High Quality Map Rendering
 

I remember back in the day that virtualscape could make some pretty good looking images, but when I try today I’m left underwhelmed. It could be that the software is dated or that I’m just used to making higher quality imagery (my job is in architecture visualization), nonetheless I believe that its time to take the next step forward.

For the past month or so I have been working on creating 3d models of heroscape terrain. I’ve been posting my progress in the Discord and since there’s been a good amount of interest, I figured I’d document the process here.

Currently, this is the quality of image I can generate. I’d say this is about 95% final quality, there are a few texture, light and shadow settings I want to tweak yet in addition to making the models for the rest of the large pieces (ruins, jungle, trees, etc.).

https://i.ibb.co/R618G0m/Stormwall-3-D-Compressed.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/123s4yw/Stormwall-Plan-Compressed.jpg
STORMWALL by Flash_19

I’m not sure what I want the end goal of this project to be. Bare minimum it makes really pretty pictures. Really increase the quality of 3D images on the front page of map downloads. Current OHS maps have this slight fisheye to them because of (I assume) the way virtualscape's camera works. This, being done in an architectural program, can do perfect top-down plan views. Might be useful in making those maps. I’m an architect, not a programmer, so I don’t know how to take the next step to something like VS 2.0 or a full game simulator. But from what little I know about computer science from the one class my brother took in college, what I am making would be easily usable assets for someone who knows what they're doing, maybe.


To-Do List


Let me know what you think, and any suggestions you might have.

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Started by carefully measuring and modeling the 1-hex terrain tile. It isn't perfect. All of my edges are sharper than the real tile is, I don't have any grooves in the area lower than the tile (anywhere brown on a grass tile), and it is solid. The tile is done by hand, off of a scaled image and not measured to be precise.

All that to say, it looks great as long as you aren't looking at it over 100% of its real size. Also this, likely, isn't going to be 3D printable. I believe there are other resources for that. This tile would stick out.

The top is inset 1/64" on the terrain and 1/128" on the liquid inside of the base to be able to show the gaps between tiles.

https://i.ibb.co/G0tRYM7/1-Hex-Terrain.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/5BNCj4D/1-Hex-Liquid.jpg

From there I made rough materials for each type of tile. (For those of you unfamiliar with rendering terminology, a model is strictly the 3D geometry, a material is the color/ pattern/texture that gets applied to the model. Real world example: Unpainted minis, the figure is the model, the paint is the material.)

https://i.ibb.co/f1Ntkjk/Textures.jpg

The materials shown above aren't final, they're just rough placeholders.

The next step was to take the 1-hex terrain and duplicate it 2, 3, 7, and 24 times. Filled the gaps and merged it all together and I get the other standard terrain sizes. In the same step, I did the first draft of the high quality image.

https://i.ibb.co/7pwxFkK/Render.png

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Reserved for process photos of FotA.

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

This looks really promising. Thank you for Sharing. Someone with the knowhow, or the time to figure it out, could probably make a Virtualscape 2.0 in Unity or Godot with these.

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Looks great, to bad VirtualScape does not look like it used to on older computers. See this post on how using a virtual machine with Open GL drivers you can get better graphics.

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

I knew I read somewhere that VS wasn't as good as it used to be. Thanks for linking that Lefton4ya.

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

@UtahScott , continuing from the WoS thread:

Time to resurrect this project yeah?

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Absolutely. This looks amazing, @Vydar_XLIII ! I had no idea this thread was even here. I can give you no assistance, except by encouragement. Please continue. :D :thumbsup:

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

The renders in your first post look fantastic :popcorn:

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Bussin'

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Here is the first pass. Missing a lot of the finer details but the shape is there

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...nihilation.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...hilation_2.png

Re: High Quality Map Rendering
 

Wow, you modelled the new wall pieces! This looks fantastic! I specifically like how the joints between tiles turned out - small details that really sell it as a whole.