Screenshots of what you're doing.

Wow, the stuff here really looks awesome!

Justin's new map: great lighting (I really wanna play it! );
zykure's new badges: nifty idea;
hutty's map: great concept.

yes ... tower has a elevator in it ... and the red stripe thing is a bounce (ill add the model later)

I would like to have a option to have no background (or invisible png) ...
so it looks more natural in the forum sig space ...

Okay, that might come in the future (I actually implemented something like that already). But right now, the images will be static only; this means they will be generated once a day or so, and you can link directly to the image file on xonstat.

I have to talk to Antibody about this once the current version is running, but maybe we can make it dynamic sometime, i.e. generating the images when you access some URL. This would ofc enable us to have certain parameters which the users can tweak to their needs

zykure's new badges: nifty idea;

Thanks, but honestly the idea itself comes from Antibody... I just grabbed that idea to see what I can do

@zykure - the background is from subtle patterns (http://subtlepatterns.com/). I recommend that site highly!

@zykure - the background is from subtle patterns (http://subtlepatterns.com/). I recommend that site highly!

Nice! That is a great site indeed

Archer, could you build your "fancy stuff" into a transparent overlay? Just your artwork without the background, so that I could replace the background image by something else if I want to? (This could then also be used for dynamic images in the future, where users can change the background via some parameter).

The picture in my sig is my own version of the XonStat signature. Just a project I have been working on for fun. I am still not sure if I should make it public though, considering the fact that we do not have a real API yet and I pull the complete HTML of the player page on each non-cached request (which means a maximum of once every 10 minutes for every player right now, but still).

It's already customizable through a web page (set background, display xon logo or not, which data to show, etc) and works quite well except for those ruddy little bugs I should fix :p

@PinkRobot - the images generated by zykure is using the framework that I started (that we talked about). It's coming directly from the database. He's pulled out the queries of interest and completely redone the image generation piece. It's super fast and I'll be working on getting it setup in production for everyone to use shortly.

Yes I understood that from the 'once a day' bit Looks good by the way, lots of data shown.

What language is the image generation done in? My stuff is in PHP and anything other than left aligned is tragic for me, but this centered stuff looks neat

What language is the image generation done in? My stuff is in PHP and anything other than left aligned is tragic for me, but this centered stuff looks neat

It's using the Cairo rendering library, and is written in Python (like the rest of xonstat). You can have a look at the script here =)

@zykure - the background is from subtle patterns (http://subtlepatterns.com/). I recommend that site highly!

Nice! That is a great site indeed

Archer, could you build your "fancy stuff" into a transparent overlay? Just your artwork without the background, so that I could replace the background image by something else if I want to? (This could then also be used for dynamic images in the future, where users can change the background via some parameter).

That is possible.. I can also provide an alpha map if you need any, would come in handy.

That is possible.. I can also provide an alpha map if you need any, would come in handy.

Yes that would be great .. I still need to figure out how alpha masks can be applied in Cairo, but I'm sure it's possible.

EDIT: On the other hand, doesn't PNG support 8bit alphas masks already? So if you give me a transparent PNG, I shouldn't need anything else, right?

That is possible.. I can also provide an alpha map if you need any, would come in handy.

Yes that would be great .. I still need to figure out how alpha masks can be applied in Cairo, but I'm sure it's possible.

EDIT: On the other hand, doesn't PNG support 8bit alphas masks already? So if you give me a transparent PNG, I shouldn't need anything else, right?

Yeah it does, I just mentioned it in case it would come in handy, I could provide it then

Though... an example: if I'm going to round the corners, and give you an overlay of a border with rounded corners, you'd also need the alpha map for the background, or else the background's pointy corners will stick through the overlay border, understand my point?

Though... an example: if I'm going to round the corners, and give you an overlay of a border with rounded corners, you'd also need the alpha map for the background, or else the background's pointy corners will stick through the overlay border, understand my point?

Not quite I guess ... it should be right there in the PNG's alpha mask, since PNG has 8bit alpha (not just transparent/opaque)?

Anyway, here's a sample of 7 different backgrounds that are now included. For the first "static-image" approach, we need to select the one which will be used as default. What do you think (left-most background is the one originally chosen by Antibody):



Also note the ugly gradient at the left border, which is a transparent PNG image applied as overlay on top of the background. (Yes, I figured out how to do it in Cairo )

Are you going to add all 4 elos (Duel, DM, CTF and TDM)?

Are you going to add all 4 elos (Duel, DM, CTF and TDM)?

Right now, no - imho it will get too cluttered if I do, and I haven't any space left anyway with the current width. But the badge shows the three most-played gametypes (in your case TDM is included iirc). However if we implement the dynamic image generation, the shown gametypes could ofc be set by the user via the image URL.

Okay, got you a decent background for now, no transparent stuff yet though

I'm probably changing those white lines into something else, right now they only mark the separation of the nick/elos and the KD/win%.




EDIT: Zykure, could you try this as background for now? I want to see how it looks.

Zykure, could you try this as background for now? I want to see how it looks.

Hey, great work - and so fast! =)



So here's what I think:

• The white lines seem a bit too distracting for me, but as you said you're gonna change them anyway. The background itself looks great, especially the separation of the left and right parts
  
  
• For he right part, it will probably look better if the shaded areas fill the section completely... so, should I stretch them a bit, or do you want to include some shading in your background directly?
  
  
• Also note that some colors of the playernick are likely to have too less contrast with the brighter parts of the background, like you see in the example.
  

Zykure, could you try this as background for now? I want to see how it looks.

Hey, great work - and so fast! =)



So here's what I think:

• The white lines seem a bit too distracting for me, but as you said you're gonna change them anyway. The background itself looks great, especially the separation of the left and right parts
  
  
• For he right part, it will probably look better if the shaded areas fill the section completely... so, should I stretch them a bit, or do you want to include some shading in your background directly?
  
  
• Also note that some colors of the playernick are likely to have too less contrast with the brighter parts of the background, like you see in the example.
  

Yep, white lines will be replaced by some kinda metal rim, so no worries

As for the second point, could you clarify a bit? Maybe by showing an example? I don't exactly understand what shaded areas you mean haha

As for the third point, I could lessen contrast and make it darker overall if it really gets bad.

As for the second point, could you clarify a bit? Maybe by showing an example? I don't exactly understand what shaded areas you mean haha

Uhm, well .. I added some gray background to the "Kill Ratio" and "Win Percentage" text; also to the "Playing time" line at the bottom. In the shown example, this looks a bit weird because these backgrounds don't reach fully to the image borders... =)
Here's an updated version where I stretched these backgrounds a bit:


But since I add them manually in Cairo, it would also be possible to remove them there and instead add something similar to your background image. Here's a pic with these areas removed, maybe you can work something out from there:

As for the third point, I could lessen contrast and make it darker overall if it really gets bad.

I think a bit darker would be good indeed. On my screen, the purple "[BOT]" in Mirio's nick is quite hard to see against the bright background.

EDIT: Oh, another thing - if you have any suggestions for text colors (e.g. the "Elo" line), let me hear them!

As for the second point, could you clarify a bit? Maybe by showing an example? I don't exactly understand what shaded areas you mean haha

Uhm, well .. I added some gray background to the "Kill Ratio" and "Win Percentage" text; also to the "Playing time" line at the bottom. In the shown example, this looks a bit weird because these backgrounds don't reach fully to the image borders... =)
Here's an updated version where I stretched these backgrounds a bit:


But since I add them manually in Cairo, it would also be possible to remove them there and instead add something similar to your background image. Here's a pic with these areas removed, maybe you can work something out from there:

As for the third point, I could lessen contrast and make it darker overall if it really gets bad.

I think a bit darker would be good indeed. On my screen, the purple "[BOT]" in Mirio's nick is quite hard to see against the bright background.

EDIT: Oh, another thing - if you have any suggestions for text colors (e.g. the "Elo" line), let me hear them!

Okay will see what I can do

About the colors, your choice is great! I only suggest a color for the "rank" line below the Elo line instead of white/grey.

Perhaps subtle light blue? Or slightly yellow? Green would do as well!

Great job, Cortez. Looks exactly like Darkzone middle area. It looks amazing, no doubts, you are experienced, and everybody's happy.
But why again? Mabye something unique now?

The task is simple:
Changing the map's style completly, using cpompletly differtent textures, structures and removing every pipe (yes every single one) from your map. Deleting yellow black strapped trims and replacing them with different ones, replacing lava with slime, turning the map upside down, creating crazy unique ideas, mixing them together and watching the effect with amazement.

I might be asking for too much but well, have you tried experimenting with style? I understand you established one and you are doing great with it, but mabye its time for something new and extraordinary? Who knows, mabye the 'new' style will suit you even better?

What I want to avoid is teaching you mapping, Im sure you do that better then me, and I should be learing from you. The point is to open yourself anfd become even more creative then previously.

^this^

actually ... I think mappers should stick to a style they like and do well ...

experimenting is very good ... but for a contest (im assuming this for the contest) I would stick to what I do best ...

and for cortez ... that seems to be rocks, wires, and rust ...

Well, I'm not saying that style is bad, Its very important to establish your own style and use it as a 'trade mark', some kind of message telling others who you are and what they should expect. When I play Cortez's maps I can clearly tell what style they have, there is no room for guessing. Such thing has its advantages hoverwer it also has flaws. All I am trying to tell you is that if you don't consider something else then you'll become repetetive and in the end your maps will loose their uniqueness.

The thing about uniqueness is that it lasts shortly and then becomes typicality (if there is such word).