WIP Commission, Ancient Tombs

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  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    Maybe, if you can't find any information on how to install on a Mac on the Vintyri webpage you could contact Vintyri and ask them how to do it?

  • @Loopysue I did but the answer that came back didn't actually answer my question specifically. I think the instructions are for people running CC3+ via a Bootcamp partition loaded with Windows or virtual windows machine through something like Parallels. I'm not usre if they'd be the same for using with my particular installation, and ifthey are, I'm not sure how to actually achieve it. @suntzu has provided some guidance there but I'm reluctant to try it just in case I make an error and then have to do a full re-intsall of all my CC3+ stuff...

    Sitting in front of the computer for several hours re-loading software is not a fun thing to do!

    I've got to get these commissions done by the end of the month, so I won't be experimenting until they're submitted. I guess I could always find appropriately licensed artwork online...

  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    One thing you can do with crossover is duplicate your cc3+ bottle , just export your installation to an archive and then import to a different name you can then also run 2 instances , I think you can also duplicate the bottle as well provided your host machine is powerful enough and you have the hard drive space so the you could play with one while experimenting with the other , best of both worlds

    Rob

    jmabbott
  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    One thing you need to remember is to keep your work isolated between both bottles or cc3+ could start having issues

    jmabbott
  • @suntzu Thanks Rob, I'll try that in baby steps, copying my installation first. This is probably a dumb question but what do you mean by "keep your work isolated" exactly. Do you mean have distinct drawings in each instance of CC3+, i.e. don't have the same drawing in both instances?

  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    if both of your installs live on your primary drive and your work lives on an external then when you run either of the bottles they will link to the same file , i always have my "work" directory as part of the bottle so if i duplicated a bottle i would then have duplicate "work" folders within each bottle , they would then be isolated BUT you could navigate through the directories to the other bottle to access particular files and the links within the fcw file could crossover between bottles so its a good idea to keep everything separate


    Rob

  • Oh, that Jim. Not me Jim. Never mind.

  • edited November 2020

    @suntzu I've made an archive and I'll also make a copy when time permits and have a crack at installing the Vintyri stuff into the copy. That way if I mess it up I'm not losing anything. Most of my maps I either save to a Google Drive folder or a separate folder on my hard drive. I think I get what you're saying now but for me, if that's the best practice way to have multiple instances open on the Mac, it's too damn confusing. I'd mess that up for sure. As my old mate Clint Eastwood once said, "A man's gotta know his limitations."

    The Level 2 map is done now apart from labelling and a compass rose, whew. This one I think took longer then the first but thatere was a lot more mucking around with the walls and stuff and I learnt a lot.

    Oops, still missing the door to Room 24 and I've got to copy the curtains (tapestries) on the left wall of 18.


    DaltonSpence[Deleted User]LoopysueWyvernRaikoquirky_cartographer
  • What, no secret door in rooms 20 and 30 where they attach to room 28? Just kidding, it looks excellent.
    jmabbott
  • I keep missing days here somehow; other distractions elsewhere. So apologies if you've already covered this, and I just missed it somewhere earlier, but should there be an accessway into area 31? There seems to be a corridor linking to the level, without a doorway or secret door marker.

    jmabbott
  • @Wyvern Well spotted, I’m going to say that’s part of the labelling yet to be done, rather than something else I’d missed?

    Glad you folk are enjoying the process and final maps.

  • Intentional, then? Just checking to make sure people were paying attention, really... ?

  • edited November 2020

    Hi Folks,

    The Level 2 map is all but done but I'm having a minor problem I don't know how to fix. Every thing I've looked at seems OK. I'm trying to put a text background polygon around the title (like the key) but every time I start to draw it, the first point always seems to be at the bottom of the text irrespective of where I start to draw the polygon. I'm attaching the.fcw file as well. It's got me stumped. What am I doing wrong?

    As before, the hieroglyphics are not random but spell out a message.


    Raiko
  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    like this ? , i just drew a box with a fill and placed it on the legend layer


  • @suntzu Yes. But when I do it with the 'Text Area" tool, I get the below. The red box is how I drew the polygon.

    When I drew a regular box with a different fill no problem, I got similar to what you did. I don't understand why the tool doesn't work in that corner, it worked for the key...


  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited November 2020

    The cause of your problem is that border around the hieroglyphs at the top of the map. It is placed at the map border layer, which means it redefines the position of the map border, and most drawing tools are designed to stop drawing at the border.

    DaishoChikaraLoopysueTheschabijmabbott
  • @jmabbott Ralf had a few similar problems during his live mapping with that Annual, as quite a few tools place things on the Map Border layer. It was the reason that the mask tool was misbehaving for him if I remember correctly.
    jmabbott
  • @Monsen Thanks Remy, I was thinking I was going to have to go through sheet by sheet to work out the issue. It didn't (obviously) occur to me that it could be the hieroglyphs.

    @suntzu, @Raiko Thanks for your help as well guys.

  • Well, I must be getting used to this style now and better with the program.

    Finished Level 2 and got most of Level 3 done, labelling, masking, adjusting placement of the shaft (31) from Level 2 and external decorations.


    [Deleted User]MonsenDaltonSpenceLoopysueWyvernDaishoChikara
  • Level 3 is done! Yipee. One more dungeon level to go, this one is a cave, so I haven't decided style yet. I might go Jon Roberts or DD3. This one wasn't too bad, only took me, probably 3.5-4hours.

    Is anyone working out what the hieroglyphs say? You should. It's fun and a tad creepy. No prizes, just my admiration.


    Loopysue[Deleted User]DaltonSpence
  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    Google translate doesn’t work for me :-)

    jmabbott
  • Not Happy Jan!

    Started Level 4, saved it as you have to do when you start a new map. Have Autosave on for every 5 minutes in the background.

    Spent an hour or so on the map, a very simple cave with some water, a beach and an island.

    Had everything looking good, imported the reference map, rotated and scaled it. When I started to trace the cave wall for the beach CC3+ decided it (the cave wall I assume) had too many nodes and began being difficult. Used SIMPLIFY but forgot how to use it. Ended up try to delete a node and deleted the main section of the cave wall by accident. No problem Ctrl-Z, nothing, ZIP, Nada.

    Thought Ok, I'll just re-draw it. Got to near the end and CC3+ decided it did not want to play and crashed.

    Went and made a coffee, came back re-started CC3+ and the Level 3 map was in the view window. Hmm, that isn't good. Went to open the Level 4 drawing and guess what? It ain't there. Tried to open the Autosave drawing and guess what? CC3+ crashed, didn't even look like opening the drawing. Somehow I must have done something that CC3+ really doesn't like. I repeat. Not Happy Jan!

    Now I have to start from scratch. These maps are due in a few days and it is very FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that's not the only F-word I can think of using at the moment! I can't even post the damn FCW file because it no longer exists!

  • While Autosave is nice, I don't entirely trust it. I give all my file names a date and sometimes a datetime group, such as

    CF_Battlemap_20201125.fcw or CF_Battlemap_202011250600.fcw. Sometimes, if I do something really big, I also add something like _1 or _a to the end.

    JimP and LoopySue and many others, do similar things.

    jmabbott
  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    do you have time machine active on your work directory ?

    jmabbott
  • @suntzu I think so. I do have a hard drive connected that I use for Time Machine but to be honest, I really don't know how it works, how often it saves etc. I suppose I really should look into that.

    Anyhow, for me, it was probably quicker, and certainly easier, to just re-draw the damn thing.

    Here is Level 4 WIP. Got to do the passage from the higher level to the beach, the bridge to the island. Some how put a steep path up to the top, put a big magic circle with a large version of the recurring black statue in the middle and label.

    To be honest, I'm not that happy with the island. Tomorrow, I've had enough for tonight, I'll try doing a bevel effect on just the base (hiding the other sheets for the lines and top) to see if that looks more island like. This was done using Remy's pit technique, more or less, but in reverse. The top will need to be scaled down a bit as well if I end up keeping it.

    If anyone has any suggestions for improvement I'm all ears, well, eyes actually but you get what I mean.


  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    Time machine is easy first navigate to where your file was using finder then just open time machine and it will eventually show you that directory and back in time for that point

  • suntzusuntzu Betatester Traveler

    looking at your island it looks like a hole in the sea , i think something that may improve it is to give the edge of the sea some transparency and put the dark brown part of the island on a lower layer to the sea , well thats my 2p worth of idea

    Rob

    jmabbott
  • I was under the impression this temple was in a desert area. Would an underground lake with an island be plausible? There are other ways to isolate an interesting feature without so much water.
    jmabbott
  • edited November 2020

    Don't ask me, I'm just the cartographer. The author says there is an underground cavern with a lake and an island on the lake so that's what we have. It's not totally implausible though, there are many examples of subterranean water courses - bore water is where many of our outback farms get their water from as an example.

    I'll give that a shot, you're right, it still looks more like a pit than an island! I started with the water as the background because it is so prominent. I think I'll scrap this and re-draw it with a stone/rock background, re-draw the lake as a fractal polygon with an inner glow, transparency and colour-key effect for the island base and experiment from there. I'll try copying the colour-key entity to another sheet under the water, increase the size a touch, change the fill style to the same as the background and use a lighted bevel to try and get the effect I'm after.

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