Shading Masks for use with Global Sun in CD

Sorry if this is answered somewhere else, but I've searched the forums, Google, the User's Guide, and the Help in CC3+ and haven't had any luck. I'm making some new buildings for my CD maps and want them to be compatible with Global Sun for correct shadows. I can see the way the Vintyri roofs are masked, but there's not really a solid pattern to it, other than it looks like a gradient with Blue at roughly 0-45 degrees, going through a gradient to purple then pink counterclockwise. Are there like 10 absolute color values that need to be used for these maps, or is it just a gradient for degree? And is there a hard number for the degree where the blue/pink line should be?

Some of the "round" roofs in the Vintyri set seem to contradict each other - there are some (these examples are all in Symbols>Medieval Symbols>Structural Parts>Brown Beaver Tail Tile) where the 90-degree-facing polys are blue (CornerTower sets) and some where the 90-degree-facing polys are pink (Tower sets). Even some of the square roofs contradict, with blue on the right (BellTower sets) and pink on the right (Dormers) yet they all seem to light the same when they're placed in a map.

As for applying the shading masks, do you have to do anything extra when importing the symbols into CC3+/CD or will the program automatically look for a file with the same name with _MAP at the end to use it?

Comments

  • Making CC3+/CC3 symbols that use CD3 roof shading is a complex but not necessarily complicated process. If you want to start using CC3+ ad/or CC3 on that level, I strongly suggest that you acquire the Tome of Ultimate Mapping by Remy Monsen. It contains all of the information that you're seeking.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    As Vintyri says, the Tome is probably the best route to go, but you'll find the basic information in the CC3+ help file. Here are the use of the colors:
    CC3 Help fileThe shading png uses the Red, Green and Blue channels to define which pixels in the original png get shaded and at what strength. Use an image editing program to create the necessary color areas in the hading png:
    · The Red channel defines the direction the roof is facing: 0/255 = East, 64 = North, 128 = West, 192 = South; use any number in between to set non-cardinal directions.
    · The Blue channel defines the slope of the roof. Vertical Wall = 128, Flat Roof = 255. Values below 128 are theoretically possible but would denote inwards sloping roofs (e.g. the bottom of a sphere), and would therefore not be visible on a top-down map.
    · The Green channel defines whether the shaded area is varicolor and only has two options: 1 = varicolor, 0 = non-varicolor.
  • KazKaz Newcomer
    Perfect, thank you! I'm considering getting the Tome anyway, but I figured since it was a function of the program (albeit an advanced one) it was probably in the help files or manual somewhere. I just didn't search the right things in the Help file. I found it now, searching off some of the keywords in the copied section above.

    For anyone that runs across this post on the same quest I was on later, the help article you want inside CC3+ is "Creating bitmap city symbols" I was overthinking it, searching for Shading Mask and other needlessly complicated things. I think I'll go ahead and buy the Tome today, CC3+ updates or not. I've worked through Essentials, the whole Manual, and all the online tuts I could find, and I still feel oblivious to so much this program can do. lol
  • Posted By: KazI think I'll go ahead and buy the Tome today, CC3+ updates or not. I've worked through Essentials, the whole Manual, and all the online tuts I could find, and I still feel oblivious to so much this program can do. lol
    For anyone who wants to do more than diddle around with CC3 and CC3+, the Tome is the best investment you can make, and not an expensive one of that. I spent many years as a professional programmer, teacher of programming at a renowned German institution and author of German language computer books. I've seen no publication done by anyone for any piece of software that rivals Remy Monsen's Tome of Ultimate Mapping in terms of quality or in the degree to which it is comprehensive. Any serious CC3+/CC3 user who does not acquire it is making a mistake.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited February 2016
    Gee wiz, Vintyri. I already have both versions of the Tome of Ultimate Mapping, and you almost make me want to buy it all over again!

    ~Dogtag
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