CS Graphics Under the Hood #4 – Hex Sides Galore!

Welcome to Part Four of the CS Graphics Under the Hood series! This time, let us look at the hex sides, which comes in the form of Sides, Blocked, and Slopes. Then there’s the Full Bridges and Side Bridges.

That leaves only the various Water tiles for the fifth and last edition of Map Graphics. There, we’ll discuss the new Night tiles as well,  before moving to various Unit and User Interface files in the coming episodes of these developer diaries.

Sides

Sides is a major exception to rule for having similarly named and composed files for both 2D and 3D.

In 2D, the following tiles are included in the one Sides[view moniker].bmp file

1. Stream
2. Minor River
3. Gully
4. Dune
5. Ditch
6. Crest

 

Here’s the 2D Sides7d.bmp Normal view file:

However, with 3D, due to its more complex layout, there’s a separate set of files for each of the rows within the composite Sides 2D file:

• Streams[view moniker].bmp
• MinorRivers[view moniker].bmp
• Gullies[view moniker].bmp
• Dune[view moniker].bmp
• Ditch[view moniker].bmp
• Crest[view moniker].bmp

Here’s 3D DesertDitches3d.bmp. Note how inherently more complex the 3D map can be, as each hex side can be viewed from various directions, when rotating the map around for instance:

Sides and the respective 3D sets of files use the Regions + Biomes convention to differentiate one map from another:

• DesertSides8d.bmp
• MediterraneanCrest0d.bmp

Blocked

With Blocked, we are back to both 2D and 3D sets being similarly put together. The tiles available in Blocked are:

1. High Wall
2. Damaged High Wall
3. Stone Wall
4. Hedge
5. Bocage
6. -reserved-
7. -reserved-
8. Reef

Due to Hedge and Bocage tiles present in this file, Blocked follows the Green – Brown – Barren Conditions as set in Scenario Editor.

Here’s the two file sets, first 2D with GreenBlocked7d.bmp:

And here’s 3D with GreenBlocked3d.bmp:

Slopes

With Slopes, we have the second major set that differentiates between 2D and 3D map views. Slopes follow the Ground Condition notation of Normal (no prefix), Soft, and Mud versions of them. (Later, the Frozen, Snow and Deep Snow versions need to be added.)

2D again is quite easier to put together, containing just four rows with six columns:

1. 3D Contours in 2D maps (not implemented yet)
2. Cliff
3. Embankment
4. Escarpment

Here’s the file in all its simplicity, with Slopes8d.bmp as the sample:

3D Slopes is much the busier beast, as it needs to cover all the hex sides with Reverse Map views too. Here’s MudSlopes3d.bmp, with lots of Slope variants, like Caves, Streams and Minor Rivers, and Tunnels, flowing through them:

 

We’re not nearly done though. Hexes Galore! it is.

SideBridges

As name implies, these are the Hex Side Bridges (and a Fjord) for both 2D and 3D. Here’s the 2D SideBridges8d.bmp:

And here’s the respective 3D SideBridges0d.bmp:

Rows included are:

1. Fjord
2. Light Bridge
3. Light Bridge, Destroyed
4. Medium Bridge
5. Medium Bridge, Destroyed
6. Heavy Bridge
7. Heavy Bridge, Destroyed

And since we need something to pass full hex obstacles as well (Rivers, Major Rivers, Canals, Major Canals, and Water one hex wide, we need to have…

FullBridges

Full Bridges include two bridge types: a Heavy large-span Bridge, and a Pontoon Bridge. And here they are.

2D

3D

 

And that’s the hex sides covered, for most parts at least. Wheew, this one was quite a biggie… Any questions, give us a holler.