Help Wanted: Map Making

[KaiserJ]

i dont mind if you change my stuff... but actually i had a good technique to make a CT map in 3dmax; if someone wants to make a concept i'll run it

[PicassoCT]

Gradients? :) If people knew how easy it is with only a heightmap to render a map in 3dsmax they would flood you kaiser

[KaiserJ]

picasso knows

je; gradient planar for the heightmap, and ink-n-paint shader with some custom settings for the texture



kinda looks like ass, but at the same time, only took a minute or two to throw together (rather than endless hours i normally spend) stuff like ramps and roads for sure can be included and i think if i got the colors right some of those nice firestorm models would fit very nicely into such a landscape

also this is default lighting. lighting can add a lot, were i to spend even a min or two

(and ofc... ramps are easy this way)

[PicassoCT]

Now enter the gradient based texture + bump + selfiluminating colourmap + mental ray + multiple light sources == you get a decent map

[oksnoop2]

also what happened to the town features?

[SeanHeron]

Wow, that map looks real nice - need to give it a spin ingame!

[SirArtturi]

Nice. Are those arches map features or units?

[Beherith]

Hmm yes, those arches do look amazing!

[AF]

*looks at arches*

*jumps up and down*

*cookies fall out*

[oksnoop2]

Nice. Are those arches map features or units?

Each arch is 2 features. still not happy them though I can't figure out how to make aircraft not fly through them. Any protips welcome.

[Johannes]

How come only 1 of them has shadow?

[FireStorm_]

also what happened to the town features?

first: apologies for being a bit lazy regarding this.

second:
I have been working on it with such large time interfalls, that it felt like relearning how to do it. And been cursing my (perhaps poorly chosen) work flow at the times I was working on it. And on top of that I started feeling a little embarrassed that something relatively simple, didn't look as good as I hoped and took so long.
these are not excuses, just some insight in my (still to often chaotic) mind.

Well even though I seem to been good at it at times, I detest not keeping promises. So, since my free time this week certainly allows it, I'll work to finalise the town somewhat and share at the end of the month.

and this is pretty much what it will look like

[knorke]

nice archs! also nice town :)

how to make aircraft not fly through them.

do they have hitboxes? you coud try hitboxes like this:


with collide = true, collision = true (dunno which one) on aircrafts
They might bounce of instead of avoiding it but better than flying through..
The middle part could just be so high/low that they fly over or under.

[SanadaUjiosan]

Aircraft still seem to be persistent in going through them. They have hitboxes, but it looked like the aircraft only pay attention to the actual hitsphere, and even then it just sort of loosely paid attention to it. This approach here was to make them thinner so the flying through was less probable/noticable.

I could, of course, have been doing something wrong. Others should fiddle with it, my hiatus from work with Spring has left me rusty.

[PicassoCT]

Dirty Haxxoround:
Making Lua that gets Aircraft to assume there is a target in the middle of the bow, flying away from them, so they follow, avoiding the bow. After they passed by orders are reissued.

Problem: Battlebehaviour of aircrafts is heavily borked afterwards around the bow, so you may wish back for borked cylindercollission.

Other way would be to raise the heightmapdata inside so that for a Airplane the bow is just one big mountain. They avoid ground, but will never again shoot missiles under it.

[knorke]

GetUnitsInCylinder (blabla pillar=cylinder)
then
AddUnitImpulse (all aircraft, some number)

to make them bounce away

would probally have to check every 1/4 second at least seeing how fast aircraft move. dunno if too expensive

[FireStorm_]

It is not the neatly finished feature pack I had aimed for when I started. Far from it. To be honest I think it quite a mess. I've found that atm I'm not very skilled in keeping oversight and editing a lot of lua files. (Don't even know one can use em they way I made them.)

The s3o files should be fine though. Hope there is still something you guys can use, but don't feel obligated though.

Also included the wings3D files I made/used, and this link provides some extra insight in what I at fist thought was a handy process (now I'm not so sure)

I'm not super proud of it. If I ever make something again I'll have to promise to do it with some more professionalism.
Use, fix, modify (and perhaps ask) whatever at your leisure.

[SanadaUjiosan]

I looked over the file with all of the models in it, and checked a few of the s3o's. I like what I see

As far as the lua, it looks like you took unit defs and tried to slim them down. I'm not sure how much work it'd be to set them right, but I'm thinking I'll sit down and properly lua them.

Then we could release it as Firestorm's CT feature pack. How does that sound?

I'm excited to start using these

[FireStorm_]

You're making me feel more guilty for doing such a poor job

It wasn't so much slimming the unitdefs down. I tried to use:

Code: Select all

isFeature           = true,

It turns a unit that is build in to a/its feature when it is finished being build. That's how I tested the models ingame. That way I could quickly build a town with a builder unit, but i didn't really know how to use it when it was done. I just hoped a map maker could sort of do it the same way.

I guess I should have asked how Feature placer works, but i'm often reluctant to get help; often after some help I still don't know how to do stuff... I'm a pretty confident modeler but the rest often takes a lot of effort.

I also got a little demotivated because the footprint grit of very small bindings didn't always align with other buildings the way I expected or intended. But i guess it makes for a more lively looking town

If you share a lua file that is up to your standards, I'll probably be temped to help out some more.
And I'll be happy to meet any requests considering the models.

[Pxtl]

Do aircraft even respond to impulse? I assume the collidiong aircraft obstacle avoidance ignores stuff on teh ground and only makes them avoid each other.

Seriously, the aircraft code seems stunningly performance-expensive considering the services we get from it.