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Thread: December Entry: Pirate Caverns - The old lighthouse

  1. #11
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    I have taken the terrain into my GTS program and put it through a smooth in there. This app works in float so were not limited to the 256 shades of gray now. I added some noise saved it out and then pushed it though my texture compositor. So at 35 mins in it looks like the first image.

    Then I got my rocks height map out and sprayed them liberally around the base of the cliff using ViewingDale and added that to the height map. I also cut a river channel by hand and filled it with water. Its a bit dodgy because the water is not using the full sim to get it flat over the terrain. I was burning time at this point.

    Finally, I got out ViewingDale and put in some trees, the house, the path and the lighthouse. Then I got PSP out again and did the cave by hand.

    By an hour and a half I am here. Probably should have kept more time back for the actual caves but heck time flies when your having fun.

    Now that I have the terrain in 3D I have zipped it up and uploaded it. You can get it
    here
    . Unpack it into a directory. Then download the Dragon Flight app from here and put that into same directory and then run it. You will need to up the res a few times before it looks good but it slows down with higher res.

  2. #12
    Administrator Facebook Connected Robbie's Avatar
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    Its lookin pretty cool thus far...I really like the height map stuff.
    All Hail FlappyMap! Long Live MapFeed!

    Robbie Powell - Site Admin

  3. #13
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Thanks Arcana,

    I tried a few test runs on getting my GTS to carve out some caves automatically and it wasnt working too well so I will do the caves the old fashioned way and look into that technique more later. So my caves will in a 2D plane which is not so realistic but its a lot easier. Maybe ill have to get a 3D modeling package out to do it properly - I dont know.

    So I drew some caves out and then scanned that in. Did the usual blur and got ViewingDale to liberally spray rocks over the edges. Then after clamping and rendering the result I am now at 2 + 1/2 hrs in. Its not the caves I would have liked but it will have to do.

  4. #14

    Post I considered doing the caves in 3D

    Initially I considering creating my map in 3D, with some experimentation I realized I needed 8 - 10 hours to do what I needed, so I gave that up right away.

    As your work shows doing it in 3D in 4 hours is a serious challenge and a remarkable result if you can do it in time!

    I couldn't
    Gamer Printshop Publishing, Starfinder RPG modules and supplements, Map Products, Map Symbol Sets and Map Making Tutorial Guide
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    Artstation Gallery - Maps and 3D illustrations

  5. #15
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Yeah I think my original ideas were a bit ambitious for 4 hours. These are 3D but kinda extruded 2D + effects. Thats a little more realistic I think. 3D is slow but you get some stuff for free. The shading on the rocks and the sea + cliffs were all auto generated. I never touched a texture for them at all. The trees which I did manually look much worse I.M.O. I like the way you can look at stuff from the perspective that your characters might be at.

    Well I am getting towards the home run now. I did about another 1/4 hr last night just adding some brown into the cave floors to simulate the mud flow that must have happened when the river went through it. I will add all the trimmings next when I have some more time and some labels and then ill probably call it a day. I'll probably submit the ortho and a 3D view of the map and surrounding area. So about an hour left to dress it up a little from here.

  6. #16
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Ok Im all done. I have the two maps, one of the caves and one of the sorrounding terrain. I am submitting the top down 2D versions but ill upload the 3D files so that anyone can have a play with them. Since both are larger than the upload limit for this site (7Mb and 5Mb) ill provide the links below.

    Caves Map
    Terrain Map

    Piccy below is the final map in 3D. Ill add some links to the zip of 3D files for the caves in a short while. The terrain one is already linked in a previous post.

    Edit -- 3D zip of caves here
    Last edited by Redrobes; 12-11-2007 at 06:35 PM.

  7. #17

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    It's going to be very difficult to make a voting decision this month! I thought you were nuts to try a 3d approach with a four-hour time limit.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

  8. #18
    Guild Novice Blakjak66's Avatar
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    Hmm Even I was thinking of having a lighthouse/Inn with an entrance down to the cave system and I don't even know how to make a map yet. Great minds and all that...

  9. #19
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    It was a bit cliche huh ?

    I reckon the real reason was that if we owned a lighthouse or an inn we would just love to have a secret passage way to a cave system. Well I know I would - like the Bat Cave you just gotta have one !

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