How to Take a Quality Map Top-Down

[awesomeunleashed]

I've noticed that other people who make maps for online play usually don't have trouble figuring out how to number their maps (though it is pretty time-consuming now matter how you do it)*, but often their map top-downs lack quality. Here's a guide to how I take mine (mine are most of the sweet shots that the newer maps for the tournaments have). Hopefully this will help everyone who has trouble taking a nice top-down.

*UPDATE: I use White Knight's awesome numbered tiles found here now, and once you've built up a nice supply of the tiles, they can really save you time on the numbering front. Anyway, on to the tutorial.

First, open up the map in VS. You screen probably looks something like this:

Spoiler Alert!

Any glyphs that don't absolutely have to be a particular glyph should be random glyphs, and you should remove anything representing a treasure glyph (since there are the removable ones for online play that you've probably seen if you've played in any of the recent tournaments)

Check your settings in the Tools>Options menu. I've circled my notable settings:

Spoiler Alert!

Note the "Quality" setting. This has a small effect on shot quality, but a huge effect on how long it takes to switch to high-quality view. I've got a Windows 7 with a pretty nice graphics engine, and with the quality set to maximum, it takes several seconds for VS to switch to high-quality view. If you have an older computer (like, XP or something), setting the graphics quality to maximum will probably either take forever or maybe even crash VS outright. If you don't know how long your computer takes to switch to high-quality view, set the slider to 25%ish now, and go back and change it later if it switches to high-quality really fast.

Now, go into the View menu, and close the Object and Info panes. Doing this lets you take a significantly larger screenshot, and therefore a better-quality one.

Spoiler Alert!

Now hit 3D View (three gold bars), and then Maximize on the 3D window:

Spoiler Alert!

Then, using the arrow keys/holding down the left mouse button, maneuver the view to above the map. Edit: Zooming straight into the center of the map from the original view with the up arrow key and then using the "Page Up" key to move straight up is the eaisest way to get directly above the center of the map. (Thanks DanielLoche!) Your view should look something like this:

Spoiler Alert!

Then, hit the high-quality (camera) button:

Spoiler Alert!

Then you're ready to take the screenshot (Print Screen key>Paste into new bitmap image on desktop). Crop the edges off, and you've got your top-down; I suggest saving it as a PNG.

I hope that helps. Feel free to post any questions or other things you do to make your top-down.

 

[MegaSilver]

Thank you for this AU!

 

[Filthy the Clown]

If you do save as PNG, be sure to optimize the image (you can use free online tools such as Smush_It. Otherwise, the image size can be unwieldy enough to take considerable time to load in your browser, especially on low bandwidth connections.

 

[ALEXAN2507]

I tried converting the Table of the Giants map from ROTV using this but my camera button (high quality) button is blanked out :/
Any ideas as to why?

 

[awesomeunleashed]

I tried converting the Table of the Giants map from ROTV using this but my camera button (high quality) button is blanked out :/
Any ideas as to why?

Hmm. You switched to 3D mode (4th pic), correct? The camera will be blanked out if you don't do that. Is it just the camera button, or all of the buttons near it as well?

 

[ALEXAN2507]

Yeah I switched to 3D.
I just restarted it. It's come back now...
My camera button is sporadic apparently.

 

[ALEXAN2507]

Wait. It won't let me take it without shadows. Is it ok for the image to have the board shadowed or is that not so good?

 

[ALEXAN2507]

The shadows make it almost impossible to see the numbers on the Sand Tiles.
But they make it clearer to see the numbers under the starting point circles.
And using the camera function just seems to make the shadows spin round while decreasing in size and once they're gone it turns off the camera mode.

 

[awesomeunleashed]

The shadows make it almost impossible to see the numbers on the Sand Tiles.
But they make it clearer to see the numbers under the starting point circles.
And using the camera function just seems to make the shadows spin round while decreasing in size and once they're gone it turns off the camera mode.

If your shadows are too dark, you can go into Tools>Options and lower the "Shadow Contrast" slider. Don't turn them off completely, though.

High-Quality ("camera") mode doesn't turn off after the shadows stop spinning. The image that it shows after the shadows stop is High-Quality mode, which should be of a noticeably better quality than before you hit the button.

 

[DanieLoche]

Hello,

Then, using the arrow keys/holding down the left mouse button, maneuver the view to above the map. Your view should look something like this:

I just found an easy way to have the ciew above the map in 2 clics, and no need to use your brain ! ^^

When you are in the 3D view, Virtualscape brings you to the "original view", that is "focused" to the center of the map. So there, just use the Up arrow of your keyboard, to go to the center of the map. Keep pressing the Up arrow until you are into the central hex. Then use the "Page Up" button (also represented with "PgUp" or this image) and move the camera with the mouse... you're on the top of the map and centered !

 

[awesomeunleashed]

When you are in the 3D view, Virtualscape brings you to the "original view", that is "focused" to the center of the map. So there, just use the Up arrow of your keyboard, to go to the center of the map. Keep pressing the Up arrow until you are into the central hex. Then use the "Page Up" button (also represented with "PgUp" or this image) and move the camera with the mouse... you're on the top of the map and centered !

Nice! I always have zoomed into the center and then backed out with the down arrow, but this always requires a bit of adjusting since it's hard to line the camera up right to back straight out. I never thought to use Page Up before.

 

[superfrog]

So while I was making a couple top-downs recently, I was starting to get bothered by perspective issues. For example, a tree that's not near the center of the map is impossible to get straight because of perspective issues. Then I remembered the "topographic view" button. It creates a non-warped perfect topdown of the map, but without color or texture, only the elevation at each point. If there was a way to get the perspective from that view with all the tile images, that would be amazing. However, I don't know enough about this whole thing to figure it out. So I guess I'm wondering if anybody could create some sort of hack in VS to convert the topographic view into a perfect topdown....

 

[awesomeunleashed]

So while I was making a couple top-downs recently, I was starting to get bothered by perspective issues. For example, a tree that's not near the center of the map is impossible to get straight because of perspective issues. Then I remembered the "topographic view" button. It creates a non-warped perfect topdown of the map, but without color or texture, only the elevation at each point. If there was a way to get the perspective from that view with all the tile images, that would be amazing. However, I don't know enough about this whole thing to figure it out. So I guess I'm wondering if anybody could create some sort of hack in VS to convert the topographic view into a perfect topdown....

That would be nice for sure, but if it's possible, I don't know how to do it. However, you may notice that all of the trees and ruins in the reasonably-new templates are straight up. How I do it is I take the shot with them removed, and then edit in straight top-down ones. If you want to try that, I could send you my tree/palm/ruin images, if you wanted.

 

[superfrog]

So while I was making a couple top-downs recently, I was starting to get bothered by perspective issues. For example, a tree that's not near the center of the map is impossible to get straight because of perspective issues. Then I remembered the "topographic view" button. It creates a non-warped perfect topdown of the map, but without color or texture, only the elevation at each point. If there was a way to get the perspective from that view with all the tile images, that would be amazing. However, I don't know enough about this whole thing to figure it out. So I guess I'm wondering if anybody could create some sort of hack in VS to convert the topographic view into a perfect topdown....

That would be nice for sure, but if it's possible, I don't know how to do it. However, you may notice that all of the trees and ruins in the reasonably-new templates are straight up. How I do it is I take the shot with them removed, and then edit in straight top-down ones. If you want to try that, I could send you my tree/palm/ruin images, if you wanted.

I figured that's what you did, but if my idea could be done it would make the whole thing a one-click process. Not that I have any idea how feasible that is...

I would appreciate if you sent me those images for future use.

 

[kevindola]

Is there a way to take a file and convert it for top down use or at least get a top down image without having VS?

 

[Sheep]

I updated my snow files so that you can set brightness in VS to the highest value and get quality TT pictures. I also updated all of my level 0 tiles (most namely the ice and snow to add the sparkles we all love). Here's a preview of the old vs. the new:

You can find all of the files here.

Once you get these files, check out the OHS folder for all of your snow, level 0 tiles, and increased legibility for sand/dungeon/road/concrete with black font needs!

 

[Sir Heroscape]

I updated my snow files so that you can set brightness in VS to the highest value and get quality TT pictures. I also updated all of my level 0 tiles (most namely the ice and snow to add the sparkles we all love). Here's a preview of the old vs. the new:

You can find all of the files here.

Once you get these files, check out the OHS folder for all of your snow, level 0 tiles, and increased legibility for sand/dungeon/road/concrete with black font needs!

black font needs? wait...you create OHS maps directly in VS??!?! do tell...I've always just taken a top down and then manually added numbers through like Paint App...

 

[Sheep]

I updated my snow files so that you can set brightness in VS to the highest value and get quality TT pictures. I also updated all of my level 0 tiles (most namely the ice and snow to add the sparkles we all love). Here's a preview of the old vs. the new:

You can find all of the files here.

Once you get these files, check out the OHS folder for all of your snow, level 0 tiles, and increased legibility for sand/dungeon/road/concrete with black font needs!

black font needs? wait...you create OHS maps directly in VS??!?! do tell...I've always just taken a top down and then manually added numbers through like Paint App...

Might be time for you to take a real look at the OP then.

(And by doing so find White Knight's Online Map VS Conversion Aid thread.)