The Best Approach?

[MidKnight]

I want to try my hand at making some maps for Spring, and have been wanting to do so for a while now.
However, I am unsure of the path I wish to take to do this.

Should I:
Purchase World in Conflict and use WICEd?
Kidnap Forboding Angel to coax Bundysoft into giving me a free copy of L3DT Pro?
Mug a dozen people and sell my soul aso that I may afford WorldMachine?
Use SME?
Make do with Photoshop and the GIMP?
Find something else?

Please, help me in finding an easy and cost-effective solution. I will be grateful if you do.

[smoth]

there is no best method.

[genblood]

SMOTH

there is no best method.

True, their is many ways to design a map. The more
time you spend on designing maps. The better you
will get in the long run.

[overkill]

I think you should just start with SME if you are unwilling to invest money in it.

[hunterw]

there is no best method.

WICed is the best texturing utility since it uses normal maps which you can use to light bake for great win

[smoth]

there is no best method.

WICed is the best texturing utility since it uses normal maps which you can use to light bake for great win

So one aspect makes it the best at heightfeilds, textures, feature placement, metal spots, water level, speed etc? Even with it's limitations on size?

I don't know why you have the sudden urge to disprove the statement.

[Beherith]

Note that he said texturing utility.
Its size limits arent that hard to counter until you get bigger than 30*30, because you just make 4 render passes of the 4 corners of the map, and blend them in photoshop. Since each render pass only takes about 20 minutes, its still my preferred method.

[Forboding Angel]

there is no best method.

WICed is the best texturing utility since it uses normal maps which you can use to light bake for great win

But l3dt has had this feature for well over 3 years O_o

[hunterw]

But l3dt has had this feature for well over 3 years O_o

you should try wiced

[zwzsg]

Make do with Photoshop and the GIMP?

I prefer that way. It ends up with maps that are more playable, weight less megs, and are more original.

I hesitated posting my views on the matter because I'm afraid it'll end up in a resurgence of an old conflict with Forboding Angel.

[PicassoCT]

Max is best - but unfortunatly you can have all the tools you want, and still don´t produce playable Maps.

Use Gimp only for the Start, don´t go for the Look, just for the Play. Everything else can wait, till you got a balanced, played Map..

[lurker]

Note that he said texturing utility.

Yes, he did say that, but the fact that he quoted smoth made it seem like a reply to smoth. If it was, smoth's reply has a good point. If it wasn't, he needs to stop spamming the quote button, no matter how shiny.

[ironized]

Note that he said texturing utility.

Yes, he did say that, but the fact that he quoted smoth made it seem like a reply to smoth. If it was, smoth's reply has a good point. If it wasn't, he needs to stop spamming the quote button, no matter how shiny.

quoted for shiny


i know noone aggrees, but im quite fond of using blender to make the height map, and practically any image editor to texture.

mapping with blender seems really difficult, but once you figure out that you only need 20 of the 20 000 buttons its easy.

[hunterw]

Yes, he did say that, but the fact that he quoted smoth made it seem like a reply to smoth. If it was, smoth's reply has a good point. If it wasn't, he needs to stop spamming the quote button, no matter how shiny.

i quoted smoth because there is a best method, in my opinion, for texturing maps - wiced.

for heightmaps there's a huge variety of tools that offer different styles of erosions. worldmachine 1.25 / 2, while awesome (and 16-bit capable), does only have one main erosion algorithm. L3DT has more variety in its erosion.

[Otherside]

i own a copy of l3dt pro (you can apply for a free 90 day trial)

by far ive found it the best in terms of height maps as it has good erosion tools and you can see and edit the heightmap in 3D.

Its texturing capabilties are of a decent quality (realistic) but i find myself having to repaint areas and doing touch ups on PS quite often.

It also has tools specifically geared toward spring it has a SMD feature to edit the smd via l3dt. It even generates all the maps spring needs (allows for feature placement/geo placement/metal placement (also custom metal textures)Start positions also).

Also it will compile it into a working sd7 with no scanlines.

the only feature i find it lacks is being able to edit bump water settings (but that can be done by editing the smd after its compiled)

overall very easy to use and gives you a nice finish with a good ammount of features. Its worth getting the trial and imo its worth buying it.

All my maps are done in l3dt but as i said i usually retouch texture in PS.