emp_mvalley (download available) Hi again , I started with the dirty work he he, I'm going to show you the final layout and the first in-game shot. Orange means concrete bridges, the dam, and a big rock (called "butt") in central area. Yellow are small hanging bridges only for infantry, black are crossing zones for vehicles in lower part. Map size is 60000x60000, that means 3/4 of the map (just the non playing area around the marked zones) will be in the 3dskybox This is world machine, the app someone mentioned in the past thread, it's great for simulate terrain erosion. Most of those details are missed in the source terrain, but helps anyway. This shot doesn't represent the final quality in any way, but it's a good (and fast) start. The distances aren't final, to import all the data I needed to scale the map to half size. Now I need to expand it again (x2, x and y coord) and cut the 3dskybox part.
water really eats up resources, so be careful nice brushwork on the cliffs the layout gets my approval. just make sure to give it a unique atmosphere
woah dude, that is one freaking awesome looking layout :D good luck! Seriously dude I love the layout
Don't worry, I put lot of care to have acceptable performance on all my maps. The +showbudge command shows a big fill rate hit, can be deactivated the bloom effect to measure de difference? I also plan to give a unique feeling to each area, so players can orientate better. There will be the monster dam at south, the butt in the middle mesa, and some sort of telecomunication resort in the north area. And of course, lots rocks and overlays on the terrain. Yes, but people only will see 14000 units long, and most of the 3dskybox is culled by the engine. It could be useful when planes are available, so people never won't see the end of the map, even flying high. Well, here are newer screens, with correct proportions once 3dskybox is filled. Is very empty yet.
Type "pp_bloom 0" in the console to disable bloom. "And here, you can see the Imperial Command Vehicle grazing in its natural environment. Peaceful, calm, until the Brenodi Empire enslaves it and forces it to build them bases to wage war."
nice lighting and texture work are you leaving it open like that. or will you add some form of cover?
He he, yes that was a wild comm vehicle. Seems bloom takes away about 30% of frame rate, at least on my system, good to know. Anyway, is not at danger levels now, so no problem. There will be rocks, natural elevations, the bridge pilars and a few more things. However, this is a mod where players can build themselves many forms of cover, so no need to add too much cover.
Did you use this technique http://interlopers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4597 With the DEM files? I have tried that but it all turned out pretty bad . Congratulations dude that looks really sweet. How long have you been working on it?
No, this is not a DEM, would be difficult to find one that matches this layout. I started making sketches in paper (with a grid like hammer one), lots of them. When I found the definitive I scanned and loaded it in Photoshop to paint this height map (original is 2048x2048 16 bit grey scale): World machine made the erosion marks on the height map, and finally I created the .vmf with Dispgen, a tool that generates hammer meshes from height maps (as I suppose you know). It's important to use 16 bit grey scale images during all the process. So the process of layout making took much more time that building the map, it's really fast once you know the tools.
sounds like a great way to do it! I know there is a way to do it from terragen too, I saw a tutorial once somewhere.
Dude this is looking pretty damn sweet...i cant wait to get a new pc so i can join the mapping club. i can see it now... emp_killbox lol
I must say, I think that is an incredibly sexy map from what I've seen thus far. Keep up the good work. Hope the framerate works out to be as good as you hope. What are your system specs?
Looking awesome! The only thing I recommend is getting some more contrast between the ground and the rock on the cliffs, aswell as getting a muddier or sandy (whichever) texture for around and under the water.
Also, maybe some dust billowing across the landscape. VMEX emp_duststorm and grab that entity - it seems to have decent performance.
