Topic: Background Styles

[marioman]

I still like Style 1.  You can see more of the sky.

[RT 55J]

Style 1 looks better in this case.

---

"its a good day to do what has to be done by me and help my brother to defeat the enemys" - John Freeman

[Maxim]

I'd donate <link> and <pic> items to PirahnaPlant but this silly forum doesn't allow it until he has more fairy dust or something. Jon, can't you upgrade him or something?

[JonLeung]

Or I could just give those items to him.  Like I just did.  

[Piranhaplant]

The next section in this level is completely flat, so the background will be easy to put in, but I have made another option for the first part of the level.  In this picture the background is at 100%, but I have moved the clouds so that they in actually behind the mountains like you would see in-game.



http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp54/pirahnplant/Yoshis%20Island/SWM2YI-W4-A1--3.png

---

Games I have mapped--Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES), Mario Party 3 (N64), Super Mario Bros Deluxe (GBC), New Super Mario Bros. (DS), Mario Kart DS (DS)

[Revned]

I prefer the new one. It makes the mountains look big, unlike before when they didn't even reach the clouds.



By the way, this is how you make clickable thumbnails:

< link >url(< pic >image< /pic >)< /link >

Without the spaces. To get thumbnail images on Photobucket, it looks like you just add th_ before the filename. For Imageshack, change the extension to .th.png, or similar. Example:

[Piranhaplant]

I have another problem with the next level.  I need to fit this background with this level.  Any suggestions?

---

Games I have mapped--Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES), Mario Party 3 (N64), Super Mario Bros Deluxe (GBC), New Super Mario Bros. (DS), Mario Kart DS (DS)

[TerraEsperZ]

For one, I can isolate a 512 x 272 pixels section in that background that repeats over and over horizontally. If accuracy is important to you, I'd crop it along the separation between 16 x 16 tiles like the edge of a waterfall.



Vertically is a very different matter. This background could only tile vertically with lots of editing to match the waterfalls and rock structures if you care about that. Or you could just tile it as is, and hope people don't notice the discontinuity too much.



---

Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)

[Peardian]

Unless I'm mistaken the full background itself is 512x512, which would not only be tall enough to fill the map, but tile perfectly horizontally as well. In fact, the background you posted could tile horizontally if you cropped it to 512.



As for actually acquiring the full 512 in height, I'm not sure... You might have to get it from another room that uses the same background and match the palette.

---

YTT (34%) - WL4 (60%) - PM (34%)

[Piranhaplant]

Thanks for your help.  It turns out that another section of that level has a tall enough background to fill it, so I will use that.

---

Games I have mapped--Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES), Mario Party 3 (N64), Super Mario Bros Deluxe (GBC), New Super Mario Bros. (DS), Mario Kart DS (DS)

[TerraEsperZ]

You were lucky that the game uses a relatively small number of backgrounds so you could complete it using another stage.



I've got a question regarding backgrounds myself. I'm still working on the various Genesis Sonic games on-and-off, and I sometimes stumble on stages where the background is just too distracting. By that, I mean that the colors and patterns make it difficult to separate the two when watching a static map.



I've been thinking that for maps where this is extremely problematic, I could employ a technique used by gaming magazine back in the days: set the background at 50% brightness before pasting the foreground over it, so as to greatly increase the contrast between the two. I think this a nice compromise that would work well with the funky backgrounds of the Special Stages in Sonic 1 (which I removed because it made the maps illegible). You can see a comparison below.



-Normal background:





-Background at 50% brightness:





---

Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)

[Peardian]

No problem. And just as a note, I plan on ripping all the full 512x512 backgrounds in the game for use in my maps and other personal uses. However, you are more than welcome to use them as well.



Right now, I'm still getting used to my new class schedule for the semester, so I don't know when exactly I'll get to them. Until then, you'll just have to continue using the normal method.

---

YTT (34%) - WL4 (60%) - PM (34%)