I’m trying to figure out the fill map – transparency – opaque – fog image – dual layer thing.  I’m not getting many hits when I do searches in the Forums for these words.  Most of the Help section focuses on stuff like aliasing, but not anything comprehensive enough to help me with what I’m trying to do.  Apparently, I’m just good enough to get myself deep in doo-doo.

 For example, The tutorial in the Help section has:

“In the following example the Board Image is a transparent image that will be layered over the player territories to give them a textured brick wall look.”

Does this mean the Board image is entirely transparent?  Or just the parts that are within the fill zones?  What makes it transparent?  I’m using Paint.net.  Is there a color that you select to be transparent?   If there’s one color then how do you make a texture?

 What is “Player Background Color”.  Why is it only available in Opaque mode?  What is Opaque mode suppose to do? 

 I’ve tried loading images in both board and fill map in an attempt to add some texture to occupied territories with no joy so far (that's my goal for now). 

I’ll keep experimenting but I’d love a few pointers.

Hey, how come I can't paste an image in here?

I think this is the thread you're looking for:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/531p1/Dual_Layer_support

Norseman wrote: I think this is the thread you're looking for:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/531p1/Dual_Layer_support

You know, I did find that thread earlier.. before I got myself in trouble, but I forgot about it.  I'll go back and peruse it and see if things start to make sense.

Thanks..

Let me condense the info that I know to help you out.

Board layer sits on top of the fill layer. If you have a board image that is entirely opaque, having a fill layer would be meaningless because you wouldn't be able to see anything through it.

Fill layers are good for two things:

1. Disconnected areas that you want to be a single territory, such as an island chain. You would make the individual islands transparent in your board image, while making the sea areas between the islands opaque. On your fill layer, you would create say, a square area big enough to cover the entire island chain. The opaque seas would cover the square fill layers, while the transparent islands would let it show through.

2. Anti-aliasing and other effects for fills. With a single layer the player will floodfill a territory based on the color of the pixel you pick as the center of your territory. This leads to an abrupt transition between the fill color and the rest of your map design. If you create a fill layer, you can create a 'hole' in your board image that is anti-aliased with respect to transparency. This will create a blended effect between the fill color and the rest of your design.

For #2, I'm not sure how to do transparency in Paint.net, I'm just familiar with photoshop. To do this in photoshop, you would start with a completely transparent background canvas over which you would layer all of the map details. You could then cut out the territories along with an antialias setting and it will blend the borders.

What this basically means is that.. say you have a map called Square Land with a single square territory (player 1 wins!). Square land is boring, so you start with a completely transparent image and cover it completely in black. You then cut out the single territory Square 1 in the center.

With antialias on, the borders of that territory will transition from pure black to transparent with a few pixels buffer. The buffer pixels will be some combination of black and transparent. When your square is filled in it will create a smooth transition.

Thanks all - I just got the fog effect I wanted -- using three maps. I have to check to see if I can do it with two, but I'll bet not. I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right. I'm interested in the anti-aliasing effect with fill mode. That'll have to come at a later date.

Current project: I'm working on migrating my King of the Mountains Map here to WG.

As long as you do Fall of Rome next, we'll be fine.

asm wrote: As long as you do Fall of Rome next, we'll be fine.

Yeah, I've got King of the Mts all but up and running (I've just got to plug in the continental bonuses), but I'm not sure when I'm going to submit it for review.  I'm trying to avoid a straight migration of a WF board.  What would be the point if I don't take advantage of some of the advantages that WG has to offer? 

Right now, I'm weighing the pros and cons of putting in the time on migrating some of my WF boards, and my feeling is, What's the point unless I can improve on something I've already got up and running elsewhere?    Certainly, the fog and transparency features that WG offer are huge visual improvements, but there are many game play options that could shift the whole paradigm of the King OTM board if I wanted to explore them.  And this goes to the whole issue of having mods, etc.. I'm torn.  Anyways, Fall of Rome is high on my list.

On a not so related topic.  I've read on the forums here talk about improving the standard, and I'm sure we all want that to happen on a number of levels.  One area that I think needs immediate attention is the pace of public games.  They move waay tooooo saalloooooouuuw. 

Regardless.  Looks like I'm going to have to pony up th $ and join WG. Hey, are there any developer's discounts?