Pond of Dunes

[aeonios]

Not yet released, I decided to make a mini version of Sea of Dunes for 1v1 and small games. The mini version is 12x12 and has a higher metal density. It's not perfectly symmetrical, but I did try to keep it balanced. Wind is also somewhat less advantageous, at least in ZK.

It needs a proper minimap image, but the dev version is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2gaedku2dsn0 ... 1.sd7?dl=0

[qray]

Nice. Thanks!

Still amazing that this look is done by heightmap only

[PicassoCT]

You could go into terraforming, and make them go wander slowly, burrying bases

[eronoobos]

Cool, I like this map size (I play mostly smallish games). Take a look at the start locations, I think they're left over from the larger map?

Still amazing that this look is done by heightmap only

It is! How good this one texture looks in-game gives me hope for making a procedural map with only heightmap generation.

+1 to migrating dunes. Take your lua and strike yourself down

[aeonios]

You could go into terraforming, and make them go wander slowly, burrying bases

Dunno, I think that might be overkill, esp since there's no safe ground on the map. I'm not really sure how you would do that, either, since the shapes are rather complex.

Cool, I like this map size (I play mostly smallish games). Take a look at the start locations, I think they're left over from the larger map?

Indeed, thanks that'll be fixed for the release.

Still amazing that this look is done by heightmap only

It is! How good this one texture looks in-game gives me hope for making a procedural map with only heightmap generation.

It really depends on what you're making though. There are a few cases where the appearance is already normally uniform in nature, sand-dune deserts falling into that category, which is why I was able to get away with that here. There are also cases where 3D terrain looks better than a 2D texture, so it's all about how you use it.

+1 to migrating dunes. Take your lua and strike yourself down

If I can find a way to make that workable, a shifting sands version might be possible. Again, dunno it sounds anywhere between difficult and impossible. Just having buildings sink into sand is doable, but actually shifting them around seems like it would require magic.

[Anarchid]

Shifting sand dunes will likely kill everyone's CPU with constant full map repathing --

But i'd still be amazed.

[Jools]

But don't dunes shift very slowly? In the course of several decades? On a large scale I mean, but we play on a large scale. Just look at the size of an arm hawk for comparison of scale.

[aeonios]

Shifting sand dunes will likely kill everyone's CPU with constant full map repathing --

But i'd still be amazed.

I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. We'd be talking like 1 frame per minute with the map constantly shifting, not to mention it wouldn't be very realistic.

[smoth]

arm hawk for comparison of scale.

that thing is not that big.

Shifting dunes would be silly unless you had something like a building rise out of them or something.

[Jools]

arm hawk for comparison of scale.

that thing is not that big.

Shifting dunes would be silly unless you had something like a building rise out of them or something.

I mean the jet fighter and not the bird

[smoth]

yeah, you really don't want to have the scale discussion with me about TA models and scale but if you did I would say it is about the size an f4 phantom. not something like an ac130, or b2

[gajop]

Gameplay aside, I'd love to see that effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vyujAQtSQM !

[smoth]

that would be tight

[aeonios]

The fog machine widget might be customized to look like a sandstorm. It's at least vaguely possible anyway.

[Anarchid]

It would be trivial to offset the fog sample space by heightmesh altitude, making it follow the surface.

The volume would stay rectangular, but the weights could be shifted towards the surface so there's nothing on the upper boundary.

Making it do "strands" while reacting to wind might be harder, though. Unless wind can be told to stick to one direction.

[aeonios]

It would be trivial to offset the fog sample space by heightmesh altitude, making it follow the surface.

The volume would stay rectangular, but the weights could be shifted towards the surface so there's nothing on the upper boundary.

Making it do "strands" while reacting to wind might be harder, though. Unless wind can be told to stick to one direction.

I was wondering if 'strands' were even possible. I think it'd look better if the wind only went one direction anyway, and it should be possible.

[Anarchid]

Strands are definitely possible if the wind rotation is disabled.

It would somehow have to be disabled game-side, since it's actually part of the sync state (albeit mostly inconsequential).

[aeonios]

Strands are definitely possible if the wind rotation is disabled.

It would somehow have to be disabled game-side, since it's actually part of the sync state (albeit mostly inconsequential).

I think the 'strands' in real sand are much fainter and wispier than that. I think adjusting the fog so that it follows the terrain and looks more like sand would be more than good enough though.