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Concept map using Vue to do a small section of a town from an overhead viewpoint for use as a battlemap. I use a lot of these type of maps and have a hidden floorplan object over it, so when the party goes into the building, there is a 2d floor plan.
I am trying using Vue for some of the overhead maps so I can also give my players some 3d shots of what they are seeing to set the stage for them.
Here is the map, and some set shots.
Very cool!
Dundjinni has been very successful at collecting an explosion of 2d elements. I wonder what will be the application to collect and make 3d elements common.
Do you think it will be Poser? Vue? Sketchup? ? ? ?
Have some rep for stretching the boundaries around here :)
Sigurd
Thanks.
Unlike some of the original 2D products that relied on their own formats and had no means to share elements between them, the 3D world already has standard formats that allow the products to interchange the elements betwen them. For 3D scenes that have people in them I usually build them in Poser and bring them over to Vue. I have also gone the other way with a background scene in Vue brought over to Poser.
I'm not sure that we will see the same great collections that Dundjinni brought us.
What we need for the 3D world is a collection of buildings like Overseer had for CC2. Low poly that looked good and could be used to make a large city without taxing the system. Much of the items built for the gaming community would work, but those are usually in a locked format.
Enough rambling for now. Thanks for the comments.
Steve
There are some great 3d medieval buildings collections (costing money of course) at Turbo Squid. No idea what the poly count is on them tho. Most of what I have seen seems to be .obj 3DS Max friendly.
Cool lil town there, I love the ISO renders for that "immersion" feel to a setting. Really sets a scene...nice job.
You could always buy NWN2 and build "maps" using that and take screenshots from any angle.
Or use Google Sketchup!
There's collections of models you can download to quickly create a city.
Two great city maps done in Sketchup:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...8&prevstart=12
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...1497a98710709d
The last map is kinda cool as the creator has also created a ton of models you can use to populate the city:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...6690&scoring=m
Thanks for the comments. I have been researching the various free and pay sights for the right models. I am also trying to find the folks who developed the Realms Overseer models for CC2 map conversions. They would be perfect.
I have both NWN and 2. I've used them to develop maps, but have never been really happy with what i could do there.
I'll look at the Sketchup stuff. I've tried it a few times, but never really got fired up over it. Looks like it is time to look again.
I've been tweaking this one and will get a newer version out later this week along with the next one.
I use a subdivisional surface modeler called Nendo, from Izware. Although I paid $70 for it, I think its available now for $49. But you can probably find a free trial download for it too.
Anyway, it was originally designed by Nichimen, a 3D company working for Squaresoft out of Japan. They had a high end program called Mirai, and Nendo was its watered down basic modeling portion of that app. Nendo means "clay" in Japanese.
Unlike apps like 3D Studio Max, which is very mathematically precise, Nendo has no numbers to get exact with. Its really more like playing with clay. Start with a primitive like a cube, select the object (versus a point or a face), right click and a list options show up. Click "smooth" and each face of the six sided cube is divided into four even faces with the center moved outward, looking more like an odd shape ball. You select faces and move it, rotate, rescale it using an X Y Z coordinate system.
I find it easy to get use to, and once you're comfortable with the smooth setting, you begin to create unsmoothed basic shapes than smooth to convert into organic shapes. Its great for everything from buildings, to objects and lifeforms.
The painter part of it is kind of crude. I generally get the shape I'm looking for then export as a .3DS or .OBJ 3D object and import to Vue or whatever 3D app you're using. I use Nendo to create everything, a piece at a time.
My main 3D apps have modelers in them as well, but Nendo is so easy to use and pliable features lets you making "anything" you want.
If you look at my Sargoseum Temple map for the last I.C.E. contest which I won with my entry. I used a Poser nude guy to represent my god, Sargos. But the whale he rides, the crab, dolphins, octopus and clams were all generated in Nendo, imported to Raydream textured rendered, then converted to transparent PNG files to import and composite in Xara Xtreme. That's my process using 3D for maps anyway.
GP