Dungeon Master Forum

type: difference to DM
category: graphics

Description:
If you place a chest on an alcove so you're viewing it straight on, it's drawn one size down from it's maximum. It should remain at maximum and fill the alcove - it looks too small at the moment.

You can place chest in the alcove? Isn't it a bug?

No bug - think of the coin slots at the end of level 11, and what you find in there...

Also, I think the Chest (and other items in alcoves) should be smaller - they're further away from you that when on the ground, at a comparable distance to when they're on the near-side of the tile one away from you (which is the size they're drawn at in RTC).

Well, not really - if you think about it, the alcove is nowhere near as deep as the next half of the tile. If we say that each tile is 2 metres square, then objects on the near-side of the next tile are at most 1 metre away (taking into cosideration the effects caused by perspective). But an alcove isn't one metre away, is it? If it were you wouldn't be able to pick anything up from it? All the items in DM were drawn at their maximum size - I dunno, objects in alcoves in RTC just look weird to me when they are that small...

Not to be evil, but if you check out DM then the view of a chest in the alcove is a centralised new graphic that is actually about the same size as the half tile away. And this does make sense - the party is on the tile for the maximum...that view is the chest right at their feet, while the half tile away graphic is only slightly smaller for something that at best can be only 30-50cm away (I'm assuming the chest is really at their feet and the party take up all of the 2m tile, so that the graphic isn't a true representation of what they'd see, and so the distance to the next centre of tile is only 50cm). Which describes the state that would happen for something in an alcove too.

I hadn't noticed it and think it makes sense for that situation. Now what is odd is that alcove stacking, but I'm sure I mentioned it somewhere else...

Actually, the graphics for the alcove chest and the normal chest right at your feet are the same size (I know as I've extracted them from DM and have just redrawn them in Photoshop) - only one has a forced perspective on one side.... so what you say isn't really true... the chest that's half a tile away is actually being scaled by the DM engine...

lol, befroe we start a full debate i'm going ask what version you are extracting from (since you must have them all by now, yes? : ) )...in the PC 3.4 I have, the alcove graphic (the same with a perspective on? cool...) is being scaled to the same size as the half tile away to my eyes (I can't screen capture the dos version, only rtc) and the only difference I can see between the two is the depth - the DM chest fills the alcove front to back, RTC chests give a space at the front, which might add to the smaller size illusion.

I suppose this is going to be a question of George's opinion and people's feeling's, and I think George got it right (as in common sense even if DM is drawing it larger).

It does lead to another point though - alcove objects like chests did have a flat centred perspective, while objects like chests that had a depth underwent a graphical flip to maintain the one point perspective depending on whether they were on the left or right of the tile. I have not noticed this befroe, so wouldn't push for it, but hey, it is a difference and is against the subte tricks DM used to get a 3D feel.

Ooops, bollocks. You're right - I was doing this from memory and when I had another look at DM, it does scale chests in alcoves.. sorry!

and just to further fuel the issue...when chests are thrown in RTC they become perspectiveless like alcove chests should be, in DM they actually took on the perspective of the side they were thrown on.

Fixed (partially) for V0.08