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Huh, to be honest, it's quite bad.

All I could suggest is to study some photos of real rocks and take notes.

It was actually portion of city of Tartu but meh  

I agree. I will move some pixels on Macdonald's "M", but as for everything else, I think I'm done.
After all, this bg looks considerably better than first one I posted here - so thanks AGSers - and also I'm not getting paid to work on one background for days and days. There's a game to make!

I won't probably do anything about reflections: I never aimed for full realism and balance/usage of all kinds of different colors is what makes my backgrounds appealing. Or so I think. While many people go "safe way" of low saturation and neutral colors or realistic way of high contrast and lack of color, I never liked this, so I'm trying to have everything 24-bit palette offers.


Also, noticed that "Auto color" in Photoshop does something barely noticeable but oh-so-right thing with this background.

NoScript add-on

Only "anti-virus" you'll need. Ever.
It's not 1998 where every third .EXE could be infected with some joke.
Also, it takes total idiot to download 43KB thesims4.exe from Limewire - or wherever executable viruses still *do* exist. Internet is a bit more fragile and that's why you need a way to block those nasty scripts installing toolbars and changing home pages.

Also, it doesn't choke your computer like casual antivirus does - infact it usually makes browsing faster, skipping all the ad-server queries from webpages. Many pages - just to display a bit of content, also come with 7 or 8 advertising site queries and banner loading. No more of that!

It's a bit chore to use at first ("where's most of this page?") but once you "teach" it what you want to see (and what not!), your usual surfing becomes quite safe and quick.

Okay, I think it's almost complete:

2x


* Changed asphalt and puddles   they never feel completely right
* Shaded bus
* Remade clouds
* Abused everything with soft brush to get dirtier look, overdid on bus
* Added payphone, darkened wall under it
* Fixed windshield wipers and mirror
* Fixed pillars (somewhat)
* Fixed bench shadows (not visible on bus image)

I think I ruined it   Original looks much shinier and happier  
Made more changes to balance

Thanks to everyone who chipped in!

I agree!

Will adapt. Shaded bus really changes things. I'm not quite sure how to make puddles look like on edit, though.
I don't think the trick's in the amount of blur or reflection in the puddles but the inverted look - on ryan's edit, puddles are lighter than asphalt, and vice versa on mine. It feels differently. Though, on most photos google finds, puddles are darker... I still like ryan's version better.

road vs. sidewalk -- on my reference - and in Estonia overall, both are same color/substance usually. But edit does look better and I'll try to find middle way between original and Ryan's edit. Because setting new laws for our street decorations also defines other backgrounds I draw... Maybe draw some parking/etc lines also, to spice area up, since bus isn't long-term part of the background, but appears only after load of puzzles are solved.

bus: Bus is already leaving, and protagonist rushes to make it to the door. Hence the angle and door. I'm not sure if I really animate it driving away, but it'll be last-minute bus catch, I didn't worry about angle/etc. Of course I notice such things myself

perspective & vanishing points - I use combination of eye, quick 3D and photo reference usually, and rarely trace, simply draw what I see. The building main shape is somewhat loosely traced, while everything else is purely hand-drawn. That makes perspective a bit different on various parts.

Look at reference to see what I based my calculations/logic on (especially concerning asphalt and puddles):
http://y.delfi.ee/norm/23985/4523190_OGdFmt.jpeg

But since I failed to capture whole mid-day feeling (I tried - too contrasty and not-nice-to-look-at), and ended up with pre/after light rain weather I can change alot.

I never fill my scenes with vanishing point aid, because it makes everything too uniform & boring and to be honest, I can't be arsed to Spending half hour on drawing or deleting line aid pumps my creativity dry.
But I think I'll land on believable grounds with my perspective view most of the time though.

I'll post pre-final version tonight.

Timetable - check
Antialias - check (I'm not really a fan of manual antialiasing, but it didn't take as long as I feared - and looks much better!)
Doorway - check (somewhat better )
Puddles transparency - check. Softening edges - not check - water on asphalt doesn't work that way

Also, I hated the asphalt so I gave it a makeover with cracks



also added one with bus (lacks some text, mirror and windshield wipers yet)


thankksss...

I decided to take up pixel making after a long 3D pause (I'm sooo rusty!), and ended up with this bus station...
It's almost complete, but lacks... something. Aside from buses, of course, which will be separate.

Can you help? Right side of image is where improvement is needed most - I have to compensate for this insane amount of gaussian noise somehow



2x, just for show, do not edit

Well, all is not lost.
C&C series have influenced Act of War and it's expansion, which is exactly what C&C should have became in 2000-s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBity08oJes

It has much what C&C should: US Army playing as fully realistic side, Task Force Talon brings mild sci-fi upgrade to it, and Consortium with fully experimental (BUT NOT OVERDONE) technology, hit'n'run orientation and somewhat darker feeling feels pretty much Brotherhood of Nod.

Plus they successfully mix Westwood's original RTS system with Blizzard's way of doing same thing, so it's hybrid with best of each mixed.

That leaves AoW my favourite RTS until something better comes out. But EA won't bring a contender, it seems, because every new C&C game seems to suck, trying to be Starcraft II.

I wish THQ tried to make Company of Heroes in modern era someday. Their approach was quite interesting too.

Lame Hair XIII

Owner of Edirol PC-50 which I bought few years ago.
It's a cheap end keyboard (I think) but Roland makes em' pretty high quality, lottsa buttons and functions etc. There's no feeling of a cheap keyboard anywhere.

So what to say about this?
First, there's noticeable latency between press and sound. Might be USB issue, or soundcard or Fruity Loops, which can probably successfully choke even on NASA computers...
I suspect USB and wouldn't have bought USB keyboard if I knew before.

It's almost mint condition, to be honest, I haven't used it almost at all. It's bulky and I don't have space for it. Plus, juggling between mouse and keyboard isn't very comfortable really. Before MIDI keyboard I played notes on actual keyboard and wished I had something that's easier to use. Right now I'm still doing the same...

I guess I didn't need keyboard at all. Or I need a studio for comfortable placement for this huge rig.
Right now, I very rarely compose music so most of the time, keyboard would be simply wasting desk space and collecting dust.

So I packed it into box again. And it's waiting for better days, shiny and brand new.

Funny, same happened with tablet which I craved for sooooo much...

At first I thought that this is one helluva promo trick for your game(s), but documents (russian ones also) you provided are 99,99% authentic I think. 0,01% doubt for those documents being to real Zotov and you're someone else. But as a schizophrenic, are you sure in your identity even by yourself?

Not very good idea to make your "war ticket"/military ID public though.

Will try game too someday.

omg, now I realize how wrong I was doing everything.

But this tutorial, it helped alot!

I erased every game I wanted to release tomorrow and were working on for last 7 years and started from scratch!

See you after another 7 years!

I'm with sektor in this one.

People Nerds like Star Wars and Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica too, y'know.

but i give up, sorry for trolling  

No it doesn't.

Also, I blame arboris and auriond for downfall of the legend. Support crap and crap you will get.

Red alert 3 - a...a...awesome? You wanted to say "omfgthisisgodawfulandworstgameevar1!". No matter how many cute chicks in FMV, the game still sucks.
CnC4? I meant CnC 3. But since they're exactly same glowing crap, no matter.

Then again, it's the sci-fi that ruins things for me. Somehow, far-far-future things totally suck IMO.
Because you can put whatever amount of lasers and space wonders into it, no creativity needed. Everything stupid is excused.

But taking a real world and slightly adjusting it into something awesome, now that's interesting. I can relate to it. It's fun to wonder mysterious crystal tiberium growing under my window. Gazillion spaceships and stupidity (like in  Independence day), not so much.

That's why people like X-files over Mars Attacks and Lost is so damn popular despite creators having major lulz at viewer's cost: there still could be simple, believable (REALISTIC!) explanation to the mystery, without too much random space stuff.

That's the difference between new and old CnC games too. Laser obelisk and stealth technology I believe -- but every machine having legs and soliders shooting unnamed rays I do not.

CnC != Starcraft!!!

Well, freeware is always good, for starters. But in current case...
Free release is nice if current state of series was as good or even better... "see how we've progressed!"
But have they?

C&C4 turned original semi-realistic warfare into walking laser gun robot spider feet tank mayhem (Since Tiberian Sun was sci-fi enough to stand on his own so it doesn't count) and graphics into non-saturated superglowing ultrabright headache... I want my little soliders with chemical weapons and burning enemy solider yelling his lungs out. And that badass commando. Not robots, looking like something from typical drawings of my 6-year old nephew.


<nerdrage of liftetime westwood RTS fan>

And all their games are the same, since Dune 2 from 1992. Those guys are as creative as a brick in a wall.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
Getting "creative" has helped genre how?? One shit game after another. Only so-so star in pile of dump was Company of Heroes, but all other attempts at changing the basics have failed miserably. Now what's so bad in building a base and collecting resources? Liking the system in World at War for example might be cool thing to say, but doesn't cover for the fact that you're simply too braindead to play classic RTS. There's a reason people still enjoy 10+ old games, such as Starcraft of Total Annihilation or any other thing that hasn't been exchanged for something new -- old ones were good.

Instead, every other damn developer tried to copy Dune 2, because it was simply best system to use.

Electronic Arts has destroyed Westwood pretty much by now --  starting with Command & Conquer: Generals which was fun, but lost old touch, and ending with C&C 4 and Red Alert 3, which are abysmal glowfests-kiddie games with everything good about original ruthlessly murdered... -- but at old times, Westwood made coolest games in history, IMO. From awesome original C&C to Legend of Kyrandia to Lands of Lore to Dune (which was quite interesting too)

Plus, they had best music ever heard in computer games.
I don't think Westwood has sucked, ever. But EA on the other hand... they'd better stick to pumping out new Sims games from what's left of Maxis.

Releasing oldies as freeware is kinda sad, though.
It's like saying: "look how low we've sunk now, compared to what we did before 1998"

BLASPHEMER!
BURN HIM

Blue is too blue. It's okay for sky but not for ground!
Either desaturate or add greens or reds. I'd go for green.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/night%20countryside/coriander2212/NorthGermanCountrysideForTyson_11.jpg

Full Throttle went for red & desaturating

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/full-throttle/screenshots/gameShotId,90573/

Also, utilize that 60% of empty space before asking for further crits. All that's to crit right now is big blue blob

And also, add some things of heavy detail. For example an oil rig or windmill to the far right horizon. But make it complex, with many tiny pixels and lines, even though it's a black shilouette
Such things drag attention away from lifeless, less detailed areas. You did it quite right already with the sign, for example. Add some more spots, scratches, spiderweb etc to it.

Right to be happy is written into constitution so...

Take up a martial arts class (Muay Thai is pretty awesome)

...and uphold the law!