G'Day Devotees,
Today I have started a new career to go along with mapping. So I started with something very easy, new textures for one's backgrounds. These are in HD and one can get their paws on them HERE (http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=23585)
These will probably be the only game backgrounds I release, although I do have a set of higher quality ones that I may release somewhere else.
Ennedi pretty well has the daylight side of things covered, although I'm not a fan of putting in images as it hightlights the tiling effect a bit too much for me.
A couple of things I would like to work on are, the effect when the lights are turned off, unfortunately the game also dims the stars and turns them a bit blue. I'm not sure what controls this lighting effect and it maybe unfixable.
The other thing is the background texture in the region view, it's all well and swoopy to have dinky flash HD textures in the game and then one exits to region view to be greeted by ghastly grey checks. Ugghhh...
Anyhow here's some night and days.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FDay.png&hash=1979040519e8c2659cf217a91b66f30591849b09)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FZoom.png&hash=301508fd8e59ae911259204165126d4214817973)
The stars remain tight and ony a single pixel through to zoom 6
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FNight.png&hash=cca961a90d541448166cb669b92bb372111cf96b)
One can see how the stars also dim down.
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
That's all for now
Cheers
dobdriver
well well, being a member of two teams and a high profile mapper not enough for ya?
Reaching for the stars eh?
Well, looks like you got them, and in HD no less...
I'm pleased to hear you've got some more tricks up your sleeve and I'll be interested to see what else a man of your talents might achieve in SC4 CC.
I tested the first dodgy, presumably SD (spit) version of your star BG, and I liked it. But I agree with the night mode thing: that's where you really want the stars. Is it possible in anyway (and I ask this to you, as well as the passing community at large), to have two sets of BG images? That would be sweet. If it were I would just have the stars on at night time, and at day either black or something else.
Good luck, and keep driving that dob. :thumbsup:
First up I have released a new pack at another place, there are 2 versions, mono and colour(very subtle) and the monos are a bit different to the stex upload. You can get a copy HERE (http://sccommunity.co.cc/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=20)
Things old mate,
The short answer to your first question, nup.
The second question is probably short as well, but I'll waffle on a bit to keep us all entertained. The first actually worked quite well and were small and light and the originals 128x128 size, unfortunately not only are they tiled but also resized by the game to 256x256 or some such number and what one ends up with is star bloat.
The three new versions I've made are 1024x1024, so these get resized down and voila pinpoint stars, even in the closest zooms. Now the trick to getting more stars as one zooms in is to have a good spread of brightness so at farther zooms only the brighter stars are showing and as one zooms in more are displayed.
The night mode thing I think will not be solved easily if at all as the game lays the night texture over the whole game tableau, trying to get the game to only map to the city borders which are movable would be a computational nightmare I think, I may be wrong but it doesn't really look to be an easy fix. A halfa sed workaround could if one runs in night mode a lot, make some specific night mode stars. ie much brighter and with a yellow tint to to counteract the blue crud maxis sticks on.
Unfortunately one cannot have two sets of background textures in the one directory as there would be name conflicts. Also the image displayed is controlled by the zoom level whilst the night texture overlay is controlled by some sort of counter and how to marry the two up I wouldn't have clue.
On a side note to this, it is not actually necessary to have all 5 textures in one's plugins directory. ie If one only has one texture say corresponding to zoom 1 and ones game opens the city on zoom 5, it will show a solid black background until one zooms out to 1 then it will pick up the texture and show it on all zooms.
It is also not necessary to have different textures for all the zooms, If one looks at the textures from Ennedi's sets and also from the set I uploaded to the stex one will see they are the same image per each set although this does not have to be the case. As the two sets I have uploaded to another place will show all the textures have been individually tuned in their brightness values for optimum results.
Hope this helps you out old mate and Cheers
dobdriver
I thought I drove a big one you wait till you see the new one
Well I've had a go with the new spiffy ones, and this is what I found... (plus pigeons)
Firstly they are much nicer than the first lot.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FcoqQ3.jpg&hash=26351692b8eead90e4cbf3cdf1241c6bf7d5872e)
(Maxis night mode) - stars were nice and bright, however when holding right click to move around the city, the stars all noticeably dimmed, and then reverted when you let go.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2F3neCW.jpg&hash=9df167324d8577774e3a70e3993cffb451914738)
(Gizmo night mode) - stars were, as expected, much dimmer. Perhaps you could make a gizmo version as well. But also at this intensity the dimming effect, if there, wasn't really perceptible.
(I actually like the stars dimmer as well though, you have to look hard for them, just like in a city. In maxis mode it's more like being out in the desert...)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FJQmXv.jpg&hash=eabf2998ea38b3540e453101db7e4afb49cbd5c4)
I wonder, could you incorporate stars into the black, underground area? (EDIT: which is courtesy of Heblem's mod http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22588) But I want ALL stars, I look forward to seeing what you come up with)
G'Day Things old mate,
I was just admiring them and spiffy thet are, but I've got no pigeons.
Firstly the dimming is to do with monitor refresh rates and probably shows more with lcds' as these typically refresh slower than crts'. This dimming is also noticable during daylight hours and more so at high zooms with the city tile off the screen (less distraction for one's eyes). With gizmo's dark night because it so much darker the effect of turning on and off pixels quickly is less pronounced.
QuoteI actually like the stars dimmer as well though, you have to look hard for them, just like in a city.
That's alright for you city folk, but us country mice, well we like a little brightness in the sky :D ;)
QuoteI wonder, could you incorporate stars into the black, underground area?
The first version are working, but game pastes different blur at different zooms in different spots and they're not in HD yet. Maybe by tomorrow I'll have something you can try out. :thumbsup:
I like this background :thumbsup:
Thanks Manchou,
I'm working on a few textures compliment the background to go along with this.
Cheers
dobdriver
G'Day Devotees,
Today I have some new textures as promised and you can get your's HERE (http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=23651).
This is to convert the drab grey region view to a HD star filled background.
Here's a peek.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FRegionView.png&hash=732e91b43d9b88cf0cac8d75bc41aa68aa1ad61c)
Thanks for looking and have a great day
Cheers
dobdriver
nice one Dobs :thumbsup: My game looks better than it used to.
Quote from: dobdriver on March 27, 2010, 10:19:33 AM
That's alright for you city folk, but us country mice, well we like a little brightness in the sky :D ;)
Ouch! I've never been referred to as city folk before... don't like it much I gotta say. ;) I retract my former statement. (I've only been in the city for 5 years :D)
Fantastic work, dob... it looks like the view at night here! All I can say is, keep is up ;)
I must say, it is very rural-looking... So, it suits me ()stsfd()
Adrian.
G'Day Devotees,
Over the past couple of months I have been slowly working on a small mod to change the game background from Maxis gluggy grey to a sparkling HD night sky vista. And as such several parts of this mod have already been released. Upon the suggestion from Things to remove also the tile borders I began to look into it so to speak. After locating the textures that needed to be replaced, I dicovered Maxis paints a shadow over these textures and further investigation lead to it's removal. This complicated the matter as the exemplar used was also used by a lot of terrain mods, notably Cycledoggs and Heblems.
I posed several queries to Ripplejet whom afforded me the unfavourable reply I was expecting due to my testing all sorts of things, that partial exemplars could not be loaded. I then changed tack and made instead patches for all the terrain mods I could find that used the exemplar. This now affords total compatibility between my mod and all terrain mods I know of.
So today I present The Magic Carpet Mod aka The Himalayan Astral Hanky
First up lets have a gander at that rug
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FStarBackground.jpg&hash=8525f56ed58fcd511506c2eee74acdb783bc34d8)
No hint of the shadowing remains.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FCityEdge.jpg&hash=800bcbc14bffd8a881e07fe91708e1c2cf62b64b)
Through careful matching of the textures, seamless transitions from the tile edge into the background is achieved
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FSeamlessTransitions.jpg&hash=75b33542be512ff7fd48b6f56ceaabcc3b9b9644)
The whole effect is carried over into the region view
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FTahiti3.jpg&hash=33f8d3c457be4238f8c8e1d0ff55ffbc8167912d)
Rigorous testing was performed to ensure full compatibility with terrain mods incuding SimMars
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSC4D%2FTahiti2.jpg&hash=0a4f188ab4403223200bdb194472d06a746d8bbe)
A point to mention not all terrain mods require a patch, only those that have modded the exemplar properties. And as such, this mod carries no textures from any terrain mod.
Height plugins for rendering 8bit greyscale maps such as Moganites or MallowtheClouds will continue to function normally due to the naming convention I have used but must be removed after the render or this mod will not display correctly.
Well that about wraps it up.
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
Cheers
dobdriver
Well I've been using this mod for a while now and love it, I could go on & on extolling it's many virtues but those pictures paint a thousand words... plus I know it's not for everyone. Good on you Dobs for making a speccy new option for people, as well as overcoming the many obstacles you had to along the way. My hat off to you sir...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FfhwN3.gif&hash=b4d9b132e1d2abcaf42762686502eed0f0d9287e)
Hello, I have the black, and am about to replace it i think with the stars. or back to the old one. but i have to ask. is anyone getting a blue changing in it at times. it will be blue and black or all blue or all black. keeps changing. and when you run a road or something into the area to connect. it changes Also... Looking good everyone. keep up the great work... God Bless
And Things, thanks old mate to you and your band of testers for your invaluable help in getting this together and allowing me to clutter your computer with a sackful of files and what not. Thankyou. &apls &apls
MOREOPTIONS, the blue occurs when you have removed all the background images and not replaced them with another set, and thanks mate.
I don't know if my last PM got through to you, dob... my connection has been buggy lately... but yes, everything worked just fine.
I must say, dob's pictures look excellent... but seeing it yourself ingame, is even better! :thumbsup:
Great work,
Adrian.
hello dob
I like the rug. It's a cool looking picuter. . Good Luck with your mod.
Jim
Thanks Adrian for your testing, no unfortunately your pm didn't find it way to side of the woods so send it again if you like, thanks mate &apls &apls
Thanks Jim, Now all we have to do is wait for it to emerge from the dark and dusty dungeons of the scrutineers workshop.
G'Day Devotees'
After several communications with ObladiOblada, who mentioned he was using Orange's Pyrenean Terrain Mod.
I have put together a small addon pack of patch files, these include three patches that will cover all of Orange's seven mod versions split into: beaches, no beaches and full snow. Also included is one for Heblem's Californian terrain Mod, which I forgot to include in the initial release.
I do hope one finds these useful as it will allow compatibility with even more terrain mods. It is available on the LEX
Unfortunately there are no pics as exemplars are not very photogenic, but one can see a slightly hacked version of Oranges Pyrenean terrain mod (high snow version) rendered with starbackgrounds on my latest map, Le Locle.
Thanks for looking and have a great day
Cheers
dobdriver
G'Day Devotees,
Streuth, I haven't been in here for ages!
So what do we have? Why water mods, in HD of course.
Anyhow I have been getting the readmes sorted out for my water mods. As one may or may not be aware I have released 18 of my water mods on the stex, The most recent set were designed to suit Lowkee's Appalachian Terrain Mod. As one probably already knows due to the Tex Tiling all older water mods look plain ghastly.
And without further ado.
Set 1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2FWater1.jpg&hash=83bfd6f61b36e9dee595c4992a375c163a96c82a)
Tropical greens and blues.
Some closeups from the top.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F1-DarkBlue.jpg&hash=05eba02b6998c9d06464cfe409a301a52c123e73)
Dark Blue.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F1-DarkTropix.jpg&hash=ff0420112b5c349ccdf2176e5e9f8011457e9c76)
Dark Tropix.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F1-LightBlue.jpg&hash=d6a66eceb7f9dc05fb7e9e61ced0dd93a8384dda)
Light Blue.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F1-LightTropix.jpg&hash=dc986520ccf720384d7bf361a94e497b10e22032)
Algae.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F1-LightTropix2.jpg&hash=34e004b9540bf63ba01e2e83a54d91b969dcfde0)
Light Tropix.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F1-MidTropix.jpg&hash=c8f78b8ffb4d777fba9f9d40791bab35bd692132)
Mid Tropix
Set 2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2FWater2.jpg&hash=56b40fdebc3d7363c4e597f343e404348faa2c1f)
Temperate blues and greys.
I had located the two fish files that control the side colour now.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F2-Blue1.jpg&hash=c77723e821bd6b7a1663c6d12e44cb9c60657404)
Blue 1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F2-Blue2.jpg&hash=a49ff836faa554345e0479159b4726cf349e6dfd)
Blue 2
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F2-Blue5.jpg&hash=59ef7bccc0a18b085114782ac4cecb669fe6dadf)
Blue 5
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F2-Grey.jpg&hash=b7c66ed0a991d7e2282c76eedc0880fd7cda1c85)
Grey
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F2-Grey1.jpg&hash=2e067a50becd2cead1de5dd9430c109894e95299)
Grey1
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F2-Grey3.jpg&hash=0bb0580b8c90df4342fd216fc434aea6d6604128)
Grey3
Set 3
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2FWater3.jpg&hash=e88daa1481914466285ee7ed1e6329a4791f2aa7)
Tropical, temperate and polluted.
After Lowkee released his mod I found my originals looked bloody awful due to the tex tiling factor. Some new water was called for. Taking a cue from Lowkee where he found water colour can be controlled by the side colour I made a new set along this principal.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F3-Moody.jpg&hash=064f9b5a86aaa17e61c0094c40f90acdc6671667)
Moody
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F3-Muddy.jpg&hash=8350bb47276b8a9b08df009c612b8d4e2131107a)
Muddy
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F3-Polluted.jpg&hash=ba55ebed73706fe361619a1a462e617a0d5ec03f)
Polluted
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F3-Steel.jpg&hash=08432b167c0f25bd53e968da0fbae87340831fcc)
Steel
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F3-Tropical.jpg&hash=69c4810afb4a856e3414f05c429c2f0c2edce9f0)
Tropical
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FWater%2F3-TropicalStorm.jpg&hash=b0b0d49c428c555031ef10f13de77b4a9f41b601)
Tropical Storm
This will probably be all the water mods I produce.
Credits go out to all those who have been before and some after.
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
Cheers
dobs
Yey, more HD stuff, great work! &apls &apls
The third set in particular looks gorgeous, I'm going to try those for sure! :thumbsup:
G'Day Devotees,
Gee twice in one day!
Thanks Vortext, I had been meaning to release them here for yonks. I think I need a round tuit. I like having the game look non standard.
Oops sorry. :)
The next pieces are from the backgrounds I made a couple of years ago without the fancy stuff. Just the replacements for the region and the city.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBackgrounds%2FFullCity.jpg&hash=e01664cd5713a20ea9d10561ac637bd448b51d98)
Still in beautiful HD though and colour.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBackgrounds%2FCityCut2.jpg&hash=f1dfeb8bb3c33698c05c7523a6ec73c9cf65d0df)
Although one probably can't see it.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBackgrounds%2FCityCut1.jpg&hash=574c72fcf05348dfc577e4d96a9f2af80e7b1a61)
But closer anyhow.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBackgrounds%2FFullRegion.jpg&hash=9150fe0e9a50b990c5a6924e0ad00b49a2d32315)
Hmmm the compression sort of kills 'em.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBackgrounds%2FRegionCut.jpg&hash=10566deebacea7c251e30785d50b20cc80095ebb)
Unfortunately there is no zoom in regional view.
And now available on a LEX near you.
That's it for now.
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
Cheers
dobs
I'm a big fan of your water mods and it's especially nice that you did the 1024x1024 textured one (if I remember the Appalachian-compatible numbers correctly). Thanks for sharing the details here! The background mods like very nice as well :thumbsup:
Excellent! The new water looks great. &apls
They all looks great :thumbsup: , but... what happen to your user interface panels? The buttons looks more awesome and futuristic! &dance
G'Day Devotees,
Finally, I've made a mod totally different to anything that has been seen previously!
Not just a re-hash or hack of something that has been before.
Mail here too.
Thanks Noahclem, If people make high quality terrain mods, I don't mind making high quality extras.
Thanks Epic, Have you tried any?
G'Day and welcome Terring. Ah my UI mod, I may finish it one day and release it ;<) There are bits missing from dat 1 though. Thanks mate.
Okay, who here loves the quality that .SC4M maps can provide? Hmm, just about everyone! A couple that aren't so sure shuffling over at the side.
Now, who likes re-rendering them into SC4 colours? Well as I expected, nobo... Wait is that someone down the back. Drat just a shadow flickering. Nobody.
While I cannot make SC4 render sc4m maps like standard jpegs and what not, the need to render quicker came about due to the large maps I can now make. Currently I am rendering Hawaii at over 700 tiles and Luxembourg with 988 tiles (it will probably be my largest map), enter the Speedy Rendering Mod.
Not one's typical game fixing/changing mod but a helper that makes rendering cities a simple triple click affair.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBMB%2FSave1.jpg&hash=9981d434810863408991d818541dbe1f57e949cd)
White writing and the hourglass, one is saving and returning to the region.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FBMB%2FSave2.jpg&hash=dbca0b5c3e8fdbf33815941b9bcea1ab396e8ed5)
Green writing and the arrow, one has not clicked enough. Click anywhere and the map will save and return to the region.
I've made three of them to suit each of the lower standard resolutions of the game. Only one(1) is required though, whichever matches the resolution one saves in. It works in both windowed mode and full screen and is a boone for those who render their entire maps before building on. (Not necessary if one only renders one tile then starts building on it.)
A single dat can be dropped into the root of the plugins directory but if one is using a modified UI eg. SimMars then it needs to go in a z folder as it must load after the UI.
To use it:
Start SC4 and once the region has loaded place a ball bearing or other heavyish object on the F8 key.
Triple click a city tile, that's it wait for the city to return to the region and then triple click another city tile.
When it opens the tile will be darkened and Save and Exit to Region will be in white with an hourglass. If the writing is green and an arrow cursor displayed, one has not tripled clicked. Click anywhere on the screen to save and exit but that dear friends is wasting time.
Remove and keep safe for one's next masterpiece when all tiles are rendered.
And so that is it for today.
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
Cheers
dobs
Well that sounds just downright handy. I have a pair of large maps almost ready but i've been slacking because i don't want to spend several hours rendering each one. If this ends up shaving off a decent chunk of time it'll be well worth it.
Aye I've tried out some of the water, but only a few (haven't had the time to put much focus into anything it seems like). I do like the color variety, but i'm far from testing all the options.
Sounds useful :thumbsup:
Hi Dob'
Actually, rendering those tiles is the worst part of mapping IMO. Reducing time of this LONG process is great !
Can't wait to give it a go !
Cheers,
Izi
Hi dobs!
You know that zooming to 5 or 6 before saving gets you a much better image? Without the squarish look you get now.
Just a trick of mine.
Cheers
Willy
thats a nice mod... but a 988 tile map ??? Holy .. did you finally find a way around the unplayable side of the map - like what happens to the LA map?
Ha, downloaded it! Now i am happy, this is a wonderful little tool. Often i only render maps as they look beautyful as they are, others cause i am always looking for maps i would like to develop. Also i work with the terraformer, when i play a map, so this tool is most appreciated. :thumbsup:
Thanks a lot, greetz, Carl
How about that UI? That's pretty sweet.
G'Day Devotee's,
Today I have made some new patch files to suit Gobias's terrain mod and the Himalayan Astral Hanky. I had to include a new quad z patch directory to ensure it loads after his triple z terrain directory. Why he didn't just poke it into a folder named Gobias is beyond me. Talk about making things difficult!
Thanks Epic, I hope you did find it downright handy, For some speed info I rendered Detroit (a 440 tile beast) in a single session today in 2 hours and 50 minutes flat. That's around 2.6 tiles per minute. prior it would have taken me at least 3 and a half hours or about 2.1 tiles per minute.
Thanks Terring it is very useful.
G'Day Izi, Have you tried it out yet?
Thanks Willy for the tip, I will certainly give that a try. But using the mod doesn't allow to do anything but click, click, click in region view.
G'day Kitsune, Nah I haven't found anything for that but... I did find out that running SC4.exe through the 4GB patcher allowed it to open a config.bmp of 224x224 pixels. Now that is one huge map. This was done on a Toshiba laptop running 16GB of ram.
Thanks Carl, I am thinking now of ways to save continuously without having the need to create a new region image each tile. This is the big time killer on large maps.
Thanks Lowkee, I shall continue to plug along with it. Hopefully one day it will be finished.
Thanks and have a great day.
Cheers
dobs
G'Day Devotees,
Over the coming months I am going to finish the UI I started about 3 years ago, as such I will not ne taking any map requests until I have uploaded this monster.
So to begin I thought I would show a few screens of the UI with both finished and unfinished bits.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors01.jpg&hash=dfd099daa2ffe572c1dcef0bf2ce9a7af12fbace)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors02.jpg&hash=d2dffb5740bcabcb6873d67d01175ba952f3e58d)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors03.jpg&hash=7bdf62b5ffecedf852bddb300380ec0571355f28)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors04.jpg&hash=15e05ccc7d6e7f9ca788eaed89e807bebb4c0941)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors05.jpg&hash=338c9f2fa8ece0b5189940180db3c4e9974f9b0b)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors06.jpg&hash=531cbb1622bdeca56e2c5a3549cd71ab43d58c38)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors07.jpg&hash=2f0b88e6f89c96832f5b29068ad2745b3c272e34)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors08.jpg&hash=2c5b9dd09edae8d885384934412ec89d50e0d860)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors09.jpg&hash=ab8d0bf699a20843245081d3321c19269bd9a177)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors10.jpg&hash=3f02986de3fcf232d724f91d16d395233085b92e)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors11.jpg&hash=a50b725db054a35a8d529de0b9c2bfd9b0506a13)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Eccair%2FSC4%2FSmoke%2520%27n%2520Mirrors%2FSmokenMirrors12.jpg&hash=556d69d8c1854d310ccab0265745d6492c358dd3)
Thanks for looking and have a great day
Cheers
dobs
Really Nice!! It would be a good changing &apls
How's that UI mod coming along?
Wow! This UI mod looks sweet.
Is it possible to make a set of plugins like your rendering mod or as extras with your mod to activate the tree paint brush for say light medium and heavy tree planting when speedy rendering?
I don't think that'd be possible since light, medium or heavy tree planting depends on how long the flora brush is applied. However, have you checked out Whatevermind's Standalone Flora Brush (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2882) yet? When zoomed out it'll cover an entire large tile at once, thus speeding up the process. And if you weigh down / lock the mouse button you can just walk away and leave the game alone for a bit while lush forests are being planted. :)