@nxsnexus I don't think that your edge stripes look so much different to mine. You could perhaps make the circles they surround a little smaller than the piling (excuse the phone screenshot, I'm not on my PC at the moment)
If mine look different, then it might be due to how I did my water rather than the edge stripes themselves. There are several sheets used to create my water. So the edge stripes are on top of transparent / multiplied sheets.
@WeathermanSweden when I did my map I wondered about the broken circles, which I thought looked good.
I thought that it's perhaps because I just scribbled the white lines on the pattern, as they're not seamless (or straight), but I wasn't sure exactly how edge stripe works - whether it uses the whole pattern or just the edge pixels.
@Loopysue of course - the piles will get transparent, too - did not think about it...
(but you could add a new sheet with the shape of piles beneath the one with the actual pile symbols and add both effects (edge stripe & transparency) to the new sheet - or am I thinking to much out of the box and missing something... ?)
----
"but I wasn't sure exactly how edge stripe works - whether it uses the whole pattern or just the edge pixels."
I have asked myself the same question a couple of times.
So - does somebody know how the striping effect works more exactly --- maybe @jslayton?
It uses the top row of pixels in the image. Any other pixels in the image are there for your convenience and are ignored by the effect (it's hard to draw visualize a 1-pixel image). The intended use case for this effect was for waterlines as shown here. The effect predates the CONTOURSM command, which can be used to do the same sort of thing by generating polygons for the waterlines.
An edge stroking effect (use all pixels of the input image to stretch around the elements) is on the wish list, but I have a suspicion that it won't be practical due to filtering issues relating to distortions of the input. There would be some comedic stretching around the far edges, for example. Synthesizing a texture that warps and doesn't distort is likely impractical in the context of the current software architecture and render time constraints.
One thing on my wish list is to add a way to introduce noise into the field computation so that the stripes aren't always quite so perfect.
If you saw how CC3 starts to struggle when drawing all the ripples in my Old Fishery maps, then you'd probably be less interested in knowing if they could be processed further.
I don't think there's anything that would work on the type of ripples I did. You'd need to draw them a different way entirely. The edge stripes work nicely for a comic style look, like I've gone for in my Old Fishery map, but as nxsnexus mentioned earlier, my style doesn't suit more realistic maps so well. My preferred battlemaps are not realistic looking.
At this point, the closest that you can get to deforming the ripples is to use a displace filter on the sheet after the edge striping. It will also deform other things on the sheet as well, though.
The displace works on everything on the sheet it's attached to, including the result of prior effects. If you're using proxy geometry to get ripples, it will displace the image of the proxy geometry as well. Displace shouldn't affect anything else unless it's applied to the whole drawing.
Yes, on the list of effects for the sheet that you want to affect. The base sheet is drawn, then effects are applied to that image in the order specified and that image is composited to the result. The "Whole Drawing" effects are applied at the end to the final result.
@WeathermanSwedenI think it's just a matter of resolution and line width. On the wave_test file that @Raiko shared, the white line were not that thick so it may be that. Also, my map is 25x20 meters so it's really not big and therefore accentuate this effect. The more I shrink the effect, the more it seems that the lines have holes.
Edit: My answer seems a bit off because I didn't see that there was a second page. My bad!
What I did is create another sheet called "WATER EFFECTS" and I duplicated my pilings and put the duplicata on this new sheet. If I'm careful, I can put it right behind without it to be visible on naked eye. Another solution would be to reduce its scale sligthly to make this process easier.
I decided to use the exact same sprite but started to wonder "what if I made another one that would have another shape?". Basically, since the decks are on a river, which has current, I wanted to make a plain white shape that looks like an arrow head. The point of the arrowhead would be the direction the current goes. The effect is interesting but not what I wanted. So if you want to have a different shape for the effect, you could really simple make your own shape in plain white as a new symbole and then put it on the sheet where the effect is. As long as the shape can be hidden behind the piling, it will be fine. Let say you make a deformed circle, you'll haved deformed wave around your piling. Well, at least it's my theory since I didn't have the chance to test it today.
I'll experiment with that as soon as I've got some time.
To close this conversation, I'm proud to say that my first map was used by my GM. I'm very proud of that and it's a very fulfilling feeling to see it being used.
Thank you very much for your help! I'll post new map project soon :) (another dock).
Here is a shot with FX added by FoundryVTT which is the software we use to play our games.
Comments
Maybe the blur factor needs a little upward adjustment. I think adding transparency will make the piles transparent as well.
If mine look different, then it might be due to how I did my water rather than the edge stripes themselves. There are several sheets used to create my water. So the edge stripes are on top of transparent / multiplied sheets.
@WeathermanSweden when I did my map I wondered about the broken circles, which I thought looked good.
I thought that it's perhaps because I just scribbled the white lines on the pattern, as they're not seamless (or straight), but I wasn't sure exactly how edge stripe works - whether it uses the whole pattern or just the edge pixels.
@Loopysue of course - the piles will get transparent, too - did not think about it...
(but you could add a new sheet with the shape of piles beneath the one with the actual pile symbols and add both effects (edge stripe & transparency) to the new sheet - or am I thinking to much out of the box and missing something... ?)
----
"but I wasn't sure exactly how edge stripe works - whether it uses the whole pattern or just the edge pixels."I have asked myself the same question a couple of times.
So - does somebody know how the striping effect works more exactly --- maybe @jslayton?
It uses the top row of pixels in the image. Any other pixels in the image are there for your convenience and are ignored by the effect (it's hard to draw visualize a 1-pixel image). The intended use case for this effect was for waterlines as shown here. The effect predates the CONTOURSM command, which can be used to do the same sort of thing by generating polygons for the waterlines.
An edge stroking effect (use all pixels of the input image to stretch around the elements) is on the wish list, but I have a suspicion that it won't be practical due to filtering issues relating to distortions of the input. There would be some comedic stretching around the far edges, for example. Synthesizing a texture that warps and doesn't distort is likely impractical in the context of the current software architecture and render time constraints.
One thing on my wish list is to add a way to introduce noise into the field computation so that the stripes aren't always quite so perfect.
I'd be interested to know if there's a way to deform those ripples somewhat, make them uneven to simulate the water a little more?
I don't think there's anything that would work on the type of ripples I did. You'd need to draw them a different way entirely. The edge stripes work nicely for a comic style look, like I've gone for in my Old Fishery map, but as nxsnexus mentioned earlier, my style doesn't suit more realistic maps so well. My preferred battlemaps are not realistic looking.
EDIT: I missed not out of that last sentence!
At this point, the closest that you can get to deforming the ripples is to use a displace filter on the sheet after the edge striping. It will also deform other things on the sheet as well, though.
In the case of my map - and this map of nxsnexus' I think - the edge stripe ripples are on a sheet all of their own, around hidden plain circles.
The displace works on everything on the sheet it's attached to, including the result of prior effects. If you're using proxy geometry to get ripples, it will displace the image of the proxy geometry as well. Displace shouldn't affect anything else unless it's applied to the whole drawing.
I thought that you'd meant on the next sheet.
Yes, on the list of effects for the sheet that you want to affect. The base sheet is drawn, then effects are applied to that image in the order specified and that image is composited to the result. The "Whole Drawing" effects are applied at the end to the final result.
This is more a result of "Trial on Error" than actually knowing what I am doing exactly...?
...it is a floating wash tub by the way - not a pile...?
Is that just adding transparency, or displace as well?
Edit: I've just looked closer and it must have displace. What settings did you use?
@WeathermanSweden
I think it's just a matter of resolution and line width. On the wave_test file that @Raiko shared, the white line were not that thick so it may be that. Also, my map is 25x20 meters so it's really not big and therefore accentuate this effect. The more I shrink the effect, the more it seems that the lines have holes.Edit: My answer seems a bit off because I didn't see that there was a second page. My bad!
What I did is create another sheet called "WATER EFFECTS" and I duplicated my pilings and put the duplicata on this new sheet. If I'm careful, I can put it right behind without it to be visible on naked eye. Another solution would be to reduce its scale sligthly to make this process easier.
I decided to use the exact same sprite but started to wonder "what if I made another one that would have another shape?". Basically, since the decks are on a river, which has current, I wanted to make a plain white shape that looks like an arrow head. The point of the arrowhead would be the direction the current goes. The effect is interesting but not what I wanted. So if you want to have a different shape for the effect, you could really simple make your own shape in plain white as a new symbole and then put it on the sheet where the effect is. As long as the shape can be hidden behind the piling, it will be fine. Let say you make a deformed circle, you'll haved deformed wave around your piling. Well, at least it's my theory since I didn't have the chance to test it today.
I'll experiment with that as soon as I've got some time.
@nxsnexus Good job. This is coming along very well. Each version is a significant improvement on the last.
Hi there!
To close this conversation, I'm proud to say that my first map was used by my GM. I'm very proud of that and it's a very fulfilling feeling to see it being used.
Thank you very much for your help! I'll post new map project soon :) (another dock).
Here is a shot with FX added by FoundryVTT which is the software we use to play our games.