# Best tileset for an ASCII lifer

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Tags:** tileset\
**Created:** [August 28, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414 "2018-08-28T21:00:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trigon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/trigon/32/2668_2.png) [@Trigon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Trigon)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/1 "2018-08-28T21:00:12Z")

</div>

Hey everyone. I’ve always been partial to ASCII. I can’t quite explain it, but I find ASCII easy to read and quick to interpret without irritating my eyes or letting me miss things that would be hard to spot against a graphic background.

Which brings me to the point of the thread. My wife has the opposite problem. ASCII makes no sense to her. She could understand the game moreso when I changed over to Chesthole to show off what I was talking about, but I’m not a huge fan of Chesthole as I have trouble seeing everything on screen quickly, plus I think most tileset vehicles look ugly.

So if I’ve always used ASCII what would be a solid graphical tileset I could use? I feel like I can’t be the only one who has had this struggle before.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mussorgsky](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mussorgsky/32/2718_2.png) [@Mussorgsky](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Mussorgsky)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/2 "2018-08-28T21:31:05Z")

</div>

I’m a big fan of the ASCII graphical mode for games like these for primarily the reason you state here. I think at some point I also developed a kind of aesthetic preference for it as well, especially with a nice crisp font rendering. Once you are used to reading the field of characters, relearning visual comprehension with a tileset can feel a little frustrating in my experience.

That being said, I have experimented with using the tilesets in this game a bit recently because there are quite a few that seem pretty good. One of the easiest to use for me were the RetroASCII and RetroDays sets. RetroASCII is obviously the closest, but the fact that some of the characters were different from the standard non-tile depiction was a little confusing.

One of the things that seems exciting to me is the couple of isometric perspective tilesets out there, as it adds a notably different way of looking at the map. The HitButton\_iso set is really cool ( probably my favorite of all the tilesets ), the other is the ChestHole\_iso set which is also very well done.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trigon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/trigon/32/2668_2.png) [@Trigon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Trigon)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/3 "2018-08-28T22:05:06Z")

</div>

I had the same problem with RetroASCII. What does Retrodays do different?

I might try hitbutton and Chesthole isometric. Maybe I just need to look at it a different way.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![latogato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9bd4f/32.png) [@latogato](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/latogato)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 10:13pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/4 "2018-08-28T22:13:59Z")

</div>

I played and loved ASCII but when tilesets was introduced i switched fast to RetroDays. It is easy to see and i can quickly understand what happening on the screen. Of course it is the least fancy tileset.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trigon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/trigon/32/2668_2.png) [@Trigon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Trigon)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/5 "2018-09-08T19:42:01Z")

</div>

Thanks everyone. Just a quick update. I’m loving RetroDays. And my wife things the dog sprites are adorable as hell so that works out. Mission accomplished.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pingpong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@pingpong](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/pingpong)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/6 "2018-09-09T04:32:08Z")

</div>

Not to derail, I’ve been having issues with fonts. I’ve tried on Windows (7) and Linux (RasPi Debian) and the fonts always have quality issues. The letters aren’t being rendered accurately in the experimentals, but are in the stable. Anyone noticed? Since it’s on the main screen I assume it applies to all fonts.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mummelpuffin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mummelpuffin/32/3324_2.png) [@Mummelpuffin](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Mummelpuffin)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-tileset-for-an-ascii-lifer/16414/7 "2018-10-07T01:36:58Z")

</div>

> [@pingpong](#):
>
> Not to derail, I’ve been having issues with fonts. I’ve tried on Windows (7) and Linux (RasPi Debian) and the fonts always have quality issues. The letters aren’t being rendered accurately in the experimentals, but are in the stable. Anyone noticed? Since it’s on the main screen I assume it applies to all fonts.

Same. I’m not sure what’s going on but fonts always render just slightly off as if the resolution is messed up or something.