GeeBee20
09-28-2001, 02:42 PM
Hi everyone...
The following are terrain techniques that I thought up for my future sp maps but since none of these techniques are likely to go in FF2 I decided to share the techniques with you all now...
Tip #1:
This 1st tip might come in very handy to anyone doing a vietnam themed map or maybe when the second encounter is released...
This is a way to do gigantic terrain maps. The idea is simple enough: Let's say that you want to do a terrainmap that's 2048 units long or above. Apply fog to the entire terrain map and make sure it's color fits the lightning... Like if you use the Karnak background your fog color should fit the color of the shadows.
The important thing here is to decide how long the player is supposed to see. Let's say that we're going to let the player see a distance of 96 units, then adjust the fog of the entire terrain map to 100 % coverage at the distance of 96 units. Right now the player's vision is restricted to 96 units, but the engine will still render the whole terrain map of 2048 units! Next thing you have to do is to divide your terrain map into several parts each being exactly 96 units long. You'll also have to split the sectors to fit the terrain bits (sectors have to be 96 units). Then all you have to do is make all the sector portals pretenders and make the pretender distance... yes you guessed right, 96 units :)
This way you can have some VERY large terrain maps... but the need of fog to hide the pretender work-around forces the map to use a strong theme like a foggy jungle/swamp or a desert during a sandstorm... or night time. When SS:SE comes out I think the presence of trees and vegetation could be used with this terrain technique to create some truly amazing jungle maps.
Tip #2:
This may be common knowledge but here I go anyway:
A work-around to the problem of making structure shadows on terrain maps you can solve it by making a very high detail terrain patch (50-60 slices) and then leaving directional light on and positioning the editor camera high above the center of the terrain map. Depending on the number of slices your pc can handle in the editor you'll now have a nicely shadowed terrain patch... but it runs like hell. With the camera positioned high above the center of the patch press num 6 and take a scrrenshot. Make the scrrenshot into a texture and then remove your high detail terrain patch... then create a new terrain patch using the same heightmap but with a reasonable low slice count (15-20). Now all you have to do is apply your homemade topmap to the low detail terrain patch...
You may have to blur the texture a bit to compensate for the somewhat blocky quality of the editor-made topmap ( again this depends on how many slices you used to make the topmap). The only drawback to this method is that it takes a high-end pc to handle the 50-60 slices of the terrain patch used to make the topmap. Other than that this is a VERY effective work-around of the need to do handdrawn structure shadows on the terrain.
Happy Mapping!
The following are terrain techniques that I thought up for my future sp maps but since none of these techniques are likely to go in FF2 I decided to share the techniques with you all now...
Tip #1:
This 1st tip might come in very handy to anyone doing a vietnam themed map or maybe when the second encounter is released...
This is a way to do gigantic terrain maps. The idea is simple enough: Let's say that you want to do a terrainmap that's 2048 units long or above. Apply fog to the entire terrain map and make sure it's color fits the lightning... Like if you use the Karnak background your fog color should fit the color of the shadows.
The important thing here is to decide how long the player is supposed to see. Let's say that we're going to let the player see a distance of 96 units, then adjust the fog of the entire terrain map to 100 % coverage at the distance of 96 units. Right now the player's vision is restricted to 96 units, but the engine will still render the whole terrain map of 2048 units! Next thing you have to do is to divide your terrain map into several parts each being exactly 96 units long. You'll also have to split the sectors to fit the terrain bits (sectors have to be 96 units). Then all you have to do is make all the sector portals pretenders and make the pretender distance... yes you guessed right, 96 units :)
This way you can have some VERY large terrain maps... but the need of fog to hide the pretender work-around forces the map to use a strong theme like a foggy jungle/swamp or a desert during a sandstorm... or night time. When SS:SE comes out I think the presence of trees and vegetation could be used with this terrain technique to create some truly amazing jungle maps.
Tip #2:
This may be common knowledge but here I go anyway:
A work-around to the problem of making structure shadows on terrain maps you can solve it by making a very high detail terrain patch (50-60 slices) and then leaving directional light on and positioning the editor camera high above the center of the terrain map. Depending on the number of slices your pc can handle in the editor you'll now have a nicely shadowed terrain patch... but it runs like hell. With the camera positioned high above the center of the patch press num 6 and take a scrrenshot. Make the scrrenshot into a texture and then remove your high detail terrain patch... then create a new terrain patch using the same heightmap but with a reasonable low slice count (15-20). Now all you have to do is apply your homemade topmap to the low detail terrain patch...
You may have to blur the texture a bit to compensate for the somewhat blocky quality of the editor-made topmap ( again this depends on how many slices you used to make the topmap). The only drawback to this method is that it takes a high-end pc to handle the 50-60 slices of the terrain patch used to make the topmap. Other than that this is a VERY effective work-around of the need to do handdrawn structure shadows on the terrain.
Happy Mapping!