Spring RTS Engine

The title pretty much gives it away: I probably created the ugliest Spring map ever to be seen by man!

I actually don't think it's very strange, since it's my first map, I just copied the original map texture and heightmap and I probably picked out one of the most complex maps, Militairy base, but that doesn't take away the fact it's ASS UGLY.

feature list:
-Totally misaligned texture and heightmap
-Incredible floating trees
-Trees EVERYWHERE (which fortunatly can be burned away)
-Totally messed up bridges

I am currently making a (hopefully) improved version, with a heavily modified texturemap (blue watercolor removed, bridges changed) and (hopefully) aligned texture and heightmap.

EDIT: Just noticed 100webspace doesn't allow external links, I'll upload it to another webspace

haha, even the links to the screenshots don't work :). nah not having a go, i'm sure i couldn't map well (read: at all)

Perhaps the links not working is for the better?

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra wrote:Perhaps the links not working is for the better?

I couldn't say say it better...
For those brave enough, the screens should work now...

Michilus_nimbus wrote:The title pretty much gives it away: I probably created the ugliest Spring map ever to be seen by man!

I actually don't think it's very strange, since it's my first map, I just copied the original map texture and heightmap and I probably picked out one of the most complex maps, Militairy base, but that doesn't take away the fact it's ASS UGLY.

feature list:
-Totally misaligned texture and heightmap
-Incredible floating trees
-Trees EVERYWHERE (which fortunatly can be burned away)
-Totally messed up bridges

I am currently making a (hopefully) improved version, with a heavily modified texturemap (blue watercolor removed, bridges changed) and (hopefully) aligned texture and heightmap.

EDIT: Just noticed 100webspace doesn't allow external links, I'll upload it to another webspace

eh im not the only one who ported over military base but i didn't have any sevre problems like... i wonder if zwzsg ok i think i sense bloodlust from him... He warned me about if i try to port it over becareful since the hieght is messed up permantly you would have to spend a whole lot of time fixing the mistakes the maker of the map left but this map was never intended to play in fully 3d environments either... tho the only problem i had when i ported it over was height problems left behind the former map creator of this map

but wait til zwzsg comes lord have mercy he warned me not to maim his favorite map. so i never released it online.

but as zwzsg said since this is your first time mapping in spring go off and do something easy without maiming the great name of this map... try making the cold place or something.. btw i have dibs on king of the hill and evad river confluence

I looked at your map I think you just need to use the -i command for the heightmap maybe that will align it correctly. You can also download the new mapconv that doesn't put trees where the texture is green. That will solve your tree problem. Shading is a bit more difficult you could copy rotate paste the parts that are shaded, but no 100% chance for success.

I think I'll make some easier maps first, just to get the hang of it.
Sorry if anyone was porting militairy base already, just carry one, because this one ***** big time.

@porkNinja, I never intended to release it online, I just wanted to show this miserable failure.

Michilus_nimbus wrote: @porkNinja, I never intended to release it online, I just wanted to show this miserable failure.

lol thats alright

looks good. When its ready?

Gots some of gcii

That's exactly the shit that happens when trying to port any map with somewhat cubic functions. What you'll have to do to make it right is to open the heightmap in PhotoShop and manually turn + align every tile... That's what I had to do with the Metal Heck map.

You people are using the orriginal texture with these maps? Of course its going to look retarded.

Why do so many people insists on butchering and maiming my fav map? Just get over the fact so you can't port a TA maps to Spring under five minutes without it looking hideous. I guess I'll have to hurry up and try to make a Military Base for spring myself.

Some thing to consider: the Spring heightmap is more precise than the TA heightmap. If when enlarging it you do some some sort of bicubic interpolation or whatever your image edit calls it, the edge are all rounded and it looks bad. If when enlarging it you don't do any interpolation of any kind, then all slopes are dented by plateau and it looks bad. A heigtmap that aligns to the texture map in Spring doesn't resuslt in a heightmap aligning in Spring. You'll have to cut a few lines on some sides and add a few lines to other sides until it looks well.

In TA, the texture map is viewed from a 63.435° angle. In spring it is viewed from a 90° angle. So, in TA the pyramids of MB have some faces shorter than other because of perspective, while they shouldn't in Spring.

Basically to make a good port of MB to Spring you'd have to entirely redo both the heightmap and the texture map.

Simpler maps like greenhaven can be converted brutally and still looks good because they don't have sharp edge, sharp texture changes, ground changing at once from flat to 45° slopes, etc...

If no one is willing to take the times to do dedicated new maps for Spring along and wants to rush doing bad port of TA maps, at least choose maps where it's possible. No green maps or maps with trees, as controlling tree density with spring map editorS is diffictult. Choose map with rather uniform colors, no features, and no brutal changes in the heightmap.


In TA the texture map has to be shaded, and the engine doesn't apply any shading to the map. In spring, the engine can applies the shading to the map. However, not everyone's machine can handle the shading. Using bland textures and let spring handle the shading has the following advantege: much much easier, shading always perfecly following the heightmap, craters and other terrain desctruction are dynamically reshaded. But it has the disantavage of not working and making the map looking awful on some machines. If possible, the best would be to use some preshading so the map still looks good for those with graphic cards not handling shading, and keep the .smd shading for craters and things like that.

Well, I hope you guys hurry up. Even the messed up shots show that this is going to be a really spectacular map...

Brings back some old memories... aaah, the days when you could get on one of the islands and just build fortifications all over it in TAUCP, lots of turrets, walls, etc. and just lock it up with some gates.

zwzsg; people are people. If you do a well done remake of Military Base, I'll definitely download it.

I tried to just make one from scratch, and I have to admit it's pretty frighteningly bad... and THIS took like an hour... or two... maybe 3... of course I only used photoshop...

Try blurring the heightmap, and using a tiled texture instead of an uniform color for the texture map.

A couple of the fiddly bits here and there look good, and that's where I used the smudge tool, so a little bluring should help, the texture isn't acctuallu uniform, it acctually different shades of brown all blurred together, because I was more worried about the height map looking like garbage... It would be really great to have more texturing on the vert... I remember hearing that it was possible, with the engine, to have 3D objects and features, but that mapconv didn't support them yet... any idea what the specs of these files are and if we could put in our own features?

... I think that is the big question everyone wants answered, Sinbad...

Considering you have access to the source code for both the map maker and the engine, why not look at them to see how to add features and make the necessary editations to the map prog?

Let's pretend that it's bacause I havn't been having trouble installing "Visual Studio .Net" and not because I can't program for beans.