Grand River ver2 release

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 30 May 2006, 03:33

alright, the map is done. it has large metal spots and is very hover accessable. the only problem is that if i archive it, it gives me an error. i tried it on two PC's and the same error occurs so i know its not my PC only. if i put the .smf, .smd, and .smt files in there seperately, it works just fine. i'm stumped with this. im just gonna test it with a few people and then ill release it

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 30 May 2006, 15:58

ok, here's the error i get when i zip it with 7zip. if it put all of the pieces into the maps folder, the game can load up the map and i can play on it. i tried it yesterday and started getting sync errors with many people but when a friend of mine hosted, they quickly went away. since the map is ready for play, i'll release it zipped with winrar. here's the link for the map download and then its the error i get when trying to load it when its zipped to .sd7.

http://fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=3281

Quanto042 · Post by **Quanto042** » 30 May 2006, 16:04

hey, when you zipped it with 7zip, do you put the three files in by themselves (bad)
or do you put it in a "maps" folder within the archive? (good)

example: [archive file.sd7]\maps\map files

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 30 May 2006, 16:39

i put them in a folder and then zip the folder. tried it on two different PC's and get the same error

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 16:40

it's an smd error. Post your smd and I'll fix it for you, or at least help you out.

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 30 May 2006, 16:47

its in the pack but here's the smd file all by itself.

http://fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=3282

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 16:57

I retract my previous statement, it's not the smd. Only thing wrong with the smd is that your fogstart should be .7 CHANGE THAT PLEASE! Otherwise your map won't get played because the fog obscures the view.

Post the archive on FU and give me a link. I believe I know what's wrong.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 17:14

Ok, I'm at work, can't dl 41 mbs

Make sure the files are like this...

Grand_River-v01.smf
Grand_River-v01.smt
Grand_River-v01.smd

inside a directory called MAPS not MAP.

The error you are getting is a file not found error (essentially) which means that spring can't find the file specified.

so:

Maps -> Grand_River-v01.smf
Grand_River-v01.smt
Grand_River-v01.smd

Pack into:

Grand_River.sd7

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 30 May 2006, 17:52

yea, i finally got it. i was zipping it wrong. curse my ADD for making me skip over the documentation really quickly. loading it up right now and itll be on the first page. i fixed the fog to .7 instead of .2. only thing i liked about it is that it had a deep red tone to it then. oh well, cant have everything your way i guess.

oh, i did find out something cool with L3DT. i didn't like how the render came out when i did it at 12288x12288 so i did it at 1537x1537 and then resized it and it works. took off a lot of time from rendering. i'm sure this is known but just thought i'd mention it just in case.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 19:39

Noooooooooooooooo!

DOn't you DARE render at 1/8th quality, That looks like Crap!

It's basically taking a small image and making it 8 times bigger when you do that. Don't even THINK you can get away with that!

Cheesecan · Post by **Cheesecan** » 30 May 2006, 21:02

Forboding Angel wrote:Noooooooooooooooo!

DOn't you DARE render at 1/8th quality, That looks like Crap!

It's basically taking a small image and making it 8 times bigger when you do that. Don't even THINK you can get away with that!

Not when you are use per-pixel land types it isn't.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 21:07

ya... it does.

At that ratio it puts a perlin noise filter over the entire thing, and it looks very bland and the textures are blurred.

Go ahead and skip steps if you want, but don't cry when ppl tell you it looks like crap.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 21:10

Take a look at this thread. http://www.bundysoft.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=95

Cheesecan · Post by **Cheesecan** » 30 May 2006, 21:11

Forboding Angel wrote:ya... it does.

At that ratio it puts a perlin noise filter over the entire thing, and it looks very bland and the textures are blurred.

Go ahead and skip steps if you want, but don't cry when ppl tell you it looks like crap.

Aaron himself disagrees with you. He said himself that 1/8th+per-pixel looks better than rendering at 1:1, and this is what I've found as well. Design maps ftw.

edit: Also as he points out in the thread you just posted, you must be using high-resolution textures for it to work, which you have commented in your climate file.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 30 May 2006, 21:17

Ok, well then prove me wrong. Show me a 1:1 render and a 1:8 per pixel render next to each other.

Cheesecan · Post by **Cheesecan** » 30 May 2006, 21:26

Fair enough, give me til tomorrow and I'll post a comparison.

wizard8873 · Post by **wizard8873** » 30 May 2006, 21:52

as i've said before, gameplay>looks. as of now, i want to focus more on gameplay and once thats set, go back and work on the texture. im just saying it as a suggestion if you want to get the map completed quickly to see how it plays and then go back and finish it up. just remember, this is my first map so i still have a lot to learn.

Cheesecan · Post by **Cheesecan** » 31 May 2006, 14:29

Forboding Angel wrote:Ok, well then prove me wrong. Show me a 1:1 render and a 1:8 per pixel render next to each other.

Hello again!
I did a test render, and it turns out you were right and I was wrong, so you win.

The top is with 1:1, the lower is with 1:8. They both use the same design map so water and attributes has the same design/inflate data. The light map was rendered with the same ratio as the texture map.
Obviously I've used pretty heavy compression for the jpeg, but the terrain is still visibly MUCH sharper with 1:1.

Sorry I ever doubted you, it's Aaron putting ebil thoughts in my mind.

Also, I rendered 1:1 with per-pixel, and it actually looked 99% the same except that the contrast and brightness was better on the land textures, looked less gray. This can easily be done in photoshop post-render though, so there is no reason to double the rendering time by using per-pixel.
A funny sidenote is that 1/8 texture with per-pixel actually took longer time than 1:1 despite the godawful result.

wizard8873: sorry to hijack your thread, promise not to again, but on the good side I'm bumping it now too for ya.

AF · Post by AF » 31 May 2006, 14:33

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 31 May 2006, 15:14

hey thanks for the great comparison though. That really is great. Btw, the terrain in the firstm one looks really cool too

You gonna make a map of that (Please)?

Most of the time I really am trying to help, honest

Spring RTS Engine

Grand River ver2 release

which meatl layout is the best?