[Feedback] New windows

[Desven]

So I wasn't sure if I should post this on this subforum in particular, but I guess it's the one that fits the best and I really want to know they community's input, especially because even though I'm most likely definitely not the man for the job, but I want to see this move forward no matter what it takes.

Long story short: I loathe grilles. I can't stand them. I think they look ugly and make little sense. In other servers that still use them, they're all electrified. Not to mention, they have updated sprites that actually use glass on top of them. We don't even have proper corner connections for the window system we have, which is sad.

But I digress, I think there's a room for a lot of improvement regarding the windows. There are two solutions, one being easier than the other, but a lot less fancier.

The fancy solution:

Porting the Bay system of a half-wall that has glass added on top. This is the 'harder' one because we have a lot of walls, just hidden in like a dozen dmis. While many of the walls are for events and whatnot, it would require locating them all which may be daunting, at least for someone like me that has a hard time browsing through that code. However, this is the sprite I was working on for the regular wall. If I do keep going with this one, and find someone willing to help me with the coding part, I'd like to know, mostly, if these walls do look hollow or half-sized, as in something your character would be able to jump.

 

The easy solution:

Just increase the health of full tile windows. Currently in code, they don't connect, but I swear there was this obscure dmi I checked out yesterday that had the sprites for it. Sure, there's still the fact that you have to remap and whatnot, but I wouldn't be touching wall sprites. However, grilles can actually serve a purpose in places like the surface, where having a side window break doesn't vent the area. In that case, my suggestion would be to replace the grille as the supporting structure to something else, like a window frame. I have no idea how this could look, however. I would still like for the window to be actually in the tile and not just placed on the four sides, though.

 

Any suggestions, comments, is this a doomed project, do you defend grilles for some insane reason? Bear in mind that, if we go with Bay-like windows, those can still be electrified, without the need of the grille.

[Eple]

cant agree more, grills looks like actual window grills(bbq) and is just serving as somehow non blocking filling.

Sometimes i wonder if i wish i could just fill a window with a fulltile window, exept for where a window is looking outside the station aka vacume, where it makes sense to have a bite buffer. (maybe even make it shocking type )

Tho iv relized Aurora building mechanics doesnt update enough tiles in a area when one builds something thats suppose to attach to things aroundit

- carpet (these are the worst)

- full window tiles

and so on

tho somehow regular wall tiles are not affected and connects to nearby tiles as far as iv seen (not that iv built any double thicc walls.

[Pratepresidenten]

I think its high time to get some proper strong and fancy windows that isnt an eyesore. Ive always wanted whole, fullframe windows because they're rad af.

And on the topic of grilles. I feel they're a lrp deterrent from the olden days to prevent shitters from busting into places without consequences. Today as they stand, the electrified ones that is, they're just accident magnets where people accidentally bump into them when they're exposed and they lose a limb or die in the process.

As an actual deterrent, they're useless, because people will just throw things at them, or pick up a glass shard with their BARE HANDS and hack away at it until it breaks.

 

Anywho, rant aside, I would absolutely love a window(s) update :^)

[Rotharia]

I ditto everything prate says here. Windows are in need of an update,

[Desven]

So here's an example of how a window frame could look. I wanted to make it less like a grille and more like a wall, but I suppose a thinner look would be nice too, especially since it would probably be better if the materials were still 2 metal rods (or could be its equivalent, one metal sheet). I've been told it's not centered, I really have a bad eye for this though. If somebody can come up with a fix or something completely different altogether, I'm willing to check it. I attach the .dmi too.

window project.dmi

[Carver]

3 hours ago, Desven said:

I've been told it's not centered, I really have a bad eye for this though. If somebody can come up with a fix or something completely different altogether, I'm willing to check it. I attach the .dmi too.

Sprites are 32x32, you would need the cross to be 2 pixels in both horizontal and vertical width to truly be centered.

Example after 5 minutes in paint.net:

10x enlarged example:

Forewarning if you use these for some reason, I couldn't be assed to bother with transparency. This does serve a fine example of showing you the method.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Carver

[Desven]

Sorry for not updating here on the forums. For the most part, we worked the sprites on Discord. Anyways,  here are some versions of it:

 

This is how it would ideally look if connected. We have the textures in game to do so, but it seems a bug might cause it to not connect. I have no idea, really. It's weird:

Here's a different sprite I used. I think it looks better.

The problem, as it stands, is that it's too flat. I dropped it for a while, but I had a newer idea. I resprited the shuttle windows to match the station wall colors. Here are the sprites:

I'm not good at replacing sprites, even less so for connecting textures. There would still be a lot left to be tweaked. Namely, all the different possible angles and perhaps a redesign of the window metallic borders so they match the station walls better. If somebody is up for the task of testing these textures, I'll leave the dmi here.

 

windows2.dmi

[Carver]

On 20/07/2021 at 11:48, Desven said:

I'm not good at replacing sprites, even less so for connecting textures. There would still be a lot left to be tweaked. Namely, all the different possible angles and perhaps a redesign of the window metallic borders so they match the station walls better. If somebody is up for the task of testing these textures, I'll leave the dmi here.

I do like the line of thought behind this design. Makes the glass feel more 'plated'.