[Map] Benghazi (2km) [Concept]

[Robskie]

Well hopefully you find it! If you need any searching or references for some pictures, feel free to inbox me!
Would be great addition!

[Rhino]

Are you considering different skins for the Gadaffi forces? or just MEC?

Its possible, although you could also make a new faction based on the MEC.

The simplest option is just to use the MEC and anything extra is a bonus.

EDIT: @ReaDeath, might be worth talking to |TG-Irr|Nixon about it as he has done some nice work on some new Canadian skins and might be up for this task now they are almost finished?
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f388-p ... ost1599941

I know, that's what I was saying. I was responding to lucky's comment.

sorry quoted the wrong person by mistake, fixed

So I am having a problem with saving, but I can not save the terrain. After saving, when I reload the map the terrain is back to its default flat surface.

Same deal with objects.



With those settings for a save, am I doing anything wrong that would cause my terrain to not save? or do I have to separately load a terrain file?

Humm, you should be fine with saving thous settings, although to update the terrain only on the editor side (not ingame side) you only need to save the "Terrain" box, the "complied terrain" is for ingame use.

Dose it crash once you have saved it? It might be a read-only problem, check your map folder to make sure everything has "Read-Only" unchecked.


If your files are read-only then the editor wont be able to save to them and will most likely crash after trying to save to them.

[Reddeath]

Problem Solved, Thank you Rhino

Maybe I can soon kick this up to WIP instead of Concept

[Rhino]

gdgd, kinda need WIP pics for that although can do if you want. Do you want the name to say as Liberation or do you want it changed to Benghazi or anything too?

I also edited my post above in relation to new MEC/Libyan textures

[Reddeath]

gdgd, kinda need WIP pics for that although can do if you want. Do you want the name to say as Liberation or do you want it changed to Benghazi or anything too?

What I mean is that now that I can actually save, I may be able to make progress in the editor, and kick this up to WIP, when I get editor pics of course.

and yes, you can change the thread title to Benghazi, its the most likely title. Thank you.

as for the reskin, would it be possible to do that for a single map? or would I be essentially making a new faction (copy of MEC) with different textures?

[Rhino]

What I mean is that now that I can actually save, I may be able to make progress in the editor, and kick this up to WIP, when I get editor pics of course.

ah rgr

and yes, you can change the thread title to Benghazi, its the most likely title. Thank you.

done

as for the reskin, would it be possible to do that for a single map? or would I be essentially making a new faction (copy of MEC) with different textures?

If the only thing that was different where the skins you can easily do that with a map texture surfix, much like how I have all the buildings much whiter on muttrah than they are on other maps, or like how vehicles have got green camo on woodland maps

If you wanted more than just new textures, like different team names and kit setups then you would be looking into making a new faction, although you could do different kit setups without a new faction but best to make a new one if your going to do that.

[Reddeath]

Ok, couple small tweaks.



After reviewing some elevation data I came up with this very poorly done map of how I imagine the elevation to be. There will be ditches and bumps where I feel they are needed, but this is, while not 100% accurate to the city, it is as close as I will probably get in the BF2 engine to avoid problems.


note: the height differences are miniscule, nothing drastic, aside from the water of course.

Anything I should reconsider in this layout before I proceed with building it?

[Rhino]

First of all, CSB postions look good, I would still be tempted on moving the most southern one right to the edge of the map but the position you have got is good as its the shortest point down there


Is that your actual base heightmap your working on?

If so the first thing I would point out is that your not using the maximum potential of your heightmap. Basically with your heightmap you have upto 0% and 100% black to work with, and at the moment your only using 18% of the potential of your heightmap with the current heighest and lowest point on it. The more you use out of your heightmap, the more control you have over your terrain and the less Terrain LODs affect your terrain, which is a very big thing epically when it comes to things like sea walls etc

Here's a quick heightmap I've made on the area for you, will need tweaking in the editor but it gives you a good use of the heightmaps potential and you just need to change the editor's max height setting of your map to around 50m should give you the min and max heights of the real terrain



If you want a .psd of that heightmap thats in 2048x2048 just ask and I'll send it over

I also put in the extra height changes further away from the shore you had although with a better gradient but tbh I would work your city on a 100% flat base as for one its much simpler but its very easy to get lots of floaters even on a small gradient like this and you will be spending so much extra time on levelling out the terrain for each building etc I personally wouldn't bother but its up to you, if you did go with it and did it well it would look and play very well thou

[Reddeath]

What I made in Photoshop was purely a visual example on how I intend the map to be, I am sticking with using the terrain editor tools, the city will be mostly flat, areas like parks will have slight variation just so it does not look unnatural, but I still want to slightly raise the north-eastern part of the city at a point where it wont leave room for floaters, like a road being the dividing line for example.

As for the CSB, when I get to that stage in adding it to the map, I still decide its fate then, I don't really want it 5 meters from the edge of the map because to me its an immersion-killer when you got nice detailed land and then a dividing line into flat low-res nothingness, but we will see how it turns out, and also at the same time the distance is a factor, just feels silly having a 10 piece CSB and I feel like that would never get any use.

While in the editor when making the lake/oceans there is a lot of twitchyness between the water and terrain, I am doing everything I can to avoid this and I think I am doing a decent job at it, but out of curiosity, is what I see what I get? or will be look better in the actual game?

[Rhino]

What I made in Photoshop was purely a visual example on how I intend the map to be, I am sticking with using the terrain editor tools, the city will be mostly flat, areas like parks will have slight variation just so it does not look unnatural, but I still want to slightly raise the north-eastern part of the city at a point where it wont leave room for floaters, like a road being the dividing line for example.

Yep rgr

As for the CSB, when I get to that stage in adding it to the map, I still decide its fate then, I don't really want it 5 meters from the edge of the map because to me its an immersion-killer when you got nice detailed land and then a dividing line into flat low-res nothingness, but we will see how it turns out, and also at the same time the distance is a factor, just feels silly having a 10 piece CSB and I feel like that would never get any use.

Ye sounds like a good plan, although providing you make your surrounding terrain well (which you can when its just sand for the most part) it shouldn't look to bad providing you don't have players going right next to it but having them just off of it is fine

While in the editor when making the lake/oceans there is a lot of twitchyness between the water and terrain, I am doing everything I can to avoid this and I think I am doing a decent job at it, but out of curiosity, is what I see what I get? or will be look better in the actual game?

Do you mean you can't see though the water? That will all clear up once you add ENV maps and lightmaps to your terrain providing there is a nice beach

[Reddeath]

No, I think the term is z-fighting, and sometimes the water is perfectly squared with the grid at some points, I can work around it and make it natural looking, but I wanted to know if it would appear in game the exact way as I see in the editor, or if water would actually smoothly overlap that square.

[Rhino]

Would be good if you can provide a screenshot but the transparency of the water will stop that from happening:



How ever if its a waterplane, they can't be transparent like sea water iirc so you might get some zfighting with them.

[Reddeath]

Damnit, went to open my save file, luckily I did not do that much yet, and it opened up a blank default map again, went and checked and despite turning it off, its set back to read only.

I threw this example together.


In game would that appear exactly as is?

Only way I see around it is making a greater drop, so its not so shallow and does not have the space to do that.

But none of that matters if I cant make this damn thing not read-only =\

[Rhino]

If you saved it as it was then ye it would look the same ingame but once you do your terrain lightmaps, it will become transparent in shallow points like in that muttrah screenshot meaning any zfighting that happens will not be at all noticeable as the water is so transparent at shallow points, you can't see the difference unless your really looking for it

As for your read only problem, I remember [R-DEV]Dr Rank having the same issue a few months, possibly a year ago now. Forgot how we solved it but I think it may have been a virus causing it (probably not be the cause but worth checking with AV software). Try googling read only problems, might find the answer there

[Reddeath]

Turns out every folder I have is read only, and I cant uncheck any of them, I uncheck it, close it, and open it back up and its checked again. Yet files are not read only, just the folders. I just did a system re-format so I do not think I have a virus, but I guess for the sake of crossing out that explanation I will run a scan.

Reading into it, seems like it may be a windows 7 problem, but there has gotta be away around it because I don't see any one else with this issue in BF2Editor.

[AFsoccer]

Check the parent folder and try to unselect the read only box. If that doesn't stay unselected, then click on the security tab at the top of that window, highlight "Users" in the list and then give yourself full control. Apply and OK.

[Reddeath]

This did not work. I did as you said and when I removed the mark I no longer got an error, but when I close the tab and open again to check, it is read only again.

I also did this first on the administrator account.

Edit: I am trying everything people suggest on what google finds, and while people are calling it a bug, others are calling it a feature, some say it just says its read only, when it is not.

I am just at loss =\ no idea what to do, tried administrator account, command prompt commands, moving folder's and trying them elsewhere, even downloaded a registry file that would allow me to declare ownership of a file.

Even when I make a new folder on the desktop, it is read only and can not be changed.

[karambaitos]

i had the same problem MS doesnt want to fix it, or they cant (because they fail at life), so they are calling it a "feature" yeah -_-

anyway to fix it do this, just read the entire thing before attempting, dont worry you cant destroy your windows just so you save your self time.
Turn UAC off if you have it on.
Right click on your folder>properties>security>check each of the accounts see which ones dont have permissions and check those (special permissions is only for system retarded but w/e). after that go advanced go to owner then click edit and make your own account as owner. After that go to effective permissions its right next to owner press select then advanced (in the lower left corner), when in advanced go to find now and select your account and see if everything there is checked, if not check it.

Do this for both C and what ever other drives you have that will fix it for most folders on your PC, if a files gives you permission problems just do the same process for that folder or file and it should fix it.

the permission thing works differently for different people so this might not work.
the only thing ive been able to come up with is that windows starts thinking that your OS isnt genuine so it blocks it.

[Dr Rank]

I can't quite remember how I fixed it off the top of my head, but I seem to recall something about 'sharing' the whole hard drive causing issues. Make sure the whole directory of the hard drive isn't set to be shared. Might help, I'll rack my brains and see if I can remember anymore, this was more like 4 years ago! How time flies eh Rhino?

[Reddeath]

Under the effective permissions tab portion of what you said, Karambaitos, I had nothing to check, I saw 2 check boxes that were faded out so they cant be used.

But after applying all of that I still cant turn of read-only.

And Dr. Rank, the HD was not shared at all.

Thanks for the help anyway guys, I am still searching, hopefully I will find a fix. This is ridiculous =\