Strange grey triangles appearing

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Hi every one,

I've come across something strange and I wondered if anyone knows what to do. When I make this mine with SS2 Dungeon A, I get strange grey triangles appearing. They only appear on the save when I change it to jpeg.

I hope someone can help

Thanks

T

Loopysue · April 2019

That's usually caused by the bevel effect. Try using the other bevel effect (there are two) I think you are probably using the older one.

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Thanks for trying to help Loopysue, I tried the lighted bevel instead and it gives me strange black circles instead. Have look and see what you think.

Monsen · April 2019

This happens because they way effects work to find the edge of entities. A bit simplified explanation, but basically it compares the color of the pixels with the pixels of the sheet below it. If the color of the pixel didn't change, then it assumes that the current sheet don't have an entity here, so that pixel becomes an edge, and the effects (in this case a bevel) is applied.
To avoid this issue, make sure the sheet below in the drawing order doesn't have entities containing the same colors. A good workaround is usually to insert a sheet with a solid filled polygon in a completely different color, like pink.

Loopysue · April 2019

You really aren't having a great time with this are you,Timicus!

What Monsen suggests will work, but rest assured that this doesn't always happen every time you use a bevel. It depends very much on what fills you are using as to how compatible they are when using a bevel.

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Thanks for all your help I'll give it a try after lunch! On the plus side I quite like the other bevel so I've got a new trick too :)

Loopysue · April 2019

The backing sheet that Monsen describes works with the newer bevel effect. I don't think it makes any difference to the older one. That one is just the way it was made way back in time. I think I remember someone saying once that it was kept to make sure older maps didn't suddenly stop working.

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Well I gave that all a go and its still there. Strangely, I saves the same map as a jpeg twice and got different places for the black circles. Here's some pics so you can see what I've done. The layer that is pink is the hidden one. I am guessing it needed to be hidden right?

Timicus2000 · April 2019

here's one pic

Timicus2000 · April 2019

and the next one with no changes just literally saved again in the same way.

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Ha all of that and I've just seen you were talking about sheets not layers. I'll have another look.

Edit, Yeah tried it and doesn't work :(

Monsen · April 2019

Posted By: Timicus2000I am guessing it needed to be hidden right?

No. If you hide it, you defeat the purpose of it.

Loopysue · April 2019

Ummm… its not the layers we were talking about. This is about sheets, not layers

-Make a new sheet called BACKING and put it in the sheet list immediately above the sheet with the badly behaved bevel on it. (above it as you look at the list of sheets)
-Copy the polygons from the bevelled sheet to the BACKING sheet, then hide all the sheets so that only the BACKING sheet is visible
-Then use the change properties tool to turn all those polys on the BACKING sheet solid pink or purple
-Show all the sheets again, and see if the problem is solved.
-If not, try changing the colour of those BACKING sheet polygons to a different shade of pink or purple and check again.

It really doesn't matter what layers any of this is on at all. Layers are nowhere near as important as sheets

Timicus2000 · April 2019

thanks again I'll try it out.

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Yay! all fixed thanks so much for all your help! Shame about the old bevel, I kinda liked it for caves. Still newer one is cool too.

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Just to note for future readers, it does appear to have fixed the older bevel too. I had to use Loopysue's copying rather than doing a pink rectangle. Thanks again for the help!

Loopysue · April 2019

I'd never tried it with the older bevel at all - assuming that the problems with both the bevels under conditions where the bitmaps react with each other like that were different.

That's useful information. Thank you

jslayton · April 2019

The "old" bevel (named "Bevel") effect was designed for making raised or lowered edges on buttons or windows. As such, the apparent lighting direction is always from the upper left and the meeting between lighter and darker areas is always at a 45 degree angle, even in very complicated areas. The "Bevel, Lighted" effect is a fully general bevel effect that creates a distance field from the original sheet image and then lights that distance field from any direction as if it was a hill (the lighter and darker areas can meet in complex shapes).

Timicus2000 · April 2019

Good to know, it is also worth noting that when I used Sue's method I though there was a problem at first. The purple showed in a faint outline of the image. When you save to a JPEG the purple disappears and all is well.

Loopysue · April 2019

It's not really 'my' method - just one we all use now and then. I can't remember now who discovered the solution. It was Monsen who suggested the method. I just described it in more detail for you

One last thing about the BACKING sheet - if you add an Edge Fade Inner sheet effect to the top sheet (the one with the bevel on it to, for example, fade the foot of the cliff into the ground below), you should copy and paste that same effect onto the BACKING sheet to prevent that purple edge from showing.

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Strange grey triangles appearing

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