Any Encounter/Battlemap Tutorials?

[Redrobes]

Got a few points to make.
1. Yes, this thread will make an excellent WIP thread for your new map so make a start. try to move it as far as possible and then when stuck, ask away.
2. We may have to remove that map cos its a WotC map and copyrighted. If you can provide a link to the map on a WotC site or whatever then can you edit the post.
3. CGTextures is a great resource and I like it cos its easy to use. You can use the textures in commercial and non commercial maps but you cant use them in creative commons maps or any maps that have a license that makes the parts of the image free to use. So not CC or GNU etc. They specifically dont allow scrapbooking where you collect up the textures and repost them online as a set of textures - thats their big no no. But as long as you cant extract a good version of the texture back out of your image then I think your basically ok.
4. I wrote a seamless texture tut here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ut-of-anything which is basically the process tilt is describing.
5. You get get a GIMP plug in courtesy of RobA (I think he has a link to it on his sig) to do that process or in that thread is a script which will run it automatically using image magick. Otherwise its a bit of a chore by hand.
6.

[ScenesFromAMemory]

I will remove the image after dinner.

But thank you guys so much! You are quick and incredibly helpful

[Midgardsormr]

Does CC require that source elements of a piece be available in that manner? I haven't read the lawyer-speak, but I don't recall seeing anything in the plain language version of the licenses that suggests that elements of a work need to be made available under the same license. I thought only the final work was licensed. If that's the case, then the licenses are far less useful than I had previously thought.

GNU, though, is very stringent on that subject, so you're correct about that. Not to mention the onerous requirement of including the entire license text with the work. I can't imagine using GNU for visual artwork. I considered it for a video project a couple of months back, but there's not any practical way to fulfill the license terms with a short video distributed on the 'net, so I had to forgo using a bit of texture.

[tilt]

I believe its the other way around, that they don't want their textures to be used in CC cause then they are "free" to use by others afterwards (if they can be extracted).

[Redrobes]

The basic principle is that stuff you create is copyright by default and that all elements that your using which you have not created yourself need permission from those that did in order to use them. If you are using elements to make an image that is CC then the license states how you can use those elements in your work without having to specifically ask the owner. If you use public domain elements then you can use them in your CC images as they are ownerless or owned by the public.

So no, you can use all copyrighted stuff in a CC image if you get permission from all the copyright owners to do it. If we were talking about a professional art repository like Associated Press or something similar then they would not give it at all in any way because thats their business. The license that CGTextures is giving is not CC or public domain but is their own and states how you are able to use their stuff and they are not by default saying you can do whatever you want with them but they are quite liberal about it. Because they are not saying do whatever you want they are correct in saying that you cannot re-license their stuff on their behalf. So you cannot license work with their stuff in it as CC or GNU doc or whatever. They are saying you can use it to make work and even sell that work, publish it and do most things with it but the texture within that image is still theirs and is not yours to legally give away.

Its an odd situation and is where the licenses of free and copyright clash. There is an incompatibility with the licenses. Your right in that GNU code in programs is much the same. You can license your own written code as GNU but you cant take bits of other peoples code, make up some new programs using parts of it and then license the code as a whole as GNU. And once its GNU then it stays GNU unless the original author says that his code can be used in another way. This is like the CC license when you use the "share-alike" bit of it. Every image that you make using one bit of CC with SA element in it needs to be CC-SA as well.

GNU and CC etc are there for your protection. It says that you have specific written permission to use it. Nobody can come along and claim that you now owe them money for using their stuff. And the flip side is true when you put a CC license on your new work and publish - you are stating how you are, by default, allowing people to use your work. When using CC without the "no derivatives" mark on it then people can and will take your work, make a mash up of it and repost it.

The short of it is that if you want to do whatever you want with your work then make it all yourself or use public domain material or extremely liberal licenses like the MIT / BSD ones. This is the route I take with my code but with my art I do CC stuff too but I don't knowingly use copyright material without a license or GNU. In fact I don't generally use even the lesser GPL or some of the mildly restricting licenses in my code.

Licenses are a necessary evil but also like having a free insurance policy on your work and I would urge people to mark the actual image with whatever license or copyright symbol as applicable.

[Midgardsormr]

I went back and looked at the CGTextures license in preparation for starting another thread to clarify this matter, and I saw the clause "It is NOT permitted to… Release the Textures or derivative products under Open Source Licences." So the issue is actually the CGTextures license, not CC. I'm going to start a new thread in General Discussion where we can get at this in more depth, since it's off-topic here. Look for "Creative Commons licensing questions."

[Redrobes]

Yes thats right. CGTextures are not CC, and tho liberal in scope, they don't allow you to make CC or GNU images out of them. If you look at my sig with the Unless otherwise stated... bit it says "Sometimes the maps use content which is not permissible under CC terms." Thats pretty much there for CGTextures sake. I can give the map away for free to use for gaming but sometimes the map may not be CC so no rehashing of it. I don't use all that many CGTextures textures cos I have quite a substantial amount of ones I took myself which is the way I like to be.