Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Terrain Editor => Topic started by: bustr on March 29, 2018, 08:00:37 PM
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Screen shot upload is slowing down the last POST.
Country-2 completed.
(https://s20.postimg.org/hbz3wyil9/medtst602.jpg)
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You would think laying in large foundational shapes for mountains would be fun. It's always a chore for me becasue I constantly question how I'll run the ridges and how much is too much before I stop. To a point I'm trying to fill everything in as close to the finished dimensions so I'm not spending days micro sculpting "too large" formations back down to scale for the rest of the mountain range.
(https://s20.postimg.org/4xuajw5x9/medtst606.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/viwtffsv1/medtst607.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/u3v8qpzhp/medtst608.jpg)
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Once it's in place, it's in place and you do the best with it. Nature is chaotic and looks horrible close up. Once I get rolling, the mountains just fall in shape. One pass with sand stone to see the contrasts. I still need to do the lower elevation trees and water runs.
(https://s20.postimg.org/iwvl9yuu5/medtst611.jpg)
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Now I have my corner to work out from for Country-3. Looks like I will have to start with the canyon land first then the transitions into the lowlands.
(https://s20.postimg.org/srrbuaj4t/medtst612.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/3lqdnfup9/medtst613.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/c3ztrsw31/medtst614.jpg)
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Another watershed moment. A few dots and a whole day or two of work.
(https://s20.postimg.org/5p1pxlsb1/medtst617.jpg)
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It's always amazed me how simple the terrain editor is if you just define where the water comes from and where it will go with a few lines. Then you use lines to create the heights and low spots and connect them with lines. Once this is done, everything else is some free hand texturing to look like what ever you think should be in each spot where the water runs. Defining elevations first so you know at any give place on the terrain what the relative elevation should be keeps you inside of the master scale of things you decide on before you touch the project space.
In these screen shots below everything is running from 5000ft down to 100ft so as I run the ridges down towards the 100ft level in the first screen shot, they gradually get lower which automatically keeps the scale of things in place. The screen shots are from the 100ft level going up to the 5000ft level.
(https://s20.postimg.org/cbgm90c99/medtst618.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/9hdgvjunh/medtst619.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/w62nv4jr1/medtst620.jpg)
You can see on the left I did some free hand transition out of the previous finished work. Once you create the foundation with lines, the free hand work is simple.
(https://s20.postimg.org/9hdgvkhst/medtst621.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/701pob5m5/medtst622.jpg)
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Been thinking of getting into terrain building -- you're scaring me, bro! :O
Really nice work. Looking forward to flying it. :salute
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After learning the terrain editor with the first two terrains, I was curious how much detail the terrain editor could support. After doing the full 10x10 sector gross topo layout to define my scale. I first create a 2D topo map 2048x2048 with elevation guide lines I pull out of thin air(fantasy world). The rest has been nibbling away a sector or two at a time by creating a topo profile in 2D with those green lines and dots. Then connecting the dots. It's like taking a drawing class and one of the exercises is you draw a square, circle and triangle. Then you turn them into a 3D image to see how most of our world can be defined by those three shapes. That is the free hand stage where I flow all the elevations together and throw in my interpretation(pull it out of my whatsis) of the topography at each point I visit.
You can take online topography profiling classes to learn how to turn topographical geo maps into 3D profile maps. Google "topographical profile" and look in the images. What I'm doing is all there in those images. National geographic has a program where you can import topographical maps and it will morph them into a 3D map for you to look at based on the topo lines on the map. I like creating something out of nothing, so this is fun for me.
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I always reach this point where the sculpting and texturing is done, then remember I still have to paint it..........
(https://s20.postimg.org/s0p016pu5/medtst623.jpg)
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Got the foundation painting done with this segment. Now I just have to blend it all.
(https://s20.postimg.org/ysk0hl1kt/medtst628.jpg)
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Those dark green tiles don't blend well with anything lower than the dark green tree tile. Makes for a lot of work trying to create an illusion of blending. This segment of Country-3 is done. Even painting the terrain is a compromise with the blending limitations like you have to accept the limitations for creating 3D effects due to the large polygons. You learn to work with it.
(https://s20.postimg.org/tr3w7zlz1/medtst629.jpg)
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Enough work for today. Still have to texture and paint this segment.
(https://s20.postimg.org/pm78ahed9/medtst630.jpg)
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The terrain editor polygon workspace is all about illusions becasue the smallest unit you can work with is 660ft or 1\8th of a mile. The brush tool used for everything is a circle, so every time you raise up polygons or reduce polygons it's with a brush you can size between 1\8mile and 6mile. The raise hill tool is an excellent mountain side texture tool to give an illusion of water cut grades and slopes. Which you subsequently paint to enhance the illusion. And if you have a good feel and eye for free form 3D sculpting, you can free hand convincing topographical features like a Michelangelo. Sadly if you don't have something to keep you inside of the scale of your theme, it's easy to quickly let things get out of hand free forming things.
Here side by side is a finished ridge line and one I have just textured to see what I'm talking about. the next screen capture down are the smooth faced triangular cross sectional topographical profiles I constructed that are waiting for me to texture those smooth faces to show water runoffs on the slope.
(https://s20.postimg.org/da0nmerf1/medtst631.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/irt99x4jh/medtst632.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/qxbb86fyl/medtst633.jpg)
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The north half of Country-3 is done, now I will tackle the southern half with that massive canyon land.......... :confused:
(https://s20.postimg.org/9p15fa55p/medtst634.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.org/53516xbwt/medtst635.jpg)
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POSTIMAGE.ORG has had an issue, untill it's resolved my images won't show. I'll use an alternate address they provided for links, s20.postimg.cc.
North half of Country-3, now the south half.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/9p15fa55p/medtst634.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/53516xbwt/medtst635.jpg)
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The corners where you have to transition two mountain ranges are a royal bite to look like they just happened to be that way. I've just adhered to a very old saying from the dawn of painting art on rocks.
Look Mom what I just pulled out of my whatsis...... :O
(https://s20.postimg.cc/9x7melo5p/medtst636.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/j54wrzlzh/medtst638.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/spjhi6s9p/medtst637.jpg)
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Love the point where I can paint it sandstone so I can look at how it displays on the CBM. Hmmmmmmm.....guess I should do all those canyons then create the ridges and runoffs for all the watersheds. Building those canyons is like hand washing venetian blinds in the bathtub. Those tiny 1" ones that just have miles of little slats that get tangled up in the cords.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/42arhzc2l/medtst642.jpg)
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Canyons, you got to love them and they take forever.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/b8uzxntwt/medtst644.jpg)
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Back to stacking cardboard cutouts and connecting dots to lines.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/mdp0g2de5/medtst645.jpg)
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And that's it for the day.....
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Sometimes the lighting in the terrain editor is such that you have to throw a little lipstick on the puppy to see if it's a stinker. Scale versus perception in the terrain editor is a cruel mistress. On the left where the canyon cuts down through the shelf those unfinished mesas sit on, the bottom of the cut is at 1000ft and the top of the shelf is at 5000ft. To a player flying next to that 4000ft shelf in the game it will look like the side of Mt Everest. In the terrain editor it looks too small and no way can that be 4000ft. That is why you create a 1:1 blueprint with your topographical scale pre determined at all locations on the map. Then you force yourself to work with the limitations of the polygon mesh polygon size.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/652eakb8t/medtst664.jpg)
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That puppy was a cute little thing after all. It's this pig I have to put a perm on and texture it up for painting.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/e6v86k6n1/medtst665.jpg)
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You reach a point where everything looks the same but, often when you fly over terrain like this, it all looks monotonously the same. Building has it's own special essence.
Two more canyon segments to go and then the strat area. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeee........................ ......
(https://s20.postimg.cc/vbqrxo7al/medtst670.jpg)
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FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got the boarder completed, now I can finish up Country-3.
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It's been 5 months since I designed the task group combat pond and I realized I couldn't remember how I setup the ranges between feilds surrounding the pond. This is in terms of the field of fire and max range for shore battery. I've been so fixated on building and painting topography I lost track of some of my technical design. Usually when I get back to installing and adjusting that aspect of the game, if I don't remember or, my notes in the blue print stage are sketchy. I muddle around until I can see what I was thinking by the setup itself.
Did you know you can set down map rooms anywhere in any number and only save them, then in the circles setup for the CBM window choose map rooms as the focus and set a ring radius that the map room or other game object will be the center of that ring? That is a measuring tool intergal to the terrain editor and how you set the distances between feilds.
As you can see in the screen shot, I've set the radii for 18miles which is the max range for the 8in gun in the shore battery. The feilds themselves are 22miles from the tiny center island in the pond. And I can see my gun arc will not allow dropping rounds on the field to either side. I'll worry about the ports later, looks like they may just miss if I place a shore battery behind the port by eyeballing it from the screen shot.
Five months to create the topography, a month or so to drop in all the fields, build all the mini tank combat terrain and who knows, I still have to setup the first instance of the new supply path system along with use the river path in none AI supply mode to replace some of those rivers I manually cut in. And that means bridges....Weeeeeeeeeeeeee... ..................
That tiny island sits in the max range blind spot on purpose so you can't hide a BB in there. Those 6 rings just miss by the 3mile segment touches land buffer. Whoda thunk it.... :O
(https://s20.postimg.cc/5xy1zvmkt/medtst673.jpg)
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What son of a naughty named dork came up with this topography................... . :bhead
(https://s20.postimg.cc/8ogkofnpp/medtst674.jpg)
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Yes Mable, sometimes I still skip the lines and dots and just slop it in to fill a spot and sculpt it along the way. Now I'll use the dots and lines running out of the nose of those slopped in blobs. I'll just extend the mesa steps and blend everything artfully..... :O
(https://s20.postimg.cc/kdp5qn47h/medtst675.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/rgx1691x9/medtst676.jpg)
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Stack a little cardboard, pull a few lines, what a difference that makes. It's always kind of neat pulling 3D shapes up out of 2D base lines.
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That tiny island sits in the max range blind spot on purpose so you can't hide a BB in there. Those 6 rings just miss by the 3mile segment touches land buffer. Whoda thunk it.... :O
(https://s20.postimg.cc/5xy1zvmkt/medtst673.jpg)
:D :salute :cheers:
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About 5 months to the day and the topography is finished. Next will be all the fields and strats and all the things that go along with those things..................
(https://s20.postimg.cc/vwhagr9zx/medtst685.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/o3qmosbql/medtst686.jpg)
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I'm really looking forward to this one. :cheers:
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This is a good start. Hitech likes feilds that don't have GV spawns to them so I'll also place the map room next to the tower at those feilds. It's going to be easier to fill those feeder rivers with 1ft ground, then run a cosmetic river path up them. Makes spanning with the bridge objects cleaner. I've decided how ever the ground is under a random spawn 1\2 mile diameter area, in many cases on an elevated slope. I'll leave the slope alone and only adjust the trees for easier transit. I may increase the micro texturing for cat and mouse maneuvering on those slopes. The white circles are too scale for a 3mile diameter of 1mile = 8 pixel. It's going to be naughty, all three of those chained vBases have 3 spawns to each one and then that master vBase near the strat complex touches them all. That and one of those near by air feilds should make an interesting Ft. Apache. The strat complex for each country is on a 3,000ft plateau as are the two un-capturable super large airfields. I think I made that runoff cut drive able but, that would take some time to get up there. But, all those trains and strat. That would be real old school..... :O
There is enough nonsense on here to keep aircraft and GV fans busy at the same time. Now to duplicate it across Country-2 and 3 and start laying in infrastructure.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/ksmp1wtbh/medtst697.jpg)
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Never start mapping spawn paths at the end of the day. Opened the previous mapping today and it just didn't work for me. This one does, now I can replicate it to the other countries.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/fgugve21p/medtst698.jpg)
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It can't run away so it should be an attractive bombing target..... :rofl
(https://s20.postimg.cc/780yzpwn1/medtst700.jpg)
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(https://i.imgur.com/d29R4sJ.png)
Like it. :D :aok :cheers:
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One day of work. After spending the day looking at the spawn paths in the master file referencing for laying in the fields, I can see some flow problems and I cut off needing to use bridges over streams. Meh, it's all about staring at it over and over and over. My other terrains took multiple iterations of the spawn mapping process. Just part of the beast. Now that all the fields are in and I can see everything, I already see at least two completely new spawn path scenario. A few more lay out layers in the blue print file...weeeee........
(https://s20.postimg.cc/yve4xg6jx/medtst701.jpg)
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This gets the vBases back to being support bases and the Gvers following the capture initiatives to help from the ground. I've done this with my last two terrains and it has helped keep more players together generating activity to attract groups to oppose them.
White ring is an airfield with a town. Red ring is an airfield with the map room on the field. Blue ring is a vBase or Port. Black ring is an airfield with no GV spawns too or from them becasue Hitech likes a few on terrains. Rings are 6mile diameter. I'll be able to tun the convoy roads down the river valleys for the most part.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/n1294y7el/medtst706.jpg)
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Much better.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/elha1ah3h/medtst707.jpg)
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Everything except for the supply paths and spawns are in.
These 5 screen captures are my first field that I'm creating the micro hill grid around a town for GV combat. The orchard tiles make an excellent 2D grid map for cutting grass filled low spots between tree topped hill tops.
Panther somewhere at the spawn and one looking out toward the spawn.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/x2ga66u8t/medtst708.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/dxd0wgpvh/medtst709.jpg)
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You gotta love Hitech's rivers. And if you put them in a river low area set to 1ft and the airfeilds 20-25ft higher. You can use a brush set to 1ft and create micro hill texturing leading up from the river and out to the GV spawns from the river.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/isz8v6orx/medtst718.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/4zaw64ogt/medtst719.jpg)
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Sometimes this thing gets a life of it's own and evolves while I'm not paying attention. One more country to go on the right side of the map.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/6nqmlqf65/medtst743.jpg)
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The top of those shelves on each side of the river that the river has cut down through is 660ft. I created a canyon system and eroded the land down in steps. Yes the terrain editor has a handy little tool that does erosion. If you predominately build from the perspective of an air combat fan in the game, you will build over scale as a natural tendency to wanting to see topographical structures while in flight. When you fly above canyons, they don't look like they do to you while you are walking in them. This is the quandary of scale I have to work while making the game look like it is scaled for tanks crawling on the ground.
(https://s20.postimg.cc/z35zz01z1/medtst746.jpg)
(https://s20.postimg.cc/z35zz09ot/medtst747.jpg)