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SMSC December 2015: A Tale of Snow and Ice

Started by An_dz, December 17, 2015, 03:07:00 AM

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An_dz

Vacations, time for a SMSC. It's late, I know, but we always have time for SMSC.

Rules
  • Only one picture per user
  • Topic: A Tale of Snow and Ice
  • Please include a name for your image
  • Please indicate if it's from a real game or not
  • Please include a short description and mention the pak you've used
  • Picture max size: 1366x768 px
  • Available picture formats: png or jpg
  • You may use any pakset you want, but only one
  • Zoom is allowed
  • Choose one of the available licenses
  • You can upload the picture to an image hosting service like imgur, imageshack.us or photobucket and then post link to the image here.
  • The nomination period ends at December 25th (aka Christmas). Then, we'll make a poll to decide the winner(s)
Prizes:
  • Compliments by the community
  • Become the cover picture of our Facebook page
  • Become the Simutrans homepage image
Terms:
You must post only images under the following licenses: CC0, CC-BY 3.0 or newer, CC-BY-SA 3.0 or newer.

michelstadt

A christmas tree at the townhall



When twilight comes and the last trucks leave the lumberyard the mayor silently looks at the snowy townhall's christmas tree which to him is a symbol of peace and understanding.

Not an existing game.
PAK128.german
CC-BY-SA-3.0

An_dz

We are getting a win by default. Time to react Sarlock? ;)

Sarlock

I would really love to!  I'm on vacation in Hawaii, however... but perhaps I could install a vanilla pak128 on my laptop and give it a whirl, if only to add some competition!
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics


Leartin



Christkindlstadt
In Austria, we don't have Santa Clause, the Christkindl brings the gifts. While the Christkindl originally was meant to be baby Jesus, by now it's a female child angel with blonde hair.
A town called Christkindl actually exists, though it looks nothing like this picture.

Not a real game
Pak192.comic Dev-Version +minimal alteration in Photoshop (can you find it?)
The composition of this screenshot is CC0. Most Elements depicted are CC-BY-SA.

Sarlock

Through the Tundra



Just something I slapped together in about 15 minutes this morning.

Not a real game
pak128
CC-BY-SA 3.0
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

michelstadt

Quote from: Leartin on December 24, 2015, 10:41:16 AMPak192.comic Dev-Version +minimal alteration in Photoshop
I think it is no good idea to post a screenshot (partly) created with a development version. Any player should be able to take part and all participants should base on the same conditions. A normal player should be capable to reproduce the screenshots that are being posted here. So every day players are handicapped if others show not publicly accessible features. In the end SMSC would end in an developer's contest.

The same is for image manipulation. What should be allowed, how many manipulations are possible not to get excluded? Will the contest turn to a competition for the smartest photoshop user?

In my opinion SCMS should stay a community contest for all simutrans players.

By the way. I will post a new screenshot after this poll has ended. It will show a tent nearby the wood loading bay where the workers are supposed to rest from their hard work. There is a camp fire (animated ingame) which makes the scenery quite more attractive. The problem is that this tent is actually only accessible by the developers of PAK128.german. I think it is not fair to post that picture, because only few players, who are also developers, could do so. That's why I keep it on my pc so far.

prissi

There were entire customs paks (like the preprevious winner), so I see no problems using special addons or developer versions. After all this is supposed to be a showcase of what is possible.

Leartin

Quote from: michelstadt on December 24, 2015, 09:51:11 PM
I think it is no good idea to post a screenshot (partly) created with a development version. Any player should be able to take part and all participants should base on the same conditions. A normal player should be capable to reproduce the screenshots that are being posted here. So every day players are handicapped if others show not publicly accessible features. In the end SMSC would end in an developer's contest.

The same is for image manipulation.

I wondered how far I could go without anyone mentioning it.
In theory, one could take a photo, throw it in tilecutter, place the photo in the game an make a screenshot of it. The rules don't nessecarily forbid it.
While this is extreme, what about a custom pakset that uses a city screenshot, but with all citybuildings being handplaced 2x2s, allowing for rails being closer together etc.? Such a pakset wouldn't be playable either, but it might actually be accepted.
A line needs to be drawn somewhere.

However, I disagree with banning dev-versions. It'e not like using objects you created yourself is less fair than an obscure addon you found in a small facebook fangroup in an uncommon language. You'd need to restrict even further, maybe to only addons published within this forum, and I could still simply publish addons alongside the screenshot to follow such a rule.

As for image manipulation via photoshop, I can remove the alteration in the screenshot. It is just a little easter egg, a Christkindl is flying around and I was too lazy to create an object just for that. I don't think it's a big deal, I wouldn't even expect most people to see it. In general, I don't think manipulations afterwards should be allowed, but if it's just a small thing, hardly noticeable, is it really a big deal?




Vladki

I think there was once a similar discusion. The result was something like: if you think the author went too far with photoshop or obscure or development stuff, just vote for some other screenshot. This sounds fair to me, as long as authors state if they used photoshop and/or unusual addons.

isidoro

Maybe it's also possible a free artist contest, ST related, where everything is allowed: compositions, collage, oil painting, editing, etc.

Ars longa, vita brevis...

Sarlock

I don't see an issue with dev-level components being used for screenshots.  These items have been developed by our many hard working artists who are spending their time creating amazing graphics, most of which will be eventually released to the public once they are in a finished state.  This gives them a wonderful opportunity to showcase their work and inspire themselves to create new things specifically for a screenshot which they may otherwise not create.  I find it highly motivating.

Many of the mature paksets have an amazing set of graphics to draw from and should have no difficulty competing for contests (which, it is important to remember, have no reward other than advertising on the Simutrans page and community acknowledgement).  It really comes down to content choice and creating an interesting screenshot that captures the eye.

As for Photoshop, etc, I would encourage our entries to stay away from anything excessive -- the winning entry is intended for advertising on the main site, so it should reflect what is achievable in the game.  A few small modifications are fun, however, and greatly encouraged.

Remember, it doesn't matter who wins!
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

michelstadt

Quote from: Sarlock on December 25, 2015, 06:47:51 AM
I don't see an issue with dev-level components being used for screenshots.  These items have been developed by our many hard working artists who are spending their time creating amazing graphics, [...]
From that kind of view I agree.

Quote from: Sarlock on December 25, 2015, 06:47:51 AMRemember, it doesn't matter who wins!
Absolutely! And I don't want to discourage anyone, that is what I am afraid of.

An_dz

I have few time to offer SMSC at all, so I don't want to lose my time reviewing them.

Maybe you might have noticed that I always ask "What's the best picture?" and not "What's the most beautiful picture?". So I'm trusting the voters will vote for the best in various aspects and not only beauty.

My images on SMSC all use Photoshop. I go on taking multiple screens of the scene so I can choose the best position/frame for each vehicle in the screen.

I guess I used my animated waterfall on a screen here and as I wanted a specific frame of it on the screen it was much easier to use the image from the source.

sdog

#15
These casual competitions have been running for many years now, with very lenient rules. There have been cases of modified images, images with dev pak sets, standard pak sets and screenshots from a real game winning. While we had this discussion before, it always stayed abstract. There was no or next to no controversy with regard to any particular round.

Please also bear in mind why there is an SMBC, and An_dz spends time on it. We want community interaction, and we want screenshots to showcase simutrans. These pictures, when posted on facebook, and google plus, and other platforms always tend to get a lot of attention, which is vital for a community project.



Thanks Leartin,
I've used your screenshot as a source for a holiday greeting message on g+.