wip [W.I.P.] (SP) Star Wars - Republic Intelligence

[ZanderNao]

The terrain is really refreshing and dynamic, and the ground texture blending is phenomenal! There is a lot of potential in the shape and layout of the map. Is the water texture a placeholder?

[Lazarus]

On 6/15/2022 at 5:45 AM, ZanderNao said:

The terrain is really refreshing and dynamic, and the ground texture blending is phenomenal! There is a lot of potential in the shape and layout of the map. Is the water texture a placeholder?

I have not looked at the water really yet, I still need to add an env map to it from the sky to it, and maybe a bit more transpararent.. you dont have a movie from it, but it bobs gently. 

[Lazarus]

Working on grass blending, that actually works propperly, this way you break up the repetitive terrain texture i am aware off, since i have 3 stages (i may end up adding another one) for grass. In the front on dry terrain, i use more dry / dead grass, while on the green patches i use a blend of dry and greener grass and there is a dense green patch with an occasional dry / dead. (also i need to find me some flowers as well).

I am in the progress of learning blender so i can start adding trees and bushes to it as well. My aim is to add at least 9 new trees (3 palm, 3 / 5 jungle, 3 bushes) to the map to break up terrain even more.

I have added last week a big chunk of map actually and now workign on the landing area / start of map. Also (not visible here) i have added near the end objective also a big chunk of terrain, and began slowly shaping the paths (yes multiple ways) towards the end objectives.

[ZanderNao]

The grass works so well! Very few people employ that, I love to see it!

[Lazarus]

 

You are looking now at the starting area, not yet dotproduct applied, just the overal textures. As you can see from the glitching, on the left and right, i need to touch up on some stuff, but the main brushwork is done. You are looking into the cove here where the sea is gonna wash up into here. Behind me is the path that leads to the rest of the map and it's puzzles.   

Further: horizon blending at it's finest  @Szico VII, thanks for making it available as tutorial.  I did  had to play with the shader (ugh the lightmap stage cost me so much issues, but moving it around actually did the trick for me, instead of first pass being the lightmap, making the sand texture to bright, moved it to second stage, so it would blend in with my other textures. From there on the blue hue to actually blend it in the skybox, to early and the sand texture is too light, to late and you blend it into a green, rather than a blue).

I do have to look at the water texture again, may gonna switch it with a different one. (see topic on water texture in modding forum)  

Last but not least another pic of the corridor leading to the main area, this time grassified, playing with different grass blends.

 

[ZanderNao]

The brushwork is really nice and the ground level views are exquisite. The horizon blending is really superior too, although the contrast between the brown water and pristine blue sky makes it seem a little dirty, lol. Horizon blending is the mark of a superior mapper and you've got it down. I will watch your modding career with great interest.

[Lazarus]

8 hours ago, ZanderNao said:

The brushwork is really nice and the ground level views are exquisite. The horizon blending is really superior too, although the contrast between the brown water and pristine blue sky makes it seem a little dirty, lol. Horizon blending is the mark of a superior mapper and you've got it down. I will watch your modding career with great interest.

"I will watch your modding career with great interest" .. Then you have to look back at least 20 years as well . 

[Lazarus]

I am back from my holiday, and decided to work again on it. I changed editor (from GTK to NetRadiant) (thanks @mjt)and had to get the hang of it, since i am so used to work with GTK for the last 19 years. But i see the pluses now with a little thanks to the discord community i am again on my way in this project. Just a screenshot now. Filled the end area and now working on the winding path towards it. Gonna build an extension to this area (see already in the top view where i go out of the skybox)

 

--edit--

and the update 3 hrs of work later

[Lazarus]

Wrapped up the outer rock walls, the whole area is now nicely surrounded with rock wall.
Starting to combine this with my grass blending (got now 4 different blends, and I really start to feel this area...)

may gonna tweak the distance rendering of the sprites, but this really starts to look great. Maybe some occasional color of flowers in it or so.. gonna dig for that in it. I think the dry grass blended in the regular grass really makes it great. It pops, showing alteration that not everywhere the grass is green.

And i changed the sun shader as you see, less yellowish, more grayish now, wich makes other colors more vibrant.

[SephFF]

I gatta say this is looking pretty darn good.

[Lazarus]

Havent touched it in a bit, but played arround with a little environment. Added purple flowers in the equation and it now starts to really shine. (i also had white flowers, but decided to drop them, became a bit overkill)

and the money shot

On a different note, i did change a mountain layout a bit, due to LOS issues with a model on the other end, upped the mountain a bit so you cant see the model of a ship popping in at a certain point. The mountain hides the item until you move around it, which is then in range in the LOS visual.

[Lazarus]

I picked up a new laptop (got the old pc just fine) and been tweaking that thing as well to set up mapping, and Christmas and family off course got in the way too, plus I took a trip with the new COD so I havent been working on it that much.

To get back on topic. I am tweaking the environment with the big lake, Thats the only part of the map thats nagging me, due to it's large open space. In MP thats fine, but SP, which I am working with, it's bugging me, since it doesnt grip me that much, so I am trying to tweak terrain and making it more appealing, going for a different terrain layout.

[Lazarus]

a quick radiant shot, i am redoing the back part. I wasnt happy with the static outlay i had there, so I decided to switch it up. I am now building a terraced / layered setup there. The idea is that some are connected with tiny waterfalls to make the terrain more appealing and more challenging for fights, working from bottom to top, or something. I already like it more and it gives me more area to work with for the mission.

[MagSul]

The terrain looks like it'll be greatly immersive! 

[Lazarus]

Sorry, real life got in the way the last few weeks, hope i can continue my work in the coming weeks.

[Lazarus]

The waterfall texture needs some work still, and i cant get the fx-runner there to work, plus with this, i see the top needs some work too of the waterfall

and to give you a sheer scope of how big that area is . The idea is that i am gonna remodel a big chunk of that backside, also i am gonna change the lake a bit

Edited May 11, 2023 by Lazarus
Added images and some explinations

[ZelZel]

I love seeing these natural, wide environments that have little pockets of things like this. Great job!

[Lazarus]

Okay, played this evening a bit with efx files, and see if i could mod them but EffectsEd is being borky with me i guess, so i gambled a bit with values... result, splash and subtle mist..  however, nto completely happy with it.  Fixed a bit further on the side of the area, and adding another layer of area with it. Thinking i ll place a little island in the middle with a rock structure to break up the open lake.

[Lazarus]

added another cover to break up the terrain more, now need to transition down so you have to walk around to the NPC there. Image as well with effects (closer up, efx dont show on distance pics)

Top view pics to show size of the map.

[MusicForThePiano]

On 5/20/2023 at 4:11 PM, Lazarus said:

 

 

Absolutely sensational dude! This is what I had in mind for the revamp of the EY4 mod. I am just starting to get around to looking at all the files again. How long did it take you to learn how to do this? This is a map file from scratch I take it, if I read the thread correctly?

[Lazarus]

On 5/25/2023 at 5:47 AM, MusicForThePiano said:

Absolutely sensational dude! This is what I had in mind for the revamp of the EY4 mod. I am just starting to get around to looking at all the files again. How long did it take you to learn how to do this? This is a map file from scratch I take it, if I read the thread correctly?

Yes it's absolutely build from scratch with everything happening in my mind. Now although the topic is about 6 years old, The revamp i did I started roughly 2/3 years ago, but you got to consider that i worked on this off and on, meaning sometimes i worked a couple of days on it, left it alone again for months (i have 3 children and they take up a lot of time). I have not counted the hours in it, and I do this also to keep up again with my skills.

I must add that my progress curve increased ever since i swapped editor last year. NetRadiant makes alot up for the short comings of GTK Radiant, that I was using (and i was using still 1.4.0, since I ran that back in 2004/2005.

[Lazarus]

before (pic from 2021 when i wrapped this part up)

today (june 1st, 2023, after wrapping up the middle island)

find the difference

[Lazarus]

Sorry, had some family stuff going on lately and also took some time to spend with my own family. We came back yesterday from holiday, so hopefuly i can pick this back up.

[Kessno]

No need to apologize man, family should always come first. Look forwarding to seeing what you have in store.

[Lazarus]

 

Some new progress, i picked the project back up last few days, got the spawnscript fixed that bugged me before i stopped, and working on cutscenes again. Further i started again on the landing pad, this ppic was from last wednessday, i made some more progress but on my other pc, so when i get back there, i ll update it with some new screens.