New MA terrain W.I.P.: Sandblst

[USRanger]

I've started an MA terrain.  Still working on texturing the layout, no fields in place for a bit yet.  Going for a more desert feel, instead of the same ol' look the other MA terrains have atm.  This will be an ongoing thread, as even though I know how to build a terrain, this will be my first one for the MA, so I'm sure I will have questions/feedback needed, as I go.  I've been paying attention to Greebo's craterMA thread to see where he's having trouble spots for future reference.  This will be a longer-than-I-realize project, as I am very picky about "the look" & am hand-painting most of it.  So to those that will be assisting me in this project here in the future, let me thank you now.



Starting terrain layout.  Got some editing to do:


 

[Kazaa]

The ground textures look really nice.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I don't think there would be that much water inside a deserts' landscape.

[Raptor]

Will HiTech allow custom ground textures now? And will the trees/shrubbery look ok on a desert setting?

[USRanger]

The ground textures look really nice.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I don't think there would be that much water inside a deserts' landscape.

This is true, and originally I wasn't going to have any water at all, but that wouldn't be fair to the CV lovin' folks, and I want to make sure there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Will HiTech allow custom ground textures now? And will the trees/shrubbery look ok on a desert setting?

Custom ground textures have always been allowed.  You just have to be sparing with them for file size reasons.  The nice thing about this new terrain engine compared to earlier versions is that a custom ground texture only requires one .bmp.  The old versions required three, the texture .bmp, and ovly .bmp(transition) and a ovly_a .bmp (how the textures would squiggle together).  So now you can have a custom texture at a third of the file size, compared to older versions.

As for the trees & such, we have a choice of the Pacific set, or the European set, so I went with the Pacific i.e. palm trees instead of evergreens.  I'll post a ground level pic tomorrow.

[Strip]

USRanger,

First let me applaud you for attempting a MA terrain, your skills leave a lot to look forward to. If this terrain is similar to your prior work (which I am sure it will) the MA should have a rockin terrain to add. I like the Tunisia style feel, and anything not ETO/PTO is a welcomed change to what we have now.

I do have two main questions.....

Can we create our own tile clutter for MA terrain?

Do you see any custom objects that you would like to have?

(I know custom objects are not allowed but I have also heard Hitech say adding objects to the standard package is an option.)

Strip

[rabbidrabbit]

With those spacings, will CVs be able to transit from sea to sea?  It would be nice if any cv group could make it anywhere.

[USRanger]

USRanger,

First let me applaud you for attempting a MA terrain, your skills leave a lot to look forward to. If this terrain is similar to your prior work (which I am sure it will) the MA should have a rockin terrain to add. I like the Tunisia style feel, and anything not ETO/PTO is a welcomed change to what we have now.

I do have two main questions.....

Can we create our own tile clutter for MA terrain?

Do you see any custom objects that you would like to have?

(I know custom objects are not allowed but I have also heard Hitech say adding objects to the standard package is an option.)

Strip

We are not allowed to make our own clutter tiles for MA use.  The one thing we are allowed to do is rearrange the default clutter tile (I am not).  As for custom objects, that would be totally HTC's call, and I'm guessing no.

With those spacings, will CVs be able to transit from sea to sea?  It would be nice if any cv group could make it anywhere.

I will be widening those passages to at least 10 miles wide.  I want to create "channels" for taking CVs to other bodies of water, but I want/need them to still be wide enough for CVs to take evasives, yet still feel like they are running the gauntlet through those channels.  The map posted is the very starting point of it.  I'm sure it will look quite different in the end.

[Strip]

Hitech has said custom objects could be added to the standard object list if there was a legitimate need.

Trying to find a good place to test that statement......

 

Strip

[bravoa8]

  Finally something to fly desert colored planes on!

[mensa180]

Question:  When Waffle makes a building for AH what file sizes are the textures he applies to each side of the structure?  Does it even matter?

[Strip]

Question:  When Waffle makes a building for AH what file sizes are the textures he applies to each side of the structure?  Does it even matter?

Simple answers....
Anywhere from one to five (that I have seen) 256 square bmps can be used to create object textures.

Larger textures create a larger foot print on your GPU and system in general.

To add a little background...
For a standard square city building they use a single 256 square bmp (65 kb) while for something like the tower they use four 256 square bmp. As far as download size and playability object textures can make a huge difference. I think Tunisia was something like 20 mb, most due to all the custom textures. Tunisia typically played the same on the computer because the total size was the same. As far as terrain textures, if you just reload your 12 basic land textures your looking at 10-12 Mb. Thats not including any water tiles (12 of those) which have the option of being smaller file size wise.

In theory if you recreated everything that goes into a terrain you could end up with a 30-50 Mb res file. Even though its a huge file it would still play identical to a 1 Mb sized terrain, again in theory.

Strip

[Greebo]

I love the look of the textures Ranger. Maybe have some green areas near rivers and lakes to add variety.

I redid the textures for the old version of my terrain because I could not get the snow capped mountains looking the way I wanted with the standard textures. That isn't a problem with the new terrain system and I was a bit concerned about how big the file size would be, so I didn't bother this time. Craterma is currently about 6000 kb which is at the upper end of the range of current MA terrain sizes. The passages between the islands on my terrain are 9-10 miles wide, which works fine.

A couple of things I noticed looking at the map. I'm pretty sure you don't need to border the edges of the map with land as the CVs can't go off map. Also I'd have suggested working out the field layout first even if just on paper, then building the map around that. The main reason HTC might reject an MA terrain is imbalance and it may be hard to get a balanced layout of fields to match the coastlines you have drawn.

[Raptor]

Question:  When Waffle makes a building for AH what file sizes are the textures he applies to each side of the structure?  Does it even matter?

It is always 1 file for the entire building/shape. The size matters because the bigger the file the larger the download and Skuzzy wants to avoid oversized MA terrains.

[Knite]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I don't think there would be that much water inside a deserts' landscape.

You'd be suprised Kazaa.
Here's a picture of the Tigris River


Ranger, I think it might be a good idea to check out some pictures of egyptian and other Middle Eastern riverbeds to get an idea on terrain coverage. I think the palm tree idea works well as such :


And Ranger, just another picture for ideas :

[Strip]

It is always 1 file for the entire building/shape. The size matters because the bigger the file the larger the download and Skuzzy wants to avoid oversized MA terrains.

You actually have two files minimum, one .shp (shape file) and one HTX file (texture), you will end up with 1 HTX file per texture bmp.

So a tower would have 5 files.........

Strip