Spring RTS Engine

Im going to start work on an Idea I had for a new FF mod map. Its basically a junk yard of dead ships and other things. Im posting up the concept sketch/concept height map, what do you guys think so far? This'lll be my first real map so it'll prolly take some time.



I have some good textures for the space background, but i might need some help with the platforms and ships... and maybe some help on other things. Currently im editing with Adobe Photoshop CS2 (not sure what that translates too... it was just sitting around so i used it).

Just mail me a Piece of the Heightmap, which Ship i should do - and maybee some sketsch of how you want it to be done.

How long are those Ships Scrap- is the Big Battle just over - and they are still burning inside - or are they hanging around for some years, with just the last ermegency systems slowly burning out. Or are they Centurys old - dirty and hit with Asteroids, ready to fall apart at any moment?

Cool...i had always wanted to fight in and around hulks of ancint ships. Will these be old Core and Arm vessles, or even older ships from before that point in humain history?

Just generic ship things. I'd thought about using textures from the mod... but that'd be really confusing after awhile..

Hmmm... i seem to have run into a bit of a roadblock. Photoshop CS2 only lets me save files larger then 30,000 pixels as PSB files... so i cant save it as a bitmap. Grrr.... the map is supposed to be 32x24. Any ideas?

program a better map editor... wait for Zaphod's new map format/editor...

AvatarSquadron wrote:Hmmm... i seem to have run into a bit of a roadblock. Photoshop CS2 only lets me save files larger then 30,000 pixels as PSB files... so i cant save it as a bitmap. Grrr.... the map is supposed to be 32x24. Any ideas?

a 32X24 is : 16384X12288

201326592 is deffinitely more then 30,000 pixels... what's your point piggy?

SinbadEV wrote:201326592 is deffinitely more then 30,000 pixels... what's your point piggy?

that would be a :393216X393216

a bit larger then epic. Do not refer to me as little piggy. your tone was entirely condescending.

The point was he was saying that 30000 wasn't enough for a 32X24 and he was wrong. I gave him the correct dimensions. now get off my couch, dogs sleep on the floor...silly metriod brains are for zoombie

when I was still playing with the map I was working on.... I had a bitmap that was like 17,000x19,000 or something.. I forget what it ended as after the hex, and +1 and everything...

it was like 22x24 .... but it had issues rendering properlly cause of the rectangle, so I made it square at 24x24 and it worked....

don't be discouraged ... yet.....

though I'd reccomend using FEATURES for the ships, rather than the map....

I could model some, but texturing a ship takes aLOT more time than "spray painting" a rock in Deep Paint 3D...

but it can be done....

I have lots of projects right now though.... maybe you can look online for usable ship models? look around the FREELANCER mods... they have LOTS of ship models available to the public..

The idea is to use the derelicts as buildable terrain... dunno if you can do that with features.

and isnt the calculation for the texture map supposed to be 1024 X mapsize ?

lol, I don't think so....

just that your map needs to be in increments of 1024... iirc(forboding? clarification please)

as far as wrekage for building on... you would be better off making rocks and stuff. The only thing that was suposed to be on land were a small hand full of things. Anyway, lathan is right some models as features would be good... Hell, use the FF corpse models that would really be good and it would make sense.

The texture size is 512 times the map size (ie Map size of 2 = Texture of 1024), but the map size has to be even. So the Texture size ends up being a multiple of 1024.

Thats part of the design though... it's supposed to be a little different from the average jount. So far theres.. 2 or 3? FF maps... and they're all asteroids and platforms... i wanted a bit of variety. But yesh... i do like the idea of the dead models for features.... it would help make the place more cluttered so it looks like a graveyard and not a former battlefield.

The buildable 'wreckage' is going to be BIG stuff (think... bigger then the devastator, pieces of old platforms or space stations, or piles of junk)... im not THAT crazy lol.

EDIT: And while im at... do any of you know of a simple pattern i could use to fill my map with for now... something that would be good at letting me see the differences in elevation so I can get a feel for how my heightmap is coming along?

I was trying to be funny not condecending... and as it turns out I was wrong anyways... I read 30,000 pixels as "30,000 pixels" instead of as "30,000x30,000 pixels" like you did... I'm sorry for being wrong not for trying to poke fun.

If you want the PSD or BMP - just mail me ... sorry that it looks like the Battle just passed over it...

talking of space maps; wtf happened to that awesome space dock map...that was SOOOO cool looking ;.;
and talking of FF maps i badly need a good FF 1v1 map

Would it maybe be easier to make the turrets as features? I dont have any experiance there... but as i think about it... it'd be pretty hard to mold the height map to properly represent them. But on the upside... perhaps the turrets could be reclaimable?

PicassoCT wrote:

If you want the PSD or BMP - just mail me ... sorry that it looks like the Battle just passed over it...

That ship reminds me of commander keen 5, awesome

If you used sinbads skinning technique and a huge detailed nebula background with few or no stars, soemthing akin to the orange backgrounds in homeworld, then you'd have an amazing space map...