creatures in Dervish castle pretty decent: the upgraded Rogue (what was the name — Bandit?) is exactly the type we are looking for here, re-colored and more details added. The completely new creatures from the same faction: Acolyte, Anubian and Manticore(?) are also following the style of OG really well, IMO. What if we try to contact the artist(s) who did this work for that mod and ask if they'd be interested to contribute to this project? :D |
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Seen in this sense is okay, I think. :)
:) |
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+1 to this idea, im into some optional modding to this game, thanks for ur ideas alex. |
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Just as a means of backup, attaching the script I've used for the Hydras. ;) #!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import subprocess
subprocess.run(
["gimp", "-i", "-c"] +
sum(
[
[
'-b',
f"""
(let* ((img (car (file-png-load RUN-NONINTERACTIVE "{f}" "")))
(drw (car (gimp-image-get-active-drawable img))))
(gimp-drawable-hue-saturation drw HUE-RANGE-YELLOW 180 -100.0 0 0.0)
(gimp-drawable-hue-saturation drw HUE-RANGE-RED 180 0 0 0.0)
(file-png-save-defaults RUN-NONINTERACTIVE img drw "../../icn/HYDRA3.ICN/{f}" "")
(gimp-image-delete img))
"""
]
for f in sorted(os.listdir())
if f.endswith(".png")
],
[]
) +
["-b", "(gimp-quit 0)"]
) |
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Hi!
As I mentioned earlier, I was exploring what it takes to add new monsters to the game (per my son's request) and here's a sneak peek of an upgraded Hydra unit, Acid Hydra :)
Acid_Hydra.mp4
The changes to the code I've made to get this working can be found on this branch: master...a1exsh:hydra2
When it comes to the images, we've simply extracted the PNG files using
icn2imgfromHYDRA.ICNand changed the color hue using Gimp's filters (which turned out to be scriptable as well). This method is particularly promising, IMO, as it allows to add new upgraded units programmatically, without the need to distribute copyrighted resources from the original game: the same algorithm as Gimp uses can be implemented in the code if needed.The images are then loaded from a directory under
~/.local/share/fheroes2/icn/, if they exist, otherwise standard game resources are queried. I didn't dare adding an XML parser, soicn2imgwas also changed to output a simple text file with the sprite offsets, and the PNGs are saved with real transparency instead of the gray background.That's all, folks! ;)
PS: I do not intend to open a PR with these changes — I will keep them in that private branch. Would love to hear about plans for extensibility, though: what others have explored so far, what is feasible to extend with a scripting language instead of hard-code, etc.
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