Thread: Why no 3D?
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November 19th, 2020, 15:42 #21
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November 19th, 2020, 15:51 #22
Well, of course it would take some time to work its way through the system. As I said in my original message, it would not happen overnight. But there are a lot of solutions for assets like models. No players have to create them. Certainly WoTC has the manpower and resources to do some simple models. Hell, plenty of teeny one-person indy games have lots of models. It would be no trick at all to whip up a small library of generic models and start from there. Maybe module publishers would not run out and start re-working old modules, but with a standard shared set even that would not be tough, and putting them in going forward would be no more work than putting in a 2D token is. I think if FG had the ability to do this (and now it does), publishers might very well like to be able to spice up their modules.
Oh, I completely agree - it's not as if anyone could snap their fingers and make it happen overnight. Maybe it would start with something small like Smiteworks just turning on the native support for 3D in Unity and then giving people the hooks needed to assign a 3D model instead of a 2D token. And it could grow naturaly from there.
"Way more important"? As hard as I try, I can never understand why dynamic lighting is considered so freaking important by so many people. Personally I'd much rather see my 3D character being menaced and surrounded by a bunch of 3D orcs than looking at dumb light and dark spots on a map. And as you say, dynamic lighting would be WAY better in 3D
Support for 3D models and support for animating them pretty much go hand in hand.
EDIT: In general I think that with enough support to reduce the preparation it will surely work out, just arguing with preparation time would lead to denying all new possible features (animated maps, sounds, etc.; hell, how much time I spent for sounds! ), and people who do not want to spend time on that can still use the typical things I know people who build a lot of 3d assets for their games at real tables, and their is a market for these 3d things; so, in general I do not see a reason why it should not be possible to have 3d vtt Just a matter of support and interest etc [/QUOTE]
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November 19th, 2020, 15:57 #23
The same can be said of any game content, it has nothing to do with 3D or not. Let's face it, most of us use maps that others have designed rather than doing it ourselves. And there's no reason it would have to take any longer whether using 3D or 2D. Is it really harder to drag a 3D model of a bush onto a map than it is to drag a 2D image of a bush? Picture playing Rollercoaster Tycoon or any other game that requires placing 3D objects. It would be no harder than that. And hell, for the purists and luddites, 2D would still be available.
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November 19th, 2020, 16:01 #24
Ok Frunobulax. Go read the post I made about it already in the pipeline a few pages back. Its coming. Eventually.
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November 19th, 2020, 16:03 #25
I don't think that's true at all. What makes you think that? Why put music in movies., why not just voices? In fact, why watch movies at al;l when you can read the novel and get the same story? We see the world in 3D. Therefore, by definition, it looks more realistic to us.
I'm sorry, but you don't understand how it works. No extra effort would be required on the part of the DM. The DMs would not be the ones making models (unless they felt like it).
Your definition of "better" is different than mine. I think FG is much, much better than scrawling on plastic with markers.
Are you saying that you want us kids to get off your lawn? ;-)
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November 19th, 2020, 16:08 #26
Yes, 3D does not just mean models, but it would also allow things like flying creatures and elevations. A battle on a hillside? Sure. underwater? yeah. If you maker your own battle maps rather than using pre-made ones as most peopl do, then making maps 3D takes a teeny bit m,ore time. But hell, look at ALL the games that let you manipulate terrain and place 3D objects. Playing Cities or Planet Coaster is not considered to be super difficult.
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November 19th, 2020, 16:14 #27
Problems? See; How to Report Issues, Bugs & Problems
On Licensing & Distributing Community Content
Community Contributions: Gemstones, 5E Quick Ref Decal, Adventure Module Creation, Dungeon Trinkets, Balance Disturbed, Dungeon Room Descriptions
Note, I am not a SmiteWorks employee or representative, I'm just a user like you.
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November 19th, 2020, 16:27 #28
I agree. I've always been a game designer, not a programmer, so while I'm familiar with the capabilities of the Unity engine, I'm not really qualified to say how difficult it would be to implement. But from what I understand it does seem relatively trivial to me, too - not any kind of full conversion, of course, but maybe just flipping whatever switch is necessary to allow 3D assets in the game and then letting the community screw around with it in beta or something. I know that with more or less zero training, I once downloaded a free 3D modeling program, made a basic model, and had it moving around in Unity in very short order. It's not rocket science - the Unity engine makes it super easy.
People keep saying that making maps would be so terribly hard, but I look at the huge number of games in my Steam library that allow terrain manipulation. Cities: Skylines, Planet Coaster, No Man's Sky and a slew of others have that feature and it's super easy. Raise some terrain, lower some terrain, make some lakes and rivers, sprinkle in a few trees and a wall, and bingo - you have a map. It's exactly the same process as in 2D, just with models instead of images.
Wow, that's fascinating, thanks so much for the pointer - I hadn't heard about it. It looks pretty amazing even at this early stage. I think they have the right idea. I'm pretty unclear about the resources Smiteworks has available, or exactly how much it would take to implement at a basic level, but if I were them I would take a look at Talespire and tremble in fear of the future. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but if I were Smiteworks I would not be thinking "Should FG go 3D?", but "How long can we survive without doing it? Before we only had to deal with Roll20, which sucks. How will we deal with this new competition?" Luckily, the hardest part (porting to Unity) is already done.Last edited by Frunobulax; November 21st, 2020 at 21:10.
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November 19th, 2020, 16:35 #29
I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be insulting or step on anyone's toes, but I do not think "you don't understand" is somehow offensive language. I didn't use any insults or anything. If someone said to me "you don't understand quantum mechanics" I'd say "you're right - I sure don't." I certainly understand that hurling insults or epithets or other kind of bad behavior are unacceptable, but I think that reacting that way to a perfectly innocent comment - and with all caps - is overreacting a bit. Did someone complain? I even went back and edited one of my previous posts to take out a negative word you didn't like. It seems that you are trying hard to defend the feelings of a theoretical person by yelling at me to be nicer. I don't like to be yelled at - have you considered my feelings?
Last edited by Frunobulax; November 19th, 2020 at 16:38.
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November 19th, 2020, 16:37 #30Got a Bug - Click & FOLLOW the procedure here, it will save time
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