Custom maps for missions offer

[USRanger]

I've begun work on making some custom maps specifically for the mission making community to use.  No reason to be using generic MA maps with 100 fields your not gonna use, when you can have fully custom maps(terrains, objects, skins) made just for your mission.  I'm working on three right now (a woodland, desert & winter) with various targets & such that people can use to base their missions on (bombing/intercepting over custom cities comes to mind).  I'll post em & host em as they come out w/ screenies for anyone who wants to use them.  I'm trying to get others in the map making community to do the same.  I think it would be a neat joint venture and we can get the most realism out of the missions.  Here's the link to where I posted a few terrain screenies to give an idea:

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,233148.0.html

<S> and I look forward to working with some of you.


EDIT: This is one of my skins on the Japan map, showing the type of missions we can have instead of just having all default toys.

[Strip]

You have any thing that would mimic a large German city similar to Toyko?

Strip

[Baumer]

USRanger,
That's a great idea! I'm going to check out what you've posted and I'll be looking for your maps to use in the future.

<S> Baumer

[Yossarian]

Here's a rather complicated idea I've had in mind for a while:

A realistic Battle of Britain offline mission, with LOTS of planes, and perhaps specifically focussing on a dogfight above London.  For this, it would be nice to have a few landmarks, such as Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral etc.  I have a picture in a history  book of fighter plane contrails high above St Paul's Cathedral during the Battle of Britain, and that's where I got the idea from.

Of course, this could then be applied to any scenario involving specific cities/locations/landmarks etc.

<S>

Yossarian

[mensa180]

Here's a rather complicated idea I've had in mind for a while:

A realistic Battle of Britain offline mission, with LOTS of planes, and perhaps specifically focussing on a dogfight above London.  For this, it would be nice to have a few landmarks, such as Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral etc.  I have a picture in a history  book of fighter plane contrails high above St Paul's Cathedral during the Battle of Britain, and that's where I got the idea from.

Of course, this could then be applied to any scenario involving specific cities/locations/landmarks etc.

<S>

Yossarian

Would it be possible to use a simple 3D program such as SketchUp for the buildings and then export them in a format that is usable in the game?

[USRanger]

They would have to be converted to .ac3d format. to import into the game.

[MWL]

Greetings,

  Pardon my ignorance, will Milkshape work to make the objects?  If so, what skinner program do y'all use?

Regards,

[USRanger]

Never heard of Milkshape.  Like I said above, it MUST be able to convert to .ac3d format.  If you don't have one that will, and are familiar with modeling software, try Blender.  It's free and exports into .ac3d.  Do a search in the Terrain Editor Forum for it.  You'll find the Download link, tutorials and various scripts to make the conversion easier.

As for skinning, any graphics editing program (Photoshop, PhotoSuite, Gimp<-free, etc.) all work.

Side note:  Last night I worked on some custom airfields.  I'll post pics after throwing them into a working             map(hopefully tonight).  Let me bust out a few for general mission making, then I'll try to take some requests.  Just please remember, map making is a tedious and time consuming thing.  They take more than a couple days, especially the custom ones.  I should have the first one out this week, if my kids allow it

 

[Solar10]

You have any thing that would mimic a large German city similar to Toyko?

Strip

 

[EskimoJoe]

Would it be possible to use a simple 3D program such as SketchUp for the buildings and then export them in a format that is usable in the game?

Sketchup is very difficult and time consuming. If possible, try something much easier 

[USRanger]

Sneak peak at a custom airfield on a new mission map:








Might make for a nice bombing target too!

[Allen Rune]

Sneak peak at a custom airfield on a new mission map:








Might make for a nice bombing target too!

 

WOW, the president's personal airfield.

Anyone up for some assasination attempts?

[Spikes]

Sneak peak at a custom airfield on a new mission map:








Might make for a nice bombing target too!

Pretty freakin sweet Ranger! You should add ack guns all the way to and down the runway...about 6 feet apart

[Yossarian]

Nice work!!!

Not sure how realistic those are, but they look great!

Sketchup is very difficult and time consuming. If possible, try something much easier 

I've found SketchUp to be extremely easy to use.  However, the only other one I've used was some Design Tech thing at school which was extremely temperamental.  Here's the best comparison I can think of: in an older version of PowerPoint (maybe changed in newer ones), if you made a box out of four lines, you couldn't fill it in with colour: to do so, you had to use the rectangle tool.  The other 3D programme(s) I've used are like the previous example.  SketchUp would allow you to do this - it just seems very flexible.

<S>

Yossarian

[mensa180]

SketchUp is great, and amazingly simple.  I was thinking of using it to model some realistic buildings from that era and see if anyone would be interested in using them.