Duruthian Catacombs

[pasis]

Today I experimented with some indoor mapping which is something I have never done before. Decided to play with the shadows as well. Turned out better than I expected.

[Larb]

Definitely has some nice atmosphere to it.

[Jacktannery]

Excellent tiles and shadows!

[Bogie]

Very realistic looking!

[pasis]

Thanks guys!
I have used layer masks, so it is created in nondestructive way. Changing it is simple and fast (only the shadows require extra attention). I will review the method further as I already found few better ways to do it.

[pasis]

Purely experimenting with new techniques.

[pasis]

Difficulties after difficulties. I though I had this figured out already but once you finally get something done you run against another problem.

[Askren]

The reason I stay away from really harsh lighting and shadows is because while it may look very realistic, in my mind it stops making sense once the players are involved.

For example, if I make a map where the inside of a building is dark with just a sliver of light coming in through a barely opened door, it looks cool. But what happens when the players open the door? The room is still dark. What if they're carrying their own light source, as they're likely to do?

Not to say the images aren't nice (I always find it funny when I can point to the exact texture someone used in my own Textures folder), but I've found it a technique that seems like a waste on battlemaps.

[pasis]

The reason I stay away from really harsh lighting and shadows is because while it may look very realistic, in my mind it stops making sense once the players are involved.

For example, if I make a map where the inside of a building is dark with just a sliver of light coming in through a barely opened door, it looks cool. But what happens when the players open the door? The room is still dark. What if they're carrying their own light source, as they're likely to do?

Not to say the images aren't nice (I always find it funny when I can point to the exact texture someone used in my own Textures folder), but I've found it a technique that seems like a waste on battlemaps.

Indeed there are different needs for every (battle)map and therefore when this will be finished I will include two different versions. One with specific lights and shadows and another "natural" one without any special effects. I have already created the map this in mind and all special things (light sources, items etc) can be removed in just few clicks.

What's the difficulty exactly? It looks okay to me, though it's a bit unclear what's going on with the wall at the south end of the fire pit room. Has it collapsed into a pile of dirt strewn across the floor? The two just sort of fade into one another.

I had challenges especially creating the shadows and finding a reasonable way to make corrections to them if (and when) I change the corridor layouts. The only solution I could come up with is to make the layout first and worry about the lighting afterwards. But that's not how I work. I couldn't keep my hands away from the shadows and I constantly had to recreate something I had finished 10min ago.

VERY NICE, Rep! I noticed you made the light rays constantly fuzzy. This isn't actually how this realistically works. The further you are away from the source, the more the light scatters.

I made you a little help-pic =)

That is true. I will modify the shadows and I also need to pay attention on indirect light (amount of light and the color) in the corridors. One example of this is the orange light in the corridor from the fire. Even though the direct light doesn't hit the floor or the walls all the way, they still have a hint of orange in them.

[wdmartin]

I though I had this figured out already but once you finally get something done you run against another problem.

What's the difficulty exactly? It looks okay to me, though it's a bit unclear what's going on with the wall at the south end of the fire pit room. Has it collapsed into a pile of dirt strewn across the floor? The two just sort of fade into one another.

The room is still dark. What if they're carrying their own light source, as they're likely to do?

When I first started playing RPGs, I spent ages scouring racks of minis looking for THE perfect mini for a character I wanted to play. The character was going to be a male dwarf ranger dual-wielding axes, with an emphasis on stealth and scouting, so I wanted something that looked sneaky. I eventually found the perfect mini for this PC. Sure, he's carrying a dagger rather than an axe, but he's got axes on his belt, and everything else was just right. So I bought it and got it painted up just like I wanted.

And you know what? After playing him for a while, he wound up as the primary melee type for the party and REALLY needed a better AC, so I ditched the off-hand axe in favor of retooling him to use an axe-and-shield combo. Also, the whole stealth thing turned out to be impractical in play most of the time. Horror, the mini no longer matched at all! But I kept using it anyway, and it didn't bother me. Having the exact details of the prop match the current state of game play wasn't as important as I'd thought.

I think the same applies to battle maps. The art represents the initial state of the game world. If it changes, that's okay. People will just have to use their imaginations.