Portrait size

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SkeletonCrew
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Portrait size

Post by SkeletonCrew »

In [1] there have been some questions raised about the maximum portrait size
of 500x500. First of all the limit has been set when I started to work on
the new dialogs. I discussed it with Jetrel and we decided that 400x400 (or
450x450 not sure) would be a nice maximum and we decided to allow 500x500
for things like woses.

When the screen size is to small to show a 500x500 portrait it's scaled down
until if fits on the screen.

So that's how we ended up with the 500x500 limit, of course it would be
possible to modify this limit, but I like to know whether we really want it,
just to avoid creeping biggerism for portraits. And if we want it I like to
know whether we want a limit or not. And what to do if a portrait doesn't
fit, scale it down or crop it and if cropping how do we know what to crop?

It might be the current engine doesn't support everything what's wanted. In
that case I'll need to modify the engine, but I prefer to do that _after_ we
decide what to do.


[1] http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 31#p463631
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thespaceinvader
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Re: portrait size

Post by thespaceinvader »

The difficulty is that we use the current limit well for most units - Dwarves are smaller than Humans, are smaller than Drakes. But woses and dragons are an order of magnitude bigger. It would be nice to be able to show that whilst maintaining the beautifully detailed portraits we already have. It's currently very difficult to give a single unit a real sense of scale when its portrait can only be a maximum of about 150 pixels taller than the smallest units in the game.

If not, we can certainly manage to get around things. We have with the one wose portrait already included.

So if it's not possible, it doesn't bother me. But it would be nice to be able to allow certain carefully selected units to break the 500x500. We would have to carefully control which these were, however - I would only argue for woses (probably only elder and ancient ones at that) and dragons. Anything else can fit into the 500x500. If it's not possible though, we will work round it. As I've said.
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Eleazar
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Re: portrait size

Post by Eleazar »

When i was around the discussion of 500+ pixels was with the idea that anything above 500 pixels should be expendable, i.e. could be cut off by the menu bar at smaller resolutions. Woses being a good example, because it looks weird to cut their branches off abruptly in the middle of the screen, but it would be fine to crop the branches off an any point that is a natural edge. Raised wings might similarly protrude upward, yet be cut off at any point, without looking bad. But we wouldn't want anything to every overlap the menu bar, but visually it would be fine if wose branches, etc. went right up to it.

I'd classify this as a "nice to have", but by no means "urgent".
Feel free to PM me if you start a new terrain oriented thread. It's easy for me to miss them among all the other art threads.
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Portrait size

Post by thespaceinvader »

That solution also seems very sensible.
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AI
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Re: Portrait size

Post by AI »

That was the original idea.

The problem with woses is that the face should be high up to show their size, but fitting the foliage on top of that without having a hard edge or making the top look stumpy is hard to do in the remaining space.
Allowing a natural cutoff would fix that and it could also allow for more poses for units with long weapons.
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LordBob
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Re: Portrait size

Post by LordBob »

This sounds like both the most simple and sensible solution. And perfectly fits our needs. No hard-coded cropping or resizing, only "natural" ones. It'd be up to the artist to ensure that any key features of the portrait still fit inside a 500x500 square, the rest of the screen being free to use for "expendable" parts of exceptionnally large portraits. 8)

What's beyond my understanding, though, is how this translates on smaller platforms such as smartphones or pads. Unless they're the 500 pixel screens ?
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Eleazar
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Re: Portrait size

Post by Eleazar »

Currently some things like portraits, units, and hexes IIRC are shrunk to half-size (measured in pixels) on displays with small resolutions.
Feel free to PM me if you start a new terrain oriented thread. It's easy for me to miss them among all the other art threads.
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kitty
Retired Portrait Director
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Re: Portrait size

Post by kitty »

Wow, I didn't expect that there was hope to break the 500 limit at the top! I can only echo what has already been said: If we do this we should only allow it for special units, not for everyone who has a lance or spear. Natural cutting from the top is perfect as long as it crops down only to 500 and then scales down from there if the screen is even tinier. And no priority at all :)
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