Creating 3D perspective for walls in GIMP for battlemaps.

[geamon]

So I had the urge to try something out today, basically adding the wall faces as another element that can be used in some battle maps. Tried a test image in a square format to tryout. Let me know what you guys think.

Edit: The more I play around with the idea there more I realize it won't work for battle maps. Maybe a dungeon layout can profit from the styling. Basically the initial room where your positioned directly overhead it works fine. But once you leave the context of the that room the walls either conflict with each other or hide floor real estate. So I'm putting this to the side until I find a new concept or style layout that works.

[jfrazierjr]

Well, it will work fine for some types of locations. The biggest issue is thin walls between rooms. However, for underground locations, this typically is not an issue due to the weight bearing structure needing to be a bit thicker. Also, if you set them on a grid and have each wall be it's own tile, you can inset the beginning of the wall a bit inside the grid with the top being perhaps a tiny bit over the outside of the grid. Yes, you loose a bit of the interior, but it does make for a really nice dungeon.

[Soyokaze]

It's totally doable, and I think you got close. How does this mock up look?

(note that I would probably look a bit better WITHOUT the descending walls on the exterior - a flat "roof" plane conveying the absolute edge of the map.)

It's the same perspective used in all the 2D Zelda games and is especially useful for conveying vertical levels.

I've also seen a currently in development PC RPG which is using this technique in order to ensure that the walls don't obscure anything in the dungeons.

The trick is just to maintain, as you did above, 2 "wall" spaces adjacent to any "floor" space. Thus, two adjacent rooms can be seperated by, at minimum, 3 "wall" spaces. It'll look different, but it works.

In the Zelda games, and this is probably a wise guideline, the sides of the walls are treated only as surface, not extra space. A 3 space wide wall with only 1 top space is, then, only one space thick. One could try the same technique without the top piece, but I doubt it will look as convincing.

[geamon]

In a VG sense it works no problem, but under normal P&P RPG it wouldn't for the most part aside from an aesthetic representation. As you said it would force doors to be 3 squares wide , if an encounter in 4e has doors like that you entered it would create movement issues due to squares being representative of 5 feet. I mean using half a move action to enter through a door is kinda bizarre and won't work. This is just one argument against mind you.