[Map] Russian Farmlands (2km) [WIP]

[Jonny]

Originally Posted by Machin1st

So I'm supposed to place just the regular tree within the primary terrain for the map, and the lods in the surrounding terrain?

If this what you meant, then yes.

Originally Posted by Machin1st

Another question, is it possible to change the texture settings AFTER it's been painted, or do I need to know exactly which color, saturation, texture i want right from the start?

IIRC, you can change the detail texture after painting without having to re-paint anything. To change the colour you would need to re-paint it, but it would probably be better to do the colourmap in PS than in the editor.

[Machin1st]

Some progress!

What's been done?
* Sculpted ALOT of terrain.
* Rough layout of the village/town.
* Added a parallel railway for assing trains ( top pic ).
* Added the chemical plant.

IIRC, you can change the detail texture after painting without having to re-paint anything. To change the colour you would need to re-paint it, but it would probably be better to do the colourmap in PS than in the editor.

Yepp, I realized that too because of the nature of the map, all of the fields with rows pointing in all directions will make this the only method to do it, I think.

However I haven't found any guide that explains it :/ ( Might just be bad searching )

Another question: Which is the best way to do the roads? Splines & intersections, or is there some secret colourmap-based way to do it?

[[R-DEV]J.F.Leusch69]

good infos on the Texturesystem of BF2 it explains much

+

make some good use of the raod tool since it adds more detail to your roads and the major problems just come up when you make roads on 4x4km maps. so just a look at rihnos new tutorial and you should get to used to it

[[R-DEV]Amok@ndy]

Originally Posted by Machin1st

However I haven't found any guide that explains it :/ ( Might just be bad searching )

it works like you get your colormap of you layout !
first off all set up your tpaint then run the wizard BUT untick the boxes DELETE TEMPORARY FILES ! after tpaint is finished open up coulorbig.tga with photoshop (and maybe you minimap) and then paint the fields. after you finished this save as .tga 24bbp (overwrite the old coulorbig.tga) and make sure you made it "READ ONLY" and then run tpaint again
and done

Originally Posted by Machin1st

Another question: Which is the best way to do the roads? Splines & intersections, or is there some secret colourmap-based way to do it?

both first off all do it with splines and intersections (rhino create a tut the last day) and then do it like with the fields. open up your minimap and select in the minimap all roads and then paint below the roads an other color textur

[Machin1st]

Thanks alot guys!

Another probably easy issue, ever since applying overgrowth only a few statics render, i guess there is some sort of maximum static/poly count? I get the same effect if i load a PR map with alot of statics. How do i get rid of this phenomena?

Also the trees ( overgrowth ) render as extremly low detail at ranges above 100 meters, but this is only on my map.

Thanks in advance

[[R-DEV]Amok@ndy]

if you are in terrain editor / overgrowth mode then is there a part above the materials "General Settings" there you can config you overgrowth settings

or do you man renderer minCullDistance 100000000 ?

[Jonny]

Image 1:

Those trees are far too close to the railway. They need to be moved a few meters back from it so they cant fall onto the tracks if hit by lightning. Same with any other trees near the railway. Its a good idea to put a fence beside it to stop people walking onto the tracks, too, especially nearer the villages.

If thats the fence of the factory area I can see through those trees, then they should be totally removed. The ground from the [wall on one side of the tracks] to [the factories set of tracks] should be gravel. There shouldn't be much growing in it. The fence should be on a concrete partition/walkway, allowing people to walk along it without fear of being hit by trains. You can use the sewer cover for that (giving a 12m wide walkway, or 16m if placed according to the pic below), as it should fit quite well.

On the other side of the factory tracks, where the goods area is located, you should have a similar concrete-lined edge next to the tracks. The rest of the factory area should be raised to be the same level as the static concrete blocks.

Where the wall currently is, on the right of the tracks, you could have a series of those blocks on their sides and place the same fence statics as the factory has all along the boundary. That would keep the whole area nice and uniform. Try to keep the same distance to the concrete either side of the mainline track, if you widen the central walkway you bring the boundary fence/wall further from the houses and closer to the track.

Now that your totally confused by my crap explanation, here is a diagram:

Blue = fence.
Grey = concrete block
Both sets of rail tracks should be lower than the concrete blocks beside them.
The factory side concrete blocks can be slightly higher than the rest of the ground at the factory if needed to avoid issues with the terrain grid, but make sure its significantly higher than the rails or it will look really dodgy.
Having the train tracks going exactly north-south at this point will really help pull this off without the terrain being awkward.
If the number of concrete blocks starts getting a bit too much for it to look realistic, a special static can be made pretty quickly, even making use of different coloured edge markings for safety.

Image 2:

Thats not the building I meant, the one I meant is in the xpack mod (you will probably need to unzip the object folders to get at it) and is called xp1_Chemical_Facility, and comes with xp1_chemical_facility_objects and xp1_Chemical_Vats. Get all three, throw them on your map, allign them and your done. It is well worth getting hold of this building, its almost totally enterable and I think it would fit perfectly here without any texture editing at all. Make sure you get hold of all the textures they require from the xpack mod before you try testing in-game though.

Perhaps a little more variation in the village would help make it seem less repetative. You are hardly using the wooden shacks at all (but if you are planning on using them in all the farmhouse areas, then dont use too many in the village, you dont want the map being too uniform). It looks VERY flat, but then again that could be a reason why people settled there, just make sure its not totally flat. You could do with a lot more trees, too, but its a good start.

Dont use more than one of those oil containers (dont use any if you can avoid it), they require more infrastructure around them than you think. Power can be delivered via dedicated electricity lines & industrial sized variable inductor or capacitor, and liquids for doing whatever it is the factory does can be stored in a neighbouring warehouse and piped in through a small, covered trench (which can be made enterable for mid-round inspections...). The dedicated goods yard and rail link provide a very good source of raw materials.

I can see a red carriage at the end of the train that should not be there. You have a crane that can handle ISO containers, use it. You can turn the train around faster if you have the crane work on taking the containers off the train and putting empty ones back on, and then have forklifts and people unload the containers from the goods yard. It also makes more sense to stick with ISO containers for transport when you have bought a crane especially for them.

[[R-DEV]DankE_SPB]

Originally Posted by Jonny

Its a good idea to put a fence beside it to stop people walking onto the tracks, too, especially nearer the villages.

not really, there are usually no fences at all, especially in small villages/stations, just a platform, thats all
http://pics.livejournal.com/bred_tor...c/0007b5ds.jpg
http://perecheek.narod.ru/vechevo.jpg
there are small fences on platform itself, to prevent people falling down from it
http://sbchf.narod.ru/18/monz30.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/24145615.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/26353634.jpg
and in the last 5-8 years they started to install fences at platforms in cities/towns, along with implementation of turnstiles to prevent people not buying tickets
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/25958653.jpg

fences along railroad itself can be found on bridges and in some areas inside big cities, but still they are very rare and you are free to cross it anywhere
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/26353763.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o...l/11149234.jpg

[Jonny]

Well then there should be a line of trees and hedges along the tracks at the back of those houses opposite the factory to stop people getting sucked under passing trains.

I dont see any garden backing right onto a railway without anything to stop people getting too close in any of those pics.

[Machin1st]

Again thanks for your input!

Tweaking the town will be done later...

I Haven't posted anything the past days because the only thing i've been doing is sculpting terrain, which isnt that impressive to look at. It's time consuming and quite hard to get the right look. Roads and railways must have a reasonable grade, the landscape must look interesting without looking like a sloppy bumpy fairytale landscape...

Here's a little preview of the town and the surrounding area... You cant really get the right impression with just regular screenshots, so I made a little panorma, hence the slight perspective distortion.



Keep in mind, this is still just a WIP.

As soon as I'm happy with the terrain im going to start placing roads, hedgerows, fields textures and way more statics inside town...