@Lewa, thanks for the tip! I had played around with a few gradient maps but none of them pleased me. Maybe it's because they needed that little bit of blur you mentioned!
@ IanSkelskey - static backgrounds (despite any issues with them being able to load in any given plugin) are inherently a major pain in the butt. To ensure the final product has enough detail and feels tactile, you're talking about recreating the whole room three dimensionally in some wacky software, and texture-mapping every single object in that room with high rez textures. Obviously, something like that is out of my reach; and I dare say out of the reach of 99% of the members in this project.
However, it sounds like you may have the tools and the skills to do this. If so, could you post some screenshots of what you have? Or if you're facing problems with the plugin correctly loading your static background, how about just a 2d panoramic JPG? Would love to see it, b/c static backgrounds are entirely un-touched in this project.
Remember the big room with the chessboard that likes to come down and smash you?
Worked on it tonight. Unfortunately, it's another maddening part of the game b/c the texture is mirroed vertically rather than simply tiled. As you can see in the screenie, it makes a slightly noticeable repeat pattern of the fine marble. But honestly, in game play it's not a distraction so I think it passes.
As my standard, it's a 16X file and the detail is actually quite pleasing. Hard to see in the screenie, but the finer points are there in-game.
Right now I'm stuck on the walls of the courtyard. Have actually been working on them for the past 3hrs or so. I was wanting this particular area to be my masterpiece of the whole dungeon. But so far, I'm less than pleased with my results. Hopefully after some sleep, inspiration will strike me yet again
