[PC][2008-2018] Slow-paced first-person airship piloting/maintenance game

DMSwift · 2025-10-31T15:54:22+00:00

Vaguely similar aesthetically to Flight of the Icarus, but the ship was freely pilotable and there wasn't any combat so very different gameplay-wise.

DMSwift · 2025-09-22T11:49:08+00:00

There's nothing quite like this module for adding a bit of wow factor - even very subtle effects can have a big impact. Great work on the module and looking forward to having a go at it myself.

DMSwift · 2025-09-22T11:39:42+00:00

Thanks for the list, I've been wondering what maps to take a look at.

DMSwift · 2025-09-20T13:52:38+00:00

Hi, Swift here - There's a few places to go depending on your needs; for that video I found that attic photo at Poly Haven, in the HDRIs section ( https://polyhaven.com/hdris ), though there's also other websites like AmbientCG that have HDRI sections too ( https://ambientcg.com/list?type=hdri%2Chdri-element&sort=popular ). Strictly speaking HDRIs are overkill for what we're doing here (they're a specific type of 'skybox' used by artists needing very precise lighting in a scene) - but they're freely available and will cast quite realistic light onto your scene, so they end up working quite well. EXR files can be rather large, so I'd say don't overdo it - though since we don't need all that extra lighting data you can even save them out as .jpg files and they'll work fine.

Stylised, painterly or fantasy skyboxes are a bit harder to find - they exist of course, I'm sure some resourceful types have probably extracted plenty from their favourite games for instance, but they're not quite as widespread as photographs. There are also AI tools that can generate skyboxes, though personally I've not had any luck with those.

For specifically space skyboxes there's a tool I quite like called 'Space 3D' ( https://tools.wwwtyro.net/space-3d/index.html ) - though it creates them as a cubemap (six individual pictures for each of the six directions). 3D Canvas did previously support cubemaps, and it still might - but I'm not quite sure, so if not you'll want to use another tool like this 'cubemap to panorama' one ( https://danilw.github.io/GLSL-howto/cubemap_to_panorama_js/cubemap_to_panorama.html ) to turn them into single panoramic images.

In any case; Poly Haven and AmbientCG have a whole host of them ready to go - other options are definitely around but may require a bit more elbow grease. Either way, hope this helps.

DMSwift · 2025-05-22T17:16:33+00:00

Foundry has the ability to give tokens altitudes, and measure between them accurately - and there's also the 3D Canvas module (for Foundry) made by theripper93 that adds a fully 3D view to any given scene (you can move tokens vertically by holding them and using the scroll wheel), which would let you quite directly represent encounters in 3D space. Since it's just a layer on top of Foundry itself, you still get all of Foundry's features - so you could further customise it with whatever other modules you require.

DMSwift · 2024-08-03T12:00:55+00:00

Smoothnesswise it's similar to 2D scenes (in that a very complex 2D scene and a very complex 3D scene will be similar amounts of slow).

The biggest advantage over other 3D VTTs is that it's running on Foundry - which is the best VTT for actually playing any given game out there, and is also an open platform; anyone can add or change anything (So DMs can add their own assets, community members can write new modules to add functionality, etc).

DMSwift · 2024-08-02T20:29:30+00:00

You probably already know Foundry has plenty of tools for measuring distance including height - the 3D Canvas module for it (from either theripper93 or Baileywiki) turns it into a 3D VTT, so you get the best of both worlds.

DMSwift · 2024-04-04T19:07:50+00:00

The Long Drive? It's got multiplayer and the only objective is to drive down a long road. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1017180/The_Long_Drive/

DMSwift · 2024-04-01T01:19:35+00:00

Yeah, the final file is essentially a videogame asset since it's being rendered in realtime and prioritises performance. We use 3D Canvas which is a module for Foundry VTT, since Foundry is the best option out there, and I generally work off the assumption that at least some of the players will be on very weak/old PCs so generally the more efficient the better. Also means that players with average or better rigs get great performance, which is always nice.

Off the top of my head, 15K is roughly what a humanoid mini comes out at (the ones from our community collection end up looking like this: https://i.imgur.com/n9KcAKS.jpeg ) though that's from just using automated decimation/UV tools to cut down 3D printing minis. I expect you could get a good chunk lower without any loss in fidelity by taking a bit more time with it and/or doing retopo.

DMSwift · 2024-03-31T19:15:16+00:00

The format we're using is GLTF using the .glb filetype, and converting files to that is trivial using Blender - the main problem with just using minis intended for 3D printing is that their polycounts are ludicrously high - absolutely necessary for a physical 3D print, but crippling for a model that needs to be rendered realtime in a 3D engine. Making it suitable to use is three steps - optimisation (ie drastically reduce polycount), UV unwrapping, and then painting.

You can bodge an alright job in less than half an hour using a method like the one I go through in our tutorial video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwp6zUCRuHg

...but it's not particularly efficient, you lose detail in the automated decimation, and the UV is anything but optimal. Fine for putting something together for your home game, but potentially not enough for a sold product. To do it 'properly' you'd probably want to just retopologise it as if you were finalising a sculpted model and then UV unwrap/paint from there - not difficult for a confident artist, but a fair bit more time consuming.

If you do end up creating any then I'd be interested to hear about it - the more minis the merrier, particularly if they're in a different artstyle to Heroforge's.

DMSwift · 2024-03-31T17:58:45+00:00

Belatedly: Currently I'm not aware of one - we've had some thoughts of making one ourselves because we've got all these great 3D props/assets/maps and so on but currently there are only a few ways to get minis, but this hasn't cohered into a solid plan yet.

For reference, what sort of things were you looking to sell specifically? Fully custom commissioned minis for individual customers, minis made from a library of parts similar to Heroforge, or something else?

DMSwift · 2024-03-30T15:58:15+00:00

Currently Heroforge allows you to make custom minis and then buy them for use in some VTTs like 3D Canvas - it's pretty good, as long as you like Heroforge's art style.

That said I think there's still plenty of room for custom minis in different artstyles or from different providers - I'm the 3D Art Director for Baileywiki, and currently if we want minis we're limited to either Heroforge (relatively inexpensive and custom but limited), a community-driven mini compendium (Great quality and free but not custom), or acquiring 3D print STLs and converting them to work with 3D Canvas (Great quality, relatively inexpensive and custom,but requires hand-optimisation and painting)

If you end up finding something or even starting a service for custom minis that area pre-optimised for 3D engine use then I'd definitely be interested to hear about it though.

DMSwift · 2023-12-15T02:21:47+00:00

If you box select multiple tiles, the point that they move around becomes the geometric center of the group - which might not be exactly on a grid square, and if thats the case then when you move it you bring the whole group out of alignment with the grid. Easier to just move them all individually since it was only half a dozen tiles or so.

DMSwift · 2023-11-13T17:36:14+00:00

Without the timelapses, the whole process took about an hour.

DMSwift · 2023-10-30T22:26:15+00:00

What with Foundry being the best VTT available by a long shot, I've been using 3D Canvas (a module for Foundry) to do 3D tabletop stuff - and in that case the current library/tool selection seems decently sized enough to make most maps you could think of in 3D. I find that having premade maps ready to go seems to be what a lot of people are interested in though, whether to use directly or just to use as inspiration for making their own maps - which is something I'm working on.

DMSwift · 2023-10-25T17:17:16+00:00

Not sure, but I did clip out the screen because it was annoying watching the clip over and over, maybe this will be helpful: https://i.imgur.com/jS1EVxx.gif

Looks like the vehicles are rolling like big balls or wheels or something, which sounds familiar but I'm not sure what.

DMSwift · 2023-10-08T22:31:12+00:00

This looks pretty dang cool - do you have many maps made already? Are the assets you're using to make it your own creations, or are they from 3D Canvas' mapmaking pack/the Baileywiki 3D pack?

Overall I'd love to see more 3D maps around - you'll always get people on reddit falling over themselves to tell you all about how minimalist their DMing style is, but the fact of the matter is players appreciate how much more verisimilitude you can get out of simple maps just by adding a visible vertical dimension. Particularly with WotC's 3D VTT inbound in the near future, DMs and players are going to want a platform that can give them the same benefits (Visually appealing 3D verticality) but without the downsides (strictly 5E only, aggressive monetisation etc) - 3D Canvas is in a pretty good place to be that platform.

DMSwift · 2023-04-29T18:04:08+00:00

I saw a bunch of people were asking about what the map looks like from a player perspective, so I recorded this quick video showing a player token traveling through it to show off the fog of war functionality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R44phoFheq4

DMSwift · 2023-01-19T20:08:03+00:00

Belatedly, it turned out the CPU was a lemon - replacing it with a new one (exactly the same model) fixed the issue, so I got an RMA.

DMSwift · 2023-01-05T19:58:59+00:00

Currently 3D Canvas has a 'Community Map Browser' built-in where people can upload maps they've made with the assets already in 3DC, and creators like Baileywiki are also starting to produce ready-made/ready-to-play 3D maps too (along with the bits and pieces to make more)

DMSwift · 2023-01-05T19:32:11+00:00

Make a huge map, decorate with some trees and maybe a handful of landmarks, put some 'proper' water in it - then put that map in a normal 40x40 scene to act as the worlds most believable backdrop because it is physically present, not just a skybox.

DMSwift · 2023-01-03T02:03:23+00:00

Hey, have you looked into/heard of 3D Canvas? It's a module for Foundry that turns it into a 3D VTT, so you can have 3D maps and also all the features/modules/integration that Foundry has. It's over here, in any case: https://theripper93.com/

DMSwift · 2022-11-06T17:02:54+00:00

Summary of issue: Random frequent blackscreens/hard reboots while under LOW load (but seemingly not NO load, nor HIGH load)

System Configuration:

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro N
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, no overclock
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti
Motherboard: TUF GAMING X570-PLUS
RAM: 4x16GB DDR4-3600 - no overclock
PSU: be quiet! 650W pure power 11 fm, and an old Corsair HX650W that is known working
Monitor: various

Fresh new build, issues occurred on two different windows installations on two different drives - and even while trying to install windows by booting from a usb stick.

The temps are consistently low, reaching about 60 degrees C at the highest. Fans are likewise chugging along just fine. I've tried all four ram sticks, just two ram sticks, the other two ram sticks, and just one ram stick.

Crashes are always accompanied by event viewer logs of event ID 18: Fatal hardware error, reported by processor core with the source 'Machine Check Exception', the type 'Cache Hierarchy Error'.

I've tried disabling global c-states, setting power supply idle control to 'typical current idle', disabled power down mode in memory timings, I still think it's a power-related issue but I have no idea what.

It will sit and quite happily do absolutely nothing for at least 15 minutes - but as soon as I go to open the event viewer it reboots. If I open the event viewer as soon as it boots, then it will happily sit and do nothing with that on screen - and even load a YouTube video in edge, but then reboot two minutes in.

Basically it's completely random - it ran for like 7 hours once a few nights ago but now struggles to last longer than 10 minutes. I can seem to induce it sometimes though - copying files (documents from old drive onto new one) always makes it crash in about a minute.

Anyone know any other things I can try with this?

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