GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 300504
Ugly "Four-in-a-row" graphics
Last modified: 2005-07-13 21:01:28 UTC
Distribution/Version: Ubuntu Hoary 1. Open game 2. Start new game 3. Look at ugly board pice graphics. Use Five or More graphics; or create similar graphics, to increase overall consistent look in the gnome games.
It's not that ugly, but indeed gnect have to use SVG graphics. I haven't found any duplicate of this.
It'll probably happen sometime in the first half of the cycle. I've actually done this once with the peices, but converting the backdrop work is thougher.
While I'm adding my address to the CC list I may as well point out my collection SVG Patterns which might be of some use as backgrounds or at least for testing. http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~horkana/dev/jasc/webdraw/patterns/ The are all public domain and have been submitted (months ago) to OpenClipart.org, but I'm not sure if they have been processed and are being redistributed yet. > I've actually done this once with the peices If there is an example set of SVG Pieces for Gnect I migth be able to help out and convert over another set. (If they are not already vectors I would hope whoever created the high contrast set held on to the vector originals.) I am also trying to think of something else that might have need for square background wallpapers? (I suppose one could just shrink to fit and centre whatever people wanted to use as background wallpapers.) FYI the GIMP now supports any gdkpixbuf format image for use as a pattern, and we could help reduce redundancy by encouraging them to convert their patterns from their old PAT format to PNG and share them with the rest of the desktop.
Gnect is not scalable yet but I think I can get a head start on creating SVG themes anyway. I have created some SVG themes for gnect and I'm hoping you might like them better than the current themes, particularly the versoin with the number 4 on it. http://www.livejournal.com/users/alanhorkan/3677.html (In case you were not already aware user custom themes do not currently work in gnect see bug 307446)
Gnect is scalable, it just doesn't do the vector graphics rendering yet... I've got comments to add on this in #307446 later. That said, I'd like to see Sunspot variation #3 take the place of classic. The rest aren't really anything I'd suggest using. The resulting SVG source is surprisingly quite nice, by the way. Much better than the usual bunch of Sodiscape getting thrown around these days. I don't recommend using the "4" variant... The color doesn't work and it's not terribly effective at branding.
Yeah, I like variant 3 as well. The download for versions 1, 2 and 3 on that page are PNG files, where are the SVG versions Alan? Re variant 4: I don't like it either and the 4 isn't i18n safe.
Ooops, links should be fixed now. The files are all in the same open directory and the names are the same and use .png and .svg respectively. Maybe you only want to inspect the SVG source but just in case you get carried away with enthusiasm ;) I would prefer if you didn't rush to commit any files until I have had a chance to add metadata and submitted them to OpenClipart.org and clearly mark them as Public Domain and I will add them to this bug report (possibly with a patch to make the themes point at them instead of the current PNG files). > Re variant 4: I don't like it either and the 4 isn't i18n safe. I was 'afeared' of that though I thought with Arabic numerals I'd have more than half the world okay with it and in this context I didn't think it would be any worse than the Chinese(?) in mahjohngg or the markings on the playing cards. I actually went and converted it from a Font to a Path to make sure the SVG was properly portable which makes it impractical to i18n-ise it. That doesn't make it any better or do anything to change the fact you don't like it which is more relevant.
OK, I will wait before commiting anything.
Created attachment 48240 [details] submitted octogon theme by mistake
Created attachment 48241 [details] Sunspot 6 Theme game pieces for Gnect in SVG format I have added the metadata I wanted to the most of the SVG files and have attached both Sunspot 3 and Sunspot 6 for your consideration. You said you liked 3 (and rejected my favourite version 4) but I think 6 looks better than three and hope you will look again before you decide. Please let me know if you have any interest in replacing the old Clean and Classic themes with the SVG versions I have created (if only to include them in gnome-games-data-extras).
Created attachment 48242 [details] Sunspot 3 Theme game pieces for Gnect in SVG format
Hi Alan: sorry for taking so long - I've been without real net access for a while. I think you are righ about sunspot6: it looks better when you are actually playing it. I am keen to use it for the classic theme, but two requests: - Could you tweak the contrast on the yellow piece, the lines are hard to see compared to the red piece (Getting this right is tricky and it may look fine on your monitor so don't put too much effort in). - Could you flatten out the main background. The gradient at the top is good but I find the dark patch in the middle of the other background visually distracting from the pieces (the player is looking for patterns, the fewer extra dots to distract him the better).
Created attachment 48913 [details] [review] sunspot variation 10, more contrast > Hi Alan: sorry for taking so long Not a problem. I don't want to be left out or ignored and I'm interested in seeing it in the next release but a man is entitled to his holidays > Could you tweak the contrast on the yellow piece, It looks pretty good on the LCD screen I'm using here in Trinity, it was worse at home but I didn't think it was all that important to have sharp detail it is more important that the red be distinct from the yellow. The thing is the colours were chosen as much by value as they were for how they look. If I had simply chosen two shades of yellow the contrast would have been awful, but I was pretty happy adding extra red and making it a sunset yellow (light orange). I have created another hopefully final varation using plain yellow and plain orange for greater contrast. Please make sure to run it past someone who knows about accessibility. I fear because of the extra red the new variation uses it might now be harder to distinguish the pieces from each other for people with poor vision. I should warn you older versions of RSVG will do a crappy job of trying to render this so if you have problems that is why. I have also hidden the background fade in gradient as requested. I was trying to achieve an effect resembling a real board but not as distracting as the old classic theme had done by adding a contrasting blue circle but I'm not dead set on having it. (I made it invisible. No, I specifically do not want to remove completely. These files were carefully designed and hand crafter largely in a text editor to allow easy variations and customisation later and there is hardly a character in there I have not added intentionally. Although in hindsight I wish I'd use the circle tag instead of the ellipse but I'm not going to change it now). Please find attached tileset_50x50_sunspot10.svg with changes as requested Please rename it to tileset_50x50_sunspot.svg on commit or please ask me if you want to call it something else. In keeping with my concerns about accessibility I recently recreated the high contrast theme as SVG, carefully crafted with many svg:use tags to allow the two colours to be changed fairly easily and I hope to post them soon (wanted to do it yesterday but forgot where I'd put my up to date copy of rsvg). Will attach it here soon or to another report if you prefer, will probably need more work.
Sent a mail to the list http://mail.gnome.org/archives/games-list/2005-July/msg00003.html and created a page showing my High contrast theme http://www.livejournal.com/users/alanhorkan/8214.html#svg-games-2 (tempted to open a new bug report)
Don't bother with a new bug report. I have replaced the classic graphics with sunspot (with the requested file name). I have also replaced the high contrast theme and added the high contrast inverse theme. However, I have altered them to make them match the standard GNOME high contrast and high contrast inverse themes. That is to say they are either all black on white or all white on black, not a mixture. By having either a completely white or completely black background I think we reach the target audience better. (You were right about the colours being easily alterable.) I also made the background of the nought and the cross transparent to avoid odd lines at the edges where the SVG renderer thought there was a half-covered pixel at the edge and made it grey. I also had to alter the grid drawing to accomodate the completely black background I chose: there is now a solid line dividing the upper and lower areas. The block theme was also affected by a lack of differentiation between the two zones. Thanks a lot for your efforts. I don't think the more colourful versions of noughts and crosses are worth including. The red on yellow will be quite low contrast for colour-blind people and the green and purple is low contrast for people like me who supposedly have perfect colour vision. Since the themes are hard-coded I can't relegate them to gnome-games-extra-data either.
Matching the high contrast theme, all good. Nicely done. The high contrast variations were for my own amusement. I should probably throw up a web page that will generate versions in different colours on the fly or some kind of toy application like that. I'd love if my name could be included in the About dialog (but not my email address please) especially if a link to openclipart.org could be included somewhere because essentially these are Public Domain graphic I always planned to submit to OpenClipart.org. Even a link to OpenClipart.org without my name would be appreciated but being able to point out my name to people is something they can really understand and makes me feel like I am proving I am not wasting my time and have really achieved something (and then there is the ego part of it too). Going to submit them now.
( Alan: Just a throwaway suggestion, but "owen -at- redhat.com" and "nat -at- novell.com" aren't just e-mail addresses, they are great examples of marketing on behalf of a group. If not for openclipart, I've noticed "thehorkan.com" isn't taken. )
Thanks Richard (you must have read the Cluetrain manifesto too ;). I might ask OpenClipart.org if I could have a fowarding address for times like this when I am promoting OpenClipart stuff and should I ever get hit by a truck they could take over the account. (I previously owned horkan.org but never did anything with it and allowed it to lapse. Maybe when I leave college I'll register my own domain so I can keep control of my own accounts but it isn't anything I'm likely to do in the near future.)
Alan: I've added you to the credits. Thanks for the reminder.