[MAP] Hedge Maze (CV64/LOD)

[ChalklYne]

If you want @@AshuraDX... you make the textures ill make the shaders

[AshuraDX]

@@ChalklYne haha , so I get the real work ?

we'll see what @@Botdra wants , wether he allready has allready made a choice for a final texture or still needs one

 

if he need's a good texture I think I could quickly work something up

[ChalklYne]

well I have a few vines and such, but they're not done yet. I still need to adjust the hue on a few to show randomness.

I'll work on my shrubbery, you work on yours, and I'm sure he'll need them both for such a project to turn out decent

[Botdra]

Jesus dudes, I leave you alone for 5 god damn minutes...

That would be awesome. @@AshuraDX maybe you can do something that matches the color of the foliage on @@ChalklYne's map models he's contributing for this map.

 

... This isn't my map anymore, is it?

[ChalklYne]

ill match mine to yours @@AshuraDX if you're still planning on making textures

[AshuraDX]

Allright then , looks liek I'll have to borrow a good cam and take some good high res shots from various hedges

might take me a few days

[CaptainChar]

 

 

 

... This isn't my map anymore, is it?

its a small community project now

[Botdra]

@@ChalklYne @@AshuraDX: My only concern is that while I want the detail and realism, the hedges should still look taken care of and trimmed. The textures of the rock and such may look dirtied and run down but the hedges still need to look like they've been maintained, you know?

[AshuraDX]

@@Botdra I just sent a friend of mine who allways carries his cam with him to take some good shots of a few hedge

but I dont know how long it will take till I get his pics as it depends on when he comes across a good looking hedge the next time

he's out of town so I sadly cant borrow his cam and take those shots myself

 

you'll get some decent hedges

[CaptainChar]

I do have another texture pack Bot I could give you, but you'd need to change it from PNG format, its from another project

[ChalklYne]

Gotcha

and yeah If I'm going to help, and I'm sure ashura feels the same way, we're going to give you some decent work. totally up to you how you use it. When we get some nice hi-res pics of shrubbery, we'll start theorizing perfect hedges. What you need to do @@Botdra... is get some refs going. i.e. those flowers in those rows.. What kind of flowers do you want them to be? include refs. The ref pics from the n64 just don't really give us too much to work with so get some ideas going as to the type of concrete used in the statues/walkways... the types of leafs. the types of flowers. the surrounding gravel and rocks wherever applicable. 

Include ref's of what it looks like ingame, then what you would prefer. And we'll have a better understanding. Or else we're just going to take it and go apeshit rofl

Done properly, something as simple as a hedge maze, can be really, really beautiful. Like, not even looking like this engine beautiful. 

[CaptainChar]

you actually got the layout perfectly, taken from my players guide for the game, which shows all the maps

 

 

 

 

 

[Botdra]

you actually got the layout perfectly, taken from my players guide for the game, which shows all the maps

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks man! Wish I had that picture when I was making the map, heh. The layout is as close as I could achieve, but it isn't perfect. I made the paths wider and therefore adjustments had to be made. But, I'm happy with the way it turned out. By making the paths a bit wider and the hedges a bit taller, keeping everything else to scale, it really gives it that daunting, imposing feeling like the original game did back in the day.

 

@@ChalklYne @@AshuraDX: As per your request, here's some reference shots.

 

First of the in-game foliage:

 

 

 

 

And the hedges:

 

 

 

 

Really I'd like the designs to be as close to the original as possible, but obviously higher detail versions. I really want to pay homage to the original but in a way that takes advantage of the graphical capabilities of JA. Maybe some work on making things more "real" would be welcome, but not anything to artistically different, you know? So the same sort of spread of the flowers, same color, that sort of thing. Also, there are some shrubs in the game too... would you guys be up to making them? Just plain shrubs, two different heights. The first is seen above with the flowers, and the second is exactly the same, but half the height.

 

By the way, interesting easter egg for you Castlevania fans out there... Ever wonder what's behind these hedges? Take a look...

 

 

 

 

No idea why that was put there, but interesting regardless.

[AshuraDX]

oh these are some nice refs !

I'll prepare something for you later , I hope you dont mind making adjustments to your hedges

 

and I allready got an idea for those flowerbeds , it will require  a flat trianlge (or whatever shape you want them to be) on the floor the shader will do the rest

[CaptainChar]

I do have some other textures we originally we using for the vampire blood chronicles mod, a lot of it was remaking castlevania 64

you should recognize your hedge, but AshuraDX's would give a lot more depth

 

 

 

 

 

[ChalklYne]

Those vases and things are about to be packed up. Worked on Death a bit for the hell of it 

 

 

 

 

 

 

no textures yet

[Botdra]

I do have some other textures we originally we using for the vampire blood chronicles mod, a lot of it was remaking castlevania 64

you should recognize your hedge, but AshuraDX's would give a lot more depth

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's cool! I'm going to be using different brushes for the hedges and the rock walls though I think. Just for the sake of detail.

[CaptainChar]

Yeah these were just trying to replicate the N64 but in better detail, ultimately a lot of the was scraped, though I do have some other parts I may release as source files to the public, we ended up using "the grim reaper model, and tobe_one made a few scythes for Death as well, but to see it with wings is nice

[Botdra]

Yeah these were just trying to replicate the N64 but in better detail, ultimately a lot of the was scraped, though I do have some other parts I may release as source files to the public, we ended up using "the grim reaper model, and tobe_one made a few scythes for Death as well, but to see it with wings is nice

 

Honestly I'd be happy to have every bit of Castlevania we can. Death would be an incredible addition, such a famed enemy/boss.

 

Also, I think I'm going to add the underground room that's accessible through the shed in the hedgemaze. It would be a great duel arena. Then again, it may be better off being released separately as a duel map...

[Botdra]

@@AshuraDX @@ChalklYne: I've also got these arches that I was going to do completely as brushwork, but there's too many of them in my map and I think making them models would be best. Do you think you two could do them as well? No worries if you can't. I have a .map file of the arch itself that I've made, so you'd just need to texture it and export it as a map object. Let me know if you guys are interested and I'll upload the .map file.

And references:

 

[CaptainChar]

I think you got this down pat Bot, i'll upload the other texture pack if you want those as well

[AshuraDX]

@@Botdra will model ASAP , could you pass me that brush archway as ASE ? for scaling reference

I'm currently working up an example for your hedges

 

so here check this out :

my hedge persists of 3 outer , alpha mapped shells a core hedge brush and a base

the very out shell doesn't touch the base of the hedge

 

I'M still waiting for my bud to pass me the photo's

[ChalklYne]

Yep. That's it right there.

[Botdra]

@@AshuraDX: Sorry man but I could never get the .ase exporter to work. Here's the .map file if someone can convert it:

http://www.mediafire.com/?3ibzo3eviturdor

Also, as much as I love what you've done, is there a way to offset the layers to make it more realistic? Like have layer 1, then layer 2 will be shifted a bit up and to the right, and layer three will have the texture mirrored, and so on? And lastly I'm a bit confused. Are you making a model of the hedges or a shader? I understand the other foliage like flowers was going to be modeled, but I was hoping for just a shader for the hedges to that I could just apply it to the brushwork I've already done. It would be a massive pain to try and redo it all.
 

[CaptainChar]

in this case, I cant do much, I can make the originals in HD but aside from enhancing it, eh its best left to the pros, lol,

the original flowers at least in the villa, were 1 brush each, with an alpha shader and set to always face the player, simple but effective back in the Nintendo 64 era