Scaling when Import new Bitmap
brandor
Traveler
Hello everyone,
I am in the process of integrating new bitmaps (PNGs) into CC3+ via Tools > Import Bitmap Fill Styles. What is the best way to deal with scaling? When do I need it? And which values make sense? Do any of you have any tips for me? Thank you very much!
Brandor
Comments
Hi Brandor :)
Nearly all fills are scaled, so importing them without a scale will cause a lot of hard work because if you don't scale them on import you will end up having to scale them individually by hand using the Fill Style Properties dialog.
This tile (below) is designed to cover 20 square feet, so it has a scale of 20 in this imperial map.
It's probably best to scale them all on import to the scale that most of the tiles will require, and then adjust the scale of any fills that need to be a different scale to the rest.
As I indicated above with my example fill, what scale to give your tiles will depend on how much area you think each tile should cover. For example, if you are importing a tile into a metric map that you know should cover 3 square metres then give it a scale of 3. If you are importing the very same fill into an imperial map give it the equivalent scale in feet.
Notice that if a fill is NOT scaled, your map is likely to not look as good when exporting to an image as it looks in CC3+, because the fills doesn't have a fixed scale, so they won't be the same size in the export as in the on-screen view (Typically, they will be smaller and thus tile more).
Also, if you don't set it as scaled, it won't stay the same size as you zoom in/out of the map while working either.
These are good pointers. Thank you both very much :) What I'm still pondering about is that a tile is just a tile with a pattern. So usually without concrete measurable structures such as trees, houses, bridges, etc. How can I then know (or say, or specify) that such a tile should cover 20 square metres? How do I arrive at this figure?
At the moment I'm only going by the visual. Does the pattern look good on a map or not. If not, I tweak the scale until I like it. I'm a long way from having a concrete idea that the tile should cover 20 or 100 or whatever square metres.
If I have understood this correctly, then it doesn't matter whether I assign a scaling to the bitmaps during import or only later via the "Fill Style Properties", right? It's just a question of the effort involved.
I would give them a default scale in import for the reasons Remy explained. If there's no scale they don't get smaller when you zoom out or larger when you zoom in. They just stay the same size, which isn't the size you will see when the map is exported.
Giving them a scale stabilises the situation so the tile actually looks the way it is no matter how zoomed in or out you are, and no matter how large or small you export your map.
Ah, ok - so it is important that there is a value for the scaling at all. Which value that is in the end seems to be of secondary importance ...
That is correct. It doesn't matter if it's the wrong value.
I'm a little confused. The map, in most cases you say to scale in meters. But here you are saying to scale the fill that you used 20 feet.
Should it not be 20m or did I miss where he said the map scale was in feet?
Also, I am pretty sure I scale my maps in km, not m, because I use maps with a km grid as sources. Does this matter?
Thanks!
When in metric maps scale to the appropriate metric unit, which is km in overland and m in both city and dungeon
And in imperial maps scale to the appropriate imperial unit, which is miles in overland and feet in city and dungeon.
Thanks Sue. So I've been doing it right!