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

[Hyperion]

I am trying to create a short tutorial about texture creation for bf2 staticmeshs.
Made a few textures for it, maybe you could use them.
Please contact me - you could also read the tutorial and fix the worst mistakes in my text before i post it here^^ ops:

Btw.:

my problem, when i use a real color texture and detail one, the result is that when the model switches from lod1 to lod2 (no more detail channel) it gets very bright.

This is because you detail texture is much to dark.

Edit:
Ok, the tutorial need some extra time, but the textures are finished.
http://rapidshare.com/files/249586411/textures_for_sandgamer.zip.html

Content: 1x Color, 1x Detail, 1x Detail_normal, 1x Crack. 1x Crack_normal

[fuzzhead]

whats the word on this map sandgamer? not heard from you in a few weeks!

[Hyperion]

I think he is busy with creating textures for his statics!

[sandgamer]

Sandy reporting in:
all systems online

But Hyperion is correct: You guys got me fooling around with textures atm - hopefully soon (and with the help hyperion is currently providing) i will be able to post something new (textures revision 4) that satisfies us all and move on with the actual mapping

And the other issue i am caught up in:
The last two PR-Community-VIP-Scenario-Event-Nights rocked so much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(but had a negative impact on my mapping time during the weekends

old_sandy / sg

[Cheditor]

Oh sure blame the R-COMs

[WilsonPL]

Remove the globe from the top, copy rest 4 times -> rotate, add roof, add globe on the roof

[sandgamer]

holly shizmiz - you guys are correct!!!
i should have looked closer

...those R-COMs got me, again )

sg

[sandgamer]

oh and with all the "defend the base to all sides" maps turning up:

here is what old_sandy had in mind for you guys all the time:
(not yet working on it, so enough room for speculations & proposals)


(picture from wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gardez_paktya.jpg)

on a more technical side note - inspired by those great events organized by R-COMs and others:

would it be possible/a nice idea to add game-modes to a/this map like "event1" or "event2" and offer some alternative spawn-setup for events (or give server admins the opportunity to server-side mod the files of the "event" gameplaymodes)
I believe i know what i need on the map to add this additional gameplaymodes but would it conflict with any aspect of pr?

sg

[sandgamer]

* from post #1 update july 12. *

Well the info has been leaked already - i have been desperately working on a set of textures. these textures have again been laid down in pallets and i had to redo the model accordingly...the file-size/-sum of the textures now has returned to moderate levels after peaking with my last experiments. Oh and to my surprise, after weeks of disliking anything i came up with, the texture came out pretty much well imo.



note: bf2-default daylight light-set, with fog, final shadows @ 1024 samplesize (not detailed enough at some of the smaller objects)

to overcome the lack of detail- and crack-layers on the LODs i created additional "lod-textures" that had the layers merged down, at a lower scale. Now that i am writing about it: i just decided to add the low-detail texture on a hidden face on the high-detail-lods and viceversa - as a sort of pre-cache/keep in memory effect.

Credits to hyperion for the advice on texture-creation and to cgtextures.com for the source-images.

sg

latest update at bottom of post #1, older info's & updates in post #3

[Hyperion]

The textures are better than the previous ones! But the colors differ to much imo, the dirt should not be that strong.
Some small things you could improve:
*smooth edges of the wall (add smoothing groups)
*lightmapsize is probably to big, i would use 512^2 or let the exporter make the decision

Keep up the good work!

[sandgamer]

@jonny:
yeah, guess it proves i am not a girl - no multitasking - i came up with a brilliant idea in case there would be only ONE static on the map...maybe i should not write and think at the same time...

the shadows, i hope you are referring to those on the lower/outer parts of the walls:
its a crack texture that holds the entire lower rock-wall, taken from a photo. So i skipped spending a lot of time removing the shadows via image editing because i hoped i could get away with it. Guess i am wrong...

@hyperion:
the dirt, and i hope you are referring to the one on the upper/outer parts of the walls:
did not feel the same but i will tune it down.

the lightmap is a test: i exported the same building during all the texture-revisions with different lm-sample-sizes:

(lms-size) | (file-size) | (~ render time in editor @ final) | (result on lod0)
2048 | ~112mb | ~1.5h | fine
1024 | ~12mb | ~15 min | not all shadows traced correctly
512 | small | ~3 min | total dis match

the 512 pixels are not enough to trace the shadows of the many faces, and as the samples scale down in size for the lods, and with having lod1 allmost as detaild as lod0, the 512 for lod1 still is too bad, so in order to have a really nice shadow 2048 is required, and 1024 is the smallest one that does not f**k up on lod1 allready but thats just me playing around - i will lightmap in max!

Thank you both for the feedback so far !!!

I am afraid more of your help may be required, with me only getting "better" and you guys still not satisfied (come on lets get this over with, i need to work on the map )

About smoothing-groups:
i cant prove it but i think i remember reading somewhere that bf2 (engine) dislikes smoothing groups? this information may be outdated as today's computers might not have problems handling the additional workload or the info could be simply wrong?!? Comments anybody?

sg

[sandgamer]

*updated the dirt and crack textures*



sg

[marcoelnk]

THAT is looking good. great work!

[sandgamer]

@jonny:
yup, got what you mean, will change it - thanks!

sg

[Hyperion]

Smoothing works fine on statics.

Why didn't you put the stones on your detail-texture? The upper part of the texture can be used for the interior walls and the complete part for the exterior. If you want the same texture resolution, your interior walls must be sliced = more polys, but it is much more efficient then creating additional textures for lods.



1024^2 lightmap size is huge, probably to huge for a small house. I have never seen such sharp shadows on any bf2 static yet^^

You're on a good way, keep it up!

[DesmoLocke]

I really like what you did here to improve the texture. Great stuff!
I also like your background in the DC mod. I really do see similarities in the PR mod being the DC mod of BF2.



Stop teasing! Please keep the video fly-throughs coming when you have finished other parts of the map! I hope to play this in a round of PR down the road. Keep up the work!