new map with swampyness

[SirArtturi]

Detailtexture settings seem pretty good now.

But is the map still supposed to be inverted?

It also seems that your water settings gets overridden by spring map defaults.

Again, forget all the lua.

[SirArtturi]

The best part about this map are the metal spots which look very good, too bad you didn't put the same amount of detail into the rest of the "swamp".

I wouldn't use L3DT, speaking as someone who bought the Pro version, it's probably the hardest tool to get a nice result from. As you could see the details in the basic L3DT materials is very low, and to make it worse you have an artificial resolution limit in the trial. Take a look at Carrara 3D or the World in Conflict editor for better textures.

You don't need to have high detailed textures anymore when you can do all the details with detailtextures. Let's take Tabula-v4 as example.

[Beherith]

Yes, Artturi is correct. In fact with detail textures I recommend you use less fine detail (high frequency noise) in your base texture, and add it in the detail textures.

[smoth]

Code: Select all

		absorb					= { 0.05, 0.0, 0.1 },
		ambientfactor			= 0.05,
		basecolor				= { 0.3, 0.5, 0.25 },

[Cheesecan]

The best part about this map are the metal spots which look very good, too bad you didn't put the same amount of detail into the rest of the "swamp".

I wouldn't use L3DT, speaking as someone who bought the Pro version, it's probably the hardest tool to get a nice result from. As you could see the details in the basic L3DT materials is very low, and to make it worse you have an artificial resolution limit in the trial. Take a look at Carrara 3D or the World in Conflict editor for better textures.

You don't need to have high detailed textures anymore when you can do all the details with detailtextures. Let's take Tabula-v4 as example.

Isn't it counter-intuitive to use cpu time to generate static content.

[BaNa]

Isn't it counter-intuitive to use cpu time to generate static content.

Nope cause the detail tex gives us the chance for much, much higher levels of detail than anything we can burn into the static map texture. for an example of this, compare one of beheriths or smoths more recent maps with something that looked epic in its time but does not have ssmf, like folsomdam or the wiced maps like dworld. The wiced maps go to the limit of how much detail you can burn onto the map tex, but compared to proper ssmf they look smudged and fake. The downside is not so much cpu time as it is that you need to tweak ssmf settings carefully otherwise they can look very immersion breaking.

[smoth]

Isn't it counter-intuitive to use cpu time to generate static content.

Not static. static would be one of the models or textures a game uses.

[zoggop]

I'm amused that this thread has turned into a cacophony of map-making prescriptions.

Shit, the map is still inverting for you, SirArtturi? I'll try deleting its ArchiveCache entry to see if I can get it to invert (no, I don't want it to--I just want to reproduce the problem).

Cheesecan, actually I put lots of time into the swamp textures, which I gathered from an aerial photo of the location this is based on. For the metal spots I just slapped on one of L3DT's default rock textures and increased the specularity. Maybe "swamp" gives the wrong impression--this isn't supposed to be a muddy tangle, but a hilly meadow with some standing water.
Like this, but at a larger scale:

Not to say that my textures succeed at conveying that. :-P

I'll try out those water settings, smoth.

[Beherith]

I most highly recommend the World in conflict editor. Its built in terrains give that swampy look. If you are looking for nice tiling free textures, register an account at cgtextures.com.

Glad you are making the effort though. Making maps the way you want them to look will take a few tries, so hang in there!

[knorke]

so the map is on springfiles now, but can somebody please show a screenshot how the map is supposed to look like with max. graphics?
Seems my computer does not support the special splat mapping or w/e, map looks just normal

[zoggop]

Smoth posted a screenshot of what he did. http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/5001/screen00197.jpg, but I may have changed the water and atmosphere settings since then. I can't remember.

On an off-topic note, the photo I posted earlier of a vernal pool makes me think it would be amusing to make a map with a scale such that units look like little toys. Perhaps it could be a suburban lawn. Sim Ant, with robots! :-P