Issue with evening background color

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M_Tee
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by M_Tee »

Using Drag's suggestion as the basis, with the primary purpose of giving the fog a relatively warmer hue (which would bring it into the lavender range), I've come up with the following:

Disregard subtle differences. The NEStopia YUV palette is what I keep loaded in my Photoshop swatches, so this uses that. It is a noticeably less saturated palette than others.

Also, this wouldn't look good if you are running an older version of FCEUX (before 2.20, I think, when the palette was updated to correct an erroneous entry for palette #23).
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Drag
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by Drag »

Here's a crazy idea. There's no other fog color that plays well with the scene, it's either gray or this, everything else clashes or is too bright.
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M_Tee
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by M_Tee »

DRW wrote: I wouldn't make the skyscraper red, though. It's cyan in the other levels and it's supposed to be the same building, so it cannot be bright red here.
I didn't notice this earlier. If you want to imply that the cyan (I assume #0C & #1C) buildings are lit by an orange sky, #08 & $19 (warm olive-ish, assuming we're using an NTSC point of reference) could be viable options.
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by M_Tee »

Actually, I think if I were to go about this, I'd probably reduce the total color count and go with roughly monochromatic backgrounds to reduce visual competition with the foreground, also taking a nod from Drag's orange fog suggestion at the sunset:


This would free up a dedicated HUD palette as well.
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DRW
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by DRW »

Sorry, but none of these color combinations are what I have in mind.
This whole orange/purple stuff looks much too neon-like.

And the color reduction in the last post makes the game look like a Super Game Boy game. That's totally out of the question.
Level 1, 2 and 4 already have the perfect colors, so I won't change anything in them.

As I said earlier, for level 3, I guess I'll just have to go through all possible combinations with my graphics artist after all.
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Drag
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by Drag »

Sorry dude, we tried. :P
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DRW
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by DRW »

In case anybody is interested, these are the colors that we came up with in the end:
Level 1 to 4.png
My game "City Trouble":
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nesrocks
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by nesrocks »

DRW wrote:I wouldn't make the skyscraper red, though. It's cyan in the other levels and it's supposed to be the same building, so it cannot be bright red here.
The colors on objects change drastically on predominantly different lighting scenes. If you change the building to blue it is effectively changing the light of the scene. With the limited NES palette I don't think a lot can be done in terms of light moods, so a little bit of a stretch has to be done in order to get such results.

The ones you guys decided on are nice tho.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by FrankenGraphics »

i think i'm agreeing with nesrocks here, it makes me think of how a spruce forest goes from mid-dark cold green to all reds and oranges in the world during sundown. It's a very strong means for symbolizing evening/sunset this way, even if it in reality is just a small portion of the evening.

The one you picked is more dusky, which i think is pretty cool, too!


Here's an idea though. You could try and replace a few clouds with stars coming out. Just by a little during evening, and then some more during night. I think it could really help conveying the sense of time shifting, and require only a very few extra characters in memory. I've made it with a little as two, but that's on the conservative side.
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DRW
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by DRW »

WheelInventor wrote:i think i'm agreeing with nesrocks here, it makes me think of how a spruce forest goes from mid-dark cold green to all reds and oranges in the world during sundown. It's a very strong means for symbolizing evening/sunset this way, even if it in reality is just a small portion of the evening.
I actually tried a reddish background more than once. We had yellow, solid red, purplish/pinkish. But it always had the problem that it hurt my eyes. After playing level 1 and 2, the color in level 3 just didn't look very pleasant. That's why I decided for the dim blue and the gray clouds.
WheelInventor wrote:Here's an idea though. You could try and replace a few clouds with stars coming out. Just by a little during evening, and then some more during night. I think it could really help conveying the sense of time shifting, and require only a very few extra characters in memory. I've made it with a little as two, but that's on the conservative side.
The problem with this is: We don't have a single graphics tile left. We literally used all 256 tiles, both in the background and for the sprites.

Also, the game is basically finished. The only reason why it's not out yet is all the external stuff: Artworks, manual, box etc. I will include one more sound effect that came to my mind in the meantime, but I won't do any major stuff anymore like a dynamic background image.
My game "City Trouble":
Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/Eee0yurkIW4
Download (ROM, manual, artworks): http://www.denny-r-walter.de/city.html
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nesrocks
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by nesrocks »

I was doing this hack earlier this year (I'm not going to finish it, probably). Maybe it can give you an idea.
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DRW
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by DRW »

An idea for an evening color? Not really what I had in mind. The background is much brighter than my level 2 sky.
Besides, I'm not looking for a color suggestion anymore. The colors for the game are finished.
My game "City Trouble":
Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/Eee0yurkIW4
Download (ROM, manual, artworks): http://www.denny-r-walter.de/city.html
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Cool! I didn't know it was so close to release - congratulations! :beer: :D

Yeah and i think there could a problem with the main protagonists' hair colour vs. a red-toned evening sky.
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DRW
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Re: Issue with evening background color

Post by DRW »

Thanks. I hope that we can publish it in December.
If it was just the ROM, I would have released it some time ago. But the whole additional stuff: Manual, package etc. still takes time.
And in the meantime, I optimized and altered the ROM here and there since I still have the time to do these alterations. (Manual, box artwork and all the stuff are done by other people.)
My game "City Trouble":
Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/Eee0yurkIW4
Download (ROM, manual, artworks): http://www.denny-r-walter.de/city.html
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