13 réponses à ce sujet

[kamal_]

While I'm fine with building regular size maps, my attempt at making an OM as a learning experience.... well let's just say it's leaving a lot to be desired. Are there any tips and tricks for building/texturing an OM?

[rjshae]

For me, textures have proven a problem with the OM because of the amount of terrain variation. I ended up leaning on the Color mode quite a bit to provide variety. After blocking out the map with colors, I did the water bodies and rivers first then built up toward the mountains. It helps to block out the terrain regions to specific grid squares; mixing more than two terrains per large square is difficult. For settlements I've tried to combine tinting, colors and textures to blend the placeables into the map, which can produce decent results (especially with the addition of various scaled down placeables inside and along the fringes). Adding a few chimney smoke placeables to the town buildings adds depth. One of the harder parts is trying to make a pleasing shoreline; it just seems too barren even with rocks and other placeables. For city docks, I use a variety of scaled placeables from docks to bridges to stone pavements and walls. Shrug.

Modifié par rjshae, 09 mai 2013 - 07:08 .

[kamal_]

What I have so far. This is actually better than it was before.
500x300http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GszfXYNOkE/UYwMKtpt4OI/AAAAAAAABVE/7c4eeYr85W0/s1600/test_om.jpg[/img]

The custom vfx of the map allows me to trace. It also looks neat by itself.

Modifié par kamal_, 09 mai 2013 - 08:53 .

[Tchos]

That's a very good idea. What kind of VFX did you use to get that?

[Dann-J]

It looks like a horizontal billboard that's been scaled up and set at a certain height.

Modifié par DannJ, 10 mai 2013 - 12:27 .

[kamal_]

DannJ is correct, it is a billboard vfx scaled to the size I want. I did the same thing for Path of Evil, but used the vfx billboard as the "OM" itself. You need a really high resolution image to make something look good stretched over this much, the map looks really blurry because this is a relatively small region. In Path of Evil I used quarters of Faerun, taken from the same image (the highest resolution Faerun map I could find), it look significantly better because it's less stretched.

[Tchos]

For the purpose of tracing a landscape's layout with actual terrain, blurry would be fine. I thought what I was seeing on the edges in that picture were parts of the VFX stretching down vertically on the sides, so I thought it might have been some kind of top projection, which would make it possible to keep the template visible while sculpting higher terrain.

[kamal_]

Tchos wrote...

For the purpose of tracing a landscape's layout with actual terrain, blurry would be fine. I thought what I was seeing on the edges in that picture were parts of the VFX stretching down vertically on the sides, so I thought it might have been some kind of top projection, which would make it possible to keep the template visible while sculpting higher terrain.

Nah, that's just the regular textures stretched due to the vertical face. I've blacked out the bottom but haven't carefully blacked out the vertical sides yet.

[kamal_]

Iveforgotmypassword wrote...

Go on then kamal spill the beans. Has the lure of the toolset dragged you back in and you're creating an assassin mod ?

No such thing. I do not have a project currently, just exploring different things when I feel like it.

[rjshae]

kamal_ wrote...

What I have so far. This is actually better than it was before.
500x300http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GszfXYNOkE/UYwMKtpt4OI/AAAAAAAABVE/7c4eeYr85W0/s1600/test_om.jpg[/img]

The custom vfx of the map allows me to trace. It also looks neat by itself.

Looks good. If I may offer a few, perhaps somewhat obvious observations based on my own experiences...

The sunken road approach works just as well for the OM; I go over the roads a few times with the Lower brush set to a few percent. I also like to mix up the city placeables rather than using all one style.

The grasslands I prefer to make almost completely hummocky with very gentle rises and descents; that makes it feel more like real terrain in the game. Plus I add a few scattered features like a boulder fields and the occasional farm. (Adding a shrunken fence to a farm building helps the flavor.) Mixing the grassy terrains and adding some colors would help eliminate that tiling pattern.

For the forests, I actually made the ground underneath a brownish mix of earth and moss. Adding clumps of grass around the bases of the tree trunk placeables really helps. Plus I throw in scaled down stumps and fallen trees.

For the rivers I use some scaled down fallen trees along sides, plus I add in a ford or two for player navigation. I used walkmesh cutters almost exclusively for the rivers and water bodies, rather than relying on the walk/no walk mesh. It seems to give nicer results.

My $.02 worth.

Modifié par rjshae, 10 mai 2013 - 08:15 .

[kamal_]

rjshae wrote...

kamal_ wrote...

What I have so far. This is actually better than it was before.


The custom vfx of the map allows me to trace. It also looks neat by itself.

Looks good. If I may offer a few, perhaps somewhat obvious observations based on my own experiences...

The sunken road approach works just as well for the OM; I go over the roads a few times with the Lower brush set to a few percent. I also like to mix up the city placeables rather than using all one style.

The grasslands I prefer to make almost completely hummocky with very gentle rises and descents; that makes it feel more like real terrain in the game. Plus I add a few scattered features like a boulder fields and the occasional farm. (Adding a shrunken fence to a farm building helps the flavor.) Mixing the grassy terrains and adding some colors would help eliminate that tiling pattern.

For the forests, I actually made the ground underneath a brownish mix of earth and moss. Adding clumps of grass around the bases of the tree trunk placeables really helps. Plus I throw in scaled down stumps and fallen trees.

For the rivers I use some scaled down fallen trees along sides, plus I add in a ford or two for player navigation. I used walkmesh cutters almost exclusively for the rivers and water bodies, rather than relying on the walk/no walk mesh. It seems to give nicer results.

My $.02 worth.

It's up to this:
500x300http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C6qPH2aV3q8/UY1nqdGk3KI/AAAAAAAABVs/JhOEWNYZsbU/s1600/test_om.jpg[/img]

The cities are simple placeholders so I know where they are. It's those texturing/coloring/terrain tips I can use. And yes, I walkmesh cuttered the water.

[Tchos]

Much nicer on the terrain. No more obvious pattern.