Slope study

[Ceraus]

Spent a few weeks with writer's block about slopes, but got through tonight.

I scrapped everything, went back to the basics and tried to incorporate some of Ascension's feedback.

I especially reworked the texturing, adding subtle lighting effects to the slope texture (while keeping it tileable). Then white on top, black on bottom and a little shadow, but with new, improved numerical values that don't over-complicate creation.

This is preliminary, but I'm quite pleased by the results. Keep in mind that my cliff in the first post and this new image are supposed to represent the same thing.

[Ceraus]

I've also redone the hill with the new parameters. I'm posting the old one again for comparison.

I think the new one looks much better, especially in high resolution. Its sloped sides almost look stiff - which is exactly what I'm looking for. No ambiguity.

[Ceraus]

First tile!

I had to compromise a lot on realism. Making a 2-square thick slope fit on a 4-square tile means I can't extend any gradient or shadow very far. Also, the exact locations of the slope's edges were up for debate, so I just squeezed every variable until it gave a slope that fit well and read well. As the white top and black bottom barely extend anymore, I made them massively more apparent (probably overdone the white).

Here's the first tile and how it looks on generic grasslands and on sandy/rocky terrain. The tile itself is rotatable and fits with itself. I'll go sleep on it now.

(EDIT: Oops, the texture doesn't fit. I must have misplaced it somewhere.)

[Ceraus]

I'm no longer doing any "Slope study", but my slope work continues here:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...9818#post59818