Project Reality Forums

Ah great info there again - thank you jonny!

Good you remind me of the lod1/lowDetail call up. I just got away lucky because the doorframes (long stuff at the top of them) inside the buildings, that i remove for my lod1's, is not part of the soldier-col

(my vehicle-cols are simple boxes in the shape of the buildings)

oh yes destroyed & destructible buildings and stuff are a big todo. I am planning on swapping some of my final buildings against destroyable versions once i get there

And then: OhhOhhh: my walls are .2 m only...
PLEASE ADVICE:

personaly i always took that feature of the engine as it is, keeping it in mind when moving around.

atm it would still be relative easy to start it all over again - should i start that of now or can "we" live with my thin walls ?

Not sure atm how i will solve it when it comes to cross that bridge,
but i will change sky/clouds/light/fog/gamemode by day1,day2,... concept refering to the files back in day 1 map from the others. (if that still works as it should) if neccesary i will just put up different complete maps - but thats atleast months in the future...

sg

Dont know if this or Sangin is going to be favourite upcoming map

Ok i went over the map looking at the buildings thinking about where changing the walls would become a problem ... i believe that it will be enough to keep it in mind from now on and implement in a later optimization run on the buildings which is planned prior release...

So the todo-list is getting bigger again...

I took the afghan/north afghan walls as a reference (made some changes regarding window and door width, overall height) and moved from there...i am sure they are just .2* m so Jonny again thank you, i just blamed it on the engine and lived with it, never thought about how i could do anything to deal with it ops:

sg

@P2KK

Thank you, that's another night i wont need any sleep and continue to map!
(But lets not forget that Sangin will probably be done sooner)

*edit: i checked again : they are .3m and i remember me wanting to stick with small straight numbers like .2

and then finally a new picture

sg

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

BRAVO ! BRAVO !!


Your map is very promissing, don't let it down.

Nice job on the caves, very solid work.

Looking good. Can you maybe shorten the first post though. its a bit hard to read

ooooooookkkkkkkkkk - short feedback to my fans (just arrived back from work, today was so busy i didn't even get a free second to check the posts )

first post will be reworked for better overview asap

casa del jonny:
yes thats a balcony and i didnt get the time yesterday to do some "safety" barriers and other stuff - so thats why its still not finished.
this is my absolut first attempt on creating something destroyable (in bf2) - so i chose the small part of the building as it offers some tactical aspect and is a spot on the building that is exposed to approching (heavy) blufor-vehicles. So according to my thoughts it should take some hits in allmost any round on the map - leaving it destroyed quite often . However i am planning on some more heavy destructions...let me see if i can get this one working and than after the map is basiclly finished i can easily replace buildings by destoyable pendants i have yet to create from my buildings.
I really appriciate all the input resulting from your close look at the matter !!!
I have however not yet taken a deep look at at the pr-destroyable assets - currently i would consider the village buildings as a good reference: PLEASE notifiy my of any aspects that i might miss...But dont worry: destroyable assets are an option for me until everything else is atleast in a alpha state - this will be a priority around christmas maybe
ATM my doors are all the same size, so are the arches. I am using 2 types of windows (arch & straight) - i was a bit messy with my stairs: currently working on the first set, but i would allready need 2 different ones, but i might just reExport related buildings to only use the new design currently in the works...I came across the problem regarding the use of pr - doors on my buildings and therefore decided to stick with one size. The larger width (1,2m) of the doors is done to improve ai navigation (bots respawn if the accidently touch area they arent supposed to be on, and an arm glitching into the doorframe can trigger that).
I made a choice when i did not change inside walls: for the same reason for which i am not making my underground-compounds too complex:
This map is huge, we all know that its 4x4, yes, but seriosly there is so much open space, so many buildings, so many places for just 64 players to hide:
so the design concept is: if you are inside a building, looking for enemys inside, i want you to have a good chance to determin wether or not hostiles are actually there. The same goes for the cave: once you enter them, there are only a few corners or corridors to check, but you wont spend an hour just checking one cave. And it will be a quick search if the enemy is not careful, but actually afk proning in some corner of this 16 squarekilometer combat area.
However i am conviced that the map- once finished - will also suit 112-128 players (if that becomes an offical option) - with all the buildings u can enter, and the many, many more caves & underground hideouts

I like that image =Romangnolo=
Thank you K:h:i :d :r: - i like your map - you got pm

sg

Ohmy! What a building you are constructing there! Lots of good work.

i think i can follow your thoughts jonny - i will play around more with destroyable-assets in the future. i think that putting it together in a way that allows to destroy in parts, and not just leaving a pile of rubble after on shot has been fired at a large building will yet be quite a difficult task

sg

The Post structure has been reworked at this point :
related information can be found in [May 14 Update] @ Post #3
also: i added another "it's still WIP" picture

sg

past midnight: it has arrived...

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

sg

When are you planning to paint detailtextures on your map ? its quite horrible to look at your textures on the current screenshots.
building looks good

OK, time to give some more explanations (i hope that i will pick the right words to express it correctly ??: i dont want to piss off anyone)

regarding the textures of the map-terrain:
currently i am using a google sat-image as a reference color map (so there is no details, no lowdetails). It is used to give me an additional idea (ontop of the nasa-sat-topographie) of the area and the layout of buildings). I will require it until all areas of the map are developed in regards to static placement and other stuff.
i have not yet decided how the textures will be finally done:
terragen does it nicely (tpaint would only be a interim-option, i am however currently not planning on involving it, tsplit will do). I have some experience doing 6-layers in terragen, and i have also worked with overlay images in terragen (via plugin) to use it to draw roads and other selected areas. The outcome was nice, but not perfect in my eyes.
That is why currently i am planning on doing the details (or at least some) by hand in the editor, and use that as a mask either for terragen or photoshop.
So if you ask me to answer your question right now:
I will paint my details when i start to delete the current color map somewhere towards the end of the maps development cycle...

roads:
currently they are used to do some terra forming and to give an idea where roads will be placed later on, but they got noting to do with how they will look in the end.

regarding the inter-storey junctions on my buildings:
I am aware of the fact that faces could be spared as explained by Jonny.
As i have described i am building my statics from walls-parts (4m long) that i have prefabricated. In order to create a junction from one floor to another, or between 2 of my walls, and retaining the full integrity of a "closed" model i need to create a junction.
To give an example: a wall part with a window inside is more complex than a simple straight wall, there are cuttings on it resulting in vertices (points). To connect 2 walls i have to connect all these points (the junction comes into play).
Why create "closed" models? As stated before i want ai as an option on this map. To get the bots to navigate my buildings i can either model them entirely in the described way or create an additional col3, resulting in even more time used on my models.
[ AI support & Sandys time => junctions are required. ]
So now that i got these junctions on my buildings, or at least on the few ones with more than one floor, i might as well give them some different texturing. Why? First and for most i personally think it is boring to look at otherwise.
(I am aware that this is just my opinion, it might even be unrealistic.)
Second thing is: on my prebuild walls i have dirt on the lower end: To make it look good i would have to remove this dirt again from my higher floors or i could simply give the junction a different color. That is the time-factor coming into play again. If you take a look at many of the DICE models, as well as a lot of others out there: they all got junctions in different colors. My guess: among other things they didn't have infinite time to spend, just like me.
Also it adds in an unrealistic gameplay-factor (to both sides, so its fair) that i personally like to the map: it will be easier to communicate contacts to your squad:

[imaginative voip chat]
:d rillserg old_sandy: squad, multiple enemy contacts on the green roof, bearing 185 - marked now...

[or]

addaco: sandy get down, sniper 2nd floor blue window
[imaginative voip chat end]

and guess why he was so fast on counting the floors on the building he could report them before he noticed the bright color of the window? And to flip my nade in i needed the floor number first (this has never happened - just an imagination:mrgreen

I hope this all explains some things, and leaves you with new questions.

sg

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