Battlemap Lighting Effects

[Xorn]

Those of you that have done the 4E fan delve will recognize this map; I'm training my CC3-Fu to improve my mastery of map-making. I'm trying to figure out whether or not to include lighting effects. So here's both versions:

First without lighting effects:
418

And the second with lighting effects:
419

Which do you prefer? Would it that preference change in a tabletop (non-VTT) game?

[Master]

I like it better without the lighting but if you softened the lighting by about 50% it would look best. Also use the gray background. Dark on light is hard on the eyes especially on a computer monitor.

Also you might consider adding a gradient to the edges. Light bends around corners so there should never be any sharp light/shadow contrast unless you are using it to define a special area.

[Wraith]

I like it I think it gives flavor that everyone can see and you won't forget as soon as combat starts.

[Sorontar]

Just in case you haven't spotted them there are some great tutorials by SirJoe of these boards HERE (https://www.profantasy.com/community/user_tutorials.asp)

[Xorn]

Just in case you haven't spotted them there are some great tutorials by SirJoe of these boards HERE (https://www.profantasy.com/community/user_tutorials.asp)

That's how I learned to use DD3! :) Best tutorial for pretty much any program I've ever done a tutorial on.

I agree that the dark background is key for a VTT, but I can just drop a background layer in for that--the grey is caused by the directional lighting effect on DD3, actually. It drops a 50% opacity shadow over everything, then removes the shadow from wherever I specify a light source is, and it's blocked by anything on that layer. (So I put the light sources in the WALL layer and all my walls block the light.)

On a VTT I think I'd pretty much go with it, especially since it's very easy to see the details on a computer screen, even in the shadows. My concern is that if I print this map out (I know I'm diverging from a VTT forum here) that the shadowed areas are going to be too dark to pay off.

Plus I'm really a fan of SKGs tiles, and in mimicking their style the lighting is pretty out of place. :)