[HELP] Achieving a specific effect on a map.

Draugr

Hi.

Can anyone tell me how the following image/map was able to achieve the cavern below the surface look? I tried a bunch of ideas, but it didn't work. I tried using bevel on the sheet, but it looked the opposite, like the cavern was up in the air. I tried reversing the numbers, but that didn't work quite right either.

Thanks
John

anomiecoalition

Thats a really, really nice map. I'd like to see it with the cave part zoomed in a bit more, but I think I did a similar thing on this map (http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=3196&page=1#Item_4) Don't know if this helps or not, but here goes.

I think you need 3 sheets: Floor, Wall, Top (with top at the bottom of the sheet list). You would need the wall and top objects to but up against the floor. The wall should have a either wall shadow or glow (whatever your preference). The bevel should be pretty strong (depending on your scale - length of 5 or 6 and strength of 50 with a fade of 2 or 3). The idea is that when its done, you wont actually see anything but the bevel (you don't want to see the top of the wall) and especially for a cave wall, you want a real smooth bevel. The top layer should meet the end of the floor and then apply a slight edge-fade inner effect (so you still see the wall but barely and they blend together). You also probably want a real aggressive bevel on the top (I used length of 5, strength of 25 and fade of 5) Again, the idea is that you want a long smooth rise in elevation.

Not sure if that will work - I've tried to do cave tunnels (rather unsuccessfully) a bunch of times and the map I linked was just the closest I got to sort of getting it....Can you attach a more zoomed in pic? Or perhaps something your working on? Its a really nice effect and it would be good to know how to really do it for future reference.

Draugr

This pic is from the Fantasy Floorplans page. Its not a map I am working on. I think its part of the FF2 gallery. I'm not sure who or how it was done.

I'm going to look over your info above and try to replciate it to see if it meets what I'm hoping to achieve with my own map.

Thanks for the info.

John

Ralf

If you own Symbol Set 2 - Fantasy Floorplans, this example map is included. You'll find it under CC3/Examples/SS2/SS1_Example1.FCW.

The sunken effect of the cave has been achieved through two things:

1. Effects on the CAVE sheet (which contains the floor of the cave). THese are two black Glows, one inside (strength 1, 5 blur radius), one outside (strength 1, blur radius 0.5)
2. The cave walls on the TERRAIN sheet using the cliffs bitmap texture.

Fairly simple really, no bevel effect used. The walls could really be on their own sheet, but the effects on the Terrain sheet (subtle ones) were just right for these too.

Draugr

OK.... I'm getting there. I have one small problem that is probably easy to fix, but I can't figure it out. If you look at the attached pic, the cave walls are giving off a shaddow on the outside thus giving the 3D effect that the cave is above ground. How do I remove that shadow from the outside of the cave wall?

BTW, thanks to both of you for your assistance. I really appreciate the help.

Ralf

Don't do a Wall Shadow on the walls, do an inside Glow on the cave floor instead.

Draugr

You know this is friggin weird. I know it was late last night when I was trying to figure the shadow out, but I wasn't tired. I DID try disabling ALL wall effects just to see, but it didn't work.

I just t ried your suggestion by doing what I did last night and guess what? This time it WORKED! LOL

Thanks again for the info. I still have yet a smaller problem. Now the outside shadow on the building on the surface lost its shadow too. How can I fix that? I am going to try a few things to see about separating the building shadow from the cave wall. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks Again
John

Henrie61

Place the walls on different sheets (add a new sheet if needed).
That way you can give the walls different effects.