[Release] All Red Alert Tilesets, improved and extended!

[Klofkac]

Happy New Dune2000 modding year!

Finally, after long time working on this, I managed what I wanted to do for long time in the past - a new release of all Red Alert tilesets, which are much improved from the previous release made years ago. I'm so happy I managed to finish this in this year (2020), it's 31st December 2020, about a hour before midnight and I was working on this during last several hours today. Welp...

Download: RA_Tilesets.7z

So what is this release all about?
- All 6 Red Alert tilesets (except the interior one) are available: Barren, Desert, Jungle, Snow, Temperate, Winter
- Graphics are much better quality - without ugly sharp edges around some of the tiles!
- I took advantage of new tileset discoveries as well as new D2kEditor features in order to get more usable tiles (around 80 extra tiles for use!), removed many duplicate tiles and used them for different purpose
- Included "Remap Tiles ini file" to convert existing maps (using i.e. BLOXTEM tileset) to the new tileset with full compatibility
- Attempt to make "standardized" Red Alert tilesets and make some existing duplicates obsolete (these tilesets should replace BLOXTEM, BLOXTD, BLOXSNOW and similar duplicates)
- All tilesets use same attributes file and same layout, and ale fully interchangeable
- Many new availlable blocks (supplementing missing ones), making much better mapping possibilities!

What are the newly available blocks?
- Bridges!
- Double-corner ground + water cliff
- 3 new tree types
- River waterfall into sea
- More variants of water cliff
- Left-right-up crossroad
- More debris
- And a few more...

How to install:
- Copy files from Data folder into your respective game folders "Dune2000\Data\..."
- Copy ini files from tilesets folder into your editor's "tilesets" folder
- Several maps are included too (SAMPLE - a playable sample map, test - a testing map with all available blocks, demo - a map for demonstration of new blocks)
- If you have any existing map made with older release of Red Alert tileset (BXRATEMP) or made with BLOXTEM tileset, you can easily convert it to the new tilesets. Open your map in D2kEditor, change tileset to any of "BXRAxxxx", in main menu, select "Map" -> "Remap tiles" and select the respective "remap_BLOXTEM.ini" or "remap_BXRATEMP.ini" file and KABOOM, your map now works with the new tilesets! Try out all the tilesets. I was trying this for example on mission "COALITION OF NOBLES 12" and worked perfectly.

Enjoy!

PS: I will also release new D2kEditor update next year!

[Cm_blast]

Happy holydays and 2021 to you too, that looks really nice. 

I will download and check them tomorrow probably. I've been lazy on updating my last campaigns (a couple of mistakes and a balanced/diplomacy much needed), so I guess I am still in time to use your new version of the tileset using the replace stuff.

But calling @Fey and @Feda, they will be really interested.

Edited December 31, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

Awesome, more new tilesets! I'm thrilled to see more of these.

Hopefully the bridge tiles are versatile like the BLOXXMAS ones. Being able to make wide bridges is really useful.

Oh, uhh... and thanks, Klofkac! This must have been a lot of work, but considering that we're gaining some new modders of late, it'll definitely pay off. I'll be sure to pass this along.

Edited January 1, 2021 by Fey

[Feda]

Thank you for this, it's great that someone improved on those and added new tiles and stuff. At some point I'll be making another campaign and I'll definitely be using these.

[Klofkac]

17 hours ago, Fey said:

Hopefully the bridge tiles are versatile like the BLOXXMAS ones. Being able to make wide bridges is really useful.

Yeah, I tried that, seems to be quite possible, althrough requires some more manual work copying and shifting it tile by tile.

17 hours ago, Fey said:

Oh, uhh... and thanks, Klofkac! This must have been a lot of work, but considering that we're gaining some new modders of late, it'll definitely pay off. I'll be sure to pass this along.

Yes, very lot of work, worked on that mainly during my Christmas vacations. It was more laborious because I split the tileset into 5 sections and worked on each one separately. In order to elliminate ugly sharp edges which are caused by resizing the tileset image from 24*24 tile size to 32*32 tile size, each block needed to have proper adjacent blocks (i.e. a block with water on one side needed to have another water block next to it) and then I needed to reorganize the tiles to fit the tileset image used by Dune2000. Much more work than when doing the first release.

6 hours ago, Feda said:

Thank you for this, it's great that someone improved on those and added new tiles and stuff. At some point I'll be making another campaign and I'll definitely be using these.

 

18 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

that looks really nice. 

Thank you all!

The map "Coalition of Nobles 12" from @Cm_blast was really a very nice map, which actually inspired me for doing this! I would love to see more of such quality content.

[Feda]

30 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

Yeah, I tried that, seems to be quite possible, althrough requires some more manual work copying and shifting it tile by tile.

Yes, very lot of work, worked on that mainly during my Christmas vacations. It was more laborious because I split the tileset into 5 sections and worked on each one separately. In order to elliminate ugly sharp edges which are caused by resizing the tileset image from 24*24 tile size to 32*32 tile size, each block needed to have proper adjacent blocks (i.e. a block with water on one side needed to have another water block next to it) and then I needed to reorganize the tiles to fit the tileset image used by Dune2000. Much more work than when doing the first release.

 

Thank you all!

The map "Coalition of Nobles 12" from @Cm_blast was really a very nice map, which actually inspired me for doing this! I would love to see more of such quality content.

I also used the RA and Giedi Prime tilesets for my War of the Landsraad campaigns, but I think so far me and Cm are the only ones who used the RA tileset. Or at least I dont recall anybody else releasing missions on that.

 

Actually I used a modified version of the RA tileset for Caladan that I edited myself, as I added two Allied Cruiser type of tiles to simbolize the Atreides Navy.

Edited January 1, 2021 by Feda

[Fey]

1 hour ago, Klofkac said:

possible

Ah, good! That's always nice to see.

I'm very thankful for all this work done so far! So, not to make it harder or anything, but have you added any of the new doodads? Mass Deposit doodads, or Repulsion Field Generators? If you'd like to create RFG tiles, here are the original images with transparent backgrounds:


Hopefully that helps add some more functions unique to d2k to the tilesets we convert for the game. You know, if you care to add such a thing. The assets will always be around for other folks to add in if they want, and it's not particularly difficult, although it is a bit of a hassle.

[Klofkac]

1 hour ago, Fey said:

So, not to make it harder or anything, but have you added any of the new doodads? Mass Deposit doodads, or Repulsion Field Generators? If you'd like to create RFG tiles, here are the original images with transparent backgrounds:

Oh, nope, I did not think about this at all. I just made everything based purely on original RA tilesets (except the concrete) and I used all available tiles in a tileset with no more space for anything else. I mean, if we would like to add RFG, we would need to sacrifice some other tiles and replace them. If you think RFG could be useful in RA tilesets, they can be still modified and customized for individual needs.

3 hours ago, Feda said:

Actually I used a modified version of the RA tileset for Caladan that I edited myself, as I added two Allied Cruiser type of tiles to simbolize the Atreides Navy.

Yea, I noticed there's a tileset BLOXSHIP. What I can see that colors in BLOXTEM and other tilesets based on BLOXTEM (including your BLOXSHIP) are brighter than in tilesets made by me. Not sure what is the cause of such difference and whether it would be possible to customize tilesets made by me in similar way, keeping the colors consistent.

[Fey]

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

RFG

Ah, okay. Well, no worries! The transparent image is out there now, if it wasn't before, so that's available for folks to do whatever with.

4 hours ago, Klofkac said:

BLOXSHIP

Aye, but the good news is that it doesn't matter if tilesets are updated - thanks to the mission launcher, the tilesets can be loaded on a per-mission basis. Which means the version used at that time is just seamlessly swapped in every time!

[Cm_blast]

Just to point that I gave a look at these. I didn't know there were so many variants, like the winter (not the sowndy one) and the jungle. I can see that you even added both buildable and non-buildable tiles.

I was about to try to do a fully transfer, like directly using yours and maybe add a couple of details here and there, but I saw that there are some rifts around there that are not in the same place. Remaping almost work as all the grass that were non-buildable now become as one, although this can be fixed easily as you added the non-buildable version to be paint more easily than in the original tileset, the rest just looks fine. 

However I dind't run the map to see how it will look in game.

I don't know if this could be too many work for you, but can you add a variant of the temperace one but with tiberiun instead the ore?

Not saying to create a whole new tileset, just reusing the temperace one but remplacing the ore. Dunno if you saw by just opening my maps, but I have already started doing missions with different values for the spice. On the Christmas mini campaign the cristals worth 1000 per harv. And in this noble campaign those 3 planet-missions th other values for the spice, not just the money it worths but how slow/fast it can be pick up/converted into credits.

So having the very same tileset but with different resources can give 2 different maps even if they looks the same.

Also, I will add this to the index, it is worth it. I can tell I will use them in the future.

Edited January 10, 2021 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

On 1/10/2021 at 5:46 PM, Cm_blast said:

I don't know if this could be too many work for you, but can you add a variant of the temperace one but with tiberiun instead the ore?

Not saying to create a whole new tileset, just reusing the temperace one but remplacing the ore. Dunno if you saw by just opening my maps, but I have already started doing missions with different values for the spice. On the Christmas mini campaign the cristals worth 1000 per harv. And in this noble campaign those 3 planet-missions th other values for the spice, not just the money it worths but how slow/fast it can be pick up/converted into credits.

So having the very same tileset but with different resources can give 2 different maps even if they looks the same.

Good suggestion, I'm not against, but I'm afraid I'm not able to do this. I'm not having the original resources to get tiberium graphics from.

I made the Red Alert tilesets with use of EdWin HighRes (https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/2644-edwin-map-editor-patches-high-resolution-patch-and-more/) and taking screenshots from it directly. I don't have Tiberian Dawn game or editor where I could do the same (maybe I could try search for that, but didn't attempt yet). Other option is to take tiberium graphics from existing BLOXTD tileset, but unfortunately the color brightness there is different and the tiberium tiles would look completely off next to other ground tiles.

Maybe you could do that if you can and find a good way.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

I found out a bit of a minor problem.

Is when combining this 2 2x2 corner-rivel tiles:

For start, you can cross from one side to the other with no issue. And second, since I guess you used the Temperate as the default/template, but there are certain tiles there that shouldn't be walkable.

So either as a Solution you release 2 versions of the attribues, one for the 3 tilesets that you could step with vehicles on it, and another for the ones you can't, since you can see  that with the desert one a vehicle will be on top of the river directly.

Temperate, snow, Winte  -- top
Barren, Desert, Jungle -- bottom

Or just making all the 8 tiles unwalkable just to unified everything.

I know I can fix this locally, but just in case somebody else download and start using it withouth realizing the issue.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Cm_blast