1 Topic by Mechanic

  • Mechanic
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Topic: Semi Transparent Walls

Tons of views in the game are obscured in a frustrating way by walls, one of the base issues with 2D isometric games.

I notice the logic exists to have ceilings fade from solid to semi transparent to invisible when you walk into in a building, is it possible to do the same with walls? 

In an ideal world the southeast and southwest walls would be the only ones that would fade to a slightly transparent model and the northeast and northwest would remain solid, but that seems like that would take a ton of time to set the logic on each wall.

In the meantime is it possible to test what it would be like if when you enter a room all walls fade to like 1 tick transparent?

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2 Reply by Mechanic

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Re: Semi Transparent Walls

Another solution may be to have all walls to go semi-transparent within a Radius, it would solve alot of these other issues with multiple structures.

https://i.ibb.co/0smfy96/wall3.webp

https://i.ibb.co/HPQmwXg/walls1.webp

https://i.ibb.co/ScsGyjF/wall2.webp

Last edited by Mechanic (September 20th, 2024 10:52 AM)

Out of retirement... for now.

3 Reply by Mr Spy

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Re: Semi Transparent Walls

There is a specific transparent floor tile that used to create this effect, but it doesn't seem to work in the new client. Would be great though, to have it be done automatically rather than requiring specific map editing work.

4 Reply by travis

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Re: Semi Transparent Walls

I think because just like in your example you have other buildings nearby, so it should be a radius. Maybe 5x5(including the player of course as center) Transparency of 25% should be good so you could see most things. Maybe a settings toggle to turn this off or on in game would be good too. Or even to change transparency % so each player can do how they like.

A problem behind this is, is there any content that may be desired to be hidden? Maybe this should only be done on certain art tile types? It is silly to have this enabled on cave walls.

Or with map editor, if someone desires not to be hidden, they could throw a *No Transparency* Script over the wall tile.

This is a good idea, and also new client and old client handles walls differently. Before u could clearly always see the NPC behind Valour Castle/bank, And now you have to scan your mouse around to find him. This is just one small example.

5 Reply by James

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Re: Semi Transparent Walls

This is a harder problem than you might think, at least if you make the transparent area large.
Suppose you have a wall tile right below you. It's occluding you, so you want it to fade out. But you also don't want to reveal that same tile's floor, since it might not even have a sensible one, or if it's the edge of the building, you don't want to reveal the floor inside.

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6 Reply by Master Wu

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Re: Semi Transparent Walls

I dunno if revealing the floor would look that bad. Especially if the radius wasnt too big, and used a gradient. Also maybe if it didn't affect walls behind the character if that's what you mean Zer?

It would help a bit if the invisible floor tiles worked as being a ceiling like in the old client like Spy mentioned. We added those in so some of the taller city walls would disappear down to the single level when they were below you, but they're invisible so there isn't a floating ceiling visible when you're on the 2nd level of the walls.

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7 Reply by Mechanic

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Re: Semi Transparent Walls

Master Wu wrote:

I dunno if revealing the floor would look that bad. Especially if the radius wasnt too big, and used a gradient. Also maybe if it didn't affect walls behind the character if that's what you mean Zer?

This is interesting, what if it wasn't a true full circle radius but just a half circle on the south side of the sprite? It would leave the northwest/east sides of the structure solid.

James wrote:

This is a harder problem than you might think, at least if you make the transparent area large.
Suppose you have a wall tile right below you. It's occluding you, so you want it to fade out. But you also don't want to reveal that same tile's floor, since it might not even have a sensible one, or if it's the edge of the building, you don't want to reveal the floor inside.

I think in most cases I'd rather see the occasional janky floor tile for the tradeoff of being able to navigate better and see large portions of the game that were previously not visible. I think the effect would give the feeling of larger spaces and add a lot of depth to place's we've been looking at for the last few decades.

Also, I feel it's worth mentioning that sometimes the south walls come with their own eyesores as shown here:

https://i.ibb.co/rpQk65Y/walls4.webp

travis wrote:

Transparency of 25% should be good so you could see most things. Maybe a settings toggle to turn this off or on in game would be good too. Or even to change transparency % so each player can do how they like.

I think Travis brings up a good point here - Ultimately it may come down to preference, I think the vast majority would enjoy some degree of transparency (I think that's the first time I've ever used that phrase literally instead of metaphorically).

Last edited by Mechanic (September 21st, 2024 1:46 AM)

Out of retirement... for now.