Creation of isometric maps with tiling

The purpose of this thread is to work on the best method to create map items using standard tiles and a MINIMAL of photoshoping techniques to clean them up...

This wall section was made using different width tiles, staggering them as you would roof a house to create a tileless look... the picture has not been modified in any way other than working with the tile shapes within WC itself. The grass was not offset tiled but efforts were made to minimize the look using overlays..

Let's put our collective minds together to come up with a way to use this progtam to our advantage....

 

NOTE: I worked with the merge feature in WC. It did not do anything visibly worth mentioning. IMO, using merge in WC is not needed.

For one, save the World View work space as a bitmap BMP file. Do not save it as a JPG file, yet, because you will lose some characteristics when you save it as a JPG. Save it as a JPG once you are done and no additional changes need to be made directly to the embedded tiles in the bitmap. Any editing done in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro or GrafxShop should be done to a BMP file that is made and saved using WC. In short, make all changes to a bitmap file using a paint program and, then, save it when done as a JPG to create a picture of sufficient high resolution for the JPG to be added using ToEEWB.

 

In my recent success as one portion of my Caves of Chaos effort, I selected a set of tiles by color across one entire game map for a whole area using a magic wand to select across an entire bitmap file (all the floors tiles in the BMP file, for example).

After three hours of attempts at applying combinations of effects in a paint program to hide or subdue the tile-ish look about the bitmap, I determined the following combination looked best.
(a) First, I applied a dry brush technique to all of the floor tiles in the entire bitmap.
(b) Second, I applied a texturizer technique to all of the floor tiles in the entire bitmap.

I did not any add layers to the bitmap before applying the two effects, (a) and (b) in that order. I only had to add the two effects to the embedded floor tiles (not the wall tiles) in the entire bitmap.

 

Now we are getting somewhere. The human brain is very good at noticing repeating patterns, and can be very hard to fool. Even so, I can't really tell the wall is made up of tiles. Even the grass does not appear to be tiled, though I think that texture looks bad. The top of the wall I can tell is made of tiles though, and the tiles used on the side of the wall could use some more shading to make them look more like stone (though I know this experiment isn't about texture).

All in all I am very impressed. There is still a little way to go, but finally I am thinking that this tile based map creation will produce some decent maps.

 

thanks CtB...
That is the object of this thread... to find ways to create these maps with a minimal of photoshoping needed... and as you stated the object was first the tile effect.. now to start working on shading.. as to textures.. I used the standards however I can use ANYTHING in a bit map... so people with favorite textures lets start sendng them over and we could set up a page with the textures for people to use...

I am not a graphic artist just bomeone who can learn to use a program... so this can be done by anyone... so people lets step up to the line and build upon this..oke:

 

hehe, to me the only thing that looks wrong is the tiled grass.

 

Some good work, there.

 

If you're worried about the tiling; try doing the structure with 2-3 slightly changed versions of the textures you're using, render all three, then bring them into photoshop as layers and erase different parts of the various layers to let the other textures show through

just a thought

 

I tried that by alpha blending two 2d textures and using the result in the ISO 2d wall render window for left and right walls. That would work nicely for when you would have a wall that is 2 or 3 tiles tall. I have not made a wall that is 2 or 3 tiles high yet, was for testing purposes.

 

okay Cujo.... go take me some grass pictures... and no not the herbal medication type...

:cool2: :cool2:

 

im happy to help create textures; but are there any particular pixel sizes you require?

 

here's a few

 

and some other random ones you might find useful

 

Thanks V.P.

The normal texture is 128x128 but I have been known to shrink then for effect.... so 128x128 should be good....

if people want to send textures to my yahoo, I can start a compilation and find someplace to host them for everyone's use..elvicthr