Screenshot texturing (little trick I learned)

[Virtual Anomaly]

When making maps for miniature games, I do this to cut down on the number of objects on the board.

First I set up my board with all the various 3D terrain pieces, i.e. roads, rivers, wooded areas. Then I set the camera to top down and press F11 to hide the TTS game HUD elements and take a screen shot (F12) Takes a little fiddling to get it in-frame and square. Looks like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1562724391

Then with a graphics editor (PhotoShop, Gimp, Paint.net,,,whatever you like) I crop it to show just the board. I save it and custom texture the board with it. (sometimes you need to rotate your texture 180* before you save ) If you've never done this..its right clik the board...custom...diffuse image. Save to Cloud if you plan on using it in multiplayer. I suppose you could texture the table top as well, but I just use a large board.

If everything looks about right, I then delete most of the terrain objects, Like the road and river pieces especially. I will often leave some 3D trees and buildings, fences walls or hedges.

You end up with a nice flat 2D surface that wont trip up your miniatures, and can help cut down your loading time for the map. Looks like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1562724238

If you're good with a photo editor (which I'm not very), you can make some nifty terrain features as well. (Scorch marks, craters, manhole covers, anything where flat is ok)

Veteran Modders might scoff ( and they have every right to, some of thier stuff is just amazing!) but this is a down and dirty way to do it.

Hope this makes sense.

[locoparentus]

Probably worth mentioning changing your screenshot settings in the In Game section of the view Settings, to create an uncompressed copy of the F12 Screenshot and set a destination folder for these images somewhere nice and accessable.

[Virtual Anomaly]

yep yep....ty...little less down..and dirty locoparentus :) I was worried that what I posted alone would just confuse people.

[Baryonyx]

The concept is interesting, but I think this is only worth it for low-end computers or specific rulesets that involve large bases with figures on top that can fall over and get messed up if they are put on uneven terrain.

If you already go this far, invest some time into learning to do basic things with an advanced image editor such as GIMP and make a textured map from scratch. This gives you a lot more control over the looks of things, especially roads and rivers, and greatly improves quality of the end result. For an example, look at some of my terrain-based maps.

[Virtual Anomaly]

@Baryonx Yes you're right...low end computers...or in my case...someone who doesn't want to make a diorama and just get on with the game.

This of course isn't for really pro-modders like yourself, just for folks who may want a simple playable (and I'm all about playable) map to game on without having to figure out the scale or a complex editor. Cropping a texture is sure easier than painting one from scratch.

I learned this technique in Second Life (tm) where I built, scripted and textured boats, cars, planes, all kinds of stuff, and sold them for real money. Tens and tens of dollars (sic).

Wether its worth it or not..I leave to those who'd like to try it. It is for me. It might inspire somone to go on to create masterpieces like yours.