[READY FOR REVIEW] Full Species Resprite + Multiply Blending

[Ahzpy]

What Does This PR Do

Project discussion for further detail
Vulpkanin sprites, IPC sprites, and code done entirely by @Alecksohs

This PR moves body color from ICON_ADD to ICON_MULTIPLY. In doing so, species that use body color need to be resprited to a proper palette that will work well with ICON_MULTIPLY. This opportunity is being taken to resprite and better shade the following species, as well as their markings and/or tails:

• Unathi
• Tajaran
• Vulpkanin
• Slime People
• IPC
• Skrell

Why It's Good For The Game

ICON_MULTIPLY is vastly superior over ICON_ADD for color consistency and will cause spriting quality to skyrocket. Many species sprites are old and do not hold up with the current spriting standards. If we don't make this change now, I don't imagine it will ever change.

Images of changes

Testing

Tested each species individually, played with colorful body colors, markings, tail types, and facial hairs.

Declaration

• I confirm that I either do not require pre-approval for this PR, or I have obtained such approval and have included a screenshot to demonstrate this below.

Changelog

🆑
tweak: Species that use body color now use ICON_MULTIPLY for color blending
imageadd: Resprite Vulpkanin
imageadd: Resprite Slime People
imageadd: Resprite Unathi
imageadd: Resprite Tajaran
imageadd: Resprite IPC
imageadd: Resprite Skrell
/:cl:

[Mitchs98]

As it stands with slime sprites, I feel they're a direct downgrade to what we have currently. The sprites themselves on their own aren't bad but they're entirely different than Slime People as they are now, not just "Kind of improved sprite with better color mechanics" or such.

They look like solid globs of paint. They're well done/aren't bad sprites, this isn't a dig at the sprite. The problem is what they're meant to replace in their current state they just ain't there yet to me. Transparency needs to be redone, Alfie did mention this being possible to fix already so I'm hopeful it can/will be. In it's current state comparatively however it's very much a "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." in terms of looks for what it's going to be replacing. They look nothing alike.

Mostly posting this here to echo my concerns from the Discord so it's in a more manageable/easier to find place.

Again, the spritework is solid. If it wasn't meant to be replacing Slime People I'd be all for it. But given that it is, I feel it still needs work as mentioned above.

Vulps however look quite a bit better and more alien/humanoid dogbeast thing VS straight up "I'm an anthro dog" that they currently are.

[alfalfascout]

Slime people are also kind of messed up right now, not from the sprites, but from somewhere in code drawing them multiple times. I have found some of the occasions where they're drawn multiple times but not all of them. I'm still looking.

[Ahzpy]

Slime people are also kind of messed up right now, not from the sprites, but from somewhere in code drawing them multiple times. I have found some of the occasions where they're drawn multiple times but not all of them. I'm still looking.

Is this from my code related to the PR or an unrelated issue?

[alfalfascout]

Is this from my code related to the PR or an unrelated issue?

It's not an issue that you caused, but an issue that makes it difficult to evaluate whether the new slime sprites are good, because their transparency isn't represented properly ingame.

[alfalfascout]

Did some testing on this with IPCs. I have attempted to re-create my two main characters, APU-5454 and MDU-333.

APU-5454 was pretty straightforward. Taking the lightest color from the master sprite and setting that as the body color for this sprite provided me with a very similar color. For the head accessory I had to do the opposite, and make it practically white in order to show up correctly. I am satisfied with my ability to recreate these colors. However, when given this color, the new sprite starts to look very washed out. The details are hard to discern. And in side view it's hard to see where the hands are. I could probably live with this but I don't like how it looks.

As for MDU-333, I'm not married to the bright white/cyan, so I could do another color, but... uh... oh. Even if I set the very lightest blue I can, this does not look good and kinda does not look blue either. Also wasn't able to get the head accessory to be a light color at all. I'm assuming you don't mean to make drastic changes to the parts of people's characters you haven't resprited, but...this is a drastic change. And it's not good.

[Ahzpy]

As for MDU-333, I'm not married to the bright white/cyan, so I could do another color, but... uh... oh. Even if I set the very lightest blue I can, this does not look good and kinda does not look blue either. Also wasn't able to get the head accessory to be a light color at all.

I think the issue may lie in the blue color you chose, which may look different using ICON_ADD rather than ICON_MULTIPLY. If you want a bright blue IPC, it should be as simple as using a saturated cyan rather than a bright desaturated blue. As for the head accessories, that shouldn't happen, so I'll look into it.

[alfalfascout]

I think the issue may lie in the blue color you chose, which may look different using ICON_ADD rather than ICON_MULTIPLY. If you want a bright blue IPC, it should be as simple as using a saturated cyan rather than a bright desaturated blue. As for the head accessories, that shouldn't happen, so I'll look into it.

It's because MDU-333 uses entirely Ward-Takahashi parts.

[Ahzpy]

It's because MDU-333 uses entirely Ward-Takahashi parts.

I don't see the correlation. Bright saturated colors still work with ICON_MULTIPLY and will absolutely work with Ward-Takahashi.

[alfalfascout]

It's because MDU-333 uses entirely Ward-Takahashi parts.

I don't see the correlation. Bright saturated colors still work with ICON_MULTIPLY and will absolutely work with Ward-Takahashi.

I'd like her to be a light powder blue, which wasn't as achievable in the old sprites, but... this is kind of worse? A lot worse.

[Ahzpy]

I'd like her to be a light powder blue, which wasn't as achievable in the old sprites, but... this is kind of worse? A lot worse.

I'm sorry that you think that this change makes your character look "a lot worse". I do not know how I can objectively accommodate for this feedback.

[alfalfascout]

Do you see how the contrast ramp is pretty severe between the lighter tones and the darker ones? There's also no highlights. It starts at a midtone and then has four darker shades.

[evilmattyg]

I'd like her to be a light powder blue, which wasn't as achievable in the old sprites, but... this is kind of worse? A lot worse.

I'm sorry that you think that this change makes your character look "a lot worse". I do not know how I can objectively accommodate for this feedback.

This is something that will 100% a LOT of IPC feedback from numerous players to see if this change will work properly. I'd say be prepared to walk-back the IPC changes completely given what alfalfa had to go through

[alfalfascout]

I tested the automatic merge of this PR and the icon layering fix I did. There doesn't seem to be any conflict.

Before Merge

After Merge

Edit: Tested hand markings as well.