Merricksdad's Black Hills Tileset (First Look)

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

As for underground tilesets, I already have planned three variant Underdark settings. No guarantee they will get done this year, but they won't be as hard to do as this one, since many of the parts will be either reusable (from here), or simpler to construct.

 

The first will be karst caves with a lot of limestone decor. It will feature both wet and dry terrains, including flowing water, shallow water very much like that in the Dwarven Forge Water Cavern Pack, as well as a 5m height transition with smoothing crossers similar to this set (no need for 10m, IMO). This cave will also feature bottomless chasms. Natural cave entrances in the mountain tileset may lead to this type of cave system, especially once I get the limestone outcrop terrain added. I'd like to be able to transition from natural caves to deep crypts. I've got a lot of sketches prepped for room groups for this tileset.

 

The second will be more igneous, having far fewer columnar features, and a lot more mushrooms and crystal features. In addition to water and chasm, you will also see lava and lava crossers. Many of the mine and cave entrances from the mountain set will lead to this cave type. I'd like to be able to easily transition from this cave system to Dwarven halls. Expect the crystal features to be over-sized and almost ridiculous, like in dungeon siege. Also expect newer appearances like razor rock, which I will probably portray as jagged obsidian. For the crystal-less areas, I'd like to build some placeables to go over the walls, so you can have players mine simple gems and ores in the dwarven tunnels. I feel this cave set should feature a TON of room-like groups. I probably won't personally do any Dwarven halls remake, since we have a good one already. It also already features most of the stuff I was going to steal from dungeon siege.

 

The third will be utterly creepy with lots of unnatural shadow added. The rock itself will either absorb light, or glow, depending on the terrain used. It will contain huge quantities of odd mushrooms and other glowing stuff. In addition to lava, acid and other strange liquids will replace water features. I'd like to make a lot of earth-node and Faerzress-infused groups. The goal is to be able to transition from here to demon prisons, similar to the Dwarven halls, but with a much older and darker feel. Also expect an entire terrain which is just mushrooms and slime from wall to wall.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Another thing I saw and wanted to do with the granite hills was to add gem pits. They'd just be placeable groups like with houses, but instead of laying flat or building up, they'd sink the ground to a deep pit, and most of the equipment would be down in the pit. Primitive ladders and mining equipment could be used there. The idea came to me when I was playing the facebook game Stormfall: Age of war. They had three or four interesting gem mines, as well as ore pits. I'd like to clone those for NWN.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Verilazic]

               

As for underground tilesets, I already have planned three variant Underdark settings. No guarantee they will get done this year, but they won't be as hard to do as this one, since many of the parts will be either reusable (from here), or simpler to construct.

Yay!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Well, I can't just put out my updated drow stuff without something to play them in, can I? What would poor little Selvetarm do without a safe lair in the Underdark?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Here's a shot which combines the erode/dilate crossers with carve and fluff crossers. Most of what you are seeing is the erode crosser, which when used alone has some issues. Again, it is meant to be used with a parallel dilate crosser. What I wanted to show in this image is the walkable space you can gain by using the erode crosser at the bottom of a cliff.

 

 

The problem with using the erode crosser by itself comes when you try to make a convex corner. The 2m paper doll flap which was added to every tile has a tendency to jut out, sometimes exposing areas with no rendered rock, allowing you to see through the world. I'll have to hand modify those convex corners for the erode and dilate crossers, or you won't be able to use them without making the set look weird. I may be able to finish those by tonight, and then release an update for playing with.

 

I'd first like to get the new alternate carve done. It will be very similar to erode, so it may have the same issues, and I'd like to know that early on. If I need to, I'll come up with another modifier to better wrap convex corners, especially since convex corners make up more than half of the crosser options.

 

As you can see in the image above, the tileset square look is starting to fade away to a more fluid layout.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Draygoth28]

               Starting to imagine all the possibilities with this set and it not finished yet. Very impressive work my friend. FYI can't wait to get my hands on the update.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               

I don't know if you'll take requests for this set, but something that you may wish to consider would be an open (ground level) stone quarry group.  It might complement your gem pits.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

If I don't do them, I hope somebody eventually will. I'd like more than just me to get in on adding to this set.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Just finished the alternate erode crosser. This one is an exact opposite of the fluff crosser, which makes it very much like the erode crosser, except that there is a tiny bit of walkable space at the top of the tile. It also uses a new paper doll wing size of only 75cm. I've noticed that the length of the wing might need to be modified to match the shape of the adjacent tile. What I mean is, if the topmost polygon of the tile edge is only 75cm from the back edge of the tile, then the width of the wing poly at that location needs to be approximately 75cm. I've had success using 75cm all the way down the tile, unlike the previous 200cm wing size. Anything larger than the width/distance combo I just mentioned seems to leave at least one wing polygon visible, jutting out of the rock, and can cause the problem of seeing inside the models.

 

Here's the upgrade shot.

 

 

I've also modified the area lighting to be 64 gray instead of 128 gray. This gives a lot more contrast to everything, and makes it look a bit more wet or clammy.

 

These passes are created by using the "Push-in" crosser. I've renamed the "fluff" crosser to "Push-out". This new crosser works really well, visually, with the dilate crosser, making another 20m cliff which looks great. Unlike the erode crosser, this one has a walkable ledge on the top of the tile, which doesn't play well with the no-ledge-on-the-bottom dilate crosser. Once walkmeshes are upgraded to reflect the actual useable shape of the rock and ground, I'll probably have to do something about that, or the overhang from the tile above will make it look like the player can walk through solid rock.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Something else I have been thinking about is the tileset grass. Since I've left the all-grass walkmesh under the rocks while I debug them, the grass grows everywhere. It pokes out where the rock is less extruded, and is hidden when the rock is really fluffy. This makes it look like the grass is actually growing from the cracks. The only problem with this is that when the grass is moved by wind, it moves from the grass base, not the rock it appears to be growing from. So I think I'll have to take it out. Previously I was thinking to use a thin strip to prevent walking on the rock, but leave the walkmesh-grass under the rock for effect.

 

Probably just better to use placed grasses and other biomass.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_s e n]

               

Here's a shot which combines the erode/dilate crossers with carve and fluff crossers. Most of what you are seeing is the erode crosser, which when used alone has some issues. Again, it is meant to be used with a parallel dilate crosser. What I wanted to show in this image is the walkable space you can gain by using the erode crosser at the bottom of a cliff.

 

 

The problem with using the erode crosser by itself comes when you try to make a convex corner. The 2m paper doll flap which was added to every tile has a tendency to jut out, sometimes exposing areas with no rendered rock, allowing you to see through the world. I'll have to hand modify those convex corners for the erode and dilate crossers, or you won't be able to use them without making the set look weird. I may be able to finish those by tonight, and then release an update for playing with.

 

I'd first like to get the new alternate carve done. It will be very similar to erode, so it may have the same issues, and I'd like to know that early on. If I need to, I'll come up with another modifier to better wrap convex corners, especially since convex corners make up more than half of the crosser options.

 

As you can see in the image above, the tileset square look is starting to fade away to a more fluid layout.

 

little trick is to place a black 2 faced square mesh under every tile say a little bit deeper than the deepest point of your tile (consider river canyons water and other things that can bring future tiles under the ground level, this way you can camouf also the glitches that sometimes appear when vertex are misaligned, should work in your case too, at least its a bit better than environment lights

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_s e n]

               

about the grass, I'd love to see patches here and there, even on unwalkable stone (maybe add some mesh that shows (opacity animation) in tile animloops, just an idea)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

little trick is to place a black 2 faced square mesh under every tile say a little bit deeper than the deepest point of your tile (consider river canyons water and other things that can bring future tiles under the ground level, this way you can camouf also the glitches that sometimes appear when vertex are misaligned, should work in your case too, at least its a bit better than environment lights

 

I'd rather fix the overhang problem and also solve the extra faces issue rather than let it go and have these odd dangling bits. I don't think a little bit of black underneath is going to fix 2m of incorrect over hang '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_s e n]

               

you can also try to block camera movement, not sure if that is the case but consider it an option, the method was discovered by the almigthy BabaYaga and you can see how it works in diademus' spider caves tileset. basically you need to avoid multiple verts share same x,y values even if they get different z, the wok has issues. otherwise setting those faces as obscuring blocks camera

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Draygoth28]

               Any updates?