Add better screenshots, and more screenshots

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

Hi guys. the screenshots on the official website, do not do justice to the new mapgen v7! Minetest generates much more beautiful and detailed game maps as they appear in the web site screenshots. I can do some very nice screenshots, so new users can see the dramatic improvements that have been added in Minetest.

With your permission I'll take the task of making me the screenshots, then send the push! Thank you all. I await your permission.

Overview

(Added by rubenwardy)

condensed info from multiple views:

Show off Mapgen v7
photos with mods/subgames
photos with buildings
Multiplayer / photos with other players (and with varied armors/skins ?)
Authentic gameplay footage, not just some random landscape you found after flying around.
(maybe) texture packs (less important)

est31 commented 7 years ago

I think that would be a good idea. @paramat would certainly like it as well.

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

Ok. Tomorrow send push. I prepare good screenshots and then send my commit. Thanks, I'm glad you liked my idea, update the site every now and then is a good thing :)

sfan5 commented 7 years ago

minetest/minetest#4829 is not merged yet, we will need to await whether v7 gets into the release as default mapgen

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

Ok. I can wait. At most I 2/3 decent screenshots with the stable 0.4.14 just to do justice to the project! The v7 is included for some time, do not default but eventually users Minetest only uses the new V7. Thank you @sfan5

est31 commented 7 years ago

I don't think mgv7 should be the default for the website to have screenshots of it.

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

I fully support, in fact, the site needs to present the project in the best possible way. New users can see the true potential of the game, so I'm working as a photographer ^___^

I noticed that the screenshots on the official site are all at 1920x1080 resolution! my monitor is 1600x900! I see if I can find an option in the advanced settings, or see to manually solve!

Thanks @est31

Calinou commented 7 years ago

Be sure to do this for all of your screenshots:

use fsaa = 8 (antialiasing),
use a view range of at least 200,
provide full-size versions in 1920×1080 (use screenW, screenH and fullscreen in minetest.conf),
enable shaders, but disable waving plants/leaves/water,
use the default gamma level in most cases, but use your own judgment – it can be a good idea to make things brighter when taking screenshots indoors or at night,
enable anisotropic filtering, but not bilinear or trilinear filtering. Textures should keep their pixelated looks, but not look noisy at a distance.

rubenwardy commented 7 years ago

Minimap? Stops ugly detail at far range

Calinou commented 7 years ago

Minimap? Stops ugly detail at far range

The HUD should be hidden on all screenshots except one, maybe.

rubenwardy commented 7 years ago

Autocorrection, I meant mipmap

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

@Calinou Thank you! I imagine having to put in fullscreen. Thank you very much, now I have all the information I need.

HUD when I take off my screenshots :+1:

Calinou commented 7 years ago

Autocorrection, I meant mipmap

Mipmaps and anistropic filtering should be enabled (to remove texturing noise at a distance), but bilinear and trilinear filtering should not be (to preserve the "pixel art" look).

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

Ok. I posted the first screenshots "background-downloads.jpg" I ran the push on my fork, and then I sent the pull to you. Excuse me guys, generally use qithub alone, I would be happy to create new textures, and other content for the project, but I prefer to have confirmation from you, to make sure you do not make mistakes. thank you all.

@Calinou Thanks, I do research to find a guide on the rules to follow to collaborate with you. I'm 39 years old, using computers since 1984, but I have never worked with a team of experts like you.

paramat commented 7 years ago

I assume you're searching through the screenshots thread in the forum? That's where i post all my mapgen screenshots.

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

The screenshots I do them. I sent the new commit, he says that it failed the check, perhaps requires the admin authorization?

Ok. I understand, I add committed under the previous one with the check failed. At least now I know how it works. Sorry again.

mahmutelmas06 commented 7 years ago

I always prefer the newest one if stable enough so voting for v7

Wuzzy2 commented 7 years ago

Since Minetest is an engine, I propose the screenshots should not limit themselves to Minetest Game or a 100% untouched mapgen output. I mean, some player buildings are OK, after all, building is one of the core tasks in Minetest).

On these pages you can find a few CC BY-SA 3.0 screenshots: http://wiki.minetest.net/Minetest http://wiki.minetest.net/Biomes http://wiki.minetest.net/Map_generator

Here are some old but nice screenshots, but I fear you must ask posters for permission first: https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10366&start=25 Screenshots posted by me at the beginning of the first post of that thread are taken from me and everyone has my full permission to use them (CC-0).

These LGDB screenshots are all from me and you can use them, too: https://lgdb.org/game/pixture https://lgdb.org/game/lord-of-the-test

Long story short: All screenshots ever taken and published by me are CC-0. The problem might be you don't always know if it was me who took the screenshot.

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

@Wuzzy2 Thanks, I totally agree with you! Minetest grows with the work of all. The open-mindedness is essential for this wonderful project. Thanks so much ;)

I screenshots all I realize it, I do not take pictures of other users, not even in my blog.

sfan5 commented 7 years ago

@est31 @Calinou here's some I made today (with suggested settings, but without mipmap/ansio):

screenshot_20161212_172146 screenshot_20161212_172357 screenshot_20161212_172528 screenshot_20161212_172854 screenshot_20161212_173153 screenshot_20161212_173418

est31 commented 7 years ago

I like number 2, 4 and the last one.

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

My Pixel art experimental: D Screenshots 1920x1080 resolution, antialiasing x4, Mipmap, hidden chat, hidden hud. Greetings to all ;)

SpaghettiDeveloper commented 7 years ago

@tobyplowy My screenshots are available to the community. I am my images, constructions I have created, with Minetest 0.4.14. I would love to realize buildings and images useful for the project. I await the new 0.4.15 and realize something fantastic with the new blocks (block tile).

@sfan5 sfan beautiful pictures!

Wuzzy2 commented 7 years ago

Now that v7 is the default, it is safe to include v7 screenshots. Sill there hasn't been a screenshot update. :-(

But I think you all make the mistake to intuitively filter out any non-Minetest Game and actual gameplay screenshots. All your screenshots only show (near) vanilla output of the mapgen, and only in Minetest Game. This does a disservice to Minetest and Minetest Game, because Minetest is NOT just a map generator! xD

Screenshots should also show:

Other subgames (VERY important)
Authentic gameplay footage, not just some random landscape you found after flying around. Show off your singleplayer worlds, if you want! :D Some landscape screenshots are OK, but they shouldn't be the only ones
Buildings built by actual players
Multiplayer
Mods
(maybe) texture packs (less important)

The idea is to show off all of Minetest's capabilities. Minetest Game is just a tiny fraction of what Minetest is capable of.

Of course, screenshots with other mods or subgames or texture packs should be labelled as such.

If you need inspiration, have a look at this: http://wiki.minetest.net/Minetest I guess some of these screenshots can already be used.

I have a suggestion: We continue “brainstorming” and collect as many screenshots as possible. Then we seperate the wheat from the chaff, sort the good screenshots into categories and finally update that thing.

Wuzzy2 commented 7 years ago

Another screenshot dump (CC0):

Teaser:

Full Imgur albums:

https://imgur.com/a/lXQhU (BFD, Lord of the Test)

https://imgur.com/a/s8z0X (Minetest Game, Pixture, MineClone 2, rpgtest, random servers, fun with mapgen)

Please grab the screenshots before they are gone.

With the exception of the werid v5 mapgen experiment (https://i.imgur.com/bNvFruo.jpg) and the boat screenshot (https://i.imgur.com/5dCFaJ4.jpg), these screenshots show me playing for real (or at least show the worlds in which I play for real) and are thus authentic.

Some screenshots look very random, but hey, that's the nature of Minetest! :grinning:

Everyone: When you play Minetest next time, be ready to make a lot of screenshots, so you can post a screenshot dump here.

azekillDIABLO commented 7 years ago

screenshot_20160626_163853 screenshot_20160520_124350 screenshot_20160520_164526 screenshot_20160521_124458 screenshot_20160521_124504 screenshot_20160521_124515 screenshot_20160524_122618 screenshot_20160524_133759 screenshot_20160530_160211 screenshot_20160530_161149 screenshot_20160530_161455 screenshot_20160530_161807 screenshot_20160531_115841 screenshot_20160602_123849 screenshot_20160619_153858 screenshot_20160620_134107 screenshot_20160624_122605 screenshot_20160626_124512 Here is a bunch of screenshots taken on variuos gameplay! some of them are not very good but they show awesome mod sutff! i hope it will help! Also, Mineyoshi and I were thinking to do a 4.15 trailer!

Edit (ShadowNinja): Switched from inline images to links to reduce page download size.

Wuzzy2 commented 7 years ago

Woah, thanks a lot for these screenshots! :)

4.15

Augh! The pain!

azekillDIABLO commented 7 years ago

more screenies coming!

azekillDIABLO commented 7 years ago

EDIT (ShadowNinja): Switched from inline images to links to reduce page download size.

gejan commented 7 years ago

The most important benefit to building are rotatable slabs. Therefore, we should present it:

screenshot_20170409_024718 screenshot_20170409_024914 screenshot_20170409_024831 Build at "OldCoder Lord of the Test"; Visible nodes and objects from "Lord of the Test"(subgame) and "darkage"(mod) Licence CC0

sorcerykid commented 7 years ago

I should go through the gazillion screenshots I have of JT2, and share a handful here. We have a lot of highly skilled builders. It's amazing what they can do capture the imagination even with the limited materials available in my subgame. I think it's a great idea to start showcasing creations on the official Minetest site..

azekillDIABLO commented 7 years ago

We should change the homepage screenshot which only shows old torches and some odd stone structure.

octacian commented 6 years ago

The content of the current website honestly needs a lot of work, IMO, and while the above if a good start, I don't think it is the right way to go. Rather than recreating old content with new resources, entirely new content should be created from scratch (in most situations).

tobyplowy commented 6 years ago

@octacian the recreation was just an excuse to keep the conversation going and to keep this issue relevant You can't say it didn't work XD

But I completely agree with you :)

azekillDIABLO commented 6 years ago

That 3D recreation is hard work xD @tobyplowy

On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 4:46 AM, Toby plowy notifications@github.com wrote:

@octacian https://github.com/octacian the recreation was just an excuse to keep the conversation going and to keep this issue relevant

You can't say it didn't work XD

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/minetest/minetest.github.io/issues/78#issuecomment-331319881, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQ3aRoRaK7Aaf8aZ9iWQL0hp6uPwKNQnks5skwN-gaJpZM4LF22f .

Wuzzy2 commented 6 years ago

We have loads of screenshots to choose from now. I think we should now finally start to pick and choose. (But if you have more screenshots, feel free to post!)

Then, the question is how to present them.

I suggest a division by subgames. Let's maybe show 1-6 screenshots per subgame.

Like this:

# Subgame 1
<screenshot> <screenshot>
<screenshot> <screenshot>
<screenshot> <screenshot>
# Subgame 2
<screenshot> <screenshot>
<screenshot> <screenshot>
<screenshot> <screenshot>

And so on. Maybe a final section for weird/fun stuff which doesn't really fit into a category could be added at the end (I'm not sure yet). To keep loading times low, use thumbnails (this should be obvious).

IMO it doesn't really matter which subgames/mods we choose as long these subgames are reasonably playable (MT is still in Alpha anyway, so it's OK to show WIP subgames). For me, the screenshots are not really meant as advertisement for the subgames, but more to give an idea of what MT is capable of. This doesn't mean the screenshots should be crap. :D Screenshots of authentic in-game situations are of course the best.

Also, the gallery must be large and have a lot of variety, so that you can get a good impression of MT's many features. Current screenshots are way too homogenous.

Wuzzy2 commented 6 years ago

Remember my 6-screenshots-per-subgame suggestion? This time I mean it!

This is my first post suggesting concrete screenshots. This is no longer “brainstorming”. Most of the screenshots have been posted before, this is my selection of the best (IMHO). Low quality screenshots have been filtered out … as good as I could. Max. 6 screenshots per category. This is my first set of screenshot which I wish to be promoted directly to the screenshot page.

I vote for:

Minetest Game without mods (or the mods are completely invisible in the screenshot): https://i.imgur.com/ARxsmwp.jpg https://i.imgur.com/97T7izf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/AAk7uL5.png https://wiki.minetest.net/images/6/69/Desert_at_sunset_0.4.7.png https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1042418/21107331/a220c79a-c091-11e6-93b0-1976d07f2911.png https://i.imgur.com/lyDfOsW.png

Minetest Game with mods: https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/19692518/24833658/863b7afc-1cd0-11e7-9c78-ce8ba4fdf44a.png https://i.imgur.com/bWUfIpK.jpg https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/17685062/24654065/8d3aa4b8-1938-11e7-957b-d113b91abe0a.png https://i.imgur.com/gaocxMi.png https://i.imgur.com/B5zip5O.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lRQKAE0.jpg

(let's be honest: most servers turn Minetest Game into a very different game, so I think a separate category makes a lot of sense)

Pixture: https://i.imgur.com/oaxM7eR.png https://i.imgur.com/5xg691V.png https://i.imgur.com/AATuubW.png https://i.imgur.com/DwxBxLJ.png https://i.imgur.com/ZgbgraZ.png https://i.imgur.com/CS4Utfx.png

Lord of the Test: https://i.imgur.com/fyPc1vo.jpg

(5 more screenshots needed, esp. of the unique buildings)

Shameless MineClone 2 Plug: https://i.imgur.com/nO7D5yZ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/R7B0E54.png https://i.imgur.com/1cRAzEG.jpg https://i.imgur.com/EOSHkog.jpg https://i.imgur.com/MpabNlJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/EYuQ4n7.png

(tbh I'm not really happy with these screenshots yet, except for the last one)

BFD: https://i.imgur.com/sxaYGvC.png https://i.imgur.com/zuMYOJZ.jpg

rpgtest: https://i.imgur.com/Snx6tpx.png

Carbone NG: https://wiki.minetest.net/File:Carbone.jpg

Misc./Unsorted (mostly to show off unusual features. Feel free to discard at will): https://i.imgur.com/bNvFruo.jpg https://i.imgur.com/oDfPggp.png https://i.imgur.com/z6Lag5A.png

https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/17685062/24827274/6e67aa88-1c47-11e7-9231-98535f2b3929.jpg https://i.imgur.com/U7BBIs0.png

Screenshot wishlist:

Inside The Box
The Legend of Minetest
Minetest Hades
Aftermath
In general: Astonishing buildings, cool servers, interesting mods

HOW TO HELP:

Give feedback for my list. Have a screenshot for my top 6? Suggest another screenshot to replace it (keeping the limit of 6 intact)
Suggest other subgames worth showing off
Post screenshots for the missing subgames / subgames with missing images (but remember we already have plenty. I want to get the ranking done.)

MY GOALS:

Show off at least 6 subgames (but there's no upper limit) …
… with the top 6 screenshots per subgame/category
Show off as many features as possible
Only keep good screenshots, remove low quality ones
Have great variety in screenshots, avoid repetitive screenshots
IMO landscape screenshots are OK but should be used sparingly and reserved for only the absolutely best landscapes. Minetest should not be reduced to a terrain generator
Once we agree on a list of screenshots, finally create the PR and get this thing done once and for all!

EDIT: Removed low-resolution screenshots: https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/17685062/24827275/6e735d7e-1c47-11e7-9e66-e7ae221fd26a.jpg https://wiki.minetest.net/images/b/b1/Minetest_Saturn.png https://wiki.minetest.net/File:Lord_of_the_Test.jpg https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/16853304/32994633-6342cc62-cd6a-11e7-8d6e-d9a24fb43a5b.png https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/16853304/32994631-63143280-cd6a-11e7-895c-5ca7459a390c.png https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/16853304/32994627-62cb2a0e-cd6a-11e7-9b56-43ca8219378a.png

D00Med commented 6 years ago

Here are some screenshots I have taken.

A house I built in minetest game: screenshot_20170410_105338 Farlands: screenshot_20170428_185002 screenshot_20170312_133700 Legend of Minetest: screenshot_20170106_060445 screenshot_20170126_135054 screenshot_20170127_081257 screenshot_20170602_183729 screenshot_20170626_202050 screenshot_20171120_082741 screenshot_20171120_082919 screenshot_20171120_083317

Wuzzy2 commented 6 years ago

Great screenshots, but they are a bit small. But it's not too bad.

Calinou commented 6 years ago

The screenshots should be 1920×1080 at least (with a 16:9 aspect ratio), as they should be able to be enlarged when clicked. (The homepage will use downscaled thumbnails, of course.)

D00Med commented 6 years ago

@Calinou Is there a way to take screenshots at a larger size than the minetest window?

rubenwardy commented 6 years ago

graphics cards capable of 1080p? I do, but then again it was a $600 investment.

U wat m8?

Most new laptops without a dedicated graphics card can run at 1080p. Most new phones are at least 720p HD, with medium range running at at least 1080p. Even budget aptops come with 1080p screens even if the framerate in Minetest isn't great.

Regardless of this, it is completely irrelevant what resolution people run Minetest at. All that matters is what resolution looks best on the website and the sizes its displayed at.

PS. It should also be noted that in the cases of certain OS's, it may not even possible to fully capture 1080p or 720p due to the presence of the title bar or task bar.

This is bullshit. All major OSes and distros support fullscreen.

lisacvuk commented 6 years ago

How long did it take you to load this issue using dialup, @sorcerykid? :)

sorcerykid commented 6 years ago

How long did it take you to load this issue using dialup, @sorcerykid?

Pretty much instantly since I have fiber-optic, and it is provided free with my apartment. Heck even my high school had broadband computer labs as far back as 1993. It's nice living only blocks from the University of Illinois.

Meanwhile since we're laughing about video capabilities, I always get a chuckle when players complain about low FPS in Minetest, when I never experience that problem on my laptop:

https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16836

Anyway, back on topic, I will be glad to share screenshots of the just_test_tribute and extreme survival subgames, since those should also be worthy candidates for this project.

sofar commented 6 years ago

Having screenshots at a high resolution allows the website to be (1) flexible about the displayed size of screenshots and (2) create high quality images that are a lower resolution.

It's not that we want to force webpage visitors to view 1920x1080 images all the time, but due to image compression and loss when recoding and scaling, it's just that low quality/low resolution screenshots quickly become unusable (ugly/painful to watch) for web viewing purposes.

You may think that playing minetest at 720p with low video quality settings is adequate, but if you take non-FSAA screenshots at that resolution and upload them to a website, and then view them on a smartphone browser, you'll likely think that minetest is a 15 year old game famous for it's terrible graphics.

We don't want MT to be known as a low quality graphical game. We want it to be known as a high-quality graphical game that also runs well on low end hardware.

So, the submitted source base material should be of a consistently high quality level.

Here are some general guidelines I follow for screenshots:

If you're submitting screenshots that are not 1920x1080 but lower, you should ask others to take screenshots instead. Try and enable 8xFSAA, but disable waving leaves and water, and possibly waving plants. Tonemapping generally gives pleasurable images as well. Hiding the UI should probably not be done unless you're showing landscapes or builds, but you should hide chat and wait for the chat pane and HUD texts to disappear. Disable debug text (f5) as well. If the minimap shows unloaded blocks, hide it or travel around a bit to make it full.

As for composition, there are many photography guides on composition that are relevant. Since light isn't something easily changed, you should focus on composition and bring out your subject. Consider changing FOV to accentuate subjects. If you're working in an enclosed small space, increase FOV to 75 or higher to capture small spaces. If you're capturing details in landscaping or small builds, consider moving further away and use a lower FOV to get a good portrait style shot. Don't disable fog, but use it smart. If the subject is a bit further away, fog will accentuate the depth of the subject. A good measure is to make the fog start just at the front of the subject, so that the depth of the subject becomes apparent. You can do this by tuning the viewing range. In general, you don't ever want to crop your images. Always shoot exactly the frame you want. Cropping means a loss of detail and poor composition, and results in lower quality screenshots.

Cheers.

paramat commented 6 years ago

The issues with <1920 screenshots are not nearly that bad, smaller images can look fine rescaled. Insisting on 1920 rules out many people being able to submit screenshots, such as me, and i have a good Intel core i5 computer with a quality reasonable size 24" 1600x1050 screen (not small by any standard). It simply won't be practical to ask someone else with a larger screen to take a certain screenshot, so your choice of screenshots will fall dramatically. You also then rule out a huge resource of past screenshots which may be excellent. Calinou has powerful equipment and has an excessively high standard when it comes to screen sizes, not everyone can afford such equipment, especially users of MT who tend to not have a lot of money. Anything around 1280x720 is fine. This idea that any image on the internet <1920 looks bad is ridiculous, everyone knows that's not true. There don't have to be any hard rules on FSAA or settings, if it looks good that's all that matters.

Wuzzy2 commented 6 years ago

8xFSAA

Ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu … I totally forgot that one. Most screenshots of my last post have the right size, but I did not turn on FSAA. I will remove the low-res screenshots now.

So basically this means all screenshots which have been posted so far are garbage? Now I have to re-do all screenshots all over again. >_>

BTW: Players have to jump through hoops right now just to enable fullscreen. So it's also not trivial to enable anti-aliasing. So most players will NOT have anti-aliasing. :-(

By the way: ANY screenshots are better than the crappy screenshots we currently have on our homepage. Just saying. ;-) If you're so perfectionist that means we just stick longer with the worst screenshots. Who says we have to get it perfect on the first try? How about incremental updates?

By the way (part 2): Absolutely zero comments on my previous screenshot collection? Boo!

By the way (part 3): How about instead of complaining, you just start helping, too? :angry:

sofar commented 6 years ago

Insisting on 1920 rules out many people being able to submit screenshots, such as me

So basically this means all screenshots which have been posted so far are garbage?

no, I didn't say that. Stop turning words around.

We should strive to get the best quality screenshots. Striving means that we ask for a certain quality, not refuse lower quality.

I'm not being a dick about bad screenshots, my guidelines are only a suggestion, and they are perhaps somewhat aggressive but not insensible. As shown on the current website, most of our current screenshots don't even pass the bar that I'd like to have as a recommendation.

Remember, I used the word "SHOULD" not the word "MUST".

Wuzzy2 commented 6 years ago

Can someone besides me please vote on the top screenshots we got so far?

I want to know what you're aiming for. :)

I don't want to argue, I now just want to get this thing done. This issue has been open long enough now.

sfan5 commented 6 years ago

So basically this means all screenshots which have been posted so far are garbage?

Mine have FSAAx4 enabled, which was suggested by @Calinou

Calinou commented 6 years ago

Mine have FSAAx4 enabled, which was suggested by @Calinou

8× MSAA is preferable, but I'm being picky here – 4× looks decent as well. (I edited my suggestion post accordingly.)

minetest / minetest.github.io

Add better screenshots, and more screenshots #78

Overview