[Map] 2 Towns, Afghanistan (4km) [WIP]

[sandgamer]

just added some updates to post #1:

sg

[sandgamer]

alright, i refused to do so with the last updates, but this time:
let me bump my topic for the new screens to spread

( all updates included to post #1)

please check the questions section at the end of post #1

sg

[Mora]

Looks really good

[cramble]

Looks very very good already.

[LithiumFox]

... amazing... seriously... o.o i love how you're doing custom statics and water.

=D I think we should get more "assistants" helping people work with the specifics of their maps...


> > I mean you can have the mapper, then people who help you with statics and such

=D Would be so much more efficient.

[sandgamer]

Thanks guys !!!

i hear ya lithium nice signature quotation on the other hand

(just did a 3rd update on post 1 for today)
sg

( all updates included to post #1)
P.S. still looking for help so please check the questions at the end of post #1

[fuzzhead]

looking kick *** sandgamer

without a doubt PR needs more statics for afghanistan, so far looking cool, be sure to check alot of references when creating the houses.

Rhino can answer any questions you have on static creation, though he can be sometimes a bit blunt at times but he means well looks like you have created some of these in the past so you know whats up, just keep in mind texture sizes and reusing same textures, because this is a potential problem if too many textures are loaded can overload a players memory and cause lag/crashes. Rhino can talk you more on this topic of texture management.

Hans Martin Slayer has made an interesting Afghanistan map with multiple rivers, he may be able to help you with some tips, but his was a 2km map so it may be different for yours.

Dr. Rank has been working on a 4km Sangin Afghanistan map for a long time now, he would be able to answer questions for you on references and overall map design. CodeRedFox is also working on a 4km Afghanistan map.


The map project looks very ambitious, 4km maps are a big thing that alot of us want to see PR move towards. The difference in gameplay between a 2km and 4km map is drastically large - it definitely slows the pace of gameplay and allows for much more realistic use of larger assets as well as realism tactics. Maps with 4km scale I think are the future of PR with combined arms combat, it definitely helps create a better experience and will definitely attract a certain type of realism player, and in terms of design, its what the mod is moving towards. Just telling you all this to keep your motivation up, because 4km is both extremely time intensive as well as buggy and super PC intensive, especially with some of the amount of detail it looks like you want to be achieving with this project.

Keep posting updates, I'm sure some other R-DEV's will comment here about your specific questions!

If you are interested in becoming an R-CON, let us know - however at this time we must wait and see because of some unfortunate incidents in the recent past (I'll let you read about that in this community modding area if you want to look further).

Just letting you know for me personally as well as many other R-DEV, we love to see this kind of dedication, especially towards something we value highly (4km detailed map). Seeing your mapping project progress and succeed definitely gives alot of the dev team motivation to continue the progress on the mod, especially because 4km maps is something we are lacking greatly atm and is such a big undertaking!

[Hans Martin Slayer]

Hans Martin Slayer has made an interesting Afghanistan map with multiple rivers, he may be able to help you with some tips, but his was a 2km map so it may be different for yours.

my other project is a 4k map as well..

looking really good so far, sandgamer. pretty solid work!

can't help you out with your waterplanes as i don't know much about modeling.
the bfeditor forums (Official BF Editor Forums (Powered by Invision Power Board)) is a good place to ask as well if you aren't already aware of that place. tons of helpful informations over there.

any mapping related questions, post away and i'll see if i can help you.

-keep us updated!

btw. nice to see another mapper from bavaria. where exactly are you from?

[sandgamer]

@ [R-DEV] fuzzhead:

Thanks m8 for those kind words.
The statics on post 1 are recent developments, the ones in post 3 are old.

I had a "question" posted earlier in post 1 but removed it after i started working on my "own" textures. As the answers did not just pop up (not that i expected that) i had to go trough the pr textures and the way they were used. From what it looked like to me you guys also like to use multimaterial setups and/ or pallet textures. Just that mine are 512x4096. That way, and by replacing many of the static-placeholders currently in the map by objects of my own, all using one or a few of my textures i think we will get along.

If any of u DEVs would like to share images or stuff i can use as reference for statics/the map please post em here or link them or pm or something, i have the ones i posted in #1 and what google pulls out under a "gardez images" search...

ATM i have not even looked into what a [R-CON] is, so thanks for the offer mate
The way i see it you guys should let me come up with some stuff and take the credit only after its done hehe just kidding - seriously if there is a way to get more intel on what is already under development by you guys it would be good to be plugged in, so if thats a r-con remind me to read more on this stuff

@ [R-DEV] Hans M.S.

Thanks alot there.
I am aware of the bfed forums.
How far is it from beer capital to munich and back to the beerfest again ?

cheers,
sg

[Hans Martin Slayer]

How far is it from beer capital to munich and back to the beerfest again ?

needless to say - munich IS the capital of beer..

munich, by

i take it, by stands for bavaria there?
misunderstood that then, nvm...

R-CON stands for contributor, a user group on this forum, basically with its own subsection where you can post your stuff away from the public and get some more attention/ help from the devs.

[Cpl.Small]

i think it's great how not only are you making an awesome map but also making new statics for it...keep it up, can't wait for more updates!

[sandgamer]

@Hans M.S. :
maybe you, marcoelnk, me and any other guys of the "munich-pr-substation" could have a beer in the bavarian sun one of the coming days...

Oh and i just went over the wip-album: very beautiful map you got there

@all other people in this thread whom i have not personally addressed so far:
let me say thanks again for all your input! keep it coming! i will keep it going

Thats it for the moment, as always the updates on the map are in post#1 at the end. That is where i also have some open issues that require "de no-Ob ification" please

cheers,
sg aka old_sandy (who hasent had time to play for weeks with all this mapping and modeling and :mrgreen

[Hans Martin Slayer]

@Hans M.S. :
maybe you, marcoelnk, me and any other guys of the "munich-pr-substation" could have a beer in the bavarian sun one of the coming days...

sounds like a plan . quite busy with uni and other stuff during the next few weeks but we should keep in touch and arrange something soonish!

Oh and i just went over the wip-album: very beautiful map you got there

cheers! yea it's coming along quite nicely now.

[sandgamer]

...and another update done...

sg

all updates included to post #1
still looking for help so please check the questions section at the end of post #1

[cyberzomby]

haha nice work man! I love your humor! Feel free to make me feel even better at that

I would love to make statics and maps for BF2 as well at some point! You are a real inspiration! Especially now that you stated a lot of statics only took so little time! You must be a genius at max! Or was it just a special technique that you nailed?

[sandgamer]

rest assured i am far away from being a genius at max -
the first time i fired it up was when i was 14 or something - so that was some 14 years ago and i still am such a noob @ it!

the only trick is that i have those pre-textured parts i assemble in max (just like u would assemble them in the editor) only then i remove the ends (that i did prepared for this surgery) and stitch them back together. That does improve some things in regards to using the walls available in pr. But it also leaves me with some unnecessary faces that i have to live with in order to be able to do them so fast.

i would only consider my stuff as an improvement over some stuff i would usually do in a map (ramping things together to create new stuff) - but definitely not perfect.

And i did not try it all out by myself, in fact i have watched and read so many tutorials i cant even remember some of them

If u r looking for an inspiration @ max watch rexman's videos: the guy does not talk but you can see him model and export in light speed

The path is long and rough, but its fun on the other hand
sg

oh and i will not be able to restrain myself from posting more of my special humor now - the story behind the map will blow us all away

ALSO:
my personal tip for starting of with max:
there is a castle-modeling tutorial out there that explains a lot of things, it did to me:
only problem i cant find a nice site that holds them -> google for the file names if u want to watch em:
castle_modeling_part1.avi , castle_modeling_part2.avi , ... , castle_modeling_part9.avi , castle_modeling_part_10.avi (10 parts as far as i know)
or create an account over at http://www.enjoycg.com/forums/enjoycg-t ... ender.html to download it from that site (just found it again muhahah)

[sandgamer]

thanks for going into it Jonny. that solves that.

Not only do i want this map to run like a cheetah - i also would like to see it being able to handle many bots on a local sp-game. (because i am never certain that people will actually play my map with me)

But i am thinking about the things i can still do to improve the expected performance. For example i have decided today to re-export all objects without a col3 (ai) that do not require one.

However i am curious if i should have some custom settings applied prior to export regarding lightmap-sample sizes? I do not have any gut-feeling for the matter so i leave it at auto for the exporter. Any comments ?

My lod-setup is somewhat like follows:
lod0=it has all detail and the col's
lod1=no inside detail, no cols - switching to view @ 10m
lod2=further reduced detail (not much (mostly the inside framing of the windows that is made of rather thin elements) but my statics dont hold too many details anyway) - switching to view @ 200m
lod3=no details left at the windows, only color-tex. - switching to view @ 600m

This setup is in place due to a planned viewdistance on the map of 1000m in some gamemodes - with fog involved only at the end for engine reasons.

Thanks for any further comments ,
sg

[sandgamer]

Sunday updates in post #1

sg

[=Romagnolo=]

Fantastic, keep this level of work and your map will rock hard!