Looking for some feedback

Looking for some feedback

Discuss maps & map creation - from concept to execution to the ever elusive release.

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mufdvr222
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Joined: 01 May 2005, 09:24

Looking for some feedback

Post by mufdvr222 »

Been stuffing around with this map for a while, its getting close to ready, there is no metal map yet, but the extractor radius will be larger, say 70, 80 or so,, thats for you noize :wink:
Opinions/ideas welcome.

FYI its not meant to be two continents and its not another sup com map clone/lookalike, I was however inspired by both. :? Map is called "Two Seas" and is 32 x 32 the texture is rendered in l3dt at the full 16384 x 16384 res :lol:

This is also probably the only map of this type I will ever tile in photoshop but I wanted to keep its file size to a minimum for those people on dial up and to make it quick to download through the lobby, file size is 14.6 mb so far.


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FizWizz
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Post by FizWizz »

Very purdy, and rendering it at full scale paid off, the texture looks sharp :-) .
I have a question though, on the minimap it looks like there are 4 geothermal vents on the southernmost island, do my eyes deceive me? How will the metal/geothermal layout end up in general?
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

Mufdvr, that looks DAMN good.

I have on request. Please bump map your textures in the future. I just started doing this and it looks OMFGWTFPWN! An easy way to get bumpmap images for your textures...

Load up l3dt, import said texture as heightmap, use default settings make sure you check the box labeled "Edge Wrapping". Process terrain nominals and export the nominal. You now have a bumpmap texture for your grass/rock/whatever texture. Pretty sweet huh? :lol:

This one looks really really nice. I like it a lot. THanks to the size we can play it in E&E too *yay*.
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aGorm
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Joined: 12 Jan 2005, 10:25

Post by aGorm »

The 5th shot, dam I like your little rocky outcrop on that...

the rest looks very luvrly, great choice of colours (cause so many people make grass the wrong shades, pink dirt ect...). Realy nice.

aGorm
mufdvr222
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Joined: 01 May 2005, 09:24

Post by mufdvr222 »

Arrr, thats a massive relief, had myself convinced the texture was starting to suck,, which is probably what happens when ya spend too much time staring at something :? 8)

The geo`s where meant to be two on each island, thats right at the extreme top and bottom of the map, but mapconv had other plans,, I actually think this geo thing has something to do with how buildable the terrain is where you are trying to place the geo, not much of a theory though :? F A I will try that bump mapping method out, actually I could just use the normal map filter in photoshop.
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

mufdvr222 wrote:Arrr, thats a massive relief, had myself convinced the texture was starting to suck,, which is probably what happens when ya spend too much time staring at something :? 8)

The geo`s where meant to be two on each island, thats right at the extreme top and bottom of the map, but mapconv had other plans,, I actually think this geo thing has something to do with how buildable the terrain is where you are trying to place the geo, not much of a theory though :? F A I will try that bump mapping method out, actually I could just use the normal map filter in photoshop.
You could use normal mapping in PS however, it would not bumpmap each individual texture.
mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

So Forboding,, Muff is a little confused,, was something recently implemented in spring (aka) to do with mapping that I am not aware of, and exactly what texture am I bumpmapping,, my source tiles or the whole texture? and how do I implement this. :oops: I am getting the feeling I should check the dev forum more often. :?
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

Seems like an awfull lot of stuffing aroud for not a lot. Think I`l give it a miss. Besides I have finished this texture I won`t be going over it again,, and I don`t think its worth the work. Thanks for pointing it out though. 8)to clarify I don`t edit the climate files I edit the texture post render in Photoshop, this gives me total controll over the end result.
mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

I went and checked and I have indeed already bump mapped this maps texture, I had forgotten I checked bump mapping when I rendered, and since the rock texture is the native l3dt I don`t need to process these textures to achieve this.
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

mufdvr222 wrote:I went and checked and I have indeed already bump mapped this maps texture, I had forgotten I checked bump mapping when I rendered, and since the rock texture is the native l3dt I don`t need to process these textures to achieve this.
That is partially incorrect.

Normals map bumpmaps the entire texture, however, it is not true bump mapping. You need to bumpmap each texture individually. I'll post an example in a sec.
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i92/F ... een199.jpg


Sorry for the image size, however, see how the individual contours and textures come to life? Now compare this screen to the on es you posted earlier.

Once you have bumpmapped your textures you will feel dirty and unwashed and want to bumpmap the rest of them for all your maps over again. It's that good...

You can use already bumpmapped textures, but it doesn't look as good as dynamically bumpmapped textures.

Editing the climate file is easy. Just open Temperate climate and look for the bumpmap info, copy paste the code into your own climate files (assuming you're using 2.3d).

I don't get paid until tommorrow night, so until then I am using 2.3d

Trust me on this, it will make your textures come to life and look better than you imagined they could look.
mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

Forboding I will get right to the nub of it,, I have not to date been able to get any version of l3dt to load a climate that I edit,, yes I am obviously getting it wrong but I lost patience with it long long ago.
I don`t understand why I have to bump map textures that are already bump mapped, Aaron has already included the bump maps in the resources\climates\common\ folders, since I use his default climates then all I have to do in l3dt is tick the "bumpmap" check box, which I did but by the time I am finished in photoshop 90% of the texture has been replaced in the post render photoshoping.
I hope this clears it up a little,, but thanks for the tips,, I will give it a go one day,,,,,,,,Perhaps. :?

FYI I am using 2.4b3

here is the dialogue I am talking about
Image

Is this typical of your default resource directory?



Image
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

Doah, I didn't realize you were using the default.
mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

Although your bump mapped textures look better that what I get with the defaults, I lost the bump mapping on the grass obviously because I repeat tiled it in photoshop, so why do my hillsides look so flat when yours are so full of texture,, I mean they seem to jump right out at ya.
:?
mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

Here`s the finished "hopes" map if anyone`s interested in taking a look,
I re did the grass texture to reduce the "tiled" appearance, it has visible metal and the extractor raduis is 80 I think :|
Last edited by mufdvr222 on 28 Jul 2006, 00:47, edited 1 time in total.
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

Hey cool, I'll take a look. I really like the looks of the screenies. It looks really nice.

BTW yes, those textures are bumpmapped. I can tell from the last screenshot. L3DT's bumpmapping is damn near godly.
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Comp1337
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Post by Comp1337 »

Aye, nice textures!
Was just going to say you should try to reduce the "tiledness" of map :-)

Nice work.
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Das Bruce
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Post by Das Bruce »

Tell me how you did those mountains, and give me your textures! :x










Please? :|
mufdvr222
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Post by mufdvr222 »

Ok gimme a day to find them.
I had to do a format last week,, my system was affected by a bug in the NTFS file system,
which causes files copied to an affected directory to not inherit that directories permissions correctly.
In short I had an increasing amount of files that I could not open, edit, re name, move or delete :x
and Microsoft have no easy fixes and no guarantees it won`t re occur.
Pretty sad when were talking about Win XP Professional build 2600 sp2 :shock:
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