Looking for tiles of a particular style - 3D -Top Down perspective

[jfrazierjr]

@Ravs, thats the type of view I was thinking of. I also expect that making then into tiles so you could build rooms of any size is the big issue with making it just "look good".

@Redrobes: thats what I was trying to avoid of having to do it myself and was looking for tiles... This is not so much for use in making my own maps for post here as in using something pre-made to build RPG encounters. I have plenty of stuff to make normal top down maps with, but was looking to get something more geo-morphic looking if I could find. I know I have seen some somewhere... just not sure where and how much was available.

[ravells]

Good luck JF!

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Ravells is right - this kind of false-perspective doesn't really work for scene building--it would work for a single room, but if you stick another room next to it, the walls between look wrong and the illusion is broken. This isn't to say it can't be done--just that it wouldn't look right/good.

Here is an example of 'real' perspective 'tiles' stuck next to eachother--it looks all wrong.

[tilt]

the ones I've seen have always been for a single room at a time ... I agree with the above, it looks a little strange when rooms are connected - like space is bended. But even though it looks a little strange you'd probably could get used to it

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

True, tilt. I guess you could sort of get used to it, or just say your RPG is set in a world where all walls are thick at the bottom and get thinner as they go up. I am trying to imagine how to draw a convincing door between these two rooms, and I just can't, really.

[tilt]

*lol*... no, I can see that especially doors can be a problem

[jfrazierjr]

True, tilt. I guess you could sort of get used to it, or just say your RPG is set in a world where all walls are thick at the bottom and get thinner as they go up. I am trying to imagine how to draw a convincing door between these two rooms, and I just can't, really.

I will admit that transitions are a quite a bit harder, but they don't have to look horrible bad. See the attached. Note that I resized the door(original on right... or close to original anyway). This was put together in MapTool using hallway tiles by a RPTools forum poster. The door...ummmm... it either came from the Dundjinni forums or the RPTools forum.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

I dunno, neither of those look good/convincing to me. I'd find the visual style a little distracting. Is there a particular reason you're going for these types of walls? I wonder if you could find isometric 'tiles' that would successfully covey the 3D height you're looking for.

[Redrobes]

I understand now what you were asking for. I would agree that it gives rise to certain problems like the doors. The main issue is that you have many many different vanishing points - like one per square or tile. These are never going to line up and will produce the door issues. Still there is a certain charm to the map. The traditional way to do something kinda like that is to use full isometric view. Usually a 30 degree tilt with infinite vanishing points - i.e. not perspective. You can then take any of the icons and stack them on top of one another and move them around the map without having to adjust for the perspective since its not an issue. The problem with that is usually Z ordering. As in, if you stack some crates up then people behind the crates but on ground level are hidden by the crates. So thats not so trivial to program or set up in a VTT which is normally set up for doing top down stuff.

Well, I think id still suggest using sketchup and texture mapping some decals to your 3D walls and taking screen shots.

[jfrazierjr]

Well, I think id still suggest using sketchup and texture mapping some decals to your 3D walls and taking screen shots.

Blah... to much work for too little gain. I might do something like that as an "alternate" view for when I have the time(like those who do a floorplan and then an inset view from a different projection), and stick to simple top down stuff for my games.