List all assets by origin

[WildWeazel]

I want to get a breakdown of where all of the files in Assets came from:

• created by one of us
• downloaded from elsewhere (I have most if not all of those covered already)
• generated by AI

Just a list of files/directories with one of those sources is sufficient. This is mostly a request for @TomWerner and @esbudylin as I believe you uploaded all of the files that were originally in C7/Art.

I'm not looking for a full pedigree of every file. The main reason is to identify what was made by AI so we can prioritize its replacement, and then if there's anything else from outside this team we need to make sure it gets a credits file.

[ajhalme]

What's the driver behind making an effort replace AI assets? Is there a project policy against AI assets (or contributions in general), and is that documented somewhere?

I've seen the wider indie gaming community express strong sentiments against AI content, which is fair enough, I suppose. Personally, if AI assets are the deciding factor between a project stalling vs. maintaining momentum, I'd be inclined to keep the momentum.

If this is more about a stance on a moral or socio-economic issue, perhaps the project could crowdfund and then commission some special specific assets like a splash or a credits screen, or special units, from reputable artists. As a kind of a community/industry service.

[stavrosfa]

I don't think there is any question about the project stalling because there are AI art assets. They were there as a placeholder, and nothing more.
And I suppose, while I don't want to put words in your mouth WildWeazel, by prioritiazation, you mean, not search for better units since we have some originals, but try to find what we are essentially missing in order to replace with original artwork.

Since this is mentioned, I am not a fan of AI, or rather, how it's been used by people. I have written stuff with AI, there are commits in this repo that were done with AI, and that's fine.
From my point of view, I don't like using it to copy paste code, and spit out 10 features a day while claiming to be a good developer. I don't think anyone here would like this, we do this for fun.
Amongst ourselves, we could take a week, put 10 llms to work, and finish the game. I don't think that's the point though.

[ajhalme]

try to find what we are essentially missing in order to replace with original artwork

I thought #465 is for that.

--

On AI, I'm not particularly passionate about it either way. Good code is good code, and bad code is bad code. If there is craft in the software industry, it's in solving the right problem and having the solution fit the task at hand well. I want to believe that good taste will prevail, no matter how much the tools evolve.

For me the fun is in figuring out how to implement a thing. And in the learning and growing that happens as a side effect. If the robot helps me in the implementation, to put stuff together a bit faster, that's a win, because I potentially get to have more fun within a fixed window of effort. I do recognize that the Pull Request reviewing side of the equation can become a real resourcing challenge in a project like this.

Amongst ourselves, we could take a week, put 10 llms to work, and finish the game. I don't think that's the point though.

I haven't used AI in my PRs for this project yet. But I seriously doubt that a pile of LLMs would be able to piece this whole thing together in a week. The prompting alone would be a nightmare. But I am curious about what you think the point of all this is or could be. As far as I can tell, the majority of the wider Civ3 community is particularly interested in modding, so "speedrunning" the implementation of the original's remake could well be...welcomed?

[stavrosfa]

I think that we agree on pretty much everything you are saying. Although, I have more fun spending a week figuring out how to implement something and then build it myself, rather than use the bot, that's a personal preference, and I can't blame anyone for doing it.

I seriously doubt that a pile of LLMs would be able to piece this whole thing together in a week

I was exaggerating there, but probably not by much 😅

The modding community, sure, it would welcome it. But personally, I just enjoy building it. I am not a modder, or a "gamer", whatever that means, and if I just wanted to play the game, I have the steam version, and the CD that I bought back in 2005, and I can play it. So, for me, the point is to built it, a pebble at a time.

[WildWeazel]

And I suppose, while I don't want to put words in your mouth WildWeazel, by prioritiazation, you mean, not search for better units since we have some originals, but try to find what we are essentially missing in order to replace with original artwork.

Exactly this. Prioritization relative to other placeholder assets. I mean to start a forum thread with this list and ask if anyone would like to create dedicated graphics, or propose suitable ones we've overlooked. It doesn't need to take any focus away from development.

As far as AI policy we don't have one and I'm pretty ambivalent about it in general, but it is controversial in gaming, and for our artwork it kind of flies in the face of one of the motivations for the project which is to provide a better platform to showcase all of the Civ3 mod content. We did choose AI content for momentum, which is what allowed us to debut standalone mode when we did, but now that it works I'd like to move past the AI crutch.

[TomWerner]

This is mostly a request for @TomWerner

AI (just about all of this still involved a fair bit of manual edited/resizing/cropping, but did use AI):

• popheads
• advisors heads
• civ disorder animation
• the world setup stuff (like the art for the temperature/climate/etc)
• the luxury resources/strategic resources/bonus resources
• some of the icons, like the shields/gold/etc, though there was a lot of manual editing from an AI starting point

I made:

• The various UI backgrounds (mostly using cutouts of two different sandstone-ish textures and paint.net effects).
• Assorted buttons with paint.net effects
• cursor animation
• railroads/roads (I believe that PR has the script I used to generate them if I didn't check the script in)
• the terrain pack (this was lots of paint.net effects, I think the PR that added them listed the steps)

[WildWeazel]

Great, thanks! @esbudylin were any of your files AI-made? And did either of you add anything downloaded from CFC or elsewhere?

[esbudylin]

Great, thanks! @esbudylin were any of your files AI-made? And did either of you add anything downloaded from CFC or elsewhere?

I didn't contribute any assets myself. I don't think there are any CFC (or external) assets in the repo, except for unit graphics.

[WildWeazel]

@TomWerner the palace view landscape is AI isn't it? What about the lower right UI box with the parchment and pipes?

[TomWerner]

Ah yes, both of those are AI too. If it looks particularly polished it's probably AI