Which Photoshop would be ideal for Parallax Mapping?

[Link]

Neither Photoshop nor Gimp are designed for Pre-Rendered Mapping. Both are designed for Photo and Image editing and do a pretty equal job at it. Gimp has a slightly steeper learning curve because Photoshop is considered the industry standard, so there are significantly more tutorials, guides, and articles written about it. Any image editing software with Layers will do a perfectly fine job of Pre-Rendered Mapping and create an excellent finished product. Personally, I have used Photoshop because I am most familiar with it and have no problem doing Tile/Pixel/Sprite based work in it.

I have also been known to use Tiled to create Pre-Rendered Maps for vxAce, which doesn't quite do everything you can do in Gimp/Photoshop, but can produce some fantastic results all the same. The advantage to Tiled is that it is free, and it still uses a Grid based tiling system. You have the option to cut the tiles down to 16x16, or 8x8, and divide the tiles from the tilesets in the same way. It also has unlimited layers, the ability to hide and show layers at a whim (excellent for dividing the surface layers and the higher priority layers) as well as some other features.

Why aren't they designed for Pre-Rendered mapping? They do the exact same thing as 90% of all image manipulation programs. Hell, I use Photoshop for everything. Whether it be 3D model texturing (which isn't image manipulation), drawing (once again, not image manipulation), designing maps and logos (not image manipulation, either), spriting (guess what? Not image manipulation!) and, in extreme cases, mapping (Oh, did I mention it's not image manipulation?). Apparently, you have a very narrow view of what Photoshop is capable of. Especially when there's plugins that can probably do exactly what this "Tiled" program can do in an interface that's familiar to many people, so there's no need to relearn interfaces.

But to each their own!

 

[amerk]

I think what they meant was the software was not created with Pre-Rendered Mapping in mind as a primary use. These programs are generally created with other primary uses, and Pre-Rendered Mapping just happens to be a bonus.

In any case, what I would like to see is for EB to move away from tile/grid-based mapping and create a sort of pre-rendered mapping system in its place, right in the editor.

 

[Levi]

I'd love to have a multi-layer map editor like this:

A layer for parallaz (both above and below map) for backgrounds and fogs/weather.

A Few layers for tiles.

A layer for priority (above/same/below).

A layer for passability/direction.

I'm sure many would hate this... but I'd like. If you provided the same tools for priority and passability as you did for tiles (draw, rectangle, circle, and fill) it'd be awesome! And if the fill work on the Tile layer (as it does with Tile fill) it'd be boss. Just fill a certain tile region with no pass, then draw in pass. It'd be glorious.

 

[Link]

I think what they meant was the software was not created with Pre-Rendered Mapping in mind as a primary use. These programs are generally created with other primary uses, and Pre-Rendered Mapping just happens to be a bonus.

In any case, what I would like to see is for EB to move away from tile/grid-based mapping and create a sort of pre-rendered mapping system in its place, right in the editor.

I don't think they need to get rid of it persay. I think they need to lower the size of tiles from 32x32 to 16x16. This would give more control (though, would require more work for the tilesets to look good) over your maps. Plus, make it so you can set sprite passibility using collision mapping instead of a single spot that's rather small and doesn't conform to large sprites. Finally, a pixel movement system needs to be adopted over the tile based movement system. RPGs for years now have evolved past this block-limited movement.

 

[Jay_NOLA]

GIMP will be able to do what you want.and it is free.

Have you also considered looking into a mapping program to help make your maps?

 

[prexus]

Why aren't they designed for Pre-Rendered mapping? They do the exact same thing as 90% of all image manipulation programs. Hell, I use Photoshop for everything. Whether it be 3D model texturing (which isn't image manipulation), drawing (once again, not image manipulation), designing maps and logos (not image manipulation, either), spriting (guess what? Not image manipulation!) and, in extreme cases, mapping (Oh, did I mention it's not image manipulation?). Apparently, you have a very narrow view of what Photoshop is capable of. Especially when there's plugins that can probably do exactly what this "Tiled" program can do in an interface that's familiar to many people, so there's no need to relearn interfaces.

But to each their own!

It's probably worth it to actually look at what Tiled is and what it does, I even provided a link for you. No "Plug-In" for Photoshop would do exactly what it does, although Photoshop can be used in a similar way.

Photoshop was designed with image manipulation in mind. Taking photographs and airbrushing, post-processing, all that jazz. It developed into a fully functional graphic editor, though. It does pretty much everything; but a Fork makes a pretty good spoon when you're eating mashed Potatoes, but it doesn't work like a spoon at all when you're eating soup. Just because it CAN do something, doesn't mean it wasn't designed for it.

I even go on to say that any program with Layers can do a great job for Pre-Rendered Mapping and then go on to say how I use Photoshop for the job. So I don't know why you felt the need to explain to be all the things it is capable of. That just shows you either didn't read my entire post or didn't take the time to comprehend it.

Honestly, take the time to go check out Tiled. It's free, I provided a link in my original post, and it does some pretty amazing things. It can even output to a file format (.tsx) and provides a C++ library for reading the information in it, such as passability of tiles and could even used as an event editor. Not with RM*, mind you, but with your own game engine.

 

[Link]

It's probably worth it to actually look at what Tiled is and what it does, I even provided a link for you. No "Plug-In" for Photoshop would do exactly what it does, although Photoshop can be used in a similar way.

Photoshop was designed with image manipulation in mind. Taking photographs and airbrushing, post-processing, all that jazz. It developed into a fully functional graphic editor, though. It does pretty much everything; but a Fork makes a pretty good spoon when you're eating mashed Potatoes, but it doesn't work like a spoon at all when you're eating soup. Just because it CAN do something, doesn't mean it wasn't designed for it.

I even go on to say that any program with Layers can do a great job for Pre-Rendered Mapping and then go on to say how I use Photoshop for the job. So I don't know why you felt the need to explain to be all the things it is capable of. That just shows you either didn't read my entire post or didn't take the time to comprehend it.

Honestly, take the time to go check out Tiled. It's free, I provided a link in my original post, and it does some pretty amazing things. It can even output to a file format (.tsx) and provides a C++ library for reading the information in it, such as passability of tiles and could even used as an event editor. Not with RM*, mind you, but with your own game engine.

The reason I felt the need to explain is because you felt the need to make a baseless claim that Photoshop wasn't suited for the job when it obviously is. I don't much care to install yet another program onto my computer, hence why I don't much care to install Tiled, hence why I didn't install it to test it. I'm sorry I don't need to use a dedicated program to making parallax maps when I can just use Photoshop to do the exact same thing.

 

[Raine Fallon]

I've used photoshop for parrallax mapping and it's a breeze, pretty easy to set up and use for parrallax mapping. highly recommended.

I don't know much about Gimps, but I guess it's good as well. As long as you have a layer based graphics program + grid configuration avaliable. that's all you need.

 

[Joporai124]

I'm a Photoshop user but I don't see any difference between it and Gimp so I would go for any of them.

P.s. I've also used Gimp aswell it's kinda like the battle between Xbox 360 n Playstation 3 they both have atleast one thing that makes them better then the other.

 

[prexus]

The reason I felt the need to explain is because you felt the need to make a baseless claim that Photoshop wasn't suited for the job when it obviously is. I don't much care to install yet another program onto my computer, hence why I don't much care to install Tiled, hence why I didn't install it to test it. I'm sorry I don't need to use a dedicated program to making parallax maps when I can just use Photoshop to do the exact same thing.

I said it wasn't designed for the job; not that it wasn't suited for the job. As I have said twice now, I use Photoshop to make most of my Pre-Rendered Maps. I mention Tiled to the OP (not to you, I don't care in the slightest what you want to or don't want to do.) because he obviously isn't familiar with any software for creating Pre-Rendered Maps so, while I tell him how Photoshop and GIMP both do a perfectly good job; I take the opportunity to tell him about another piece of software, which is designed as a fully functional, versatile, and exceptionally useful map editor that creates a very similar effect to Pre-Rendered Mapping.

 

[Rayhaku808]

Tiled does seem nice for the tilesets that I don't want to convert to ACE's format.

 

[Tsukihime]

Honestly, take the time to go check out Tiled. It's free, I provided a link in my original post, and it does some pretty amazing things. It can even output to a file format (.tsx) and provides a C++ library for reading the information in it, such as passability of tiles and could even used as an event editor. Not with RM*, mind you, but with your own game engine.

Of course, I imagine someone has written a converter so that you can actually use it as an event editor for RM?

 

[prexus]

No, Tsukihime. Currently, it works best just for creating the maps and exporting them as images for Pre-Rendered Mapping. It does have an object editor, which could be utilized like an Event Editor for a custom engine. It *could* be made to work with Ruby, and RGSS1-3. I don't know for certain, I haven't looked into it at all, but it most likely could be done.