# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Virtual Tabletop/Battlemap Mapping >  Using google sketchup as a battlemap

## megrim

hello there its been a while... i will be trying to run scepter tower of spellguard module by making the maps 3dish and using them directly in Google sketchup, while this is not very practical my layers have liked the idea of seeing the dungeons in 3d. let me know what you think.

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z...t=dungeon1.jpg

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z...current=R1.jpg

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## Steel General

Neat idea...the first image is very dark but I could make out enough .

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## megrim

> Neat idea...the first image is very dark but I could make out enough .


hehe that was me testing the fog feature, for when i use dark maps, or dungeons with no illumination.

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## Ascension

I think that it's a great idea to do some 3d dungeons...gives the player a real sense of space.  As to the rats you might want to try doing something like the people and trees and other objects that you can import...they look sort of flat like a "shrinky dink".  I have never made one myself but maybe there's a tut somewhere.  Good start though.

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## megrim

> I think that it's a great idea to do some 3d dungeons...gives the player a real sense of space.  As to the rats you might want to try doing something like the people and trees and other objects that you can import...they look sort of flat like a "shrinky dink".  I have never made one myself but maybe there's a tut somewhere.  Good start though.


true but imagine having to do that for every monster i use... imagine rendering a hydra! i am not much of a modeler and most likely will only use it for this module if not ill have.As for the 2d images i tried looking for a tutorial and did not find it, maybe its the lack of time... scepter tower has alot of maps!
but anyways ill be posting more screens of other dungeons! thanks for the input!

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## Ascension

I'm not talking about full 3d renders, I'm talking about something like the default people objects...like the one of the girl holding books when you start a new image, standing by the x, y, and z, coordinate lines.  There's a bunch of those that can be imported from one of the SU folders that gets installed.  It's basically just an image, a line drawing.  If we could find a way to make any image like those into an object then that would be sweet.  I'd make me some dragons  :Smile:

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## megrim

> I'm not talking about full 3d renders, I'm talking about something like the default people objects...like the one of the girl holding books when you start a new image, standing by the x, y, and z, coordinate lines.  There's a bunch of those that can be imported from one of the SU folders that gets installed.  It's basically just an image, a line drawing.  If we could find a way to make any image like those into an object then that would be sweet.  I'd make me some dragons


ah yes i tried searching for that too no luck if you do find a tutorial let me know, ill keep searching!

another map:
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...u_2007/R1B.jpg

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## Redrobes

Making actual 3D tokens is hard and is the #1 reason why everyones VTT is in 2D. We could all do a 3D one like the games - in fact by using a game engine it would probably not be all that hard. But the content creation would be... challenging.

To make automatic tokens for 2D images should be relatively easy tho. If I knew the sketchup format then it might be no problem. You can generate the wavefront .OBJ format pretty easily as its all text based. Most apps like blender will import them no problem. Maybe you can get blender to make the tokens...

Getting preexisting common monsters in 3D is not so bad. Here is a forum I use a little tho there are many. Most contain lots of crappy models tho and a few good ones. Theres a lot of rough to get through before you spot your diamond.

http://artist-3d.com/free_3d_models/...hp&count=count

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## megrim

> Making actual 3D tokens is hard and is the #1 reason why everyones VTT is in 2D. We could all do a 3D one like the games - in fact by using a game engine it would probably not be all that hard. But the content creation would be... challenging.
> 
> To make automatic tokens for 2D images should be relatively easy tho. If I knew the sketchup format then it might be no problem. You can generate the wavefront .OBJ format pretty easily as its all text based. Most apps like blender will import them no problem. Maybe you can get blender to make the tokens...
> 
> Getting preexisting common monsters in 3D is not so bad. Here is a forum I use a little tho there are many. Most contain lots of crappy models tho and a few good ones. Theres a lot of rough to get through before you spot your diamond.
> 
> http://artist-3d.com/free_3d_models/...hp&count=count



well i kinda figure how to do the 2d models like sang (thats the name of the dude that appears by default in sketchup and here are some screenshots of images put in that way

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## Ascension

That's exactly what I was referring to.  Looks just like I thought it would, lacking in 3d realism but serves good enough to show objects and spatial relations.  How'd ya do it?

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## megrim

> That's exactly what I was referring to.  Looks just like I thought it would, lacking in 3d realism but serves good enough to show objects and spatial relations.  How'd ya do it?


double clicked on sang then i dragged the image to sang it will put itself vertically (i edited the pics on photoshop to make the background transparent and saved them as png) then i adjusted the image to the axes sang has and deleted sang and presto!

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## megrim

sorry for the double post but i had to add this screenshot

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## Ascension

Nice dynamic angle, I like it.

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## eRaz0r

I've used Sketch up to some success for RPG areas.  Mainly for places that are multi-levelled and somewhat difficult to really visualize in 2D.   I don't tend to use it for the actual VTT, because it's hard to really wander through it in a manner consistent with actual game play.   I usually just create a few scenes from various perspectives and then  the players can see a "fly through" to the next scene.  If I get enthusiastic, I'll even export an animation. 

Here are a couple of pics of a church to the Raven Queen I got about 2/3rds finished.


And a link to a video of a cut-away for a different building - a tower-top in the city of Sharn in the Eberron campaign I was running.
http://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B9A6AS...download&hl=en

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## eRaz0r

And here are some still shots of the Sharn Tower from the video link in the previous post. 



And yes, that *is* a pool with a transparent bottom on the roof of the tower, through which one can see the dining room 2 floors below.  :Very Happy:

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## torstan

Nice stuff!

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## eRaz0r

Thanks Torstan!  That means a lot to me, coming from you ..  I love your work - just downloaded all your free art for maptools.  I am working on a top-down battlemap for a D&D session this weekend,  but if I don't finish in time, I may need to use your excellent MineEntrance map - It's not a perfect fit for the scenario, but I may just change the scenario just to use that map  :Smile:

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## tilt

looking really good - and I agree on using 2D "cut-outs" in the 3D world is just...well, a world easier  :Smile: 
When 4e D&D came out 2 years ago, they talked about that they would supplement the pen-and-paper rpg with online functions - they showed a really nice demo of a 3D dungeon, with lighting and all. Your torches would light up what you actually could see, you could import your character from the character sheet (also 3D) and use as a miniature and of course the whole Monsters Manual would be available for the GM ... it looked really cool and as a great improvement over fantasy grounds (which is an ok program). But unfortunatly it looks like the limited wizards/Hasbroe resources can't finish the program - there hasn't even been a single statements since about how far along it is...   :Frown:

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## megrim

importing wow models works well as well, let me show you:

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## Aval Penworth

> looking really good - and I agree on using 2D "cut-outs" in the 3D world is just...well, a world easier 
> When 4e D&D came out 2 years ago, they talked about that they would supplement the pen-and-paper rpg with online functions - they showed a really nice demo of a 3D dungeon, with lighting and all. Your torches would light up what you actually could see, you could import your character from the character sheet (also 3D) and use as a miniature and of course the whole Monsters Manual would be available for the GM ... it looked really cool and as a great improvement over fantasy grounds (which is an ok program). But unfortunatly it looks like the limited wizards/Hasbroe resources can't finish the program - there hasn't even been a single statements since about how far along it is...


Yeah I remember that! I got really excited and showed my Rolemaster group the teaser videos. If anything was going to bring me back to D&D that would have been it. Ah well..

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## mearrin69

Heh. Limited resources of Hasbro/WotC...go download the Hasbro financials and take a look for yourself.  :Smile:  I wish my resources were similiarly limited!

Cool maps!
M

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## geamon

It's not a limit of resources in the sense of having not enough money. I think it's a limit of resources as in they aren't investing in a proper software development team for the D&D product line and not organizing the budgeting properly. Also I'm thinking they are located in the same building maybe even right near the R&D team for the game or something like that. If they had their independent budget and creative license to create the product independent from the D&D development guys you would see a much different result. 

Does anyone remember the MTG PC game? Another flop of WotC in the software they develop.

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## Wannabehero

This is some really fantastic stuff.  I stopped trying to model dungeons in Sketch-up a while back due to the time vs. quality (for me that is) and just scan in hand drawings, but these 3D dungeons are absolutely boss!  I might need to find the time to try again...

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## eRaz0r

Hard to believe it's been so long since this thread was active. I remember it like yesterday.  I haven't been very active in the Cartography department, but I did put another Sketchup map together.. this time, it's just the top of a tower. I made some VTT maps in GIMP for it to use with Roll20 or MapTools,, but I thought I'd cross-post  in this thread in case there are still watchers, because I uploaded the sketchup file too.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/vi...r-sanctum.html

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