Spring RTS Engine

Still a rather rough sketch. The mesh still needs a bunch of random pipes and other decor.

All the texture maps are done. I just need to figure out how to get a static mesh into a map.

The map itself is fairly simple. 4 starting islands with few resources. One big island in the center with a bunch more resources. When it's done, it will have water that goes up to the edge of the 4 islands. The main one can be accessed via transport. Therefore, all the decor that I put will be underwater and will not cause any silly pathing issues. On the note of pathing, the mesh does not effect boundaries. It simply clings onto the sides of the towers so that the map won't look so ugly.

I also plan on making a large background mesh. (Not large enough to effect the skybox.)

The map is actually more of an experiment. I am trying to create a mesh based map that still utilizes the features you get with standard terrain. After talking with some people here it seems the best way to do so is to trick you into thinking that it is all one mesh. The idea is to make an extremely simple design, that looks very pretty.

Believe it or not, all the texture maps were rendered orthographically in 3ds max. No image programs were used. I found it to be surprisingly easy.

Credits go to KaiserJ for the tile textures. Credits also go to Chriss at blendernation.

Looks good but I have a concern

Mr. Bob wrote:Therefore, all the decor that I put will be underwater and will not cause any silly pathing issues.

What about sea floor buildings such as BA underwater fusions/storages/etc? Seems like they will either be inside the meshes or floating unless the heightmap approximates the meshes' shapes.

hunterw wrote:Looks good but I have a concern

Mr. Bob wrote:Therefore, all the decor that I put will be underwater and will not cause any silly pathing issues.

What about sea floor buildings such as BA underwater fusions/storages/etc? Seems like they will either be inside the meshes or floating unless the heightmap approximates the meshes' shapes.

The water is very deep. And, none of the decor will touch the bottom. The buildings would just be under them. It's also deep enough for subs not to touch them I believe.

I can always put the decor somewhere else if it doesn't work out.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention this.. All the walkable areas are actual terrain. The only mesh at the moment is clinging to the walls of the towers. So, that is actually ocean floor.

somebody is using max for mapping- finally not alone anymoar.. welcome to the frontline soldier. loads of landscape editors, you cant see them well carmoflagged as they are beyond the heightlines - but we will drive them out - one distant day- far far away

(B)Eat this SoupCom FUUU

somebody is using max for mapping- finally not alone anymoar

tsk tsk how quickly you forget :D although, it's like both of us saying we like cookies; you like to eat them, i like to stick them in my nose

heh thanks for the mention for the tile textures; 80% of the elements from them are shooped versions of textures from this archive...

http://www.blendernation.com/openfrag-g ... e-library/

now i really can't comment on how well the whole "invisible heighmap with a mesh laid over top" will work, but it seems you have a good idea of how to proceed; so all i can really do is offer you luck and the promise that i'll be trying something similar if you get it to work.

for me; i would at this point do a cylindrical unwrap of the model to get a heightmap and then try to see how well they matched up in springmapedit or something of the like; but really this is cool what you're doing with the mesh + hmap combo and overall doesn't even seem that hacky to me because you've planned it well.

very interesting work; give us lots of updates so we can see the pretty pictures! just a question... got any other mapping / modelling work i could peek at? i really like your style

KaiserJ wrote:

what KaiserJ said

The mesh is only around the sides of the raised terrain. The circles of terrain within the mesh is actual terrain. The mesh in this case does not cover anything up. It just lays upon the unwalkable areas. (The steep areas.) I'd rather not have to figure out how to do that until I make a nice map with some actual terrain. Hence this map.

About the Heightmap, I already made it. I just put a gradient linear ramp texture on it and did a cylinder unwrap then rendered it orthographically. The map also has all the other textures. Infact, I compiled a test map and it all works, now, I just need to figure out how to get the model into the map. I need that s3o script for 3ds max. All the links for it are down.

Lastly, I will shortly be posting a little bit of my viewable unfinished modeling work in the WIP thread in the modeling and animation forum.

Oh, and thanks a bunch for telling me where about the textures. I'll edit it now.

KaiserJ wrote: tsk tsk how quickly you forget :D although, it's like both of us saying we like cookies; you like to eat them, i like to stick them in my nose

My trial Version of Alzhomer has expired, i think i will buy it again- DOOH!

So we have three maxmappers? That will be difficult to count in the fingermal-system. We are twoone = many! Tree also means that Jesus uses Max with us, high on his stackpillar in the sky!

picassoct is the best.

really nice work on this! cant wait to see it ingame.

Also you may very well have to export it to 3ds then use upspring to maek s3o.

Tribulex wrote:picassoct is the best.

really nice work on this! cant wait to see it ingame.

Also you may very well have to export it to 3ds then use upspring to maek s3o.

I thought there was an s3o exporter for max.

Mr. Bob wrote:

Tribulex wrote:picassoct is the best.

really nice work on this! cant wait to see it ingame.

Also you may very well have to export it to 3ds then use upspring to maek s3o.

I thought there was an s3o exporter for max.

There was... If you find it could you put a link to it on wiki/Map, Mod, and Unit Development Programs and upload a copy of it to http://www.springfiles.com/subcategory.php?id=1 ?

SinbadEV wrote:

Mr. Bob wrote:

Tribulex wrote:picassoct is the best.

really nice work on this! cant wait to see it ingame.

Also you may very well have to export it to 3ds then use upspring to maek s3o.

I thought there was an s3o exporter for max.

There was... If you find it could you put a link to it on wiki/Map, Mod, and Unit Development Programs and upload a copy of it to http://www.springfiles.com/subcategory.php?id=1 ?

Why doesn't someone who uses it just post it? Or, does no one use it?

There may be only a few of us who actually use max I guess.

Mr. Bob wrote:Why doesn't someone who uses it just post it? Or, does no one use it?

There may be only a few of us who actually use max I guess.

First off, I doubt many people use Max, and second off UpSpring is perfectly capable of converting a 3DS file into S3O file... and provides a useful interface for setting various S3O specific things like Radius or Textures 1&2 and naming pieces/arranging hierarchy etc. SRSLY... it will take you less time to just convert in UpSpring then it will for some random guy who actually knows where the old Max plugin is hiding to happen across your topic because no-one uses it anymore AFAIK.

SinbadEV wrote:

Mr. Bob wrote:Why doesn't someone who uses it just post it? Or, does no one use it?

There may be only a few of us who actually use max I guess.

First off, I doubt many people use Max, and second off UpSpring is perfectly capable of converting a 3DS file into S3O file... and provides a useful interface for setting various S3O specific things like Radius or Textures 1&2 and naming pieces/arranging hierarchy etc. SRSLY... it will take you less time to just convert in UpSpring then it will for some random guy who actually knows where the old Max plugin is hiding to happen across your topic because no-one uses it anymore AFAIK.

Hmm. Ok. I honestly don't even know what that is. I will find it and use it though. I just heard "3ds max script" and that was music to my ears.

ill search my computer see if i have it. iirc there was a problem with it working with latest 3dsmax and the models always came out better in upspring.

Tribulex wrote:ill search my computer see if i have it. iirc there was a problem with it working with latest 3dsmax and the models always came out better in upspring.

I now have upsring, so I'll just use it. Thanks though!

Ok, I have all my s3o files. I can't find any tutorials on how to get them into the map, unfortunately.

http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=3941

Read section 4

Beherith wrote:http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=3941

Read section 4

Well, once I finally understand what all of that means, it should (theoretically) look like this in game. (Note, that the water looks nothing like the water in game. I got lazy in 3ds max.)

Epic!

+1, looks sweet