Skins and Graphics Settings

Skins

The next version of WinBolo brings back skin support. A skin replaces some or all of the game's artwork and sounds: the terrain, tanks, pillboxes, bases, shells, explosions, the status panel and sound effects. WinBolo 1.x had skins, and your old .wsf files work again in the new version, alongside new skin features.

The same skin in full screen mode:

And a different work in progress skin:

Steam Workshop

Skins can now be shared on the Steam Workshop, which packages them for you and installs them for everyone who subscribes.

With his permission, Minhiriath's popular Bolo Reloaded skin has been uploaded to the Workshop for players to enjoy.

Simplified Zoomed Out View

When you zoom the Map Overview or the full screen map out far enough that the sprites become too small to make out, the game can now draw a simplified map instead of shrunken-down sprites. Each square is drawn in a flat colour, and tanks, pillboxes and bases are drawn as marker shapes. Thanks to rooklift and his ancient bolo log viewer.

It is on by default. You can turn it off, or limit it to the Map Overview window, under Settings → Display.

New Skin Features

As well as the classic 1.x skin format, skins can now use PNG and SVG graphics. A skin can include higher resolution versions of its graphics, from 2x up to 8x, and SVG (vector) graphics are drawn sharp at any size.

A skin can turn on auto-rotation. The skin then only has to draw each tank facing north, and the game rotates it to make the other fifteen directions. Any direction the skin does draw is used as drawn.

Skins can also include several sound files for one sound effect, and the game plays one of them at random each time the effect plays.

Skin authors can also set the colours used by the simplified zoomed out view as part of their skin.

Graphics settings

Skins are chosen in Settings → Display → Skin. The change applies straight away, including in the middle of a game, with no restart. The picker shows the skin's name, author and notes, and a small preview. More graphics settings are also available here.

Four new settings sit under the skin picker:

| Setting | Options | |---|---| | Tile detail | Classic always uses the original 16×16 art. Match to zoom uses higher resolution art when the skin has it for every sprite, up to your zoom level. High detail uses the best art the skin has for each sprite. Only available with a skin that includes higher resolution art. | | Animation smoothness | Classic moves sprites in whole game pixels, the way Bolo always has. Smooth moves your tank and shells continuously. Match pixelation sits between the two. | | Smooth shells | Moves shells smoothly while Animation smoothness is set to Classic or Match pixelation. | | Texture filter | Nearest, Linear or Pixel art. Controls how sprites are drawn when they fall between pixels, which shows most on smoothly moving sprites. A skin can recommend one. |

Every setting defaults to the way the game has always looked.

Here is the difference Smooth shells makes, at 8x zoom and half speed. On the left, Classic moves shells a whole game pixel at a time. On the right, Smooth shells moves them continuously.

Classic shell movement:

Smoothed movement:

Full documentation for skin authors is coming soon.