Floors Mask sheet in DD3

kevbeck43

I am trying to get my floors mask sheet to work. I am using the TOUM instructions on page 224 and seem to be getting stuck on instruction 13. I think I am making the copies of the background and walls sheets correctly but I am not sure. I am not very good at explaining what I want in these forums so I have added a video link that shows exactly what I am doing so that my error can be pinpointed and corrected easier.



Here is my video question.

Monsen

1. When copying your background to FLOORS MASK, make sure to only copy the background, I noticed you were getting some parts of the map border too (Notice you had 4 entities selected)
2. Make sure you actually select the FLOORS MASK as a copy destination each time, in the video FLOORS mask did not get selected when you tried to copy the cave.
3. When doing multipoly, make sure to select BOTH the background AND the cave before executing DO IT. This is really the whole secret here, by combining the copy of the background with your dungeon floorplan, you end up with a background with a hole in it.

Also, note that the point of the keep (extract properties) command is to get the correct properties on your new MASK, because multipoly applies the current properties to the new multipoly, and we thus need to ensure that these matches the ones from out background, since that is the look we want. Thus, it is also very important that you selected the background when using this, and not for example, the map border. In fact, I would probably just hide the MAP BORDER and SCREEN sheets while working with this.


Also, +1 for using a video, it makes it so much clearer for me to see what you are doing and what goes wrong.

kevbeck43

I got the multipoly to work as it should but now my symbols won't react to shadows after placing the lights, I am using the lighting system in the TOUM. The shadows will work on the background sheet but not on the walls sheet. I know this because when I hide the walls sheet, which has both of the point light commands on it, I can see the symbols casting shadow on the background sheet. No matter where I put the symbols in the sheet order they won't react as they should.

Monsen

Do you have a Wall Shadow, Point Light Setup on your SYMBOLS sheet (and any other sheet containing symbols that should cast shadow). (And no other shadow effects that could cause confusion enabled)

I recommend you check out the sheet order and effects applied in the 'Chapel Mandina Catacombs 20.FCW' tutorial map from the tome, it comes with a full lighting setup.

kevbeck43

I found out what was wrong. I made the big mistake of omitting a critical fact when I first posted here. I did so without realizing it was needed at the time. I was drawing a cave map.

The two selections for cave polygons in CC3+ are walled and not walled. Walled puts the entire polygon on the walls sheet, not what I want if I need shadows reflecting off my symbols. So I dug back into the TOUM for some knowledge I acquired when making a different map. I created a walled cave polygon and used it. Lesson...having separate entities for your walls and floors is critical when using the lighting system for your dungeons.

Thank you Monson for your help. You were right about me not copying the entities to floors mask correctly it just took some time to realize about the walls and floors. All is good now! I can even use the technique to keep my grids on the areas that matter and keep them from cluttering up the rest of the map.

Monsen

Glad you got it worked out. Good luck with your map.