Some CC3 Experiments

[RPMiller]

Actually, now I'm getting the convex/cave effect... I hadn't been earlier. Put something in the cave to indicate walls and maybe my eyes will see it correctly again.

[jaerdaph]

I think you're right - the map does need some more visual cues.

Does this help?

Bevel off:



Bevel on:



The bevel is actually a pain in the butt because you have to move the symbols so they look like they're on the wall the bevel is creating.

[RPMiller]

That is an improvement, but my eye still slips a bit on the non-beveled one, but I'm not real pleased with the beveled one. Yea, this is a really tough call. Maybe it is because the colors are all grays. What happens if the floor were brown or the walls were?

[jaerdaph]

That is an improvement, but my eye still slips a bit on the non-beveled one, but I'm not real pleased with the beveled one. Yea, this is a really tough call. Maybe it is because the colors are all grays. What happens if the floor were brown or the walls were?

I think you may have hit the nail on the head - the similarity in the grays may be causing the optical issues. I'm going to search for some brown (and black) stone or rock tiles to see if I can get something that eliminates that.

More to come...

[NeonKnight]

I think you may have hit the nail on the head - the similarity in the grays may be causing the optical issues. I'm going to search for some brown (and black) stone or rock tiles to see if I can get something that eliminates that.

More to come...

I found this site has tons of cool BMP images for maps and stuff:

http://www.grsites.com/textures/

Also, reduce the size of your bevel. It makes it more sharp and helps to reduce how it looks

[jaerdaph]

I found this site has tons of cool BMP images for maps and stuff:

http://www.grsites.com/textures/

I love that site - I got the cobblestones from earlier in this thread there.

Also, reduce the size of your bevel. It makes it more sharp and helps to reduce how it looks

That does make a difference - thanks.

Here's what I did. I changed the rock bitmap fill that the caverns are cut out from and reduced the bevel:





I like the newer bitmap I'm using - I think using something that looks like real rock works better than the texture I was using before. Is the faces/vase thing still happening?

[NeonKnight]

It looks like you have two shadows going there.

Do you have a glow going for your walls? I always put a glow in on my walls, to make them 'stand out", and put only a single directional shadow. Also maybe put a drop shadow on the troll and prisonar to indicate the light direction as well. Could help the visual clues.

[RPMiller]

This is an improvement, and the grid helps as well.

[jaerdaph]

Thanks everybody.

Yeah, the double shadow is to simulate light sources inside the cavern, possibly from multiple sources. There's an outer glow on the walls (in black) to hide them in darker shadow. The troll and prisoner definitely need some sort of shadowing though.

I think I'm going to walk away from this one for awhile. If anyone still sees the face/vase thing going on, let me know.

As always, thank you so much for the invaluable input and suggestions. This is why I really love this place!

[jaerdaph]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread and add these latest experiments here. If you hang out at EN World, you may have seen these already.

This is a quick mockup of a castle, using bitmap fills and sheet effects on the left and traditional "old school" mapping on the right. I made the "scientific" graph paper using sheet effects as well: