On the Cartographer’s Desk – November 2015

Example DD3 Bitmap stylePerspectives is clearly dominating my desk this month, so let’s take a look at what’s coming in this new edition of one of my favorite add-ons.

Four Styles

In addition to the two old vector styles that Perspectives Pro came with (vector symbols in color and in black and white) Perspectives 3 offers two new bitmap-based style. One is based on the artwork from Dungeon Designer 3. In fact the artist, Kai-Uwe Wallner, created 3D models of almost all the DD3 symbols and exported these in 8 views to serve as our isometric symbols. This means you can create matching isometric views of your DD3 dungeon maps!

Example Bitmap Herwin WielinkThe other bitmap style was created by Herwin Wielink, in the same look as his Isometric Dungeon style from the Annual Vol 6. In fact, the two can be combined for an even greater variety of available symbols. And unlike the Annual style, floors and walls can be freely created at any angle in Perspectives 3.

Aligning Bitmaps

In fact getting bitmap styles to behave properly in isometric view has been one of the major design challenges, but we are happy to report that these have (mostly) been overcome.


Example Shadows
A little programming remains to be done, but even without it Perspectives 3 performs wonderfully in creating isometric bitmap-based maps. Doors and windows for example, just like their vector predecessors, align to angled walls by simply moving the mouse cursor over the wall baseline when placing them.

Casting Shadows

Taking a cue from City Designer 3, the Global Sun option will also create dynamic shadows and lights on the walls, allowing you to adjust these on the fly. The difference in shadows in the image on the right has been created with only a quick adjustment on the Global Sun direction.

Like in Perspectives Pro, all the these tools and styles will be available to create outdoor maps with buildings. We’ll incorporate lessons that have been learned in the Source Maps line of maps into the tools and the manual to make this even easier and quicker.

The Plan

Our plan is currently to have Perspectives 3 ready for pre-order before Christmas, and then do the full release early next year. I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I do!

13 Responses to “On the Cartographer’s Desk – November 2015”

  1. Looks AMAZING. Very excited. But, now for the big question… will Perspectives 3 be compatible with CC3+ ?

  2. Just took another look at that last image of the Herwin Wielink style, and it just. Looks. Amazing.

  3. Yes, of course. In fact it will be the first product to be only compatible with CC3+. Too much new stuff in there to make it backwards-compatible with CC3.

  4. Looks AWESOME!!! Can’t wait to pre-order! 🙂

  5. Yippeee ! Wahoo ! ( does a cartwheel)

    Why yes, I would be interested in this.

    JimP.

  6. If we buy Perspectives today with the discount price will we get the new version when it comes out?

  7. As that will be well within our 3-months upgrade guarantee, yes.

  8. Yay! This is the one I’ve been waiting for and it looks like it will be well worth the wait.

  9. Hi ! i am an old user of CC3 . I have buy the upgrade for CC3+ . When i can buy new version of PERSPECTIVE ? i have the old version. Tnx

  10. Hi Simone, we’ll have a pre-order ready for Perspectives later in December.

  11. HI ! Any news for the release date for PERSPECTIVE + ?
    bye bye 🙂

  12. Any hope of an announcement before the end of the year? You really shouldn’t tell us about your release dates; rather release new software when it’s ready.

  13. I guess not!