Beta news: Custom textures are here!

[Markus W]

CUSTOM TEXTURES

== What are custom textures? ==

Custom textures are tile-sized images that are being used for the look of the tiles. All members can create and upload their own textures to the public texture pool and use them in the beta version of the mosaics.

Technically, textures are neutral-gray 10x10 pixel images that are being colorized according to the colors in a room.

== Multi-textures ==

By placing more than 1 texture in a texture image, it is possible to define different tile shapes for the same room. For example, you could place 5 textures into a 50x10 pixel image. TheBroth would then create 200 tiles of each texture (as we have 1000 tiles in each room).


== File format ==

The file format for the texture is *.png, eg. 24-bit PNG (not to be confused with 8-bit PNG, which is similar, technically, to GIF files).

The 24-bit PNG format has one major advantage over other file formats such as JPEG: it allows for transparency (or rather, opacity) information to be stored in what is called the "alpha channel". Put simply, it allows you to create a transparency effect, for example, to emulate the look of stained glass mosaics.

Example of custom texture #20, creating a stained-glass-like appearance.


== How to specify which texture to use in your room ==

To access the beta version and to specify a particular texture, just add /beta/[TEXTURE NUMBER HERE] to the room URL. For example, http://www.thebroth.com/mosaic/beta/20 will show that room using texture #20.

Please note that this doesn't actually affect that room, it just renders the mosaic for YOU using the texture you have specified.

To see a list of textures or to upload your own, go to http://www.thebroth.com/textures.html


== Why are the textures gray? Do they have to be gray? ==

The textures are in neutral gray (50% black, #808080 in hex RGB, 128/128/128 in decimal RGB) in order for them to be colorized without causing a distortion or change in the appearance of the room colors.

You CAN use colored textures, but that will produce rather psychodelic and unpredictable effects and the color seeding will have little or strange influence on the final appearance of the tiles in your room.

Full white or full black pixels in your texture will not be colorized. Let's say a tile color is meant to be red. The lighter your gray texture, the lighter red the final textured and colorized tile, and vice versa: the darker gray your texture, the darker the colorized tile will appear. You can use this for bevels to create 3d-like effects. For example, our default texture always had a moderate amount of bevel to make it more look like a real tile as opposed to a flat square.

Summary: In order to create textures that are suitable for colorization, keep the texture(s) in grayscale with most of the pixels at around 50% black.


BETA NEWS

For the previous beta announcement and its feature set, please view http://www.thebroth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649


What's new in this beta version?

== Previous tile and angle duplication ==

We're introducing a new concept: the "previous tile". This makes it possible to copy the rotation angle from one tile to another. Let's say you want to make a diagonal line of tiles at about 45 degree angle: First, you just drag the tiles into a line, ignoring their angle. Then you adjust the angle of the first tile of this line. Then hold down CONTROL while clicking each of the tiles in the line to copy the angle from one tile to the next. Mac users, hold down COMMAND (the key with the apple symbol).

This also works with the cursor keys when you jump from tile to tile - be careful there, this can have undesired effects if it's not obvious which one the "next tile" is.


== Loading time dramatically reduced ==

Even though we're loading 25% more data (thanks to the rotation value of each tile) AND we've added the custom texture feature, the page loads faster than ever. Thanks to caching of the embedded Flash file, the page will load even faster on subsequent page loads.


== Automatic preview update ==

The update of the preview is not texture-sensitive. It will show the preview as if the room contained the default tile texture. That is not a bug, but we may change certain aspects of how that preview thumbnail works.


== Known bugs ==

When people chat, the chat bubbles that indicate when somebody's typing sometimes get stuck. This makes it look as if the person is still typing when they really aren't. We're still trying to fix this.

Clicking links in the chat is often quite unresponsive, and it takes a long time before the corresponding web page opens in a new window. This seems to be very browser dependent. Our own computers in the office seem unaffected, no matter which browser we use. This makes this bug hard to track down and we're not sure whether we'll be able to fix this.

== Feedback ==

We NEED your feedback. Please report bugs in the bugs section of the forum, and general thoughts and comments right here.

Oh, and before I forget, we're truly ecstatic about this new feature. Tile rotation + custom textures = Awesome Mass Mega XXXL. Or something.

[GO GO]

http://www.thebroth.com/aisa/beta/65

[xreko]

Awesome Firefox texture, go go!

[ImmortalMadness]

[MorningStar]

[MorningStar]

Update: We've just tested the beta on some old laptop PC and there ARE problems with the tile rotation and moving, when using the buttons or the keyboard controls. The buttons can get stuck in depressed mode and the tile doesn't move or rotate.

ImmortalMadness, maybe this phenomenon is what you were referring to? It's pretty serious and an obvious malfunction. We're working on it as we speak.

Update 2: We've discovered some more issues with the beta on that laptop. Dragging tiles or rotating tiles with the mouse ain't working so flash either (pardon the pun). At the moment we're not sure under which circumstances these problems occur, but we're working on it.

[ImmortalMadness]

Sorry I wasn't more clear. The page loads up slightly slower but that's not really a problem. Everything moves around like normal until I start rotating. When I do rotate though, not only rotation takes a while but it freezes up the page a little bit and the tiles move slowly. It's kind of hard for me to explain. And it's with the keyboard and the mouse. Nammie only said that the tiles rotate slow.

Sorry if I quoted the wrong thing, I just was trying to clarify what I was trying to talk about. I think I'll like this feature if it starts moving a little quicker.

My computer is mediocre but I can try on my other computer (the good one), maybe tomorrow, and tell you what happens.

Oh, and it's not my internet connection because I tested it and it's still really fast.

[MorningStar]

IM, thanks for the info. At the moment we believe it has to do with CPU power. We noticed that on a slow computer, Flash kinda freezes when there is lots of user input events (be it mouse or keyboard).

For example, we noticed that when you grab a tile and then drag it around like a madman by moving the mouse real fast, the tile just freezes in place somewhere until you slow down or release it - everything freezes in that case. That's of course not good and we're working hard trying to eliminate the problem.

Another thing we have fixed though, and that was to do with the instant thumbnail preview. On a slow computer this is taking about half a second or so, and due to a bug, the preview would also update after each rotation step - even though you can't see any change in the thumbnail. So we've fixed this, and using the buttons for rotation should be markedly better now.

Still have to fix problems with keyboard control and mouse dragging...

[dr nick riviera]

We have made some improvements to the speed of dragging and rotating.

Clicking and dragging on a tile should now be more responsive. You should see the tile follow the mouse more closely than it did before. Rotating a tile by clicking and dragging on the background should also be more responsive.

Moving or rotating by clicking the buttons above the tile area should be responsive. The tile should move/rotate smoothly. You may see a slight delay when you release one of the movement buttons. This is because the Thumbnail Preview is being redrawn. If this takes an unreasonable amount of time, please let us know, with an estimate of how long it is taking.

Moving or rotating by pressing keyboard buttons is still a bit unresponsive in some situations. If the computer is quite slow, and the 'Key repeat rate' for the computer is set high, then the tile may stop moving if you hold the key down. (The 'Key repeat rate' on Windows can be set in the Keyboard section of Control Panel.)

Please let us know if this helped or not. Thanks IM and others for the feedback.

[GO GO]

i noticed one thing in betabroth that the colors are a bit lighter in it. i mean if you have lighter gray in a non beta room and then you switch to /beta you see almost white tiles in place of light gray,and white tiles of non beta are totally invisible in /beta .IS it supposed to be like this?

check out this image of same area in beta and non beta

[MorningStar]

Please try again, this should be fixed now.

[GO GO]

noe its still same.

[MorningStar]

My bad, this has been fixed, but the fix isn't live in the beta yet. Rest assured when we go live with rotations and textures (this week if all goes to plan!), it will be fixed.

[GO GO]

oh cool...
cant wait cant wait

[Shehzeen]

awesome textures markus. I'll let u know if i face any problems.