(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg39.imageshack.us%2Fimg39%2F9095%2Fstudio1p.jpg&hash=86fd33536e0c9a0263503b99c0af09c72990166c)
Some time ago Silvio (Rayden), Chrisadams and me (Ennedi) began working together on various terrain-related mods. Now we decided to start a larger project including:
- Rock, water and beach mods
- New terrain mods
- Other mods related with terrain (sky backgrounds, sea bottom textures etc.)
- Developing new techniques of making terrain textures and creating SC4 landscapes.
Here we will show our work, announce and describe new releases. We will also start a separate support thread where we will help to solve any problems related with our creations. We will also present tips and tricks to help you with creating good looking SC4 landscapes.
Our releases:
Sky Backgrounds Mod Day Set 1 (LEX) (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2080)
Sky Backgrounds Mod Night Set 1 (LEX) (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2081)
Sky Backgrounds Mod Day Set 1 non-HD (http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/3/6/2352238/ENN_SkyBackgroundsSet1_nonHD.zip) (for testing only)
Sky Background - Starry Night 1 (with brightest stars) non-HD (http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/3/6/2352238/StarryNight1_128.zip) (for testing only)
ENN Rock Mod Set 1 SD (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2103) (contains standard rock textures including those released in HD versions in Set 2 and Set 3; two textures exist only in SD version)
ENN Rock Mod Set 2 HD (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2104)
ENN Rock MOd Set 3 HD (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2105)
Adam
We just released our first two mods: Sky Backgrounds Mod Day Set 1 (7 daay textures) and Sky Backgrounds Mod Night Set 1 (3 night textures). Look at the first message, you will find LEX links to these mods. We will add links to our next mods in the same place.
Sky Background Mods contain HD textures (Day Set - 512x512, Night Set - 1024x1024). Textures for the Night Set are larger, because differences between brighter and darker stars weren't visible enough good at lower resolution. I didn't notice any changes in the loading time and running the game because of using larger textures. However, we don't know what will happen if we will install the new generation terrain mod (30 or 40 HD textures), so we will test it intensively before releasing. In every case we will look for a good compromise between the quality and the game playing comfort.
The sky background texture size is the same in every zoom, so clouds and stars will not become bigger when you will go to closer zooms :)
Sky background files should be installed in the root "Maxis" Plugins folder (not in the subfolder, it doesn't work as in My Docs Plugins folder!). You must earlier remove Maxis sky backgrounds (Background3D0, ...., Background3D4) and save them somewhere else. Everything is described in the readme, please read it! :)
If you will have any problems with our mods, please wrtite to us in the Support Thread in this section.
Adam
Ennedi,
The pictures above make me very happy. The beach and dune pictures show something I wanted to make some time ago. The only way I knew was plop the whole area full of beach texture tiles, but that was no good look. I could not get the roads right, nor trees etc. It was a mess!
But I'll start with installing the night skies! &apls
Are those just concept photoshops or real in-gamers, because either way they are amazing! I like the beach the most.
Quote from: joelyboy911 on June 12, 2009, 04:40:26 AM
Are those just concept photoshops or real in-gamers, because either way they are amazing! I like the beach the most.
These are real in-game screenshots :)
Now I'm preparing some rock and water mods to release, they will be uploaded this weekend. The next stage will contain beach mods together with sea bottom modifications, mods for making wide beaches and dunes. I will also give some advices how to make custom beaches according to your needs.
Adam
I can't wait for rock and the beach mods! I think SC4 will change a lot with them..
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FRelease.jpg&hash=7ba8a76322a4368e7e0ead069a82bb2546bab8da)
First three sets of rock mods were just uploaded to the LEX, you can find links to them above.
Two textures exist only in SD (standard) version, but I decided to make also SD versions of all other rock textures. So now you have a choice - you can download Set 1 and play the game both in software and hardware mode, or download Set 2 or 3 and enjoy HD textures.
I had to make some modifications in SD version - I brightened shadows, decreased contrast and removed some repetitive details. The SD version looks generally less "dramatic" than HD one. But I had to make it to adjust these textures to various game limitations. On the other side HD textures open many new possibilities, but you can use them only in hardware mode.
This is only the first step of our work with terrain textures. Both HD and SD versions have their own strong and weak sides. Your comments will be highly appreciated. Even the most thorough testing made by creator or a few beta testers is not so valuable as players' opinions. You can test our mods on various maps, with flora and other custom stuff.
We are going to make more rock mods on future, so we would like to know which ones from the current collection do you like the most. Please also inform us what have we missed ie which kinds of rocks should we create in future?
Adam
So, here are some pics showing what is one of my favorite since the development pics a while back...the Sandstone1_1024brown. First , I would love to know what else you've got in your plugins cause your pics always look better than mine ;D
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi180.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx262%2Fsithlrd98%2FRM-1.jpg&hash=f92407e462ad948d12f7aa91edf359e1bf3b5ab0)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi180.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx262%2Fsithlrd98%2FRM2.jpg&hash=df1b187fef7f22aad4bb06d9f20b8410fdf1a281)
But here is something that I'm not sure of...might be my setup?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi180.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx262%2Fsithlrd98%2FRM3.jpg&hash=fd96f1fad2bdda5df88f87a283edc4a7f2f5210a)
The seams are not looking to great.
I've only tried this one so far , but overall I like it!
Jayson
Thank you Jayson! I hope you will be interested in our attempts in future too, your comment is exactly what I need to improve my work ;D
1. I haven't anything special in my Plugins now. I use Italia Terrain Mod (yes, it is a bit modified, I have less flashy green and more olive green textures, especially on higher elevations; I also moved the snow away from grass. But it is basically still the same Italia mod). I have a few textures with stones, they replace rocky-like Cycledogg's textures showed by you on your first two pictures. These stone textures are used for testing the new terrain mod, they are far from ideal and they will be changed many times I guess ;) ; but these textures are not the main element of my screenshots.
I also have one new texture on lower elevations (sandy-like ground with grass patches), this is also a temporary test texture.
2. You showed the weakest point of the Sandstone 1 texture in the SD version on your third picture: repetitive details. Thank you for it, it gives me a great opportunity to explain a few important aspects of creating SC4 landscapes. But instead of many words it will be better if I will prepare some pictures for you ;) I will try to make a detailed reply as soon as possible.
Now I can say in short words:
- At the current game graphic settings every texture with big and contrasting details will look repetitive at least in Zoom 4 and 5. There are two ways to avoid it:
a) we can use a texture without clear details (such as Dogfight rock mods or Red Igneous Rock from my Set 1), or
b) we should change game graphic settings to cover a larger area by the single texture tile. This is exactly what we want to do in our future terrain mods. All our rocks, water etc. mods will also look better with these new settings.
- Installing the rock (water, beach, terrain...) mod is only the first step of creating the SC4 landscape!. When you'll do it, you should look at your terrain and start to sculpt it. It is not very difficult and it can give a lot of pleasure, it is something between painting and sculpting. You can remove most repetitions showed by you on your third picture by only a few clicks. I will show you how to do it, but I need to prepare pictures ;D
Thank you again, I hope you will not get bored of this discussion! :thumbsup:
Adam
Hi team
I have just downloaded all 3 packs and I'm still trying to decide which is my favourite. But I can say, they all look great and the HD versions work a treat on my PC. I'll give some more detailed feedback once I've had a chance to experiment a bit more.
Well done guys :thumbsup:
Dave
Quote from: Ennedi on June 13, 2009, 05:30:05 PM
2. You showed the weakest point of the Sandstone 1 texture in the SD version on your third picture: repetitive details. Thank you for it, it gives me a great opportunity to explain a few important aspects of creating SC4 landscapes. But instead of many words it will be better if I will prepare some pictures for you ;) I will try to make a detailed reply as soon as possible.
Now I can say in short words:
- At the current game graphic settings every texture with big and contrasting details will look repetitive at least in Zoom 4 and 5. There are two ways to avoid it:
a) we can use a texture without clear details (such as Dogfight rock mods or Red Igneous Rock from my Set 1), or
b) we should change game graphic settings to cover a larger area by the single texture tile. This is exactly what we want to do in our future terrain mods. All our rocks, water etc. mods will also look better with these new settings.
- Installing the rock (water, beach, terrain...) mod is only the first step of creating the SC4 landscape!. When you'll do it, you should look at your terrain and start to sculpt it. It is not very difficult and it can give a lot of pleasure, it is something between painting and sculpting. You can remove most repetitions showed by you on your third picture by only a few clicks. I will show you how to do it, but I need to prepare pictures ;D
Thank you again, I hope you will not get bored of this discussion! :thumbsup:
Adam
I don't think I could get bored with these! These are some beautiful additions! I only showed the 3rd pic to make sure that it is not my setup , as I don't seem to have much luck getting my new computer to display the game as well as my old , and still get some undesired effects from time to time , mainly with shadows.I did sculpt the cliffs slightly , but I also don't generally mess with mountains,etc. as I have not completely mastered the technique as well as you and others have! Speaking of shadows , I forgot to mention that the pics were from an empty plugins, besides the rock mod, and am also using a attachment from, I believe one of your posts somewhere:LightingScat0HillShadow0.dat
I am always checking stuff out to see how it works, even though I may not have the time to fully understand , or "tweak" them :)
As with all HD stuff, like your posts on the HD Sogo , the effect is stunning , but the procedure is still in very early form...it is still amazing that after all this time that there are still many breakthroughs continually being implemented!
I am looking forward to the other additional mods , as I think that once they are all together, they will definitely compliment each other better than what I am using now...Pegs Brig. water and MeadowshireTerrainMod.
Jayson
Stunning simply stunning!!!
@Ennedi
Good job! The texture looks fantastic. &apls And I hope a HD water mod will come. :thumbsup:
---Bobbi
That beach pic looks amazing! Can't wait to find out how you did it. This is a very cool project, guys! ;D
Well, I'd like to present two water mods I've been working on. I've taken specific care to eliminate a lot of the repetition and patterns seen in many existing watermods by careful editing of the textures at each zoom level, from the closest to the farthest. Along with this, following discussions with Adam and others in the BSC, I've experimented with variations from the usual approaches at farther zooms.
Traditionally these are just scaled down and tiled versions of the closer zoom textures. The idea espoused here is that this method doesn't necessarily do a good job of representing the way features appear to us at various distances. Close up you notice individual waves, but how does that same body of water look from a bird's eye view? The farther zooms use combinations of aspects the original images (scaled down of course) and separate representative bird's eye or satellite images of bodies of water under similar conditions. Hopefully you'll find the results satisfactory :).
Z5
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg205.imageshack.us%2Fimg205%2F5770%2F76007188.jpg&hash=efc5f54bcc514a4c6cf215404fae9cf14f8fd2a8)
Z4
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg231.imageshack.us%2Fimg231%2F2350%2F37278082.jpg&hash=bea555d43cf3c754b7a917c392c141e447ec7d5e)
Z3
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg231.imageshack.us%2Fimg231%2F406%2F77100346.jpg&hash=c6ae5b54a10f9797d26e2fe29751ec70c90f8233)
Z2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg188.imageshack.us%2Fimg188%2F9019%2F78799381.jpg&hash=16b100908713877d5eeb0355ea853bee62c5d5eb)
Z1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg188.imageshack.us%2Fimg188%2F300%2F72328913.jpg&hash=d5a2316aaf187fd448da80d4dc18de6dd04f243d)
Z5
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg208.imageshack.us%2Fimg208%2F776%2F75120805.jpg&hash=097d8d95727d221c51656bcd9f106262c361b293)
Z4
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg91.imageshack.us%2Fimg91%2F2080%2F69919337.jpg&hash=4d40f3e66aab1c69a065dac563810139d2a1b8a7)
Z3
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg91.imageshack.us%2Fimg91%2F9624%2F58742883.jpg&hash=4b9e664fbe59a721ceeda35c942811384cab6e0f)
Z2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg91.imageshack.us%2Fimg91%2F9967%2F21478299.jpg&hash=129f1a1aa5c548ea3494c3e107f1a1847196c1cc)
Z1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg141.imageshack.us%2Fimg141%2F1153%2F77357113.jpg&hash=4b790015f4f21a551e8e2a37a1ad28bea530aa8b)
By the way, these have no official names as of yet, any suggestions are welcome :)
Chris
Oooh...me likey! I really like the first mod...looks more realistic to me.
Jayson
Looks great! However, I'd like to see a darker version of the second one :)
I have the impression that we worked with the same texture chris ;D
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnsa08.casimages.com%2Fimg%2F2009%2F05%2F08%2F090508033347256009.jpg&hash=27bf0806617bcb3c7122fe8990403138b2ff251d)
I like very much the result in zooms 1,2,3. Only I think that we can obtain a better texture for the zoom 5. I go at once, to rent a helicopter :D
Chris, I really like the second mod you showcased, it's one I would definitely use. Very nice, :thumbsup:
Quote from: Orange_o_ on June 20, 2009, 04:03:31 PM
I have the impression that we worked with the same texture chris ;D
quite the possibility, as I know you use cgtextures, and the source image I used was this one (http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=8944&PHPSESSID=4c6ec6b116cc6f5e30ce8041f596734b) from there.
QuoteLooks great! However, I'd like to see a darker version of the second one
These are in their 'native' colors right now, e.i. the color of the original source image it came from, but I want to release each of my water mods in four colors, light and dark blue, brown, and green. The first water mod shown here will be typical of brown for each, the second of light blue. With that common color scheme between all of them, I can eventually release TPW that matches closely to each color.
Chris
I actually prefer the state that the first one is in....I can see it working better , maybe a little blueish tones mixed in , but if it was available...I'd use it over Pegs brig. mod!
Jayson
When we tested Chris' mods at BSC, some people told us that waves look great on an open sea, but it would be nice to prepare also some water mods with more calm surface for use on lakes, rivers and in harbours. Chris' work with scaling waves is very good, so I decided to make a few water mods with very subtle surface details to add some variety.
Some of you (like Ioan) suggest us to make various color versions of our mods. Of course we will want to make enough surface and color versions to give you a good choice, but I would suggest you to test our first mods in the game and then send your opinions here. The water color is not constant in the city tile, it depends on the ingame Environment Map. This is an additional lighting layer applied by the game to the water surface.
Here you can see it on the large water area (Maxis default water):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg198.imageshack.us%2Fimg198%2F3639%2Fenvmapwater.jpg&hash=2646eac1bd498104db394e73eb64f11848a8c3f5)
The Environment Map lighting pattern is always the same, so we must take into account that every water mod used by us will look brighter near the centre of the map and darker close to it's sides. It is clearly visible on my pictures below. So every water mod gives us some additional color variety. It can be sometimes uncomfortable, for example if we want to have dark water surface near the map centre, but there is always a solution - we need to choose even darker water mod in that case, knowing it will be brightened by an Environment Map. Everything can be done after some trials and errors :)
1. Light Blue Lake Water Mod. The color is similar to the defalult Maxis one, but the surface look different, especially closer to the city edges.
Z1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Z1s.jpg&hash=644317c2a4986cba78ca5de85c59e04783e3a732)
Z2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Z2s.jpg&hash=b2773e4b7a2fed1d3469041b3d5b5fad3943219e)
Z3
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Z3s.jpg&hash=4d5972caeb6bcaffbf1e18a2676bf638f9ebe926)
Z4
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Z42s.jpg&hash=893326478d51c479dc77beaa4967d3707fee9099)
Z4 - the next example (you can see how the color changes in various places, please compare this picture with the previous one)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Whale1z4s.jpg&hash=22ee5d5c8a9205bc327f3ef5176338a6d72ed358)
This building is a special version of Murphy's Bar designed for people who want to observe whales while drinking their favourite beer. Those who no longer see the whale are moved to tables in the backyard when they are refreshed by the nice cool sea water ;)
Z5
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Whale2z5s.jpg&hash=5de890ef8c05b1275cefc944d7e6f5311aa08a3d)
Z6
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Whale3z6s.jpg&hash=66d249913b390a6ac6338852ad58260a872b70a7)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest3Whale4z6s.jpg&hash=11e2abd9b0af5d0d67126b09e4b389fbdbc3fe3d)
2. Blue Lake Water Mod
Z1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z11s.jpg&hash=76676a3c9a2a58730456df5ab3bf8cc2ed5c81ba)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z13s.jpg&hash=5e1f8a05b5591ed8323d61576edc03eecc845be9)
Z2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z22s.jpg&hash=d6e1172e172f6478d9e095c99a53ca14415a9169)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z23s.jpg&hash=299bb7b281cce2710f53b51d417c40f825a492be)
Z3
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z31s.jpg&hash=d8ca45299bd8f30887661db9c6ac1c74214668c6)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z32s.jpg&hash=95ca119ba5839ec499c80957f6c4a709acbd1fb6)
Z4
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z44s.jpg&hash=db0548571e662f326a7ff512ede2c0f2072d23a0)
Z5
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest5Z53s.jpg&hash=1cf7f2ac10344ee068c536a888907366a92e25d2)
3. Muddy Green Water Mod
Z1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest9z1s.jpg&hash=866e5e59b28b8b5e1b513834af36399e56d28d5b)
Z2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTest9z2s.jpg&hash=191f9a06ccb48a144b7ce6973a906a07dad01fcf)
Z3
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Z4
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Z5
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All water mods showed here are made in HD version, they look good with current game settings, but they will also work with new generation terrain mods.
Adam
As promised, I'm looking to release each watermod in four colors that will be consistent across all of them, including Ennedi's, to facilitate coordinating them with future TPW. The picture below shows the current proposed colors (brown, green, light blue, and blue) as applied to my first shown watermod (which I'm calling the Brazoria Watermod from here on out).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg355.imageshack.us%2Fimg355%2F8351%2Fwatermodbrazoriacolors.jpg&hash=f44e21a3b09a10ab22d1f3f6be9028bfc2eac75a)
Chris
Very good choice of colors Chris! :thumbsup:
Adam
PS. The next development stage will be beach mods, some surprises are prepared ;)
Stunning work, guys! &apls
Just wondered if these be available in SD versions as well?
Thanks for the explanation on how the lighting is handled on these Adam!(can't wait to see the beach mods.... :thumbsup:) Chris, I like all of them and can't wait to get my hands on 'em! Great job to both &apls!
Jayson
Wow, guys! Great work!
I like the subtle waves in all the mods you showed us.
My interest goes to the muddy water mod, because it seems to fit my desires best: I always liked to have a water mod with hardly any transparecy that resembles the real water of the North Sea. Up to now Peg's Brignatine mod was the best I had, but I fear I have to say goodbye to Brigantine now.
The environment map is probably intended to give the impression of the sun reflecting in the water. Especially on high altitudes (zoom 1 and 2) it looks nice to me. I never thought about it that it would also have an effect on colouring in detailed zoom levels...
Great job! :thumbsup: (my favourite is the third one)
Great water colors there Chris, nice work on it. i really love the second one and I think I will use it when it will be released. &apls
Arthur. :thumbsup:
Fantastic work chris, you made a magnificent work on zoom 1 and 2 &apls
... and yes chris is the same texture, but your work is better that mine, thus I am going to abandon this texture and to leave you the priority ;)
Nice textures very good work :)
To tell the truth, here on the Eastern Shore all four work. It depends on the time of day, and weather conditions as well as depth. I would guess the green is the baseline for this region. And, I am excited about the beach mod as well.
awesome water textures &apls &apls
i have a possible stupid question sorry.about the sky and night backgrounds,can i put one of each in the folder together,sorry if i missed that allready.
Quote from: Orange_o_ on June 22, 2009, 04:41:29 AM
Fantastic work chris, you made a magnificent work on zoom 1 and 2 &apls
... and yes chris is the same texture, but your work is better that mine, thus I am going to abandon this texture and to leave you the priority ;)
Thank you Orange_o_! Such situations are possible, we will do the same if you will need it :thumbsup:
Quote from: jacqulina on June 25, 2009, 03:59:56 AM
awesome water textures &apls &apls
i have a possible stupid question sorry.about the sky and night backgrounds,can i put one of each in the folder together,sorry if i missed that allready.
Unfortunately no $%Grinno$% It is described in the readme, you can have only one sky background texture at a time, it should be installed in the root Maxis/Plugins folder. The sky background is a set of textures, day and night in the game are caused by changing lighting conditions. These are completely different things, independent one from another. You can also see that sky background textures have identical names in each set (Background3D0, ... , Background3D4). It would be impossible to have two sets of textures with identical names in one folder.
Some day backgrounds can look quite interesting during the night, I showed one of them in my MD. You can experiment with them. :) Night sky backgrounds are especially useful for MD purposes.
Adam
Cool!
thankyou for your help
Quote from: Ennedi on June 25, 2009, 02:47:55 PM
Unfortunately no $%Grinno$% It is described in the readme, you can have only one sky background texture at a time, it should be installed in the root Maxis/Plugins folder. The sky background is a set of textures, day and night in the game are caused by changing lighting conditions. These are completely different things, independent one from another. You can also see that sky background textures have identical names in each set (Background3D0, ... , Background3D4). It would be impossible to have two sets of textures with identical names in one folder.
Some day backgrounds can look quite interesting during the night, I showed one of them in my MD. You can experiment with them. :) Night sky backgrounds are especially useful for MD purposes.
Adam
I guess that it is possible to put Background files in your plugins that come from different sets: e.g. a starry night Background3D0, a daylight Background3D1 etc. This would result in different backgrounds in different zoom views...
I don't have the game at hand, so can't test the idea.
i did try this out and yes on different zooms it works but only close up zoom for starry nights
Sorry?
I don't understand. Do you mean that it only works on close up zooms? Or that it does only work for starry nights?
Of course it is possible to have sky backgrounds from different sets in different zooms, thank you FrankU for helping Jacqulina!
But using backgrounds from various sets can lead to mistakes :) Every set is complete ie. it contains PNG files for all zooms, and PNG files have identical names in each set (Background3D0, Background3D1, Background3D2, Background3D3, Background3D4 - 5 textures in total). So looking at the file name you don't know from which set is it, you must open the file in any photo editing program or even in the Windows preview.
Personally I use one whole set at a time, it isn't so much work to replace one set by another one ;)
If somebody wants to see the particular texture (for example starry night No1) in - let's say - Zoom1, he/she must have the Background3D0 from the starry night set in his/her Maxis/Plugins root folder. The same for other zooms :)
Honestly saying I don't understand Jacqulina's problem, I suggest to check which textures she has in her Maxis/Plugins folder.
Adam
i havnt any problems,im just saying i have tried night and day together and the result i got was day zoomed out and night zoomed in,sorry if you didnt understand me.
Quote from: jacqulina on June 29, 2009, 08:41:03 AM
i havnt any problems,im just saying i have tried night and day together and the result i got was day zoomed out and night zoomed in,sorry if you didnt understand me.
OK Jacqulina, I expected this and now I understand you well :)
Unfortunately our game provides only one sky background for every zoom, and it is independent from the night/day cycle. I'm going to use different sky backgrounds in my future pictures too, and I have even more reasons to open and close the game many times during one session $%Grinno$%
Adam
thanks and thats ok my friend :)
So, not trying to be rude, but what happened with the idea of creating plop water that matches game water? Was it abandoned?
I am desperately seeking game/plop water transition techniques and finding next to nothing...it's like maybe everyone who uses plop water has given up on melding game and plop water to each other. I have opened a thred over on ST, which led me here, and while I see some good work done here, it stops short of the actual transition from game to plop water.
Please understand, I am not being critical. I have no knowledge of the skills required to BAT or LOT or DAT or MOD. I am just a city builder looking for answers to me city building needs. I also understand how RL has a way of intruding on gaming projects.
But is anyone, ANYONE, interested in trying to crack this last remaining barrier between the great plop waters that have been developed and the great game water mods that have been developed? Or am I the only one?
I am currently unemployed and time weighs heavy on my hands, so if anyone is willing to point me in the direction I need to go in to create my own solutions, I am willing.
Really, when it comes to plop/game water, the last remaining obstacle is the transition between the two. Getting textures to match, getting land areas to match, finding credible techniques for disguising the inevitable mismatches...a bridge, a dam, or maybe even a new tile. I don't know.
But I am willing to learn how to try, just need some help along the way.
Lora/LD
Don't worry Lora!
Yes, we are interested in giving players an easy method of preparing transitions between ploppable and ingame water. But in fact we can make such transitions. This theme was researched a long time ago. I think the most helpful thing would be to make a kind of tutorial explaing all possibilities and building techniques. I planned to make such tutorial from some time, but I have still too much RL work. However I will try to find a few hours tonight and collect some information about water transitions.
Some quick facts:
- It is possible to make transitions between traditional (opaque) ploppable water and ingame water without any problem. Ploppable water can be placed on the sea/river bottom. It enables making transitions and also changing the ingame water look according to ous needs. I use this technique from the first update (August 2007) in my MD (Ennedi plays Shosaloza), I know that PEG presented this method this year on his site too. The only uncomfortable thing is we need to finish the riverside (seaside) using ploppable flora or stones to cover the ploppable water edge.
- It is also possible to make transitions between canals and ingame water, the only needed thing is to have slope-conforming water tiles in the canal set.
- It is impossible to make good transitions between Transparent Ploppable Water (TPW) and ingame water. TPW can be placed on the sea bottom, but it is visible only if the water depth is lower than TPW model height. For example Jeronij's TPW is 4 m high and pieces are visible only if the water depth is less tham 4 m.
As I know, one of our friends is working on the new solution: ploppable water pieces - opaque but giving a sense of transparency :) - this can be a solution of the problem. But I don't want to inform you too early, we should give a time to the creator.
Another thing to improve is to make ploppable water with a color similar to existing water mods. Our team is going to release such mod(s) soon. Unfortunately all of us are very busy now. Chris has a new job and he must concentrate on it, Silvio is very busy till September and I started two new contracts last week. Now I have one building site 130 km to the Nothwest from my hometown and the second one 120 km to the Northeast. So I have my private Bermuda Triangle now :D. Especially one building site is demanding, we are working in the chemical plant close to ammonia, hydrogene and propylene installations, there is a high risk of the contamination and explosion at this place and I must organize all works very carefully.
I will try to present some water transition techniques tonight.
Adam
Sorry for double post, but I promised to analyse GW/PW (Game Water/Ploppable Water) transitions and I finally found some time to do it. It is clearly understandable that my readers didn't find anything interesting in the announcement, so I will try to make them more satisfied now ;)
The transition problem is as old as ploppable water stuff. Many people made ploppable ponds, rivers and streams and they often tried to connect them with the game water. Many of these transitions were hidden by stones, ploppable flora etc. it looked sometimes better, sometimes worse. The main problem was usually a difference between GW and PW color, and visible edges of PW pieces.
But sometimes we were able to see really good GW/PW transitions, and some of them were real masterspieces. But it seems these achievements were not so easy to repeat. We should also remind Dogfight's attempt to harmonize his water mods with Jeronij's TPW. It was an ambitious experiment, but it didn't solve the problem ultimately, partially because of some TPW features (I will comment them later), and partially because many people prefer another water mods.
I also played with ploppable water from the beginning, but I used it in a different way than most people. The first thing I noticed was possibility to place PW tiles uder water. I was surprised why other players place only a few PW tiles at the seashore, but then I understood that this technique can be too demanding for some people (especially impatient ones ;)). Plopping PW under GW isn't very comfortable, sometimes you plop pieces and nothing happens, but you only need to change the zoom for a while and you can see you actually plopped PW :). It is also wise to cover an underwater area by PW pieces, then change the vewing direction and look for holes, then fill them by PW pieces. You should also have very soft sea bottom without steep slopes and sharp edges, and terraforming under water is more difficult than on land. (now we have very easy solution for these problems, more about it later).
But I had enough patience and used PW more and more. Being able to place PW under GW I started to think about another ways of using it.
Here is a picture from the first update in my MD (August 2007). I covered all the riverbed by PW pieces (DT model No3, the same as in the lake above the dam). My intention was to harmonize colors of the lake and the river. I used PEG's Brigantine Water Mod.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2Fimg0592imp.jpg&hash=d40e269adf081631bb81071a0667bc6c8cd2a548)
I also used that technique to harmonize the GW color with the Somy's Gyoko Marina, which contains the water texture inside the harbour:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FGyokoGen.jpg&hash=61efdd28fb6c6e3d9b5a5b9b6c900c16a0b96043)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FGyokoClose.jpg&hash=b4678d91fa43e01dd5960206e0442c891fef5a14)
You can say it isn't perfect and you will be right, but how could it look without PW? ;)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FGyokoCloseWithoutPW.jpg&hash=caf3885f6f4a89d9a21b00fe829be002e5e141ef)
When Jeronij released his Transparent Ploppable Water (TPW, I was very excited. I made many nice ponds and streams using it - thank you amigo! :thumbsup:
But I noticed that it is practically impossible to make good loking TPW/GW transition. TPW model can be placed uned water, but it will be visible only if the water depth is less than TPW model height.
Look at pictures below. JRJ TPW model is 4 m high. The query on the first picture shows water depth equal to 246 m (4 m deep) and TPW model is visible. Now look at the second picture. The query shows that TPW pieces are at that place, but they are invisible, because the water depth is now 6,1 m (query shows 243,9 m).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2Fimg1267imp.jpg&hash=0dcee1d3132a94d86a04d90b3de126269cf01e38)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2Fimg1270imp.jpg&hash=2c4d871332dc3c487e1b63f8a63c8580a645e5f7)
Looking at these pictures you can also see another imperfections: Places where one TPW tile covers another one are visible as dark patches even on the slightest slope (much more than on land), and the TPW color is different than on land.
I wanted to use TPW in my creations, so I choosen the only possible solution: I made a stream of TPW, and I mixed TPW with an old opaque PW near its mouth. Then I made a transition to the sea using PW pieces.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FStreamMouthGen.jpg&hash=c626e3a793469b00101ec4d447fc13fa65c4c4d2)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FStreamMouthGen2.jpg&hash=2ee355b1579daee4e085ccbb608de378e287cb4a)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FStreamMouthClose.jpg&hash=344febc0188cc4a5814a6ac98b7579dcb88da3f8)
You can see that sea bottom area covered by PW is quite large - in fact it is even larger, making MD pictures I used Terrain Properties from Cycledogg's Italia Terrain Mod where water becomes opaque at the depth 38 m. Making these pictures today I used custom terrain mod with water opacity reduced to 10 m. An intention of covering so large area by PW was to achieve an effect visible on satelite views at many rivers mouths (variable water colors). You can see more pictures of that stream in my MD (updates 11 and 12, November 2007).
(Note: All pictures except the first one showed in this message were made especially for showing them here. Some of my MD pictures are edited, and I want to show you "raw" version here)
As you see Ploppable Water can be used in various ways and nice looking transitions are possible.
But - as I said earlier - not many people are able to make good looking transitions, and still many people are disappointed of current possibilities in that area. There are also some misunderstanding in the whole theme, so I will try to explain you what can we do and what we can't.
1. We can't make a good looking TPW/GW transition, I explained it yet. It is connected with semitransparent model behaviour, maybe somebody will find a solution in future. But model transparency causes another problems too (pieces don't look good under water) and I seriously doubt if it can be improved.
2. We can place any PW under GW, no matter which water mod we use.
Players often have problems with placing PW tiles under water (some water mods seem to be more comfortable in that case such as Brigantine, also some PW types such as new PEG's Tahoe are easier to plop, it depends on their placement properties). But as I said earlier you need to chage the zoom and rotate the view to do it successfully.
But we can solve this problem very easy: All we need is to lower the sea level temporarily ;D
Here is a projected river mouth. Red arrows show where will be a transition and where the water will be opaque after returning to the previous sea level. I make for myself a special sea level mod, which lowers GW by 38 m - from 250 to 212 m. Why? Because water in Cycledogg's terrain mods becomes opaque from 38 m and if I use that mod the new seaside will show me this point ;D Everything I will plop beyond that point will be invisible.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FSeaLevelUseForPWplopping.jpg&hash=7caf0920da92c7c823b4a634f16646c10174d582)
3. Can we create perfect, seamless GW/PW transitions?
Yes and no. We can't create perfect, universal and easy to use transitions. But we can create GW/PW compositions which will look perfect at certain conditions (especially the viewing direction and positon on the map - near the centre or close to the edge?)
I checked several PW types with various water mods. Results were... various :D. For example Edmonton Water PW looked very good with Brigantine Water Mod when I looked from the side, but looked bad when I looked upstream or downstream. Another combinations gave various results, but none of them was universal.
I wanted to check what will happen if we are able to harmonize PW and GW colors. So I extracted the DT Model No3 texture from the dat, checked its color in Photoshop and make the texture for water mod of exactly the same color. The GW texture was without any details, such as PW texture. Let's look at the result.
(I will say at every picture from which direction are we looking at the transition).
West
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3BrigW.jpg&hash=9bbdac9b730a8c95755d50ae427b8a81cb151a20)
South
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3BrigS.jpg&hash=1d6080b9521c5c0b94800952ebc78241a9a15634)
East
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3BrigE.jpg&hash=c8fecc6d189af5ace51fa52ab21645b3db0ae8d3)
North
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3BrigN.jpg&hash=bba88bf69c50f942a031f2a82b2ce23dde3a7758)
As you see the result isn't nice. Why? Because water texture is something completely different than the PW texture and it will always look different even if they will have the same color. I understand its a poor explanation, but to tell it better we would need to ask a computer graphics specialist (maybe somebody will help? ;))
But I know one thing: The game uses two kinds of light: Global Lighting (directional) and the Environment Map (not directional). Both are a great influence on our terrain, textures and models. Lighting conditions for terrain and models are different, there is also a part of the Environment Map dedicated to game water. If you want to know more, look here (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=52.msg222944#msg222944).
Various texture will look different depending on the viewing direction. Game water texture is also dependent on the position on the map - water is significantly brighter near the map centre, no matter which texture we use.
Conclusion: We can harmonize two texture of different type (such as GW and PW or terrain texture and lot texture), but it will work well only at certain conditions - viewing direction, position on the map, and also - day or night, sun or shadow. Did you ever see how bright are ploppable stones or some buildings in shadow? Lighting conditions for models are different than for the terrain!)
OK, but maybe it is possible to harmonize these textures better? I made another experiment. I took my water texture, added another layer and put a custom brush with water ripples on it (white color, opacity 24%). Now I have the same texture but with some brighter details.
West
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3WBrigW.jpg&hash=93bb5897d1c165305262edbf2d090d6d8b022de6)
South
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3WBrigS.jpg&hash=00fef7813f511d00a722d736ce759a0d792e1e94)
East
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3WBrigE.jpg&hash=eea78d5893eaa577e5c1f5269d8756e0d364b428)
North
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3WBrigN.jpg&hash=ca8f739c63b99f3fcbe015574f94b1cf99316e79)
Looks much better, at least the seam isn't so visible. Let's look at zoom 2:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FDT3WBrigSZ2.jpg&hash=0a44430f7b83a8582064a674aa741bf209f10711)
So maybe this is the way? Maybe we should make GW and PW with similar colors and identical surface details, so details will hide the transition?
But attention!! Ploppable items have separate textures for every rotation, but terrain textures use the same texture in every rotation! It is clearly visible on the game water, we always see horizontal waves, sometimes they are perpendicular to our beaches :D
Maybe we can make PW with the same texture for every rotation, but it can look stupid (waves along the river? ;) Wait, we have them yet if we make a river with the game water). Anyway, I think it would be better to make a pair GW/PW with "not-directional" details which will look good and realistic in every rotation. Quite demanding task ;D
Now we are working on our new water mods, Chris is going to make some new PW pieces too and now he is preparing water mods made by him and me to harmonize with the new PW (he has choose colors yet). Unfortunately Chris is very busy now and we will have to wait for the release. If we will have a few GW/PW pairs, we will be able to check them in the game in various conditions and we will be able to say if it was worth of the effort. But we must still remember that what looks good from the West, will look different from the North. Two clors can be identical near the map centre, and they will be different close to the edge. So making good loking GW/PW transitions will always depend on the player's skills, creativity and patience.
4. Wait... And what about the new PEG's Tahoe PW? A few months ago PEG described the method of placing PW on the sea bottom (I'm glad somebody wants to popularize it at last :)) and created a new PW type which works well with the Brigantine Water Mod. Today I read that it solves the problem.
OK, let's look at it
West
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTahoeBrigW.jpg&hash=fa4b73cb64f1bf7cac3b9ed31ea13685a30a547f)
South
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTahoeBrigS.jpg&hash=96c4980582a76c12cc58699fa33ee17d116b7284)
East
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTahoeBrigE.jpg&hash=85852b9d5bf3267b966ec25ea422d4541cab3cce)
North
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTahoeBrigN.jpg&hash=590daf70cc52e7ada003ef4fa979aa026f8795d6)
As you see, we have the same issue here. The transition looks very good (really good!) from West and East, but much worse from South and North. I must add that Tahoe PW is very comfortable to plop, also under water :thumbsup:
5. And now the little final discovery. Looking at the Tahoe PW I asked myself if this directional issue is relative to terrain formations (ie looks good if we look from the side and bad if we look upstream/downstream) or relative to the directions of the world (ie looks good if we are looking from West or East, looks bad if we are looking from North or South). So I mad my last experiment today.
I looked at my stream from the West. The transition looks good, but I look at it from the side. Now I covered an upper (East) side of the stream by PW pieces, so now I have a new transition and I'm looking at it upstream. And it looks good too!
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FTahoeBrigWdem.jpg&hash=aa6436cbb5bfa48c9b812d2fd5a1afd338ab93e9)
Conclusion: How does your transition look depends of the directions of the world, not on terrain formations!
So if you will choose the PW and water mod, test the transition between them in two viewing directions: North-South and East-West. There is a big chance your transition will look much better in one of these directions.
Adam
That's an absolutely fascinating discovery regarding plopable water. I'll have to keep that directional bias in mind going forward with my journal. Thanks for taking the time to write it up, it's an excellent look at the evolution of plopable water as well.
Adam-
Some excellent transitions shown here and same for explanations of how to achieve the effects. A couple of questions:
Where does one find/download the DT Model #3 water mod you use?
What do the transitions look like with waves turned on?
Also, while I have attempted to use PW under GW by first raising terrain in God Mode, plopping water, the lowering terrain back to normal, all my plop water get bull dozed. And, if I try to PW under GW without first raising terrain, my PW tooltip flies out telling me I can't build on water. Is there some setting in my game I need to change to plop PW under GW?
Lastly, how does one change the color of water mods and PW? I am willing to experiment with making transition pieces, but I haven't a clue how to modify existing stuff. Just point me in the direction of a tool or tutorial and I can probably take it from there.
Lora/LD
Just wondering - are the beaches in the pictures of the first page of this thread a future beach mod? Also - can such a mod be made to override the beaches in a terrain mod?
I also look forward to using the water mods proposed earlier (green one takes my fancy). You're doing great work.
Hey guys! Just wondered if you're still working on this project or whether it has fizzled out? (I really hope not!)
Quote from: girlfromverona on December 20, 2009, 06:54:32 PM
Hey guys! Just wondered if you're still working on this project or whether it has fizzled out? (I really hope not!)
Don't worry girlfromverona, the project is not dead!
Yes, we had many problems. We had a quick progress at the beginning, but both my friends had to limit their activity. Silvio had too much RL work, Chris started a new job and he hadn't time too, so I stayed alone. I decided to create terrain mods myself, but I was sick for a long time and when my health improved, I had a lot of RL work too ::). Finally I started my work.
I'm on the long way now. I'm working with various problems:
Snow without unnatural straight borders and jagged edges (here in zoom 6 ;))
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fileden.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F3%2F6%2F2352238%2FSnow5ridgeZ6imp.jpg&hash=1f7b39c1559774035ba41c8fdbfaf83e4791d2fa)
Natural transitions from beach to grass
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I'm also trying to harmonize terrain textures with ploppable flora to increase landscaping possibilities
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I collected many textures, now I have to divide them into groups, assign to various terrain mods, landscape types and vegetation levels. It will take some time.
I make many experiments too. For example I wanted to know where to put a texture into the Terrain Texture Map Table to have it in the specific area. So I filled all the Map Table by one text texture and put another texture only in one column (each column is responsible for the specific moisture range, there is also some "moisture noise" to make the landscape more natural, but it makes arranging the landscape more complicated and unexpectable). Now I know that - for example - the texture from 5th column appears on hilltops on the South side
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But it doesn't appear on the North slopes
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I checked all Terrain Map table columns and all sides that way. I also saw that we usually have more than one texture at the particular place. What we see is usually a mix of two or more textures (but one is more visible than others at the given place). It explains why we often have blurry textures even when the source texture is very good, but if we know
how to work properly with multiple textures blending together, we can achieve spectacular effects :)
As I said, this is a long way... But don't worry, I will try to show you some nice landscapes soon :thumbsup:
Adam
Quote from: ldvger on July 29, 2009, 01:03:09 PMAlso, while I have attempted to use PW under GW by first raising terrain in God Mode, plopping water, the lowering terrain back to normal, all my plop water get bull dozed. And, if I try to PW under GW without first raising terrain, my PW tooltip flies out telling me I can't build on water. Is there some setting in my game I need to change to plop PW under GW?
Lora/LD
I haven't tried Adam's technic but I believe it involves either a command while using the extracheats.dll or by modifying temporary the terrain mod. I'm sure Adam will explain that better.
About the project, let's see if after the holidays I can get some extra time free to give an hand on this. I even didn't had much time to release my rock mods. &mmm
That looks wonderful, Adam! So glad you're still working on this. I totally understand about RL commitments. Look forward to seeing more progress when you have the time. :)
ooooh, swish *drools*
looking fantastic as usual :)
Joe
i would say welcome back but im currently speechless
Quote from: mightygoose on December 28, 2009, 12:07:20 PM
i would say welcome back but im currently speechless
+1
Fabulous work.....absolutely fabulous :)
&apls &apls
Hope to see more soon ::)