[BETA FEATURE] Isometric Map & new Token type - Please test

[Jagged]

1. Bug
[spoiler=Zoom bug]

tile-zoom.jpg

[/spoiler]
Ok, so I set an Isometric tile as a background texture. When I zoomed in/out the graphics didn't clear, unless I changed the window size (eg maximized window)

I thought I should just say, that I don't think I can really do much about this. You get the same behaviour with current Maptool and it is caused by the transparent areas of the texture. I think if I was inclined to do anything, it would be to put in code that rejects such textures

[JamzTheMan]

1. Bug
[spoiler=Zoom bug]

tile-zoom.jpg

[/spoiler]
Ok, so I set an Isometric tile as a background texture. When I zoomed in/out the graphics didn't clear, unless I changed the window size (eg maximized window)

I thought I should just say, that I don't think I can really do much about this. You get the same behaviour with current Maptool and it is caused by the transparent areas of the texture. I think if I was inclined to do anything, it would be to put in code that rejects such textures

Oh! Well, didn't know it was an existing bug... seriously, who uses textures with transparent areas?!

Any idea why it does it? Not expecting you to fix, just curious.

Oh, and so that brings the total number of bugs I found for your patch, 0!

[Jagged]

Any idea why it does it? Not expecting you to fix, just curious.

Its simply a redraw issue. The transparent areas introduce bare patches that aren't touched as the screen is redrawn, so you get multiple echoes of what went before. To fix it it you would need to always draw a background colour, although that might introduce flicker and other problems, which is why I don't want to go there

Oh, and so that brings the total number of bugs I found for your patch, 0!

Awesome!

[JamzTheMan]

Ahh. Well the simple fix would to transform the texture used to remove transparency and just make the alpha channel black. Then draw with that texture.

There wouldn't be anything under the tile/texture so no need to keep the transparency after it's selected.

[Jagged]

Good point

[Bhoritz]

I have posted some new isometric figures HERE.

Whilst working on them, I have also thought about how to make iso playing easier for peoples wishing to test it. It has already been mentioned, but imho, the more important would be the possibility of saving the table with the illustrations within the rptok. Without it, peoples wishing to casually have a try must assemble at least a dozen tables before playing. Not very casual. Whilst with the table saved in the rptok, they just have to drop the token on the map. From the discussion on the developers forum, it seems possible, but I don't have the slightest idea about how or how easily. It is way out of my league in programming.

It would also be fine if some peoples here would be willing to test and experiment the iso feature, in real play, during real sessions, and publish their experience somewhere, on a blog or something like that.
So, here is the deal: if someone (or even better several peoples) is willing to do it, I propose to make the battlemaps needed (maybe in different styles: flat, 2.5D or full iso), all the NPCs and monsters needed, and, of course the PCs (several sets of PCs if there are several GMs willing to participate). And I am sure we could ask Jagged for help if anyone was to hit a problem.
It would also be a way to promote Maptool for something no other VTT does.
Anyone interested?

[Jagged]

Including the Image table in the token is not as straight forward as it might appear. Isn't it always the way?

If the image table is included in the token does that mean similar tokens cannot share the same table?

Is the table only included at save time?

Does that mean when a token is added to a map, its image table should be moved to the Table section of the campaign? What if it overwrites an existing table? Are there any security issues with that?

So beyond the technical hurdles, I think there are a few procedural questions which I don't think I know the answer to yet. I'd rather look at the issue, once the facility has been used for a bit.

ps: Love the new tokens, especially the column. Don't suppose I could ask you do do some doors in the layout below? Black lines for positioning info only

door.png (871 Bytes) Viewed 1330 times

[Bhoritz]

Here is a door. I didn't go for a full iso perspective but kept a little normal perspective.
I did make it the same way as figures (with four orientations), this way, the door can be applied on any direction and can be "opened" by choosing a new orientation.

On another topic, I have discovered that Roll20 has a feature to change the image of a token (called Rollable Table Token). So whilst it lacks the capacities of dynamic iso lighting, the basic capacity to move and turn iso tokens is there. Quite interesting. Maybe if stuff could be released to play isometrically, more peoples would try it.

[lmarkus001]

This feature will be cool! Especially for maps like:
http://fengzhudesign.blogspot.com/2014/ ... aways.html

and bringing images out of Baldur's Gate (which are all isometric).

[xavram]

Jamz, you posted an absolutely gorgeous screenshot of a map using the Isometric view with what looked like actual 3d models on it. I know they're not actually 3d but where did you find images like that?

There are plenty of sites for "fantasy/medieval" map images, from a top down perspective. But I have no idea where to go if I wanted to find "isometric view" images for maps.

[xavram]

Hmm, Jagged, I see one issue. I used your door template that you posted, just to see how VBL would interact with it and "Figure" token.

What I saw was that when I saw on the "right" side of the door, I could see it...



...but on the other side of the door, not so much...



How does one get around this? Obviously, the players should be able to see the door from either side of it, right?

[JamzTheMan]

Jamz, you posted an absolutely gorgeous screenshot of a map using the Isometric view with what looked like actual 3d models on it. I know they're not actually 3d but where did you find images like that?

There are plenty of sites for "fantasy/medieval" map images, from a top down perspective. But I have no idea where to go if I wanted to find "isometric view" images for maps.

I actually threw that together using assets/images from the game "Shadowrun Returns"! It's an Isometric game, and get this, all the artwork is straight up .png images! Mostly Modern/Futuristic but nice none the less.

I believe you can get it for like 10-20$ (it's an awesome game so worth it alone). Then go to where you installed it, eg. C:\Program Files (x86)\Shadowrun Returns\Shadowrun_Data\StreamingAssets\ContentPacks

In there you will find subdirectories full of images, just do a search for *.png. I copied them to a new directory structure and curated them for what I wanted. There should be two image sizes for each piece.


*Note: There are "content" packs you can buy which may contain even more images. AND a lot of free community ones as well. It has an active community so I would head to their forums and it may lead to more treasures.

PS They just did a Battletech Kickstarter so we may have some awesome isometric mechs/artwork in the future if they do it the same way!

[xavram]

Thanks for the info. I don't run many sci-fi games, so would like to find something out there for isometric images with a more "fantasy" flavor rather than science fiction.

[JamzTheMan]

Thanks for the info. I don't run many sci-fi games, so would like to find something out there for isometric images with a more "fantasy" flavor rather than science fiction.

In that case you might want to search for model extractors for various fantasy games, like Diablo, or such.

eg http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diablo- ... iewer.html


Might take some searching but you can probably find dumps of models if looking hard enough...

[aliasmask]

Some fantasy games character models are pretty good to use during the character creation process. Just use print screen and save/edit with some imaging software. I did that with a TERA model in another post.