Splash Screen

[White Claw]

Sorry for the extended delay. It took me quite a while to figure out how to do all this. Now that I've mostly got it sorted, I'm posting a couple shots to get some feedback.

These need more composition work, but I thought I'd throw two different frames up to get feedback and see if peeps have a preference. (The first one is now my new desktop. )

[tigerstorms]

I really love the first one, they both look great but I like the more subtle feel of the first one.

[leeor_net]

Same here -- definitely digging the first one. Perhaps slightly closer to the colony so structures are a bit more identifiable?

Nice work!

[White Claw]

Thanks for the feedback, Tigerstorms and Leeor.


I agree about the first one. Although, in fairness, I spent way more time setting it up than I did the second one. I have another idea for a third shot, just need to set aside some time to lay it out.

I also realized, too late, that the first picture might not work out so well anyway since the actual menu on the main menu will cover up the center part of the colony. (At least, my understanding is that this is for the main menu screen.)

I will try to make a "quick mockup" of my third idea and post it in the next couple days.

[leeor_net]

This is what it looks like so far:



and fullscreen:



It looks pretty good in either case.

Though I'm sure as per always, it'll be an iterative process.

[White Claw]

Well, I like the framing of the picture but it gets cut off by the menu.

After sleeping on it and seeing it with the menu, I agree that it's nice to have the buildings a bit bigger. I initially thought having them far away would enhance the feeling of isolation. But I also like being able to tell what they are.

I managed to make another option. It wasn't what I was planning, but maybe it'll work nicely with the menu. Looking for more feedback before I bother tweaking this too much.

[leeor_net]

I think I see your point:



Looks pretty good!

[JetMech1999]

All I can say is... WOW!  While I agree with the current consensus that the first is better, either would be awesome.  Question.  Does the menu HAVE to be in the center of the screen?  I know that's where they are traditionally put, but if you move it down, or even up and to the left, the buildings are left open and the amazing scene in the background remains largely unaffected.  This would also make a great background picture for the grid to lay on.  Or would that make things too busy out on the edges? 

[White Claw]

...the first is better, either would be awesome.

Technically there are three options currently posted. Though, admittedly, the second and third are very similar. Additionally, I spent very little time tweaking lights and textures on the third one. I was mostly aiming to get some thoughts on the framing of the picture itself. I actually still really like the first picture framing. Close enough to see the buildings but far enough away to feel isolated. Also, since the picture is from a flatter perspective, the background looks a little less overbearing. I think it sort of hints at the isolated feeling I was hoping for.

Does the menu HAVE to be in the center of the screen?

I think that's a Leeor question, but I was also wondering the same thing. There are actually a lot of games out now that have menus on the side vice in the center. One difference here though is that the background isn't getting scaled with the window, but rather that the picture is cropped based on window size.

I've personally not seen many games that have a menu across the bottom. That could possibly be an option here, though I don't know how it would look or if Leeor's system handles that sort of layout well.


I'll keep trying things!

[leeor_net]

I'm really not opposed to moving the menu somewhere else, it doesn't have to be centered, that was just a natural default.

[White Claw]

What about something like this? I tried to adjust the frame so that the interesting bits would be outside the menu area.

[White Claw]

I wasn't overly happy with the lighting in the last one. So I tweaked it a little more. Let me know what you think!

Also, I don't know that we "have" to move the menu, but good to know it's an option if it makes sense.

[JetMech1999]

I get what you're going for with perspective and the sense of isolation and I think you got the isolation part really well.  Right now, option 006 is my fave, but I was wondering if you could raise your point of perspective a few degrees.  Not as much as in 002 or 003, but not as flat as 001 and 006.  In the flat view, the elements seem to crowd into each other.  Using your astronaut in 006 as a reference point, it looks like you're seeing it from the level of another astronaut that is standing several meters (or feet) behind and to the side.  By bringing the elevation up, as though from a drone, you could still get the amazing background, but start to see the separate structures.  Maybe I'm just getting carried away by minutiae.  In the end it's a splash screen, not an element that's going to remain on the screen indefinitely (unless you incorporate it into a screen background for the tile map, at which point you wouldn't see much).  Keeping that in mind, all of what you've presented would work imminently well.

[leeor_net]

Note that I played here a bit with vibrance and noise. Might have overdone it a bit, but I'm liking the general direction we're moving in. I'm digging the suited human in the bottom right corner and the mine beacon in the middle right. Lots of subtle details in there.

[White Claw]

Using your astronaut in 006 as a reference point, it looks like you're seeing it from the level of another astronaut that is standing several meters (or feet) behind and to the side.  By bringing the elevation up, as though from a drone, you could still get the amazing background, but start to see the separate structures.  Maybe I'm just getting carried away by minutiae.

The point of view being from another astronaut is just about what I was going for (the "I'm there" sort of feeling). I've been playing around with the height to find good spot, which has really been the biggest challenge. If I raise the camera up much, the horizon starts to shift upward and the sky becomes less dominant. It's been interesting to balance.

Note that I played here a bit with vibrance and noise. ... Lots of subtle details in there.

Hey cool. I thought the picture could use some grain also, but took it out thinking that maybe you'd prefer a clean version for the background.   I'm not seeing a lot of difference in the vibrance though. I can pump up the contrast if you'd like to see what that looks like. Also, looks like I will have to get you the PNG version when we get this nailed down.

Also, yeah. Part of what I did was try and make it an easy picture to see when you look at it, but filled with details to find if you care to stare at it.

[leeor_net]

I actually started playing with a grain/noise shader. It's not quite working yet but I have the general idea in place. I'd leave the noise out for now as it can always be added in afterward.

[White Claw]

Noise shader in what program?

-----

How about this perspective?

[leeor_net]

OpenGL GLSL shader (real time GPU shader). I sorta failed and it's kinda beyond the scope of what I'm working on here so I opted to 'fake' it. It's still kinda plain.

I think this perspective works. Better detail on the shape of the individual structures, a better overall feel for the look and scope of the colony while still being effectively at ground level.

[White Claw]

Great! Anything else you'd like to see with this? I might pull a higher resolution image for the sky. I think I also need to tweak the terrain transitions from this height.

[leeor_net]

I was gonna mention the sky seemed a bit blurry.

I'm also noticing some aliasing artifacts along the edge of the moon/planet and some of the structures. Not sure of an anti-aliasing filter will do the trick? Unfamiliar with Blender for the most part -_-

[White Claw]

Yeah, there is definitely more tweaking that needs to happen. Really, I think everything is too crisp and needs fuzzed up a little. I'm certainly no expert on this though.

There are also several artifacts, like the random bright spot on the mountain in front of the moon. And there are some weird lines on the base of the far mountains. I think some of that is due to undersampling since it's not a final product.

Before I spent too much time running down all those little parts, is there anything else major that you'd like to add/remove/change?

[Hooman]

OMG, those are so awesome looking

I can't wait to get those into the game.

You know, I kind of want to put multiple images into the game now. We can randomly select the main menu background. Perhaps have a standard initial image, and then unlock more images after they've won a game.

I'm totally open to moving the main menu around to better accommodate images. Could have menu placement depend on the image.


I really like the astronaut. That's a nice touch. One slight oddity though is the scale feels a bit off. Looking at the size of the buildings in the background versus the size of the lander in the center, there doesn't seem to be much change in size. Extrapolating further to the astronaut, I feel like he's just about as big as the buildings. The size is good for the level of detail though, and I think you do kind of want to see him big like that.

Actually, I wonder how it would look with an astronaut or two around the lander. Though that might ruin the sense of isolation. Probably better to have just the one astronaut if you're going for isolation.

Anyway, I'm more inclined to go with artistic licence on this one than realistic sense of scale.

[White Claw]

I like the idea of multiple images as well, but need to get #1 done first.   I actually have an idea for a second one sketched out, with the intent on it being something in orbit instead of on the surface.


The scale has definitely been a hard thing to work out. I've not done a picture with this much depth before, so it's a learning experience. There actually is an astronaut (an orange one, in fact) off the end of the cargo lander ramp. It's really hard to see in the most recent picture, but is a little easier to see in earlier version (such as #6).

I was thinking it might be because there is almost nothing between the astronaut and the lander/buildings which gives the sense of receeding scale. It might also be the ground textures messing things up since it doesn't scale down fast enough. I have a plan for that one that will hopefully work.

[Hooman]

I see Leeor has already added one of the images in as the new main menu background. It looks so much better now.

Interesting point about the ground textures. Last time I did actually find myself looking at the ground trying to get a sense of scale. At the time, the ground struck me as looking rather uniform across the distance between foreground and background objects. Though looking back now, I'm not sure why.

In terms of scaling, I was thinking the lander could be made bigger, which might give more of a sense of scale adjustment.

I'm looking forward to the orbit shot. 

[leeor_net]

I dunno, I think the scale of the lander versus the buildings is about right. It's huge in-game already (and necessarily needs to be big to safely land 50 humans)