New map format

hrmph · Post by **hrmph** » 27 Jul 2006, 19:50

Sweet. I'll have to update..

Weaver · Post by **Weaver** » 28 Jul 2006, 00:59

jcnossen wrote:However the autogenerated blendmaps that weaver was testing work now properly, and there is culling of terrain parts outside the camera.

The HeightFuzzy values are working now

The SlopeFuzzy values are producing an effect, but its ugly and blocky and not what was intended I am sure

With SlopeFuzzy

Without SlopeFuzzy

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 28 Jul 2006, 03:29

I've uploaded a new copy of Whakamatunga Riri which has me doing a lot of fiddling around and it's even playable.

Hope this helps someone at least.

Download
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... 1E1FFA551C

Tried using l3dt's attributes maps for blends... Didn't really work well, which is a damn shame.

JC, why do the blendmaps have to be 512x512 for a 1024x1024 map? I thought it was supposed to be 1/4th?

Mufdvr, I havn't figured out the minimaps thing yet... JC could you shed some light on this?

Also, as an added note whakamatunga riri will look like 1337 hawt s3x when bumpmapping is implemented. That makes me happy.

Loading times for 32x32 is, well, really really really really really long. I imagine that's because I had to make the blendmaps 1024x1024 for it to actually work, meaning no more than 2 or 3 blendmaps on a 32x32 or everyone will probably take 5 minutes to load.

Anyway, after that little debacle I shrunk it back down to 16x16.

mufdvr222 · Post by **mufdvr222** » 28 Jul 2006, 04:11

Thats ok,, I think I might retire myself from mapping,,

Lindir The Green · Post by **Lindir The Green** » 28 Jul 2006, 04:38

Hey, I got it to work! I just had to disable 3D trees.

So, I did some testing with my FX5200, 1 gig of RAM, and 2.8 Ghz Pentium proccessor:

sm2 version of Forboding's map got down to 18 FPS when it was zoomed out all the way.

latest sm3 version of Forboding's map was much higher when zoomed out and zoomed in, but right at the normal playing distance got down as low as 12 FPS. However, it looked much better than the sm2 version, and had a much lower filesize.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 28 Jul 2006, 05:53

I'm starting to think that it would be prudent to have a large texture repository that gets distributed with spring, so that therefor all you need is a folder with the map name in the maps folder to hold the blendmaps and the sm3 in the maps directory.

New mappers would have an upload location that would cause the texture to get dumped in with all the rest (preferably seperated into type folders).

THis needs some forethought to work out correctly.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 28 Jul 2006, 06:13

Sorry, couldn't resist, Just thought it looked kinda neat.

Mufdvr, please don't retire from spring mapping. Think of the children...

edit:

the complimentary bullshot...

mufdvr222 · Post by **mufdvr222** » 28 Jul 2006, 09:45

Forboding Angel wrote:

Mufdvr, please don't retire from spring mapping. Think of the children...

Seeing those last two screens makes me want to have another go.

hrmph · Post by **hrmph** » 28 Jul 2006, 22:10

The more I play with the new map format the more I like it. I'm learning it by converting splintered tropics (see progress below). In the future will we be able to splat textures based on gradient as well as location? (Like have a texture applied where a gradient is equal too, above or below a number within a certain area(blendmap))? This is basically how L3DT works. Because as it is now for certain textures I have to get the blendmaps via L3DT which means a lot of unnecessary processing time.

(And yes that is the riverdale grass, and No I don't intend on using it in the final version

)

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 28 Jul 2006, 22:32

Ooooh you bastard! I stole that riverdale grass fair and square!

Edit: Umm, how do I get water in my maps in the new format? What did I miss?

Edit#2: My normal map for riverdale grass looks like uber hawt sex, you might wanna leave it in. It's a beautiful texture.

Speaking of riverdale, I claim the right to redo it with the new format. I was supposed to do it in the old format (had gotten permission from Secure), but honestly, my comp had some serious issues with the source files... 1 gig psd can become a bit of a bitch.

Edit#3: Son of a bitch! Thats my sand too! I hate you.

BTW that looks really really really nice. I suggest leaving in all those textures, it will look absolutely hawt sex beautiful when bumpmapping is implemented.

hrmph · Post by **hrmph** » 28 Jul 2006, 22:55

They are just place-holders! I already have a sand texture I plan on using/trying out that is a mixture of yours plus another I made awhile back (Hope it looks sweet!!).

For water I had to set the HeightOffset to a negative number. The HeightScale and HeightOffset numbers dont work exactly like how mapconv compiling was. I had to add about a hundred or more height to get it to the same level.

Actually while working on this I kept thinking "I bet FA is going to remake Riverdale in the new format, its gunna be sweetness"

Ahh, I wanted to ask you, whats your method for creating the bumpmap images in photoshop?

Weaver · Post by **Weaver** » 28 Jul 2006, 23:00

hrmph wrote:The more I play with the new map format the more I like it. I'm learning it by converting splintered tropics (see progress below). In the future will we be able to splat textures based on gradient as well as location? (Like have a texture applied where a gradient is equal too, above or below a number within a certain area(blendmap))? This is basically how L3DT works. Because as it is now for certain textures I have to get the blendmaps via L3DT which means a lot of unnecessary processing time.

Yes you can do that now, my texture blending in this thread is showing that system (and the bugs which we'll squish soon).

colorblind · Post by **colorblind** » 29 Jul 2006, 12:43

jcnossen wrote:With optimization I might reduce it to 20 bytes per heightmap pixel though. It's a tradeoff between what you calculate on loading, and what you calculate realtime.

I'm guessing that's with terrain deformations on. Don't you get lower memory usage without deformations? And might it not be a good idea to have an option in the .sm3 file to disable deformations (if we don't have that already)?

And I was thinking, what range of values can a heightmap pixel take with deformations? I'm pretty sure you can set higher and lower bounds on the values by some basic calculations (such as: "if we have this amount of landmass, and put it all on this spot, its max height will be X, and the minimum height of the surroundings will be Y").

But maybe I'm talking nonsense here :-).

mufdvr222 · Post by **mufdvr222** » 30 Jul 2006, 03:38

Whoot,, its primative but it works,, I need to add another texture layer for that rocky outcrop near the narrows in the centre,,. Can we get a "lowpass=" 1= yes 0= no tag added for the heightmap? thats why the waters edge looks so bad me thinks, and the terrain is a little teraced which is exactly what would happen to this map in the old format if I forgot to lowpass the heightmap.

Screens

Zoombie · Post by **Zoombie** » 30 Jul 2006, 03:55

Nicerific.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 Jul 2006, 04:52

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ms0018 ... ri.7z.html

Ok this contains proper folders with both maps. And a new version of whakamatungariri.

With evergreenhaven I realized that It is possible to do random texturing like terragen with just a randomized alpha texture (check out noiseblend for an example).

It's really pretty neato.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 Jul 2006, 09:02

I decided that I was capable of doing better, so I had l3dt do an attributes map... New screens and new download link...

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... 2D0836FB06

Neuralize · Post by **Neuralize** » 30 Jul 2006, 20:00

Bump mapping is not in yet.. right?

Post by **jcnossen** » 30 Jul 2006, 20:47

No, it's still going to get a lot better than this...

Neuralize · Post by **Neuralize** » 31 Jul 2006, 00:54

"ruck"
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... 777CF101C3

Just drop in maps directory.

Here, I've used the blendmaps to do visable metal patches for me..
Feel free to use any of the textures for your own maps..

Spring RTS Engine

New map format

Fun with Blendmaps!