Cosmoteer Official Forum

MrBalkenKreuz I like it,decal tabs were not something I thought off despite it being painfully obvious
4th layer is planned though idk when it's coming,if ever.

MrBalkenKreuz Firstoff i propose the creation of a Sprite Creation App which would be a tool for creating Sprites, this could be within Cosmoteer itself or a separate app, within said app artists could create sprites to Cosmoteers Standard Specs.
The Benifits of said app are numerous, with the Apps 'Sprite Standardization' providing massive benefits to Artists and Modders, the side befits from 'Sprite standardization' could open the window for a revamp of sprites in general allowing the number of Sprite PNGs within the Part files and Decal PNG files to be compressed instead of the current system where PNG sprites are stored individually increasing optimization and, allowing older PCs to better run cosmoteer via simply
This proposal requires alot of effort so i don't expect it to be realized, However the benefits are Exponential to say the least.

This is good but I doubt it's worth the effort

MrBalkenKreuz And Second Alongside the 'Sprite Creator' I also propose the development of a new placement grid for decals
This involves the addition of a toggle to split the 1x1 grid quarters thus said toggle would take the 1x1 Standard grid size and divide it 4 quarters allowing painters to place their decals IN-between 1x1 grids further increasing detailing possibilities

there was a discussion about letting people put 64 square decals per tile to make all sorts of shapes but I don't remember what happened after. Would be cool,but might also affect performance.

Altraxia

This is good but I doubt it's worth the effort

Idk i think it might happen eventually but it'll probably be made by a community member rather then a member of the Official Cosmoteer team

Altraxia this basically summarizes my thoughs. I also don't think the smaller sizes would be worth. Each decal needs to be rendered so, yeahhhh.

MrBalkenKreuz Ah yes, the Cosmoteer team. So, Walt. Nobody else is actually coding as far as I know.

MrBalkenKreuz if someone's dedicated enough they can. But to do so,they'll have to wait until Walt implements C# modding (if it's even possible)

ClassicJam
codeing no, on the “team” yea kroom

Not sure why I was tagged. I'm not a Community Manager or Developer. I'd like to see some more community interest before this would be added to the Trello under suggestions. Outright there is a few good ideas but there is some points I don't agree with entirely.

ProntoManagement

Outright there is a few good ideas but there is some points I don't agree with entirely.

Can you specify?

MrBalkenKreuz the Decal system is extremely temperamental, making adding new Decals a nightmare to accomplish.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Can you please elaborate?

MrBalkenKreuz -Add more layers for improved details

Tentatively planning to do this.

MrBalkenKreuz -Add a toggle to view individual layers 1 at a time

This is a good idea and seems obvious in retrospect. I think I'll implement it as a show/hide toggle for each individual layer, like it works in most paint programs. Added to my list.

MrBalkenKreuz -Add More color selection options in the form of RGB and Hex code input

This has been on my list for a while, just haven't gotten around to adding it yet.

MrBalkenKreuz -Add GUI Tabs in the Decal sections and organize them by Category

Also already on my list, though how mods will be able to add decals to existing categories is an open question.

MrBalkenKreuz -Restructure the Decal System to be more stable for decal mods

Not exactly sure what you're suggesting.

MrBalkenKreuz Firstoff i propose the creation of a Sprite Creation App

TBH I don't think there's much point in me making yet another paint program when any paint program that can save PNG files (which is basically all of them) will work just fine.

MrBalkenKreuz within said app artists could create sprites to Cosmoteers Standard Specs

The only "cosmoteer standard specs" I can think of are that decals need to be a multiple of 64 in each dimension. This doesn't warrant making a whole new paint program.

MrBalkenKreuz allowing the number of Sprite PNGs within the Part files and Decal PNG files to be compressed instead of the current system where PNG sprites are stored individually increasing optimization

The game already combines and compresses all decals into a single atlas when loading the decals.

MrBalkenKreuz And Second Alongside the 'Sprite Creator' I also propose the development of a new placement grid for decals
This involves the addition of a toggle to split the 1x1 grid quarters thus said toggle would take the 1x1 Standard grid size and divide it 4 quarters allowing painters to place their decals IN-between 1x1 grids further increasing detailing possibilities.

I'll think about this. The main tradeoff is it makes the paint system just a bit harder to use.

MrBalkenKreuz making adding new Decals a nightmare to accomplish.

If you mean modding in new decals, it is practically the easiest thing to add to the game through the modding system. Might I add that the modding system is also very easy to use AND there is also a tutorial on the basics of the modding system in the example_mods folder. I don't think there is any other way to add new decals in an easier way that works with the current engine.

Walt
Thanks for responding!

MrBalkenKreuz
-The Decal system is extremely temperamental, making adding new Decals a nightmare to accomplish.
-Restructure the Decal System to be more stable for decal mods

Walt
I don't understand what you mean by this. Can you please elaborate?
Not exactly sure what you're suggesting.

I'll admit i didn't word these 2 very well,
in retrospect i meant to refer to decal mods and how it seems almost every update seems to break them i hope this will be less of an issue in the future, as for the reason for this temperamental behavior i don't know, the exact reason or source However, i know that almost every decal mod that I have seen has been launched and then proceeds to break with the next update or so.

@MrBalkenKreuz
-Add a toggle to view individual layers 1 at a time

@Walt
This is a good idea and seems obvious in retrospect. I think I'll implement it as a show/hide toggle for each individual layer, like it works in most paint programs. Added to my list.

Thanks Walt!

@MrBalkenKreuz
-Firstoff i propose the creation of a Sprite Creation App
-within said app artists could create sprites to Cosmoteers Standard Specs

@Walt
TBH I don't think there's much point in me making yet another paint program when any paint program that can save PNG files (which is basically all of them) will work just fine.
The only "cosmoteer standard specs" I can think of are that decals need to be a multiple of 64 in each dimension. This doesn't warrant making a whole new paint program.

Yes most if not all paint programs can save pngs and can be used as sprites and can be painted in multiples of 64, However this is just a general description of what it does, This 'Sprite Creator' does not have to be part of Cosmoteer it could be a third party system or a mod of some kind, this Proposal is more based around Ease of use.
My vision for said 'Sprite Creator (if Its even made) would allow players to create sprites for Cosmoteer with options to load preset image sizes to make 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, ect, sprites, other envisioned features would be a preview mode of the sprite in cosmoteer, an automatic file organizer for modders sprites and, an Animation feature that would allow you to animate sprites and preview them while simultaneously it would write the code for the animated sprites saving tons of time for modders.

Thanks for your time Walt, I thank you for taking these into consideration

MrBalkenKreuz in retrospect i meant to refer to decal mods and how it seems almost every update seems to break them i hope this will be less of an issue in the future, as for the reason for this temperamental behavior i don't know, the exact reason or source However, i know that almost every decal mod that I have seen has been launched and then proceeds to break with the next update or so.

This is the first I've heard of game updates breaking decal mods. I haven't touched the decal code in probably years. If someone can explain how they're breaking, that would be helpful.

Walt Honestly, I think he's only referring to the decal limit with a limited understanding. I've had the decals set the same way for Star Wars since 2017 with no issue whatsoever. I think he's referring to the decal cutoff when you load tons of mods.

ClassicJam There is no longer a decal limit as of 0.15.12.

Walt Then I don't really have any idea.

Walt
he might be refusing to the warning you get when you load mods that haven’t been updated when activating them?