3d rendered realism in RMVXA Part I

[JayRay]

Okay, so as we know, while the tilesets allow a little bit more flexibility on maps than RMVX, in order to create really good looking and realistic maps for RPG Maker, we sometimes have to look beyond the box set, so to speak. I'm creating this tutorial to give you kind of an idea on how I plan to accomplish this, and maybe it will help you create your maps with that photo-realistic effect we look for in our 2d RPGS.

First, understand that in order to do this, unless you have a wicked art style, you're probably going to be rendering some items to place in your game. These items could be isometric items, like in say... Age of Empires II, or axiometric items like some other games. The main thing is uniformity. If you render something in perspective, try to keep that perspective throughout the entire map. If you work it right, you could wind up with something like... this.




Things you are going to need

* Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro or even Gimp
* 3ds Max, Blender, or Milkshape
* 2d Tiling software like Tiled
(YAMI ENGINE BASE)
(YAMI PARALLAX LOCK SCRIPT)
(YAMI OVERLAY SCRIPT)

Step one
Creating the Parallax Map.

Now, by grabbing enough seamless textures of photorealistic grounds and such, and by using brushes that have a smooth transition, you effectively remove the need for autotile management, and can sort of go "off the grid" so to speak There are plenty of free websites that offer those ground tiles, but also, by taking some good photos from your smartphone at say, a nature preserve or state park, you can get all the textures you want!

Now, in order to make some of those photos seamless, you can either work in your graphics editing program like Photoshop to make each texture seemless, and then turn it into a texture brush, OR you can decide whether or not to purchase Genetica by Spiral Graphics (Basic Version $149) - you don't need Pro or Studio versions here. I DO like Genetica because it does all that random guess work for you, and takes bits and pieces of your texture and utilizes them throughout the texture to create several varied textures from the same bit, but my Photoshop allows me to do most of the same functions.

Once you've created say 40 or so different ground textures, we can start actually painting the map.

* In Photoshop, this is done by clicking on Edit -> Define Pattern and then when you are ready to paint, simply click the Pattern Stamp Tool, and it will paint not in colors, but in the textures you create, and you can go back and forth with created textures.

Now, whether this is going to be a dungeon scene, or an outdoor scene, or an interior, we want to make sure our parallax map is the same size as our actual game map. This would be the number of tiles wide x 32 and number of tiles high x 32. So, if your map is 60x60, you need a map that's 1920x1920 - Now, while this might seem like a big file, keep in mind that most games, even the 2d ones now days are pushing into the gigs, and on a 32 bit game, we have up to 2 gigs of stuff we can keep in this game without a lot of issues!

So, once you have the ground size you want, you can just paint your map with all the varied opacities on each texture you want. so if you want a forest floor, with a few bits of leaves and grit in spots, or gradually transitioning to the bare dirt of a wagon track, you can do so without the blocky tile-based setups.

* Also, if it appears like your texture still looks repetitive, you can brush over it in random spots to give it that real look. Also, remember that ground is never a uniform carpet. Even areas that you can walk on should never appear to be the same as the one you just left.


Now, using the Yami Engine scripts, you should make sure that the parallax that you add to your map has the <tile lock parallax> notation in the notes for the map, and add it in. Then you can erase the tiles on the map, and with the right passability, you can walk around freely on your map without the repetitive 8 bit or 16 bit looking graphics. Instead, you have a freeform map that looks as good as you want it to look. Later on, once you render your items you will be rendering different layers for the foreground and background graphics, but this parallax background can have all the graphics.

STEP II: COMING SOON: Rendering The Stuff.

[JayRay]

Step II: Rendering the Stuff!

Now, depending on your skill, creating good looking 3d models can take a day, or a week. You might look at buying some models right from the start so that you have a few to work with. My suggestion is TurboSquid. They have a lot of pre-made models for pretty cheap. Another thing you'll need is a good renderer like Blender or 3ds max. Me, I like to use 3ds max, but to each his own.

Now, what you're wanting is a parallel projection sprite, meaning that from the bottom of the sprite to the top, there's the same persoective. This is because since we are using 2d sprites, they don't angle the further towards the top of the screen they go, Plus we want to keep the illusion and asthetic of the map aligned with our project's capabilities. Most of these programs have the ability to render your 3d models in those exact angle, but for the test, we want something about 45-55 degrees above the character or model, so we get a good ofrtion of the front AND the top of the item we're going to display.


Once you have the sprite as an object, we're going to place that object in a character set (character sets can be as big as they want to be as long as they stay within the format of 4 frames across and 4 tall, or 3 across and 4 down in the case of VX and VX Ace.

This event will ensure that when your little sprite guy goes behond the weird event, he is hidden by the graphic and when he goes down or in front of it, he hides the event. Now here's a big trick that I like to do...

There are may numerous scripts called "MapShot" and "Screenshot" - Once you've added all our static non-moving events to a page, we cantake a mapshot of it. This mapshot will turn around and (after some optomization, be our parallax background (or in RMXP, can be a tileset that we slice into slices and place on our first layer)

Now, in RMVXAce, we can use that paralalx background in the editor. and using only a few of our A1 tiles (the blank ones), we can color those tiles as blue and red (Blue meaning passable, Red meaning impassible) On the tileset, you then make sure that the passability you just created matches what you're going to do, and, even though the events are visible in the editor, the result of where the mapshot saw the events IS placed there. Now, go ahead and color any area the player can walk in, in the blue tile, and impassible in Red. Now, using a transparent tile that's clear with the same passability attributes as the colored ones, you can fill the rest of your map, erasing the blue and red, and having a perfect passability on your map in a way that works with the parallax map you have as well as the events.

For instance, if you prerendered a house, you would want the players to be able to walk behind the house, not stopped by the roof tiles. In RMXP this is easier done. but in Ace, this is hard indeed. This method dals with both problems, and allows you to costruct hundreds of customized houses and other items that are intricately unique.

Here's the best part... If you want a lot of events on your map, and don't see yourself going behind a lot of them. Take another MAPSHOT!. Now you can replace your parallax map with the new map, your tileset with the new tileset, and literally for RMXP and RMVXAce have limitless layers. Keep only the events on the board that you are absolutely sure your player will go behind, and can't be placed on a tileset.

Now, since you've created an ultra-realistic 2.5d map, you can get even crazier with it, but doing fine details on your map that work with the models and pieces you've created. For these purposes, you want a ground layer that's going to be as big as your map, either as a paralalx or an RMXP tileset slice. Then, once you've taken a Mapshot of your map, you can go to your favorite imaging program, and carve in those nice details that might only be seen once in the game (On a seperate layer.)

RMXP - This tile may go on say Layer 2, or whatever, and doesn't even have to be placed on an overlay

RMVXA - Many of the overlay scripts out there allow for your paralalx Layer, your Ground Layer, your Overlay Layer, and usually a fog or light layer.

Then for stuff that will always be over a player's head, you will be creating an awesome FOG LAYER

Now, in RMXP, fog is part of the game, and there's a secret. If your fog image is the size of your map, it stays locked to the tiles, and above the player's head!!!

On the other side, RMVXA, we'll be needing a fog script of some sort or those overlays to add those overhanging stable roofs, temple ruins, and other elements that don't work well in trying to affix to a layer poor editor.

Next: Interaction:

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Step III: Interaction:

Now if you did everything right, you have this house as a graphic, and yet, there's no door... or you have a door, and it doesn't work. Well, there's a trick to that. If your door is in the actual place where the event graphic's bottom center is, then no problem at all. However, if not, you would need to create a blank event, where the door WOULD be, and use that for moving between levels.

Event interactions-

This is great, now, with your paralalx maps, you can interact with events that are characters, hide events in the background, even have characters passing behind background elements. Animations also seem to work behind the event, for those real nice cinematic sequences we all love to see...

Anyway, that's all for now.