High Quality Map Rendering

[Vydar_XLIII]

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.).



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

Spoiler Alert!

• 1-hex Terrain
• 2-hex Terrain
• 3-hex Terrain
• 7-hex Terrain
• 24-hex Terrain
• 1-hex Liquid
• Large Ruin
• Small Ruin
• Glyph
• Grass Texture
• Stone Texture
• Sand Texture
• Water Texture
• Glyph Texture

• 1-hex Road
• 2-hex Road
• 5-hex Road
• Stone Wall
• Evergreen Tree (15)
• Evergreen Tree (12)
• Evergreen Tree (11)
• Evergreen Tree (10)
• Road Texture
• Evergreen Tree Textures

• Lava Field Texture
• Molten Lava Texture

• 1-hex Glacier
• 3-hex Glacier
• 4-hex Glacier
• 6-Hex Glacier
• Snow Texture
• Ice Texture
• Glacier Texture

• 7-hex Wall-Walk
• 9-hex Wall-Walk
• Corner Wall
• Straight Wall
• End Wall
• Battlement
• Ladder
• Flag
• Door
• Door Archway
• Castle Texture
• Ladder Texture
• Flag Textures
• Door and Arch Textures

• Swamp Texture
• Swamp Water Texture
• Marro Hive
• Hive Textures

• Jungle Bush
• Jungle Tree (16)
• Jungle Tree (15)
• Jungle Tree (14)

• Dungeon Texture
• Shadow Texture
• Outcrop Texture
• Treasure Glyph Texture

• Breakable Wall
• Asphalt Texture
• Concrete Texture
• Marvel Glyph Texture

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