May Entry: "Knock, knock." "Who's lair?"
This month's challenge has got me really stumped. I know nothing about image compression and so on, and less than nothing about VTTs, so I'm not exactly sure what to do. However, I've been meaning to try a 'dungeon' type map since I got here, so I thought I might as well see what I can come up with.
This is an underground base/lair/dungeon/hideout thing, housing an as yet un-named wizard/pirate/smuggler/arms dealer.
Not sure where it's going, whether the floor will be stone or steel, whether there'll be stabling for horses or hovercycles. I guess we'll see as we go. Most of all, I'm not sure whether I can produce anything usable within the file size limit....
### Latest WIP ###
Yay for a man with a WIP tag...
Try saving the image as a PNG as its solid color and that will be much lower size. If you do texture it up a lot then JPG might be better. So far you only have black and white and are at 42K which is a lot. When you save a JPG out you have the option of quality. Lower that a lot - I had mine at about 35% and it cuts down the file size. Theres a post all about how to reduce the size of your file.
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There's going to be more texturing going on, so I've started out with a jpg. As I go on I assume that the numbers will go up over the challenge limit, so I'll start to increase the compression. At any stage where the compression then makes it look rubbish, I'll know that I can't use that sort of texturing unless I get a better compression-y thingy.
Of course, this approach might fall veeery flat, but at least I'll be learning my limits as I go
Edit - OK, did a bit more this afternoon. Tried out metal floorcoverings for a scifi type lair. Didn't like it (guess I'm a fantasy player at heart), so replaced it with earth and stone. Much better. But for a fantasy underground lair the layout was too smooth, so I roughened up the walls a little. So far I'm under the file size limit. Will have to see how much detail I can add before I need to compress more...
### Latest WIP ###
Last edited by SpamValiant; 05-11-2008 at 10:24 AM.
It's coming along very nicely. Oh, and extra points for the rather funny thread title.
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Originally Posted by SpamValiant
My logic would send me in the other direction. I would think that if they were going to spend the hugh amount of time to create the nicely set floor stone tiles, they would have created smooth walls also. I would say if the walls are going to be rough, the floor should be also as opposed to nice and neat tiles.
Joe
My Finished Maps
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Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
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Having a smooth floor is far more important than having smooth walls, though in fairness the tiling may be going a little far!
The tile layer was my first flooring, then I went over the entrance region with the earthy/sandy textures. When I get more time I'll probably make the main area flooring into a more rocky texture, and keep the tiling for the private quarters of the mad wizard who probably lives here. We'll see...
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