The big post about campaigns

[Fatal]

Thanks for these notes. I guess I'll learn more when it's time to actually compile it all.

[Forboding Angel]

Just to point out...

It's not like Behe is explicitly wrong, in many ways he is right, but he is overstating the issue a little bit.

[FrOzEnTaCo]

nota has missions.

when u beat that ''convoy'' mission, let me no >.>

[Fatal]

I just saw my map in Spring for the first time. It didn't look half bad, but the texture map (and possibly even the hmap) may need some fixing after all.

[Fatal]

Hooray! The map itself is complete! The HMap works great, the texture map is tolerable, and the smf file is all set up for good tutorial action.

If someone is interested in commenting on my work so far, here's the map, actually suitable for (massively unbalanced) 1 vs 1 action:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=658WKX6Y

I know this isn't anything special as far as Spring maps are concerned, but hell I'm happy about how my first map turned out. If there's something greatly wrong with it, it's that the bertha valley is too wide, so maybe there has to be a few of those big guns to get the desired effect.

Some screenshots I mostly took while flying in a hawk:

[Acidd_UK]

Nice!

[Beherith]

It looks great! Maybe go a bit easier on the fog, by setting fogstart in the .smd file to a bit higher value.

Just to point out...

It's not like Behe is explicitly wrong, in many ways he is right, but he is overstating the issue a little bit.

Yeah, Forb, your right here, I overstated the issue way too much. Its not a big deal, you can freely ignore it and no harm will come of it. I only did it because his heightmap has all that yummy fine erosion which I would hate to see going to waste.

But otherwise this issue is NOT a big deal at all, stupid interwebs makes it sound like I was alerting you to a massive problem. Ill keep these overly technical comments from now in mapping only. Hell, Im mildly certain that you wouldnt even notice the issue if you didnt know what to look for.

[Fatal]

Hooray, people like it

It looks great! Maybe go a bit easier on the fog, by setting fogstart in the .smd file to a bit higher value.

I actually tried doing that, but I guess I was doing something wrong. I'll mess around a bit more and see if I can make it work.

[Hoi]

Hooray, people like it

lol spring record, people like the first thing you do

[Beherith]

Fogstart 0.9 is a good start, go lower for more fog.

Also, the most undocumented but useful mapping feature is .sdd dirs:

make a mymap.sdd directory in your spring/maps folder, and put your maps in it like so: spring/mymap.sdd/maps/mymap.smd etc.

This way you dont have to 7zip the files for testing

[Fatal]

Heh, that explains it. I first tried a value of 1, and since that didn't work so well, I tried 0.001, at which point I thought that maybe the fog is as sparse as it gets when I just remove the line. I got it working now.

Now onto learning LUA and LUArules...


Well apparently LUA is just the programming language, and I know the very basics of programming, so it's mostly just a question of syntax for me. Now onto how do I actually make stuff happen in my map...

[Beherith]

For some very basic map lua, check out the map OOOOweeeee. Unzip it and fool around with the gadget.

[Forboding Angel]

It looks great! Maybe go a bit easier on the fog, by setting fogstart in the .smd file to a bit higher value.

Just to point out...

It's not like Behe is explicitly wrong, in many ways he is right, but he is overstating the issue a little bit.

Yeah, Forb, your right here, I overstated the issue way too much. Its not a big deal, you can freely ignore it and no harm will come of it. I only did it because his heightmap has all that yummy fine erosion which I would hate to see going to waste.

But otherwise this issue is NOT a big deal at all, stupid interwebs makes it sound like I was alerting you to a massive problem. Ill keep these overly technical comments from now in mapping only. Hell, Im mildly certain that you wouldnt even notice the issue if you didnt know what to look for.

Yep you're right. THat super fine detail would prolly go bye bye pretty quick but most likely only to a degree. Keep in mind that Detail like that could potentially cause pathing problems for units that get fooled into thinking that pathing over those cracks is faster, then go all nutzoid when trying to get out.

Lowpass helps prevent a lot of either on the mappers side, or on the spring pathfinding side which is why I advocate it so much. Obviously you know what you are doing, so therefore it isn't and issue whatsoever for you, but for newbies who don't understand how the map itself affects pathfinding - you can explain to then how it works, but in my experience, it's something you don't really truly understand till you see it happen for yourself.

That said, a 32 or 16 bit heightfield is inherently superior, there is just no two ways about it, however, when dealing with a 16 or 32 bit heightfield, you have to be a wee bit more careful with it (sometimes, maybe even rarely). This is stuff I noticed back when sm3 mapping was the new thing on the block, supporting 16bit pngs (woot!). It was a bit of a learning experience

Regardless, this is hardly something that should be argued over. Essentially I imagine that most people would learn the nuances of one or another and stick with that. Personally I like both, but 8bit + lowpass affords a "Fudge" factor that is easier to work with in the long run (of course, that's only my opinion).

[SirArtturi]

Yeah, Forb, your right here, I overstated the issue way too much. Its not a big deal, you can freely ignore it and no harm will come of it. I only did it because his heightmap has all that yummy fine erosion which I would hate to see going to waste.

I think that overstating lowpass filters and 16-greyscale is not as big deal than underestimating the meaning of texturemap, which i find rather fail for this fine high-quality heightmap ! Atm it's going waste because texturemap doesnt have proper depth and quality in it. I suggest you try making better texture and the map would be awesome !

[Fatal]

Yeah, I understand what you're saying there. However, texturing is a skill I am not very anxious to learn, and even the textures I used in this one I picked from some free texture resources I found. Unless someone is willing to help on this matter, the texture map will stay as it is.

[Forboding Angel]

Crap, nevermind that.

[Forboding Angel]

ok so I'm finally back home. I rendered this map for you. Hopefully you like snow.

*link incoming*

http://evolutionrts.info/random/finalterrain.7z

[Fatal]

You could've made it a png :p


Anyhow, downloading.

(I do not like snow, this was kinda supposed to be a marsey map. It doesn't matter that much, though.)

[Forboding Angel]

it is a png.

[Fatal]

Yeah, I see it now. This texture map is certainly about 3,562 times more professional than the one I made. If there's one gripe I have about it, it's that there already seems to be some shadowing present (cliffsides pointing west are darker than the ones pointing east). I'll see how this looks in game after I've properly woken up.

I think this will be used instead of the one I slapped together. Thanks.

Now if there only was some coordination involved...