Spring RTS Engine

Ok, here goes why people are saying its got no texture ect... and why your rong about desert dunes.

Your map has one repeting texture, in about 4 different shades. (Infact teh texture may just be the detail overlay confussing me, but I wont assume that)

Your map looks bland.

Desurt dunes in comparison, if you have a good look, is infact not just one repeting texture. It is infact a rendered terrain from terregen. I then replace large simlare areas with a repeting texture. Hence the small file size.

Note desurt dunes 1) looks alot like sand dunes, 2) is 16 x 16, 3) is 1.1 megish.

Your map 1) does not realy look like the shots you posted of a real one 2) is 8x8, 3) is actully 1.4 megish.

This is not all negative though.
Your height map is very cool. Infact if it was that height map in a slightly larger field, with a nice rendered terrain, or atlest a vareid terrain, then it would be a much better map. That by teh way was me give some constructive critisim.

That comes over as harsh, but I personly think in this case you may desurve it. ( i mean, who says "Frankly STFU. " realy... its not like his coment was unconstructive...)

aGorm

I think the block colours can be used as an artistic medium. Maps dont have to look like photorealistic terrains that take 50MB space. And I dont see many maps like this either.

aGorm wrote:Ok, here goes why people are saying its got no texture ect... and why your rong about desert dunes.

Your map has one repeting texture, in about 4 different shades. (Infact teh texture may just be the detail overlay confussing me, but I wont assume that)

No it is actually 2 variations of a texture. As in 2 different textures, one being a modified version of the other. The shading is a seperate issue.

Your map looks bland.

Not any more so than 'dunes does.

Desurt dunes in comparison, if you have a good look, is infact not just one repeting texture. It is infact a rendered terrain from terregen. I then replace large simlare areas with a repeting texture. Hence the small file size.

Look I hardly care what you started with, but the map is in fact one single texture. You compressed any variation right out of it. Hence the small file size.

Note desurt dunes 1) looks alot like sand dunes, 2) is 16 x 16, 3) is 1.1 megish.

No it looks similar to sand dunes, so far as the heightmap is concerned (though in reality your dunes are smooth and are arches, and worse all in primarily 1 direction, which being honest isn't particularly faithful, no?)
2) Yeah ok.
3) Yeah ok.

Your map 1) does not realy look like the shots you posted of a real one 2) is 8x8, 3) is actully 1.4 megish.

Im sure mine looks as much like the shots I posted as yours does shots of sand-dunes. I posted those shots to clarify what a caldera was, and what pumice looks like.
And its 12x12.
And ok its 1.4 megish???

This is not all negative though.
Your height map is very cool. Infact if it was that height map in a slightly larger field, with a nice rendered terrain, or atlest a vareid terrain, then it would be a much better map. That by teh way was me give some constructive critisim.

Im more than happy to send you the heightmap to play with rendering. And yes that was at least constructive criticism. OTOH I at least do actually have varied terrain, unlike 'dunes.

That comes over as harsh, but I personly think in this case you may desurve it. ( i mean, who says "Frankly STFU. " realy... its not like his coment was unconstructive...)

I take exception to that, most seriously. I was beaten about the head and neck region for no good reason. And a) I said it, so I guess I do. And his comment was UTTERLY unconstructive. He said 'too ugly' and he wouldn't even bother to download the 1.4meg-ish map.

His comment about a 50mb map and 32x32 based textures is totally irrelevant. It added NOTHING to the thread about me announcing the map, nor was it at all relevant. (FWIW The textures I used were 128x128 and 256x256 IIRC, they are always multiples of 32x32, Im not an idiot, and I've done it like that ever since the tile size was mentioned on here.)
Did I mention that it was absolutely irrelevent and unconstructive?

The fact is that I think 'dunes is a nice map. I wasn't pissing on it at all. Desert dunes is guilty of everything you're complaining to me about. Perhaps if you recompile it to be 3-5mb 7-zipped it would be stunning and detailed. It just isn't. Go take a look.

FWIW I posted new screenies.






Since it seems obvious that you haven't actually looked at the map... (Sorry again AF, I used the 'small' ones at least this time )

In all honesty the compression did wipe out some of the terrain variation, but not nearly to the extent as what happened on 'dunes. And I think dunes is a good map, so que sera sera.

I'd still like to know how I've made the world a worse place because I made this map... Seriously...

I very much like all of your work. You don't like mine, fine. I just wish you'd actually have judged it based on the map itself. (And frankly not shared it, but hey thats just being honest j/k)

hmm I think that a colour set problem is apparent ehre with that sky and that map combined., I think it'd look better with a black sky and black fadeout.

And nah it was posting many many pics and then a big one in the middle... those are fine.

Mother, i'm giving that map of yours a whirl and i'll give you my feedback.

If anything, my maps were rendered in Terragen (which isn't very artisitic) and I used atmosphereic setting of a different map! so, you can't get worse than that I think...

.o(maybe I should convert my maps to the new format now)

The map looks nice on my first glance i just took.

Thing i would have done different (if i would come around to make a map some day...)

For the future:
The roads could be darker, i only noticed them with f2.
From the outside to inside change from light to dark, the line is much to clear, were as the hightmap is smoth, it dosn't realy fit
--> sharper hightmap or texture change like from light to medium....

The cracks in the crater wall and on the bottom look great, more of them
maybe not so deep, but i don't know how it would look.

I don't want to upset you, i just want to point out, how you could improve your next map.

Only having a few tiles isn't a problem for me, with a good hightmap you don't notice it to much, the problem in this map is that 1. of all the corners are totally flat and 2. the hill is even, so you do see the tiles easiely, but i wouldn't know how to change that without a new map.

AI makes a great point. Not every map has to be 100% realistic looking from all perspectives.. Personally I don't even understand why people are calling this map ugly; I've thought it looked good since the first time I played it (If I didn't think so I would have advised mother to spend more time on it before releasing).
And come on people, Everyone needs to think about what they have typed before they hit that 'Submit' button. Some of you have made some good constructive points, but it comes off with such animosity... Do you really expect mother to take the time to address these issues you've brought up, when you totally trash his map?

I played it, it's not that bad, it's a good map for its filesize. The main problem is that black seam around on the edges of the map, which is most noticable on the left side, though you can still faintly see it on the right. Bots rule here, which is interesting.

Its not that I dont like it. I realy do love the height map. And it does look resonably like the real pics, only its just seriosly lacking variation on the texture.

This is somthing most people wont notice on dunes, but if you look at the margiunly bigger hills, you'll notice how the sand differnt on teh steep side to the rest. When i get home ill post a chunk of the flat 2d image so you can see. Also the overall sand has 2 variations on its textureing...

I'll post more when im home again... must work

aGorm

Was it beach sand or river sand?... nvm.

The map playability is interesting. (despite the texture monotonism).

I got to win it using tanks, but... they take a LOT of time for reaching the other side (directly in front) of the map.
That is a bit disturbing, you need fast tanks.
Using kbots may be more practical, but, they are even slower.

Its very possible that air is one of the best choices here, as it also lets you sleep into the rich volcano, is fast to move and you can use transports at latter stage.

Just to continue from were I left off...



That is a small chunk of the texture map zoomed in on. It shows two of the hills were they converg, and faintly a smaller hill just below.
You can tell if you zoom out on that mini map that its a sandy map with dunes on it. Also notice that teh sand texture is hardly uniform.

If you now open you client and click battel room and select your map and mine you'll notice that your's (due to teh fact the clinent does not render the heightmap) looks liek a coulpe of splodeges, were as mine still looks relativly like what its supposed to be.


I agree that you cant judge a map by its minimap, mine look blander than they are to, but without the decent height map, your realy does not do itself justice!

The height map is good, but in my opinion (which im allowed and, also your allowed to ignor entirly) you realy need to improve the texture map a bit.
Thats pretty much my rumbel over...

aGorm