Open World Soccer

[stage7]

What if making charsets for OWS was as easy as drawing a template instead of having to make each sprite one by one? What if every sprite had not only a standardized design but also looked awesome? Yeah, I wanted that too, and was fed up of drawing the whole thing again and again.

That's why I've started developing OpenCharset. Just draw your kit, input it to the script and download the resulting image with the complete sprite sheet.

It sounds neat, but it's going to take its sweet time, because I have to map each pixel and the source code I'm posting below shows the simplest way I could think of. Of course, it would not be "OpenCharset" if it wasn't open source. Here's the code as of May 20, 2011:

UPDATE: Please check the repo for the full codes and changelog.

This code also runs on my hosting via http://stg7.net/ows/ows.php (remember to add "?pic=kit.png" for it to work). Here are a few images you can use to test it (ows.php?pic=acmilan.png or ows.php?pic=clubamerica.png), but you can try your own as well using a complete URL:



It couldn't be easier and the templates speak for themselves. But this is only the first step, and there's still a lot of sprites to map. What if we try to complete this project? It will save HOURS of work for avid kitmakers!

Come on, guys! Let's make together the greatest soccer game of them all!
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OpenCharset: a project to develop an easy way to create custom sprite sheets

[Massimo32]

Your idea is wonderful!
How did you choose the size of the template? I wonder if some standard exists, so people could reuse the templates they made for other games...

[stage7]

Thank you

Well, I don't think a standard exists because I chose the dimensions based more or less on the number of pixels the standing front view sprite has. It is clear that the socks are 4x2 and the shorts are 10x4. I had doubts about the sleeves and shirt dimensions, but it seemed sensible (pun intended) that the shirt was 10 pixels wide and 6 or 7 high, and eventually chose 7. For the sleeves I chose 5 + 1 for the cuffs, which is more than enough for the running sprites, although some of them are 6 + 1. Then, for the back pictures, just mirroring the measures can work. Multiply everything by 8 and the script will resample everything accordingly

Cuff + sleeve + shirt + sleeve + cuff = (1 + 5 + 10 + 5 + 1) * 8 = 22 * 8 = 176 pixels wide.
Socks + shorts + shirt + shirt + shorts + socks = (2 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 2) * 8 = 24 * 8 = 192 pixels high.

Version 0.1.1 published, it adds another sprite, fixes sprite (1,2) and adds the full shading mask. Download in http://stg7.net/ows/repository/ .
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OpenCharset: a project to develop an easy way to create custom sprite sheets

[stage7]

Good news, I've retaken this project and made myself a few scripts that will dramatically speed up the sprite mapping (at the cost of not having the coordinates in a kit-fashioned shape, but a very single line stream of numbers). Also implemented proper mask shading with alpha channel.

I will actively work on this again these days URL remains the same, version is 0.2.2. Try the new kits I've uploaded or use your own.
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OpenCharset: a project to develop an easy way to create custom sprite sheets

[Massimo32]

[stage7]

Hi Massimo,

Nicely spotted bug. So, if I've understood you, if the charsets generated would have a palette then there would be no problem using them in the game, including alpha channel etc. OK, I will take care of that, it shouldn't be hard to fix as LibGD can also generate images with palette on the fly. Is there a specific palette I should use, or using my very own will suffice, as long as I use certain colors and certain indexes?

As OWS has been on hold for a time now and the development has returned to YS, should I change the program name and put my efforts on making OpenCharset YS-compatible instead of OWS-compatible? (The charsets are identical to me, but just in case)

Regards.

[Massimo32]