The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I admit I was expecting to be, at best, amused by the 3-D visualization tool for CC2. "Realm Overseer 3D" is marketed as 'view your Campaign Cartographer 2 or Forgotten Realms Atlas maps in 3D'. Wheee.

So I was pleasantly astounded when I loaded up a sample map, and suddenly-- there were clouds drifting slowly over a positively gorgeous aerial view of a medieval country!

This tool expands the feature set of CC2. You can apply textures to your CC maps, or to maps made with CC2 (like the Forgotten Realms Atlas). Then, you can save the 3-D visualizations as jpeg images or avi moviess. Or, export the whole map as a 3D Java Applet or self-executable windows file!

For this, it is locked into the settings you give so you can freeze visibilities, weather, items seen, etc, with layers (like text labels or secret layer) enabled or not, as you wish. This is, I would say, the main utility of the program. You can give players a map they can walk through (or fly over). Publishers, likewise, could distribute self-running maps off their websites to provide quick, cool free content for their existing game lines.

You can lay markers for paths, and most importantly-- you can alter the weather and see what sort of visibility characters would have. Likewise, you can let time pass as you travel. So there is some utility in this as a logistical/analysis tool for GMs.

Actually moving around has several points of view. You can navigate in overhead (god) mode, aka Map View. Or in a first person walking, aka Travel Mode, mode (useful for navigating). Or Dragon Flight.

But, travel isn't quite what it seems-- you can walk over everything, and in fact do. Houses are simply things you walk over. You remain a giant, I suppose. Walking is a little like being in a FPS with noclipping on (and walking on water feels so slow!).

Flight is likewise a bit frustrating. Your altitude is set and rather than a FPS or Flight Sim, you're moving like a gyroscope. Push 'forward' and you move parallel to the ground, regardless of facing. So if you're facing nearly downwards, you find yourself not moving towards what you're looking at, but above it-- frustrating if you're trying to get a closer look at something.

In practice, you'll end up switching between the modes frequently. I wish they'd spent the time making a "Campaign Cartographer to Unreal" converter-- the first person shooter engines have enough robustness that it could really sing.

The gloss is great. Snow fall, star blinking, just like being outside. Very pretty. But gloss doesn't sell me on it, not at $37 list. You can peek at overseer3d.com for maps, specifications, et cetera. There is also a free demo (yay!) They list partial compatibility for City Designer, Dungeon Designer, FR Atlas, and Campaign Mapper.

In tech specs, they say it requires P233 or better with a 3d vid card and win 95/98/2k/me. and 64mb ram, and 170mb hd space min. It comes with DirectX 8.0. On my laptop (active matrix), this had glitches in Full Screen mode (little mouse cursors remained stuck all over the place). No problems on my desktop machine. Their website requires IE5, and of course the program requires Windows. Alas, there are better alternatives out there (Fractal Mapper's VRML comes to mind).

Realm Overseer 3D
Realm Overseer 3D Playtest Review by Sandy Antunes on 16/05/01 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse) Neat toy and pretty eye candy, but lacks real utility. Product: Realm Overseer 3D Author: Thought Guild Inc Category: Computer Tool Company/Publisher: Thought Guild Inc Line: Campaign Cartographer Cost: $37.00 Page count: Year published: 1999 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by Sandy Antunes on 16/05/01 Genre tags: Fantasy Historical Other	I admit I was expecting to be, at best, amused by the 3-D visualization tool for CC2. "Realm Overseer 3D" is marketed as 'view your Campaign Cartographer 2 or Forgotten Realms Atlas maps in 3D'. Wheee. So I was pleasantly astounded when I loaded up a sample map, and suddenly-- there were clouds drifting slowly over a positively gorgeous aerial view of a medieval country! This tool expands the feature set of CC2. You can apply textures to your CC maps, or to maps made with CC2 (like the Forgotten Realms Atlas). Then, you can save the 3-D visualizations as jpeg images or avi moviess. Or, export the whole map as a 3D Java Applet or self-executable windows file! For this, it is locked into the settings you give so you can freeze visibilities, weather, items seen, etc, with layers (like text labels or secret layer) enabled or not, as you wish. This is, I would say, the main utility of the program. You can give players a map they can walk through (or fly over). Publishers, likewise, could distribute self-running maps off their websites to provide quick, cool free content for their existing game lines. You can lay markers for paths, and most importantly-- you can alter the weather and see what sort of visibility characters would have. Likewise, you can let time pass as you travel. So there is some utility in this as a logistical/analysis tool for GMs. Actually moving around has several points of view. You can navigate in overhead (god) mode, aka Map View. Or in a first person walking, aka Travel Mode, mode (useful for navigating). Or Dragon Flight. But, travel isn't quite what it seems-- you can walk over everything, and in fact do. Houses are simply things you walk over. You remain a giant, I suppose. Walking is a little like being in a FPS with noclipping on (and walking on water feels so slow!). Flight is likewise a bit frustrating. Your altitude is set and rather than a FPS or Flight Sim, you're moving like a gyroscope. Push 'forward' and you move parallel to the ground, regardless of facing. So if you're facing nearly downwards, you find yourself not moving towards what you're looking at, but above it-- frustrating if you're trying to get a closer look at something. In practice, you'll end up switching between the modes frequently. I wish they'd spent the time making a "Campaign Cartographer to Unreal" converter-- the first person shooter engines have enough robustness that it could really sing. The gloss is great. Snow fall, star blinking, just like being outside. Very pretty. But gloss doesn't sell me on it, not at $37 list. You can peek at overseer3d.com for maps, specifications, et cetera. There is also a free demo (yay!) They list partial compatibility for City Designer, Dungeon Designer, FR Atlas, and Campaign Mapper. In tech specs, they say it requires P233 or better with a 3d vid card and win 95/98/2k/me. and 64mb ram, and 170mb hd space min. It comes with DirectX 8.0. On my laptop (active matrix), this had glitches in Full Screen mode (little mouse cursors remained stuck all over the place). No problems on my desktop machine. Their website requires IE5, and of course the program requires Windows. Alas, there are better alternatives out there (Fractal Mapper's VRML comes to mind).